Mickey Damelio - Using Play and Rec for Concept Dev This video is posted online with the following chapter markers: Chapter 1. Why Rec & Leisure? Chapter 2. Collaboration is Critical Chapter 3. Tips for Instruction Chapter 4. Principles of Adaptation Chapter 5. Adaptations Chapter 6. Specialized Sports Chapter 7. Resources Description of graphical content is included between Description Start and Description End. Transcript Start Fade up from black. Chapter 1. Why Rec & Leisure? [Title] Using Play and Recreation for Concept Development from Preschool to Graduation and Beyond [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Why Recreation and Leisure?? Content: • Health Benefits • Self esteem • Improved Body concepts • Self Determination • Relationship Skills Description End: Mickey Damelio: Why rec and leisure? Well, rec and leisure has health benefits. It's great for the self-esteem and improves body concept, so it speaks a lot to what we do in orientation and mobility. Self-determination is greatly improved during rec and leisure, and relationship skills, especially if you're doing the team building type sports, and that sort of thing. [ Slide end: ] Rec and leisure really benefits the entire Expanded Core Curriculum. [Title] Mickey Damelio, M.Ed, COMS Visual Disabilities Program, Florida State University Mickey Damelio: Rec and leisure really benefits the entire Expanded Core Curriculum. Creative instructors can tie easily rec and leisure into career skills and social skills, O&M skills, self determination, as we talked about, and sensory efficiency. A lot of those ball sports and that kind of thing are going to use sensory efficiency skills to- to be able to... you know, catch and throw a ball, and all of that. Especially if you're monocular, and your depth perception is going to be impacted, you've got to improve that there, too. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Just throwing a child into a sport is likely to result in poor outcomes for everyone. Content: • There are foundational skills required to do well at most activities even in early elementary school • Development happens along a timeline, and it rarely works to attempt to skip steps. Throwing a child into a sport where the prerequisite skills are not in place is a recipe for frustration and failure. Description End: One of the things that keep in mind when we're working with... kids in sports and PE is we can't-- for the most part many of our students can't just be thrown directly into a sport, and expect that they're going to be... immediately successful. Many of the students that we work with don't have a lot of the prerequisite skills that are required to access the sport. And a lot of times, the other students that they're with, they have a lot of those skills already. They've been learning them incidentally throughout their lives. Many of our students aren't- aren't in that same situation. [ Slide end: ] So, you know, in first grade if they're starting to work on... dodge ball, or foursquare, or any of those kinds of sports they may not have... the throwing ability, or the catching ability, or even just a turn taking ability that- that... is involved with some of those activities. So, so just tossing them into that, and expecting them to be successful, is- is how children end up feeling like failures, how the teachers feel like they're not doing their jobs correctly. It just isn't a good recipe for anybody. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide It's important remember that development happens along a timeline. It rarely works to attempt to skip steps in development. Throwing a child into a sport where the prerequisite skills are not in place is a recipe for frustration-- failure. [ Slide end: ] And the thing is, when- when anybody-- any human starts having... repeated frustrations, they don't want to keep playing those games anymore. And so-- and we see those kids when they're older, they- they don't want to engage in anything. You try to ask them to participate and they're just completely uninterested. And you can't really blame them. They spent their whole lives... feeling unsuccessful. And a lot of time that's because people put them inappropriately in a situation they weren't quite ready for, yet. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Other Barriers to Physical Activity Content: • The grief/adjustment process • Both parents’ and child’s — Medicalizing the visual impairment resulting in automatic shutdown of possibility. “Vision can’t be corrected to where patient can see the ball, therefore the patient should not play this sport. • Most PE teachers did not receive much if any education in the area of adapted PE (Lieberman et al., 2002) • Fear of liability! <- Ugh. Description End: But other barriers to physical activity for our students is- is the grief and adjustment process. And that- that's both on the children and- and the adults. [ Slide end: ] Sometimes, especially in my experience, kids... that are adolescent, in middle school-- that age-- they're having a lot of adjustment to deal with, if- if their vision is... just recently coming on, or even just new stages in life, that- that grief process starts, again. That lack of self-esteem and knowing that they're not going to be successful, and so on can stop them from wanting to engage. The parents also play a role in that, in that they... if- if they're feeling like they need to wrap that child up in bubble wrap, and keep them protected and safe, they may not be... so supportive of the- of the kid going out and playing ball sports, or running around on a field. They're afraid they're going to hurt themselves and that sort of situation. So, I think it's really important that we keep that in mind when we're working with students, because the emotional situation of the people we're working with is a very real... situation. It's- it's-- I think, too often we dismiss it, or- or we trivialize it, and- and I think if we- if we bring it to light and talk about it we can- we can move forward a lot. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Medicalizing the visual impairment resulting in automatic shut down of possibilities. So, the parents say well- or the teachers, the PE teacher says vision can't be corrected... to where the person can see the ball, so we don't even need to worry about trying to play it. [ Slide end: ] And that's just not true. A lot of times we can adapt things, and we'll talk about that a little bit later. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Most PE teachers have not received much, if any education in the area of adapted PE Some studies Dr. Lieberman has done. So, they don't really know, they don't have the underlying philosophies about how to adapt... sports, or physical activity for kids with special needs. And of course there is the fear of liability that constantly comes up. Everyone is afraid of lawsuits. [ Slide end: ] [laughs] And so it's also like the emotional situation. In my experience, it's best just to talk about it, bring it out. Sometimes it might even be necessary to have the parents give the permission to say, "Look, I understand that- that my kid is- is going under some additional risk of running across the field. If they fall and bruise their knee, I'm okay with it. It's important." And in my experience, it takes time for me to talk to those parents, and talk them through that, because they may not even realize that they're, you know, being over protective in that way. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Research shows overcoming barriers is possible Content: • Many studies have shown that VI does not directly cause poor physical skills or fitness • Lack of ability to perceive movement visually can affect the typical development, however with interventions many of these deficits are able to be overcome. Description End: The research shows that overcoming these barriers is- is possible. Many studies have shown that V-I, visual impairment does not directly cause poor physical skills or fitness. [ Slide end: ] We can look at paralympic athletes, and see that there's lots of appropriate physical development. They're very skilled. It's- it's not something that just happens automatically. It takes a lot of supports and a lot of interventions to make those individuals have the needs-- the prerequisite skills to- to move on in the sports. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Lack of ability to perceive movement visually can affect typical development; however, with the proper interventions, many of these deficits are able to be overcome. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Collaboration is critical Content: • Clear communication of student’s visual impairment and real limitations rather than perceived ones to activities staff • Offer assistance with adaptations and accessibility • Observe the class to scaffold instruction and model appropriate teaching practices • Ask PE educator to share goals for the year so that you can begin preteaching • Invite PE educator to participate in the IEP process Description End: Chapter 2. Collaboration is Critical And all things in our profession, collaboration is critical. Clear communication of students' visual impairment and real limitations, rather than their perceived ones. [ Slide end: ] It's really important that we communicate that to the staff. They-- a lot of the folks that we work with, they're going to have-- they're bringing to the table all the things that they think they know about blindness or visual impairment. They're going to lay down all kinds of maybe inappropriate opinions of what your student is able to do. It's really important that we are very clear with what the true abilities of the student is. And the other thing I think is when we're working with... with PE teachers it's important to have respect for what they're doing, in their profession, and the fact that they're-- many times it- it's increasingly happening that there may only be one PE teacher for the whole school, and they're responsible for all of the- all of the kids. They got hundreds of kids that they're having to deal with, and yours is just one. And I think it's important-- I verbalize that to these folks. Like, "I understand that my kid is one of- of a hundred that you have to deal with, and I just-- anything that you can do to help us get through this, I'm super appreciated of it," you know. And just acknowledging that- that burden that they're carrying, it usually will get folks more on board with you, and... more respectful. Getting people to talk about what's- what's passionate for them, and what's interesting for them, and-- or asking, you know, "How can I- how can I help my student learn the skills that you need them to learn?" And a lot of times I've had people turn around-- it's like inviting them to ask me, "Well, what can I do to help you out?," you know. And that works the same way with OTs and PTs or S-- speech language. Like, "What are you working on, so that I can be sure to reinforce your-- the things that you're doing while I'm working with Joey?" And then- then it's just natural that they go, "Well, what- what are you doing?" "Oh well, I'm glad you asked, you know, I've got these- these canes techniques," or whatever. So, yeah, that team playing is just really important. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide I always offer assistance with adaptations. I'm there to help. I'm there to help them think about it. It's also just like with the rest of our work, though, if we're working with a math teacher or an English teacher, it's important to recognize that we're not the expert in sports and recreation. [ Slide end: ] That other teacher, that PE teacher, they have the degree in it. They know how this stuff works. Well, I look at it as my job is to... communicate, to translate the needs of- of somebody who has a visually impaired... brain, but they are putting their expertise on top of that. And so, the collaboration is just absolutely critical. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Observe the class to scaffold the instruction, and model appropriate teaching practices. Scaffolding means that we're supporting it as- as needed, and then we're willing to remove those supports as the person is showing us that they're- that they're ready for that. [ Slide end: ] And it's difficult, and sometimes it's challenging to remove those scaffolds. It's scary. You know, you are afraid the kids are gonna- gonna not be successful, but that's also part of learning. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide One of the things that's helpful is to talk with the PE teacher in the beginning of the year, or even at the end of the year, before the next year, to find out what are the goals for a kid with- with this particular age, or what are their goals in that next grade level for that student, so that we can start teaching some of those skills. [ Slide end: ] So, I've had students that have difficulty with arm circles, or those basic warm up exercises in the morning. They don't have the body concepts to be able to go down and do a push up. The teacher expects them to sort of be able to look around and see what a pushup looks like; and they're expecting to have some arched back, and so on, but many of our students don't even have a basic-- they don't even know how to get on their hands and knees and support their body that way. And those are all skills that I can put into play ahead of time and... give that basic body awareness. So that when the push up comes up in class, they've got the basics, so that the teacher can do their work a little bit more efficiently. One of the things that I've heard from a lot of PE teachers... is they don't-- they're not invited to IEPs. They don't- they don't- they don't know much about that process. I think it's important to invite those folks to the IEP. It's important, if they can't come, to make sure that they're participating, either with something that's written, talk about what their goals are, so that- so that everybody at the table is aware that this physical side of the student is- is as critical as anything else. Too often in our world, the academics overshadow everything, and really, at the end of the day, myself as an adult, 80 percent of what I do is, you know, social skills and orientation mobility-- moving around and physical skills. I, you know, I barely ever use algebra. [laughs] So, it's really important to- to make sure that that person has an equal stake at the table. And- and in my experience, it also helps that PE teacher to want to engage more, because they get part of the family, they become part of the team. And your student becomes an individual to them, so they're really willing to go the extra mile. I try not to... overwhelm the person with information upon on- on our first date, you know. [laughs] You just kinda-- it's just kind of-- it's little bits at a time. Just small successes, because they build up over the course of the year and-- the neat thing about PE teachers, is they tend to be a long term teacher, a long range teacher, you know. So- so, where that classroom teacher is only there for third grade, that PE teacher may be there for third through fifth, you know. And... and so, if you get that person really on board, it's less work you're going to have to do the next couple of years, and doing it in small bite sized chunks. I love Dr. Lieberman's book. I don't know that it would be all that effective, just handing the PE teacher that book. Even though if they would read it, it would be wonderful. [Laughs] But I mean, you know, it's a lot to expect... for someone to do that. I've- I've had some luck... showing YouTube videos of- of adapted sports, or something. You know, it's these three minute clips or whatever. Putting them in touch with another PE teacher in the school district that has already worked with that kid, so that they know that you can reach out to, you know, Mr. Rascie at Kate Sullivan or whatever, and she's worked with this guy for, you know, four years. Maybe she's got some ideas. They speak the same language, you know. So, a lot of those ways to remove the barriers. I try as much as I can to make sure that that person is seeing my student as an individual, and not the blind kid, you know. So, you know, unfortunately a lot of times this rec and leisure stuff is used as the inclusion time; I think the PE time, and there's a-- you know, 40 percent inclusion time or whatever and they count the PE's time as that time, but a lot of times it's not inclusion time. To date, every PE teacher I've worked with has been very interested. They've had limited creative ability [laughs] depending- depending on which person I've had; some that were amazing, and some of them that just they needed to be really kind of told how to do it. But they've all-- I mean everybody's in-- for the most part everybody is in education, because they love kids, you know, and they want to be-- they want to help. And I think a lot of it is empowering them to make decisions. I think allowing people to make choices, and to tell them-- that- that's happened a lot with the paraprofessionals I've worked with. They were never given permission to make a decision, you know. It's like, if they didn't have-- if they didn't Mr. Mickey's rule, they froze up and- and that involved the kid not participating that day, because they didn't have a script to follow. But if I can get that person to understand my overarching philosophy, they usually can make a pretty good decision, you know, when- when that moment comes up that we just didn't prepare for. But, yeah, humans are script driven organisms. I mean we just don't know what to do. And if something happens that we don't have a script for, we tend to just lock up like deer in headlights. This is why in martial arts they spend so much time just practicing different movement patterns. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Keep it fun Content: There is a child before there is a disability Description End: Also critical to keep it fun. It is called rec and leisure, and it's supposed to be-- it's supposed to be things that are enjoyable, ways to... pass the time later in life. I'm a big believer in barefoot stuff, too. I try to get the shoes off kids feet. [ Slide end: ] A lot of our students are very tactically defensive, and... there's so much musculature that's in the feet. It's amazing. A lot of sensation there. I've found kids, once I can get them over that, you know, tackle defensiveness of that funny feeling grass or whatever, they move through the terrain better when they're barefoot. They're picking up finer sensations and the level of the ground changing... that they can't grab when their- when their shoes are on. I've also had... students that the physical therapists were trying to fix toe walking, and so they put A-F-Os on the kid; and it stops the toe walking. But it makes it impossible for that student to walk on a ground that's not level. Off camera: Right. Damelio: And so I remember-- I had this debate, for a whole year, with a physical therapist who wanted the AFOs on the kid to stop her from toe walking. But I was like she can't go on the playground, she falls over because her ankles can't change anymore. You've just locked everything up. And it just changed everything. It was a chain reaction across her body. So, I- I started kind of sneakily taken them off when we were doing the off-the-sidewalk activities. [ Laughter ] And... she finally relaxed on and a little bit, because... the AFOs weren't fixing the toe walking; they were just preventing it from occurring. And... yeah, so it's funny how we can kind of be at odds with different people's goals. And in my experience, when I was working with some of the physical therapists, that they would really dial in on a particular issue, and lose sight of the overall kid that we're working with. And that was the case with this student is. It's like, she was, "Well, we're going to fix that toe walking." I'm like, "Yeah, but we've broken play grounding!" What you can't-- she can't go out there and play with the kids anymore, and that's impacting social skills and all of this other stuff. So we need to remember that there's a child before there's a therapy or there's a child before there's a disability. That there's- there's this real person here, that, if they're not having a good time, they're certainly not going to continue it when you're not around them. And that's really part of the goals of the rec and leisure ECC skill area, is that they have ways to pass the time and productive and fun and therapeutic ways as they- as they age. Chapter 3. Tips for Instruction [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Tips for Instruction Content: • Part to Whole Learning- Just like other forms of learning, a child with VI will not likely grasp the whole before understanding the parts. • Student is part of the whole class, same expectations apply, dressing out, participation, etc. • Make the environment auditorily meaningful to the student. Eliminate confusing or conflicting sounds. • Orient the student to the space when it’s not busy, then rework the space when it is busy. Description End: So, some tips for instruction. Important to keep in mind we do part-to-whole learning a lot with children of visual impairment, just like other forms of learning. Kids with visual impairment are not likely to grasp the whole before they get the individual parts; they're building it up, over time. So, it's important to task analyze and use all those old skills that we've learned and all the other adaptations we've done. Figure it out. Break it down. [ Slide end: ] Have a good understanding of what your kid is able to work on and do, so that you can have appropriate expectations for that next level. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide I always make sure that the PE teacher is given permission to make sure that that student is part of the whole class, that the same expectations are in place for him, as for anyone else. [ Slide end: ] That means he... the kid is expected to dress out, if dressing out is what everybody does. The student is... expected to fully participate, or whatever. It's been my experience, many times when I worked in PE, is that they-- the teacher is-- they don't want to push the kid. They don't want to break the kid. They're afraid of hurting the kid, or whatever. And so, they're willing to give that child an A, and just let him sit on the sidelines. And I think part of that is that we just have to give that permission, and- and get them on board with that philosophy. Had somebody asked me, you know, what are some strategies for that, to get that teacher on board with your philosophies? And I usually start by trying to figure out what makes that PE teacher want to do what they're doing, and why do they teach PE. Why do they think it's valuable? And then, that allows me to figure out what their switches are, that get them excited about their work. And then, figure out ways I can tie that in with my students. So, it's kind of a sales process a little bit. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Make the environment auditorily meaningful to the student. Eliminate confusing or conflicting sounds that can be really, really challenging when you're working in a gymnasium. [ Slide end: ] PEs can be really, you know, PE classes are just mayhem. Kids with sensory processing... disorder can be really just overwhelmed overwhelmed in there. And so, it maybe the part of your scaffolding process is starting from the outside and working in slowly as the comfort level builds, and they have... ways to process all that extra stimuli. Or, if you can, reduce it down a bit, or work in smaller groups; or if you're working on a team sport, maybe you can separate off three or four kids away from the bigger mass, and you can work that way. So, just keeping in mind that all that stimuli is just more stuff for their brain to process, and it's just harder to think. I try to orient the student to the space before the classes there. You know, I walk the volleyball court, or go walk the baseball diamond, kind of give an idea of how all this works before all the kids are running around, and everything is so crazy and dynamic. So, that when they get out there they have some basic understanding of what's going on. It's not totally-- they're not walking out they're cold. And, this really matters to me when the kids are older, or when they're emotionally fragile, like these sixth, seventh, and eighth graders [laughs] they get out there, and they're just really not happy. They're just to unusual and too strange, and they just don't even want to participate. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Tips cont’d Content: • Narrate the environment as it’s happening when introducing new activities, keeping in mind that if student doesn’t have experience with activities, narration may not be helpful without in depth instruction. • Avoid overprotection • Teach staff and instructors how to encourage independence • Watch the lighting! • Make sure student can access locks/lockers and dress without embarrassment • Orient student to equipment Description End: Narrate the environment as it's happening when introducing new activities, or trying to explain what's going on around... the student; keeping in mind that as they don't under- they don't have experience with those activities. Narration may not be helpful without in-depth instruction. [ Slide end: ] So... I'm thinking like badminton or something. If they don't know what a shuttlecock is, what good is it going to do to say to the kids batting their shuttlecock around. What is that to that person? It's some- it's some strange rooster or something, you know. So... it's important to have those prerequisites skills, again, it they-- before you narrate. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Avoiding overprotection, that's huge. Everybody wants to protect. Everybody wants to wrap our kids in bubble wrap and keep them from hurting themselves. So, we need to communicate with the families, and talk about how we're going to communicate to the schools that that overprotection is not something that we really want. [ Slide end: ] It's actually, long-term, it's damaging to the- to the kid. And a lot of it comes down to it why are we here? We're looking at this future adult. Where is this guy going one day? We want this- we want this girl to be able to be fully functional, fully capable as a grown woman. Too often, in education, we get very myopic. We focus just on these third grade skills or these fourth grade skills and I think we lose sight of the fact that this is a long range kind of game. This person's going and growing somewhere, and we need to be onboard with that. When people accept that philosophy, it's much easier for them to make good choices when they're making an intervention, because they're going, "Wow, okay, I need to be moving this person forward," so. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide I teach the staff and the instructors how to encourage independence. That also comes with every kid is different. I have some kids that are very resistant to doing new activities. [ Slide end: ] I will tell the staff or the teachers that work with that kid, like, "This is a way- this is a way to handle... Will. This is... this is stuff that he will do. He'll fight back this way, but he doesn't really mean it," you know, "You've got to keep pushing him through," or whatever. Because a lot of time these kids get really good at learning how to get out of... doing stuff, and they don't want to do it. But, you know, some of my students, if you- if you let them make every choice in their life, they would organize their CDs for the rest of their life. That's all they want to do. And... a lot of times we just have to kind of encourage them past that, and it takes patience. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Watching the lighting is important. The... lighting can get really confusing when you've got low vision, especially... in gymnasiums. [ Slide end: ] Again, you've got this weird can lights up above. You got reflection off the floor. There's a lot of that glare that can bounce around. It can be uncomfortable. Or, if we're outside and... you know, and we're playing kickball, or whatever, and... the sun is behind the ball, it's very bright, very uncomfortable. Those are going to impact the way that student's able to perform out there. So, want to think about, just like anything else, our visors, our sunglasses, and whatever. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Little things can hang us up in PE, like access to be able to use the locks on the lockers; a combination lock or a key lock. These little skills can- can hang a student up, slow them down. [ Slide end: ] If we're expecting them to dress out, but it takes them five minutes to open up their padlock on their locker. Well, we've got to figure out something there, because they're going to be late to class every day. Many of our kids, at least the ones I've worked with, they have difficulties with dressing, or putting their shirt on, or taking their shirt on and off. Or- or they take their jacket off and it's all the sleeves are pulled inside out. And so when they have to dress back later, now they're taking additional time to get the jacket re-oriented. So a lot of those weird skills that... from the rest of the kids life, that play a role and will slow us down in PE. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide You want to take the time to orient the student to whatever equipment that we're working with. I've had kids that... just to give them the experience of it, I've actually picked them up, and had them just hand-walk around the goal post at the end of the football field, just to get the idea that this-- what this thing is down here at the end. [ Slide end: ] Even if they're not interacting with that goal post, it's just part of the environment. That language is thrown around. Things like "goal post" is mentioned. It's important for them to know what that is. So, just take the time to- to do it, and it pays- it pays in spades, as they say. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Moving around in a space Content: • Decide with PE teacher how this will happen • Human/sighted guide • Use of sound cues • Trailing • Cane Description End: Another one that- that trips people up is how- how is a student going to move through space in PE? So... a lot of times in PE, they'll have like one or two activities, or three activities in the day. They're just moving them around. Well, how are we going to move the-- how are we going to transition from one activity to the next? Are we going to do sighted guide, or are we going to use a cane? Is-- if we do... human guide, are we going to use somebody else in that class that's guiding them? [ Slide end: ] Is a PE teacher going to come? Is there a professional that's going to do that? And that answer is going to be different for every student. If your student is really good with cane skills, you don't- don't want them to be using human guide or sighted guide. You want them to be using their cane skills. That- that is something that comes up as a challenge in PE. Sometimes the... kids are running everywhere, and you've got a kid that's pushing a long cane in front of them, and kids are trying to trip over the cane. So, these are things we just want to address as we're- as we're going through, because the-- what will happen is, when any of those things become a problem, your student's going to be put to the sidelines and sat down. So, they don't- they don't want to put the other kids in danger, and if they don't have a script for what to do, your kid is going to be put on the end of the field, and just going to sit there. Or walk around the edge of the field, or some other garbage, that just is so sad, and not fun. I've- I've definitely seen after [Indiscernible], especially my students with multiple disabilities, after we do some of these more physical activities, they're so much more settled at the desk. They're so much more willing to engage, and they're not sitting here, trying to rock back and forth and eye pressing. I fed their body, and now their brain is hungry, you know. But that body trumps all of that. They get a feel that body. So... I've taken, I have one guy, Joey. He loved running... with sighted guide. He wasn't so-- we try to do a tether with him, he wasn't so into it. But he loved just hanging out on my arm... He... had some pretty heavy cognitive impairments, and some cerebral palsy and stuff. And he was I think 16, 17 or so, but we would just run. I mean we ran the 5K with, you know, together and he was just running right behind me as excited as can be. And Joey loved going off road, and that was actually a reinforcing activity on O&M, as I would talk. "Okay, Joey, let's do some O&M," you know, whatever or cane skill techniques, "and then we'll finish up the lesson running around the campus." And there is this one slope area along the side of a building, and we would run up the top of the slope, and then we would run back down again, and Joey was just-- he just loved it. He loved that feeling of being out of control, [laughs] which was, you know, some people are terrified by that. Joey was totally reinforced by it. He's like ready to be a skydiver. Another kid, on paper, exactly identical to Joey, totally different kid. I mean that's one of the things I try to talk to my students about. Every student we work with, such an individual, you know. On paper they're identical twins, but if I put JK on my arm like that, he was going to not be happy. You know, Joey absolutely loved it. So, yeah, it was pretty funny how that works. Chapter 4. Principles of Adaptation [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Principles of Adaptation Considerations: Content: • — Participants functional abilities • Objective of the activity or game • Relevant IEP objectives/goals Description End: Some basic principles of adaptation. So, there're some considerations with this. We want... want to have a good understanding of the functional ability. So, I think just like when we do a functional vision assessment on our students, to understand what their functional vision is like, I think it's a good idea to have a nice understanding of what their physical abilities are like. So, you should really know, you know, are they weaker on their left side? Do they have hand strength issues? Like these are all things we should have a good understanding of, and we should be able to communicate that to the PE teacher, so that we're properly... supporting our students. [ Slide end: ] Just like when we adapt materials in the classroom, if you're a teacher of the visually impaired. If we adapt these materials in the class we-- the first thing we do when we look at an assignment is what is the point of this assignment? What is the objective? Sometimes it's just busywork, [laughs] you know, but usually there's something that's really important that that teacher is wanting to get out of that. Same thing in sports or recreation. Like what are we working on; balance right now, or are we working on hand-eye coordination? What is it? Is it social skills? And find out what that main objective is, so that you can make sure you preserve the integrity of... the activity, even if you're making some modifications, so that your student can participate. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide And then, of course, keeping in mind... that we should put some relevant IEP goals, or objectives to support all of this stuff. It's often that I don't see... rec and leisure goals on IEPs. [ Slide end: ] Rec and leisure is kind of put to the back burner of the student's needs, academically; and... I think we need to make sure that when we're doing these kinds of supports, which most of us do as teachers, that we should have that reflected on the IEP, so that- so that it's noted, that it's a value, and it's important. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Principles of Adaptation Content: • Include students in making adaptations • Avoid overdoing adaptations, make the least amount of interventions necessary • Don’t be afraid to get creative! • Evaluate the effectiveness of the adaptation over time, perhaps you can reduce adaptations and still maintain success • Retain the original name of the activity • Exclusion is the last option! Description End: I always, in all of my work with students, I always include them in my decision making, when it comes to adaptations, or in their goals. Even little kids, five, six years old. If I can we talk about, like, "What would help you? What do you think would make this easier for you? You're not getting out of this activity, but what would you-- what would make it easier for you?" You know? "Is there something we can do and work together?" And when they're young puppies, like those five and six years old kids, they don't make very good-- they don't know how to answer those questions. [ Slide end: ] But, it's just from early on, from very early on, I'm teaching them that YOU are important, you are responsible, your voice matters, when it comes to your body, and what's going on. And all these things pay off later on. It pays off, maybe, in areas of, even just consent, you know, and knowing that they have value and that self-determination, and that their words matter. And it is their bodies, so they should have some- should have some buy-in into how that's being used. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Avoid overdoing adaptations... making the least amount of interventions necessary for success. [ Slide end: ] It's very often-- I know we all deal with this-- that the... staff, the typical educators are looking at your student's vision impairment, and they just want to pull out the whole drawer of adaptations. They want to dump all the combinations on them. And it's-- it comes down to them not keeping in mind that this is going to be a future adult one day. And it's just so important to remember that, because we're working in schools, and it's a very sanitized environment for- for kids. It's very careful and protective. And the real world just isn't that way. I mean, they get out there and... it's as they say, "A dog eat dog world." And people that need lots of adaptations and modifications, those folks don't get jobs. They don't get married. They don't have families. They don't get to participate in a... complete way, if all those modifications or adaptations are necessary for functioning, because the world just isn't that way. So, we just need to keep in mind what's our long range plan? It really helps in making decisions as we move along. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Creativity is something that... we are increasingly having limited time to do, it seems like, with more... pressure being put on us to... make all these academic modifications and stuff. [ Slide end: ] But it just it does come down to being creative, it's a philosophy. If you get the philosophy, then you can make better decisions. There's... some things that are helpful, and we'll talk about that in a little bit, but really you're going to get some new game that the teacher heard somewhere or whatever, and you just got to be able to think on your feet, and what's going to work for your student. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide It's also important to continue evaluating the adaptations over time to see if they're still appropriate, to see if... we can start peeling them back a little bit. [ Slide end: ] We, me, I, you know, you get successful somewhere with this adaptation and... I think you have a tendency to continue keeping it in place, after the kid may have outgrown it. And we can pull that down a little bit, and, sure, you're going-- whenever you're moving adaptation, the skills going to fall a little bit, and that should be expected. That's going to happen. The kid may not like it. They may not be as... capable as they were before. But they'll build back up again, you know. And we have to keep that in mind. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Dr. Lieberman recommends in her book, and I'll give you the title in a little bit, that we retain the original name of the activity, even if we've modified it. It's still kickball. It's still dodge ball. It's still whatever. So, that we can keep working with that activity and that sport. Exclusion is the last option. It's really, hopefully not an option. [ Slide end: ] We should be able to find some way that that student can participate in that activity. Even a kid that... is completely, you know, say spinal cord injury, and doesn't have use of the arms and the legs, there's got to be some way that they can participate. It's happened before. I've walked out onto a field of kids with multiple disabilities, and the kids in the chairs are just-- they're not even facing the activity. They're looking the other direction, and it's just really, really terrible. So, we just kind of keep in mind, there's some way, somehow that that person can participate. Chapter 5. Adaptations [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Examples of Visual Adaptations Content: • — Lower baskets or nets to make them more visible • — Painting the goal/basket/target a higher contrast color • — Weaving bright ribbons through the volleyball net • — Make sure ball is contrasting color from background • — Increase size of bases • — Use a brightly colored frisbee in place of a puck or ball Description End: We can lower the baskets or nets to make them more visible, bring them closer to the student. Keeping in mind that we're hopefully going to be able to raise that basket back up over time, maybe. Painting that goal or basket higher contrasting color. Weaving bright ribbons through the volleyball net. That was one that I hadn't considered before, but it was just so simple, but it makes that net way, way-- a whole lot more visible to somebody. Make sure the ball is a contrasting color from the background. That happens a lot. Like in kickball the balls like are brown red color. You're playing on a clay, you know, baseball diamond, and it doesn't stand out very well. So are there ways that we can modify that ball? Can we paint white stripes on it, or something that makes it more visible to our student? Increasing the size of the bases so that they can they see it easier from a distance. Using a brightly colored Frisbee maybe in place of a puck or a ball to play, you know, hockey or something like that. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Examples of Auditory Adaptations Content: • Adding sound source to goals • Tying bells to a net to indicate placement of the net • Sound sources at bases • Use sound emitting balls Description End: You can add sound sources to goals, or beepers, or I've seen people even put just a radio behind the destination for the students, just playing music. Tying bells to a net to indicate the placement of that net. You can do sound sources at bases and use sound emitting balls. All of that stuff, if you buy it professionally, is quite expensive a lot of times, but many of these adaptations we can make on our own, and they're a lot less expensive. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Miscellaneous Adaptations Content: • — Softer balls like nerf balls, or def lated balls • — Using bigger or lighter bats • — Use large cones to mark the corners of the field Description End: Miscellaneous adaptations you can make. You can use softer balls, like Nerf balls, or... balls that have been slightly deflated, so they don't roll quite as far. I-- the slightly deflated balls... have a little bit more-- they can go further distance I've found than Nerf balls; they lose their speed pretty quickly. But depending on what you're working on, one or the other might be better. Using bigger, lighter bats; those big plastic bats, something in bigger surface area. Using large cones to mark the corners of the field, so that they can see... the outline of the field easier. [ Slide end: ] I found that defining some orientation source on the field, be it a sound source, or even the sun, just bringing that to the awareness of your students so that they know that, "Okay... that direction is where I need to head for the goal, or whatever." As you're running around an open field, it's really easy to get disoriented. So, even just bringing something to their awareness, you know, of... the backstop of the baseball field where the kids or talking, or something to bring it up into their consciousness. One of the things that I like to do is give my students body problems to solve. You know, I deliberately present them with opportunities to have to think it out, to figure out what am I going to do here? So, I come up against a... fence, you know, like those wooden slat fences. And rather than walk to the opening in the fence, why can't we climb through the fence? Or why can't we climb over the fence, or can we climb under the fence? And how to do that, or... getting to a pull up bar. You go to many playgrounds you'll see kids sitting on top of the pull up bars, and they are hanging from it by their feet, or their knees, or whatever. Well, how did they get up there? They have to solve these body problems to figure out how to manipulate their body up there. And most adults couldn't get on top of those bars, anymore. They've forgotten how to solve those problems themselves. But I'll put the kid at the bar, and I show him, we can sit up here together. And I climb up there with them, and support them while they're up there. And I've hung upside down with the kid, by my knees, and they're by their knees, and we'll sit there and chat. And... I know some people are just not physically capable of doing that, so, you know, I understand that. But... supporting that kid, and modeling that behavior is really important, too. So, often as grownups, we... insist that students do things that we ourselves aren't going to do. So, I think it's important, as much as possible, to participate in the activities we're asking the kids to participate in, you know. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Rule adaptations Content: • Allowing double bounce of a ball • Changing distances involved in games or activities • Allowing player to play only offense or defense • Requiring all team members to have contact with ball before a score can be made • Use of a batting tee • Have everyone simulate the disability such as use of blindfolds or low vision simulators, or some on each team.Allowing double bounce of a ball Description End: You can adapt rules, too. You can allow double bounces of balls. You can change distances involved in games or activities. Some of our kids it's not vision that's the issue, so much. It could be cardiovascular health or... you know, just easily fatigued. And so, making the distance that they have to run less is going to help them want to participate more. Allowing a player to play only offense or defense. That can be really helpful, if it's something like a risk of retinal detachment, and you don't want the ball coming at the, you know; they can throw it, but you don't want to be coming at them. Requiring all team members to have contact with the ball, before a score can be made. That's one that can be kind of fun. It can also be frustrating for people, but it's good for the other kids. It's good for the other students that are typically developing to understand those team activities, and... how to participate with everybody. Using a batting tee or having everyone simulate the disability, such as using blindfolds or low vision simulators on some or each of the team members. [ Slide end: ] I'm careful when I use simulators. And then, I want to make sure that... that it's not a situation that's going to make the people, wearing a simulator, feel bad for your student. Like, I don't want them to be scared or nervous, or feel like failures, because they then, they assume that your kid is going to be doing that, all the time, and it seems to be counterproductive. So, when you use the simulators, just teach about it a little bit. Talk about it. Make it more of a fun thing. There's also... playing some sports that are made for people that are visually impaired, like goal ball. We'll talk about that in a little bit. There's nothing wrong with having... a fully typically sighted class put on blindfolds and playing goal ball. That's really fun, you know. It's a fun sport. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Common Game Adaptations Content: • Tag • Bright cones or flags for barriers — • Players walk • “It” wears bright colors or bells — • Player with VI can have a guide • Jump Rope • Beaded, plastic, or cloth rope • Bells on the rope —• Jump at own pace — • Jump over stationary rope • Use music to hold timing Description End: So, playing tag, you can use bright cones or flags for barriers. You can have everybody walk, which I-- trust me I understand is a very difficult thing to ask a bunch of kids do. Tag, it just it makes you want to run. You can have the person that's "it" wearing bright colors, or bells, or some other sound source. The player with a visual impairment can use a sighted guide. [ Slide end: ] I've played tag where everybody does sighted guide, you know, and half the team is blindfolded, the other half isn't. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Content: Description End: The way I... play that game is that kids that are blindfolded are the only ones that are allowed to do the tagging. The guide has to get them within range, but then the... student that is... simulating visual impairment or visually impaired, is the only one that can do the tagging. So, both team members are participating in the activity. Jump ropes, you've got... beaded plastic cloth ropes; bells on a rope. Jump at your own pace. Jump over a stationary rope, if they don't have that coordination, yet. As you move up, you can use music to hold the timing for the ropes, so that they kind of get that beat going. [ Slide end: ] Chapter 6. Specialized Sports So, then there's some specialized sports... for visual impairment, that I think is critical to introduce to a kid's life. They should know that... these sports out there, and to have the other kids play. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Goalball Content: • — Two teams of three players all blindfolded on a court the size of a volleyball court • — Ball with bells inside it is rolled across the floor and over the other team’s goal line to score • — Each team works together to prevent the ball from scoring Description End: So, there's goal ball, which you're probably familiar with. There's two teams of three players, blindfolded on a court, the size of a volleyball court. It's usually like a cord underneath a piece of tape to outline the court, so it's got a tactile barrier. There's a ball with the bells inside it, and it's rolled across the floor and it's over the other team's goal line to score. And so, the other three players really have to communicate with each other on the opposing team to... jump and dive, and block the ball; and also not crack each other in the head when they do it, which-- [ Slide end: ] that's the thing about goal ball, it's very tough. It's a tough sport. It's a sport invented by visually impaired people for visually impaired people. It's really-- I used to coach it. I've seen bloody noses. I've seen concussions. It's every bit as fun as football, and can be as dangerous. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Beep Baseball Content: • 6 players on a team • Pitcher is on the same team as the batter • 3 bases including home plate • When ball is struck umpire randomly activates a sound beacon on first or second base. Batter runs as fast as possible to the appropriate base, if base is contacted before one of the 6 fielders catches the ball a run is scored Description End: Beep baseball is another one that's really fun. This one I... found to be a little expensive to enter into. But, you know, you might be able to write a grant, or maybe your school can purchase the... equipment for it, or maybe you can borrow it from a local lighthouse, or something. But there are six players on a team. The pitcher is on the same team as the batter. That's important to know, because the pitchers working to get the batter to hit the ball. They're not trying to get them to miss it. Three bases. That's including the home plate. There's... two bases on either end, like a V off the home base, and the umpire activates a switch, and randomly one of those bases, or the other base will beep. So, when that person strikes the ball, one of the bases will start sounding off. That person will run as fast as they can to the base. It's usually a big foam... pillar, so that the person can run into it with some safety and not hurt themselves. And hopefully get to the base before the opposing team gets hold of the ball, and then they'd be out. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Some other sports/activities with relative ease of adaptability Content: • Bowling • Cycling • Paddle sports *canoe/kayak* • Skiing • Sailing • Running/Walking • Swimming • Aerobics • Wrestling • Weightlifting • —Yoga Description End: Some other sports and activities that are pretty easy to adapt, bowling is pretty simple to adapt. It's got a lot of auditory information in bowling. They have those little, I'm not sure what they're called, but they're little racks you put the ball in. It can roll down. You've got bumpers you can put in, so they don't get the gutter balls. Cycling. You got tandem cycling is pretty... easy to do. It's a little expensive. Tandem bikes can be expensive, but they're around. Paddle sports. I particularly enjoy those. Canoeing... is very adaptable, because the person sitting in the back of the canoe is the one that has the most steering control. And the one in the front is really just the power. They're the energy. So... I can put somebody that's visually impaired in the front of the canoe, teach them the basic movements of how to paddle, and how to switch the hands as they're canoeing. And then I adapt, in the back, to whatever side they're paddling on. And if I get tired on one side or the other I can ask them to switch. But the nice thing about me in the back, is I have lots of control over how that canoe moves. But I still need them. They're still valuable to being able to move the canoe faster. So... paddling on rivers and that kind of stuff, you have lots of great bird noises, you got lots of animal wildlife stuff going on, and nature's just great medicine for everybody, so. Skiing there's... lots of good skiing adaptations. I personally, being a Floridian, don't have a lot of experience with skiing. Sailing is another one that's... pretty easy to work with. Running and walking, we use tethers and that kind of stuff. Swimming. My wife has worked with-- no, she doesn't work, but she swims alongside a woman who's blind, who has some auditory indicators at the end of each lane to show her when she's getting close to the end. And she's this woman has been swimming so long, she's got pretty good time distance awareness when she's approaching the end anyway. She said she could probably do it without the auditory at this point, but she's gotten used to it. Aerobics. Aerobics are interesting, because if they don't have the... body awareness and movement patterns, aerobics can be challenging, but once you have the steps and the movement, then... it's not too difficult. Wrestling is a very hands-on, easily adapted. [ Slide end: ] A friend of mine, Owen who he's a grown up now, but he went to the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, and he used to talk about the... high schools- the typical high schools did not like wrestling against the DBS or the FSDB schools. The FSDB-- the kids were really good, you know, and they didn't-- they went in there thinking [laughs] "I got this, there's a blind kid," you know, and those kids are really good at what they did. [laughs] So, you know. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Weightlifting is another one. And yoga... yoga's up and coming. There's a lot of people working with yoga, right now, and it seems they have a lot of promise for our students for body concepts, and awareness, and flexibility. Chapter 7. Resources [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Organizations Content: • United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA) www.usaba.org • Paralympic Games www.paralympic.org • International Blind Sports Federation www.ibsa.es Description End: So it's some organizations that are great to get involved with. If you like athletics, there's the United States Association of Blind Athletes. USADA, that's who I worked through when I was a goal ball coach. That's USADA.org. Paralympics is another great one. That's Paralympic.org. P-A-R-A-L-Y-M-P-I-C dot org. And Paralympics is different from Special Olympics. So, sometimes hey're confused. Paralympics happen alongside of the... actual Olympics. Usually, I think it's-- it might be just after, or just before. I can't recall. But they go to the same city the Olympics are in; they're using all the same equipment. It's really, really neat. I've got a few friends that have been Paralympic athletes, and it's a great opportunity for people. And then there's the International Sports-- Blind Sports Federation, which is www.ibsa.es. And that's another good leaping off point for sports. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Lecture Heavily Influenced by: Content: • Physical Education and Sports for People with Visual Impairments and Deafblindness: Foundations of Instruction by: Lauren J. Lieberman, Paul E. Ponchillia, and Susan V. Ponchillia AFB Press 2013 • http://www.af b.org/store/pages/ShoppingCart/Produ ctDetails.aspx?ProductId=978-0-89128-454- 3&ruling=Yes Description End: I think it's important to say that this... information has been heavily influenced by Dr. Lieberman's latest book, Physical Education and Sports for People With Visual Impairments and Deafblindness: Foundations of Instruction. And it's a really wonderful book. It's... a lot of textbooks-- it's not-- I wouldn't even call it a textbook. It's just a great resource... to learn about adaptations for sports and athletics. It's really easy to pick up and read. It's very-- it's just not very dense, at all, in terms of-- a lot of our stuff can be a little, you know, you thumb through it, it's a little- a little dense material, but this book is a long term resource. I... I grab it off the shelf frequently, and just kind of thumb through it, and look for specific sports. So, I encourage you to get that book, if you're at all interested in athletics. [ Slide end: ] Our field is not very old-- formerly not very old. I mean, blind people have been moving, since they were blind people. But... formally, as a profession it's not all that old; and really the people that originally started this stuff, they... were way less educated than we are. [laughs] And they kind of just made it up. They were empowered to make it up. They had a problem to solve. They solved the problem. There's nothing to say that that next parent, or that next student, or whatever isn't going to come up with the next awesome, amazing, game changing thing. And I think people just need to have permission to think and permission to be creative with it. Makes the job a lot more fun, if nothing else, you know. And that's one of the things I find so valuable about still working with kids. I feel like, if I had stopped... when I started in 2010, when I took the work with FSU, if I'd stopped teaching, at that point, and just worked at FSU, I really feel like I would-- I know I would have missed a lot. Because I-- working with my students, still, I learn things almost every time. They'll do something. Or even if it just... brings something into perspective for me, you know, or gives me a better appreciation for something. It's just very valuable. Fade to black.