TSBVI Coffee Hour: Active Learning Space Resource for Learning Transcript start >> EverybodyÕs ready? All right. >> Good morning, everyone. As youÕre coming in, and IÕll put in in the chat as well, please make sure that your chat box says all panelists and attendees in the drop down menu and weÕll get started in about one minute. This is my favorite part, just seeing where everybodyÕs from. Thank you so much for sharing. Oh, Annadarko, Oklahoma. Before COVID hit I was going to go stay there and do like a murder mystery weekend in Annadarko and IÕm really disappointed I didnÕt get to go. IÕm going to have to try next year, maybe. All right. Well, weÕll go ahead and get started as people are coming in. I want to again, please make sure that your chat box in the little drop down menu it says "all panelists and attendees" so everyone can see what you have to say. WeÕre really excited. Welcome to coffee hour. WeÕre excited to spend the next hour with you. IÕll introduce our panelists in just a moment. If you have a question or comment during the presentation, please put it in the chat box. Again, one more time, make sure it says all panelists and attendees in that little drop down menu. The handout for today I am going to share the link to that right now in the chat. You can click on that link and access the handout there today. And then in the future at the end IÕll share a link where everything will be archived. TodayÕs session is being recorded so you will be able to access it after today. To obtain your CEUs you will respond to an evaluation that will be e-mailed to you from our registration website. I will make another announcement at the end, so make sure you stick around, to get the closing code. There is no opening code, just a closing code, and weÕll stop at 12:55 to make sure we give you the code and some announcements. Really excited to introduce todayÕs presenters. We have Charlotte Cushman and Kate Hurst who will be sharing with us about active learning today. >> KATE: Thank you, Kate. Welcome everyone. IÕm Kate Hurst and along with my colleague, Charlotte Cushman, weÕre going to be facilitating this coffee hour this morning. I wanted to let you know we prerecorded the largest portion of this broadcast so we didnÕt have problems with Internet falling apart, as sometimes happens. SheÕs broadcasting -- sheÕs coming in from Maine and IÕm coming in from a little town in Bastrop -- called Bastrop, which doesnÕt always have great Internet connection. But during the prerecorded portion, both Charlotte and I will be in the chat room and are happy to respond to questions and we encourage you to please ask them freely and share your thoughts with us. Once again, just to reiterate, make sure that youÕre selecting to all panelists and attendees when youÕre putting something in the chat so that everybody gets to see it. The other thing I want to let you know is after the prerecorded portion, weÕre going to come in and share some of the questions that we sent out on a survey earlier this month and that folks responded to. And so donÕt leave after the prerecorded part, stick around because thereÕs more to learn. And I think that that is everything that we have right now. IÕm going to go ahead and ask you to start sharing our prerecorded portion of this webinar. Pre-recorded video >> Charlotte Cushman: Hi, everyone, thanks for joining us. We've prerecorded today's session, and Kate and I will both be monitoring the chat box to respond to your comments and questions throughout the live presentation. You can also e-mail us if you have any additional questions that aren't covered today. This session will be posted online so you can access it anytime. We also wanted to let you know that we'll be referring a lot to the Active Learning Space web site today. And you can find it at activelearningspace.org. And we hope you'll check it out. >> Kate Hurst: Well, good morning, everyone. I wanted to share with you what the components of active learning are. Dr. Nielsen, who developed active learning, has many tools she's... put together to help us implement her approach. These include an assessment tool, the Functional Scheme, and the FIELA Curriculum of activities using fine and gross motor skills that can be used to teach any content areas such as math, science, language arts and social studies. Why fine and gross motor? Because, as humans, all humans, especially in the earliest developmental stages, learn by doing. She also provides guidance to the adult, in her Five Phases of Educational Treatment, to help them interact with the learner in a way that develops healthy self-identity and social-interaction skills. Dr. Nielsen also created a variety of what she calls 'perceptualizing aids,' or specialized equipment and materials that provide enriched learning environments for the learner. Through their self-initiated play in these environments. The learner receives ample opportunities to naturally develop fine and gross motor skills, as well as other skills, so they can interact with the world around them. Through their play, they discover properties of objects, learn cause-and-effect, and build foundational concepts, such as, same and different, one and more-than-one, and so forth. Active Learning asserts that a child who is engaged and active will learn. It may take longer, because of the many physical, cognitive and medical challenges these children have. But they can, and do, learn and develop skills. >> Charlotte: We're going to watch a number of videos today and each of the we'll be seeing is available on the active learning space web site. Because of time constraints, we'll just be watching short clips from each of them, but we invite you to explore them, and share them with the teams you work with. The first one we'll see, shows a young boy named Jack from the Penrickton Center for Blind Children, over a span of about four years. You'll see him using a variety of active learning equipment, as he goes from being unable to move, when he lies flat on his stomach, to be able to sit up independently. [Video start:] [Video end:] >> Charlotte: Any child can become more active if we provide preferred materials and activities. It's also helpful to position them to support their self initiated activity, and to let them have time without interruption from an adult. In the next video, we're going to show you a before-and-after of a child named Rylan. It's really all about expectations. If you expect engagement, you're more likely to get it. In the first part of this video, you'll see that the expectation is that Rylan will take a nap. In the second part of the video, which is shot just a few minutes later, you'll see that the expectation is that he'll be an engaged learner. We see a transformation when items are placed where he can explore and interact with them. [Video start:] [Video end:] >> Kate: At the heart of active learning is the Dynamic Learning Circle. It describes what we should see in a child who is actively engaged in learning. First, the child has to become aware and interested in things and people. This means, for many children with motor and sensory challenges, we have to bring those things very near, or place them on the child's body. Once this happens, the child moves and causes something to happen; a sound, a movement, a change in the object. The child also has to be interested in the object, and this means we have to figure out what the child likes, and dislikes, so we can draw his interest. As the child becomes curious about the object, he will either accidentally, or purposefully, interact with it. He may mouth it, or reach for it, bang it, throw it. In short, the child will become active. These actions, the child takes on the object, teaches him something about the properties, and functions of the object, and what he can do with the object. At first, the child's actions may be limited, but through repetition, skills develop naturally. The child will continue to interact with the object in a repetitive way, until he becomes bored with it, or finds other ways to interact with it. We usually notice that the child seems to lose interest in his play, or stops playing with that object. That is when the child is ready for a new challenge. Then we offer some slight novelty to his play by changing a single element of the play environment. Perhaps we change a color, or the texture of the objects, or maybe we offer something that makes similar sounds, or has a highly preferred texture or color. Then we wait for the child to become aware and interested in the change we have made, and the cycle begins again. >> Charlotte: In order to keep the dynamic learning circle moving. We have to understand where the child is developmentally. What motor skills does he have? What cognitive skills? What emotional skills. We have to become good playmates rather than teachers. We have to remember that children who are younger than forty-eight months developmentally, are sensory- motor learners, or early pre- operational learners, they don't learn by sitting and listening. We can't get them to do something they don't know how to do by demonstrating the skill. Here's a video example of what happens to a typically developing two-year old when her aunt tries to play with her at a developmental level that's too high for her. See what you think. ^M00:11:00 [Video start:] [Video end:] >> Charlotte: Do you notice many of your students showing this type of behavior during your instruction time? Could it be that you're not working at their developmental level. >> Kate: In the spring and early summer, we presented a series of webinars that focused on ways that families could provide active learning environments and activities at home. We did this because of COVID, and as we start another school year, with most of these students being served at home, we think these news pages on the Active Learning Space web site can be extremely helpful to you as an educational professional. Families are feeling overwhelmed. So, one strategy is to help them make the activities the child is already doing, such as bathing, eating, toileting, grooming, and so on, utilize an active learning approach. As a TVI, or related service provider, serving your students in their home, you may want to collect some of these items for the family to use, and share some of these videos to help them understand how to do this. There are many videos on these pages, and also in the motor development section, under the 'implementation' tab. Encourage the family to setup independent play environments, in areas of the house, where the parents are working, so that they can monitor the child's activities in the environment, both for progress and safety sake. Remind them to let the child have time to play uninterrupted by others, as well as, times when they, or a sibling, are actually sharing an activity, utilizing one of the five phases of educational treatment. The Five Phases of Educational Treatment describe educational strategies for the adult to use with the child during adult child interactions. These are very similar to approaches suggested by Jan van Dijk, and others, that you may be familiar with when working with children who are congenitally deafblind. The five phases include Offering, Imitation, Interaction, Sharing the Work, and Consequences. In the active learning approach, we know that the child has a great deal of time for independent play. However, the FIELA curriculum recommends at least forty-five minutes daily of adult-child interactions. These interactions are denoted in the FIELA curriculum with an A-C on the activity card. The forty-five minutes of interaction can also include shorter interactions that occur, when you start the child in an activity, at some point during the activity, or even at the end of the activity. The primary goal for the adult- child interaction is to work on social and emotional skills, though other developmental skills may also be worked on during these interactions. >> Charlotte: So, let's take a look at some video examples of each of the five phases of educational treatment. Phase One, Offering, is used during assessment, or when you're just getting to know a child. It should also be used when introducing novel materials, or slight changes in an activity. During this phase, the adult makes no demands on the learner during the interaction. The goal is to develop trust between the adult and child. All the child has to do at this phase, is to consider what we offer and to stay with us for periods of time. During phase one, the adult also observes what the child can do with his body, and what properties or objects he prefers. In this clip, we'll see a three-year old boy sitting on a resonance-board with a familiar adult. Notice that in the offering phase materials are presented without comment or demands. Also, pay attention to the number of items available on the resonance board, and the length of the wait time. [Video start:] [Video end:] >> Charlotte: In Phase Two, Imitation, I'm reminded of resonance or coactive movement strategies, that Dr. Jan van Dijk describes in his approach. Beginning with the adult imitating the child, the interaction moves towards the child becoming interested in imitating the adult. By imitating the actions of the child, you let him know, through your imitation, that you see what he can do and that you share his interest. The use of imitation is an essential part of active learning. By imitating the learners movements, vocalizations, and actions, on toys or objects, we let them take the lead in the interaction. This is why it's a good idea to have multiples of an object, so that the adult can imitate what the child is doing with the same objects. In this next video clip, we'll see an older brother imitate the action of his younger brother. Watch for the movement when Cameron seemed to recognize that his brother is imitating him. [Video start:] [Video end:] >> Kate: Phase Three, Interaction, reminds me of 'serve-and-return' interactions that the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University recommends for building brain architecture and resilience in children. These interactions, between the adult and child, are based on skills the child already demonstrates. As in previous phases, no demands are placed on the child. Instead, the child learns that the adult is there to give support when needed. An overriding goal, is for the child to engage with the adult, or peer, in a social way. That is part of the joy of the activity for the child, sharing the fun with someone else. In this video of Jarvis in the drum store, this young man who is deafblind goes to a drum store with his teacher, Matt. As you watch the video, take note of the amount of emotional support Jarvis needs, while learning about the various instruments. As you watch, ask yourself, what might happen if Matt insisted on Jarvis doing things without his support? Do you think Matt has Jarvis' trust? Do you think Jarvis is enjoying the activity? Let's take a look. [Video start:] [Video end:] >> Kate: In Phase Four, Sharing the Work, I'm reminded a very simple, activity-routines where the child might attempt to step, or action, but continues to need a great deal of support from the adult. In this phase, the goal is to increase the learner's experience of success, and increase his interest in acquiring new abilities. At the same time, you are helping the child to open up to new social relationships. In this video. Note how Patti Obrzut provides support to Jaelynn. Do you think her goal is to make the puppet correctly, or to share a positive experience with Jaelynn? Does Jaelynn take pride in what he does, and what he's making? Let's take a look at the clip. [Video start:] [Video end:] >> Charlotte: Phase Five, Consequences, involve longer routines and more complex activities, where the child is asked to take the lead in completing. The outcome of the activity is largely dependent on the child. The goal is to help the learner to indur meeting demands and changes in life, to feel self-confident, and establish a sense of responsibility. The child learns to cope with unexpected situations, which occurred during the activity. For example, rather than a cup of milk,there's a carton of milk. The learner also has to cope with the consequences of his or her actions within the activity. For example, when you spilled a milk, you have to clean it up. An important note to share about using both Phase Four and Phase Five strategies. The learner needs to be at an emotional development level of 24-months, or two years, before you can use these educational treatments. This is important. I think oftentimes we move learners into activity routines before they are emotionally ready. We would do better to focus on phase one, two and three level strategies for longer periods of time. Even when a learner has fine and gross motor skills that are much higher, during independent play, when interacting with the adult, they function at a much lower social and emotional level. Strengthening their social and emotional development will lead to even more development of skills across all areas. In this video, what are some of the consequences Jalen has to deal with while getting his own lunch? Who is completing the steps in this activity? Cindy or Jalen? [Video start:] [Video end:] >> Kate: On active learning space, we've included a variety of forms that you may use in planning for instruction and documenting progress. We encourage you to use these forms, especially the Active Learning Materials and Activities Planning Sheet. We don't have time to go into detail about these forms today, but we have included this form in your handout. If you go to the link on active learning space, you can learn how to use this form, as your team begins to assess and plan for instruction. The IEP Goals and Objectives Progress Form can help you in documenting the progress a student makes, using active learning, that is being tracked on the IEP. The other forms, related to various pieces of equipment, may also be used for that purpose. Take some time to look over these forms and see if you, and/or the parents, may want to utilize these documents to share information with each other. They can be completed on a weekly, or biweekly, basis and summarized for longer reporting periods. >> Charlotte: We really want to emphasize that learning is more than a piece of equipment. We want to underline the fact that there are important principles, that we've just been talking about, that are truly at the heart of this approach. It's not enough just to have a piece of equipment without understanding its purpose, or the way it should be used to address specific goals for an individual student. We often hear people saying that they can't try active learning, because they don't have any special equipment. And we really want people to know that there is plenty you can do without it. With that being said, we do want to take a few minutes to tell you about some of the pieces of equipment, or perceptualizing aids, that Dr. Nielsen created, after doing extensive research and refinement of designs. You'll find a whole section of the active learning space web site that goes through each piece of equipment, in detail, and shows videos demonstrating each one. The first major piece of equipment I want to mention is the Essef Board, which is basically two wooden boards held together by large, coiled springs. It's designed to work on balance, while also increasing strength in both the upper and lower-body. Next, the HOPSA Dress is basically a harness that is designed to give wheelchair users the opportunity to move their legs, begin to bear their own weight, balance while standing, and achieve the ability to walk. It can be hung from a single point or a track. We saw Jack using one in our first video today. Many of you may be familiar with a Little Room, which is probably the best known piece of active learning equipment. It's designed to work on reaching, developing an understanding of space, and early object concepts. Items are suspended from the ceiling and attached to the walls, and the child can be lying on their back, or sitting up. It's important to remember that items should be selected and placed for a specific child with regard to their individual goals. There's a lot of information on the active learning space site about how to select appropriate items. The Multifunctional Table is designed to allow the learner to initiate various activities on a tabletop, with different plastic containers, and other kinds of modular arrangements. Position Boards have textures or objects attached. And they're designed to promote fine motor skills, from scratching to grasping, and manipulating objects. Finally, the support benches designed for learners who are not yet able to sit without support. As we saw in the video of Jack, students can be placed on it, prone on their stomach, so that they can freely move their arms and legs. >> Kate: One of the common mistakes we see is the selection of equipment for students. It is very important to understand what each piece of equipment is meant to do, and match it to the goals you're focusing on with the child. We've recently created this quick guide to active learning equipment to help teams in the selection process. On this forum, you will see that for each piece of equipment we list the skills it primarily targets, ways to use the equipment, and any special considerations for using the equipment. All of this information is based on the research Dr. Nielsen did in designing the equipment, and also on the practical experience of staff at the Penrickton Center for the Blind. When using an active learning approach, you must use equipment correctly, and select equipment that will help you meet your goals. Putting children randomly in various pieces of active learning equipment will not benefit the child or help the child to make progress. And just as a side note. If you are interested in checking out a piece of active wording equipment, before you purchase, you can make a request from Texas school for the Blind, Outreach Programs, Tech Loan Program, which you may access via the TSBVI web site. >> Charlotte: We do recommend that the major pieces of equipment that we just looked at be purchased rather than homemade. And you can find ordering information on the active learning space site. In addition to those, there are a number of things you can make yourself. And you'll find some instructions on the web site on how to do this. People often have luck enlisting the help of volunteers, parents, grandparents, Boy Scout troops, church groups, voc-tech classes, and others to make these. First is an Activity Wall, which is made by mounting a piece of pegboard, or Velcro, on the wall, and attaching items to it at different heights. This allows learners to explore items without having them roll away, or disappear. Next, apron's belts, vests and gloves are a wonderful way for children, with limited use of their hands or arms, to explore other items right on their own bodies. By attaching interesting materials to a vest, for example, a child with cerebral palsy, who has hands fisted on their chest, can feel a brush, a string of beads, some bells, or some kind of interesting material right where their hands are touching. By attaching Interesting materials to a vest, for example, a child with cerebral palsy, who has hands up or fist on their chest, can feel a brush, a string of beads, some bells, or some kind of interesting material, right where their hands are. An echo bucket is a metal bucket that can be suspended over a child to encourage vocalization. Mobiles provide an easy way to hang items, so the child can independently manipulate the objects with hands, feet, or mouth. These can be on a tabletop, or on the floor. We already spoke about position boards, and these can be made or purchased. People who have been doing active learning for a while often say, if they could only have one piece of equipment, they would choose the resonance board. It's a simple piece of birch plywood with a two-inch lip, or rim underneath, and it's designed to provide tactile and auditory feedback as the learner plays, moves and vocalizes. It can be used with a little room, or it can be used by itself, as we saw in the offering video. Trays are a great way to present materials for a learner to independently explore and manipulate. We hope you'll have a look at all of these ideas on the active learning space web site. We don't have time to go through materials in depth today, but we wanted to point out that there is a whole section on the active learning space site devoted to materials. Just click on the materials tab to see what's there. The page is in this section include a whole page of ideas for materials with different properties, including tactile, auditory, items that change shape, items to hang on the wall, and more. There's a whole page on matching materials to goals, which is something that people sometimes overlook. For example, if students are working on grasping, you would want to present different materials than if they were working on scratching, or batting objects. Similarly, there is a page that looks at points to consider when choosing material,s like the learner's preferences, skill level, numbers of objects, what the item is made of, and what it can do. You'll find a page that looks specifically at selecting materials for a position board, including a video explaining the design for a particular student, and another video showing a student using it. Finally, you'll find a list of some sources where you can find some materials that are recommended for active learning. We hope you're excited about what you've heard today, and maybe you're busy thinking of various students you'd like to try some of this with. But how can you get started? Well, you're in luck! We put together a five page guide, which you can download from the home page of our web site to help you get started. It will take you through a step by step process from assessment to implementation, with suggestions on how to select materials and equipment. It includes guidelines on writing goals and objectives that reflect an active learning approach, and ideas to organize the day, and set up your classroom, or home environment. You'll also find ideas for tracking progress, reassessment, and making changes. As we said, this has been just a quick introduction to active learning. And we hope you'll be motivated to dig in more deeply. There are a number of resources that are available when you're ready to look for more information. As we mentioned, all of the information we discussed today is on the active learning space web site. There are recorded lectures by Patti Obrzut, who's an Occupational Therapist, and a leading expert on active learning. There are also written explanation and lots of video demonstrations. Dr. Willie Nelson wrote many books on active learning, and these can be a helpful place to dove into the original thinking behind this approach. There are many webinars, that were done through Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which have been recorded, and are archived on the active learning space site. In addition, there's a series of self-paced modules, which are like an online course that you can do whenever you want to. There are links to these on the active learning space site, as well. Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired has been hosting a series of quarterly Study Groups, where you can participate, online, to share and discuss cases. These are not recorded, and are available only for people who participate during the actual live session. You can find more information under the Events tab on the active learning space site. Finally, we have an e-mail newsletter which goes out every month. You can subscribe to it through the active learning space site. Please feel free to contact us, secure any other questions. Thanks again for joining us today. Live webinar >> CHARLOTTE: Well, there was a lot of information there and we kind of did that on purpose. We wanted you to get kind of a greatest hits and an overview of the active learning space site, but we do know that can be kind of overwhelming. We sent out a questionnaire or survey to people who are registered for this presentation last week, I guess. And we really want to thank those of you who took the time to fill it out and we wanted to go over some of the responses in the remaining time that we had. You have some great ideas of your own and we thought these would be worth sharing here. So the first question that we asked is what has been working well with active learning during remote instruction? And I have to say, in all honesty, quite a few of you wrote nothingÕs working well, help! ThatÕs why IÕm coming to this webinar! Know that youÕre not alone if youÕre feeling frustrated. I think no one would choose this as being the best way to do active learning, but since this is where we are we just wanted to share some ideas. One of the first things that people have suggested is to find materials that the family already owns around their house rather than bringing in new materials. And, you know, not only will this make your life easier, but it will be less overwhelming to the families. You can engage them in making the decisions. What have you got around the house that would be interesting to squeeze? Or talk about some of the goals and brainstorm that together. Another person mentioned that itÕs been working well to help families reduce clutter. So they didnÕt specify how that was done but itÕs nice to have that close collaboration with families where youÕre actually talking about setting up a space and maybe they can show you on the camera what theyÕve done and you can make some suggestions on how they might adapt the space in a way thatÕs easier for the student to move around or explore. A similar item was helping parents to find creative ways to work with their child using simple household items. You know, never underestimate the power of a pot and pan as interesting things to explore and teach basic concepts. You know, we donÕt have to have really expensive specialized equipment to work on some of these basic concepts. A lot of people mentioned that this has been a really great time to strengthen collaborations with families. And I think we all know as teachers or therapists we all want to be doing that all the time but sometimes the day doesnÕt have enough hours and we donÕt have the energy or we canÕt connect easily. And in this time of remote instruction, weÕre front and center collaborating with families because with students with significant multiple disabilities theyÕre not just logging on at their particular hour when itÕs time to meet with you. Another thing that people brought up was itÕs a great time to model an active learning approach for families. And I wanted to just again give a pitch for some of the videos on the active learning space site because weÕve given you a ton of videos just in the last hour. But a lot of those are nice ways to look at modeling also. You can see different therapists, people from Penrickton center and others working with kids and itÕs a nice way to be able to discuss techniques with parents. Next slide, please. >> KATE: So continuing on with some of your great ideas, one person said that theyÕre getting creative as the families and teachers go through drawers together virtually to see how to repurpose the items for educational opportunities. You know, this is one of the fun things about active learning I think. There are so many things that you can create very easily from just things that you find around home and itÕs so important for a child to learn about their real world around them, and repurposing real things that they encounter in their home work tremendous. And I want to encourage you to check out under our family tab, ideas for younger learners and ideas for older learners. With the young learners youÕll see a lot of things that family members have made for their child out of just things they found at home and out in the yard. So itÕs real easy to do a lot of these things. And, yes, itÕs ideal if you can get the very nice equipment thatÕs so well designed. Those things are terrific but you shouldnÕt, you know, be stopped by the fact that you may not have all of this wonderful equipment that Lilli designed. The other thing is using activities from home hacks. IÕm so glad to hear people say that because I think that this is just a tremendous resource, and especially the activities of daily living. Because, you know, these focus on things that every parent is doing with their child probably every day of the week and it really gives some very down to earth things that they can do and make all parts of their normal routine more active learning based in its approach. The other one is having materials to demonstrate to the family and helping them to incorporate opportunities at home. We talked about that. Better observation of the child without interruption. You know, one of the things thatÕs kind of nice is if you share some of these observation forms on a specific piece of equipment or even on the documenting IEP goals and objectives and work with a parent to show them how to use them, thatÕs gives the parent a great something to do that keeps them from interfering with the childÕs independent play time when you have them in an environment and theyÕre exploring independently. So I think thatÕs always a really good thing to do. And providing families with a limited array of pre-made materials such as scratch boards. Any time you can take some materials into the home and save the family from having to build it all from scratch, you know, in these busy times IÕm sure that they would be delighted. And sometimes if you just take one or two items in it inspires them to get creative and come up with some more. Next slide. Okay. The ideas that we asked for you to share ideas that youÕve come up with that you like to share with other people. And one of them says whenever a box arrives with materials for a student I have them open it. I want them to have a richer understanding of where and how things get there and also how to use scissors and pull tape, et cetera. They are always interested and it generally seems like a new skill. I really think that anything that youÕre doing with a child, if you take more time to let them explore all the materials as youÕre bringing them out, it just makes for a richer experience for that child. You know, one of our problems is that a lot of children, we call it the good fairy syndrome, things just magically appear and disappear before them. So letting them be a part of collecting the activities and materials youÕre going to use or at least exploring them some before you try to do any activity with them is really important. So I like that idea. And then another one, IÕve been sending out materials for families to put together to make a sensory bead bar and other materials which might be helpful in the home setting. And, again, if you can put together sort of a little kit with directions for parents to make some of these simple things, I think thatÕs always a big help because, you know, different families have different things that they can access easily from home and different amount of time. And so anything you can do to make the process a little simpler for them, the better. So letÕs go to the next slide. >> CHARLOTTE: I wanted to give a little shout out to Jessica McAvitt. She is with us an an OT in the Penrickton center. They have made a lot of the videos so IÕm going to invite her to chime in if sheÕs got ideas too. Before I go to this particular slide, I wanted to mention something thatÕs come up in the chat, which I think is a really great question and one that IÕm sure a lot of you have had as well. And Veronica mentions that she has one student whoÕs not motivated by anything but a small musical toy. She has tried other musical toys but he has no interest in them. Do we have suggestions. And I wanted to say that I think Kate has mentioned -- and it was in the prerecorded part today -- we have the active learning planning sheet is just such a great way to bring teams together to talk about what weÕre all observing about what a child likes or dislikes, what kind of preferences they have in general, what theyÕre drawn to. And I made the point in the chat that a child might be sucking on their fingers or staring at the lights. They might be finding other things that are motivating to them. These are not educational materials. This is not something you purchased and are presenting as their special equipment for a lesson, but the important thing that IÕm trying to get at is we need to be good observers in order to find out what motivates kids. IÕve had students who are motivated by the sound of their own breath. You know, they like to kind of make sounds with their body. So it could be a lot of things. Anyway, IÕm going to just keep moving because we donÕt have time to go into details about one particular student, but I want to keep going with some of the slides here. All right. So probably every single person who filled out the survey said that their main question they wanted to address today is how to implement active learning virtually. Well, thatÕs my question too because this is not something any of us ever knew before. Whoever thought we would have to be doing this virtually. But I did want to talk about some of the considerations that we should be thinking about and one is who is with the learner at home. And thereÕs a wide range, as we all know. Sometimes itÕs different family members. I know people who have intervenors who are in the home with the child, so it can be the whole gamut. But also whatÕs the availability. I mean, do you have a family where thereÕs poor Internet connection? Maybe thereÕs one phone for five children who are online and two parents who are working at home online. I mean, really we need to be so aware and respectful of that. This is maybe on our agenda that we want these things to be addressed the way that we want them to be addressed, but we need to be very, very respectful and aware of what families are trying to balance right now. I think one way to really get at this is to work collaboratively to look at goals and activities. So find out what theyÕre already doing and figure out how to build an active learning. WeÕve talked about the home hack section of the website, and thereÕs a lot on ADLs there, activities of daily living. And, you know, most parents are already brushing their childÕs teeth and certainly feeding their children and doing any number of things. And there can be a lot of active learning built into those daily activities. So it doesnÕt need to always just be you imposing your goal. In fact, it shouldnÕt be, right? It should be something thatÕs being discussed together and looking at how this can be done at home. ItÕs really a great idea to work together to find the materials in the home that might be appropriate. So, again, people sometimes think, oh, I donÕt have a little room. I canÕt do active learning at home. Well, think about, you know, maybe youÕre a parent preparing supper and the other kids are lined up with their homework and laptops and the child who has got more significant multiple disabilities might not have anything to do. Why not pull out some pots and pans and wooden spoons and just wire whisks. Things that can be explored readily in the kitchen. It doesnÕt need to be specialized equipment, I think is the point we keep making. And we just want to say it again. Next, a shameless promotion for the active learning space website. We really -- this is why Kate and I created it. We want it to be there for you as a resource. ThereÕs a lot on there. There are videos that are lecture videos done by Patti where you can study the topic and there are also videos of kids, all of the things we saw today and many, many more, so you can look at it together and discuss. And, again, I mentioned the ADL section of the website. I think another thing about active learning is that things -- because things donÕt happen quickly in active learning, it can be a very slow, a lot of wait time involved. It doesnÕt really always work well with remote instruction. But this can be a great time to observe. So I think thatÕs it for that slide. Could we have the next slide, please? >> KATE: Yeah. And before we go into this next slide, we had a question from Veronica who said that she has a student who is not motivated by anything but a small musical toy. And I think that sometimes happens for kids, in part because they havenÕt really had a lot of opportunities to explore on their own. So one of the things -- there was a lot of good things in the comments. IÕll direct yÕall to read through that. But one of the other things I wanted to point out is it is so important to figure out what the childÕs preferences are and what their aversions are. And I would definitely start by talking with the family to find out what things the child might really like at home. Then the other thing is oftentimes kids get hung up on a musical toy and they just sort of will sit and habituate and press the button, press the button, press the button. So I think youÕve got to begin to offer them new opportunities, which doesnÕt mean theyÕre going to magically jump on them the first time theyÕre offered. So doing an activity like we saw with the phase one offering with Cindy on the resonance board where youÕre just with a child and youÕre just offering it to them. YouÕre not talking. YouÕre not showing them how they have to use it. YouÕre just offering it and letting them explore it in any way they want. Initially they may not be very eager because theyÕre not used to doing that. So, you know, be sure to slow your pacing down, give them lots of opportunities. They donÕt seem to be interested in an object after a time, try something else. You know, until you begin to get a sense of something that catches their attention. Because, remember in the dynamic learning circle, you want them to become aware and interested. And so, you know, it may take a while for a lot of these children to show you what theyÕre interested in but a lot of times if you talk to family members theyÕll say, oh, he really loves this or he really loves that. He canÕt stand this particular thing. You know, look at some of those things. And also look at the childÕs own self-stimulations. A lot of times that can give you a clue to what they find interesting. And I put an example in there. If you see a child that likes to mound things, you know, look at what they put in their mouth and then start with things that are similar in nature to that. If theyÕre only being offered plastic things, that may be that anything thatÕs not plastic feels aversive to them. You might put something of a different texture there and let them find that while theyÕre mouthing. You would be surprised, when youÕre not forcing a child to do something and they can try a little bit and then step back from it and then try again, how oftentimes thatÕs what they need is opportunities to explore it on their own without interruption, without somebody forcing them to do it where they can pick it up and put it down at their own, you know, volition and it helps them to feel safer about it. And this has a lot to do with emotional development as well. Okay. So getting to this slide, we have one person -- >> IÕm so sorry. We actually are out of time. >> KATE: Oh my goodness. All right. >> CHARLOTTE: Can you move forward so we can be looking at -- because we have some announcements on the last slide. There we go. We just want a quick plug. Tuesday is a study group. You can get more information by following that link. Our next coffee hour that weÕll be doing on active learning is November 19, and sign up for the newsletter. >> Thank you to Kate and Charlotte. I was going to say we need to get you guys scheduled if we havenÕt yet, but it looks like we have. Because clearly thereÕs so much in active learning to talk about. Okay. Here is your closing code for today and then a couple of very important announcements. So todayÕs code is 092420. One more time. Well, IÕll give it to you a few more times. 092420. Please make sure that you write this down. We cannot give it out after this session. Just a reminder that Monday weÕll be meeting at 3:00 p.m. central time and Thursdays at noon. On Monday the 28th weÕll be learning Nemeth code. And then on Thursday, October 1, will be an introduction to the Chromebook with Ruth and Cecelia. Again, to obtain your CEUs make sure you respond to the evaluation that will be e-mailed to you from our registration website. The code again is 092420 and you will put that in the e-mail. Now, your CEU certificate should automatically generate but we have been made aware that our registration system is having a coding issue and some of the certificates are not generating immediately. TheyÕre working to resolve that so still complete the evaluation. And if the certificate isnÕt immediately available it will be available very soon. So sorry about that but please let us know if youÕre having trouble getting it later, you can just log into your account and you should be able to access it. On the evaluation are a couple of spaces for you to give us comments. Please take a look at that and give us your feedback. So one more time. The code is 092420. Thank you, everyone and weÕll see you on Monday. Thanks, Dorothy. Thanks, Margaret. All right. >> Well, thank you, everyone. >> Sally, it will be the same account that you used to register for today. No problem. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks for being with us, Jessica. >> Yeah, Jessica. Thanks. >> The videos are awesome.