Week Six Part Two

My last post was pretty off topic because of the subject matter, but today I'll try to get back on track.  Margaret and I spent most of our time today with the group of middle school students that have multiple disabilities (Joe, Ralph, and Todd).  Ralph and Todd are twin brothers who have retinopathy of prematurity, and Joe has light perception and balance issues.  

Margaret and I started our day with Joe.  I've mentioned before how his hand preference seems to be in question and that he requires "spotting" when he walks.  I haven't seem him in a little over a week, but it's amazing to see again how much he's progressed.  When Margaret handed Joe his cane, he grabbed it with his right hand, put his left hand through the wrist strap, and transferred the cane to his left hand (no hesitation, no questioning!).  The last time I saw Joe, Margaret was just showing him how to put the wrist strap on, which was something he had difficulty with.  

Joe's PT also told us some of the awesome things he did during her lesson with him (picked up a dropped book, went down stairs, and found a doorway).  Did I mention that this is a student who only used a walker up until about a year ago?  Which brings up the next point.  

Margaret talked to the PT about the fact that when she sees Joe's class about on campus, Joe is usually using his walker with one of the aides towing him along.  In Margaret's words, seeing this makes her blood boil.  So while Margaret is working on all of these cane and travel skills with Joe, the other teachers don't seem to be giving him the opportunity to practice these skills when Margaret is not there.  

Hmm, I wonder how often that kind of thing happens with this population?  

So Margaret told both the PT and Joe's assistant that she would like to see Joe use his walker less, or not at all (apparently this is one of his IEP goals).  It will be interesting to see how successful she is getting the teachers to change.

Margaret and I also talked about me taking over some of Ralph's instruction.  Ralph has some light perception and uses a cane.  He gets distracted sometimes, but he actually seems to do better with his travel skills when he has to concentrate (if there's a lot of noise around, he's in an unfamiliar setting, etc). 

I'm comfortable with teaching him (I think), but I find myself wondering how you know when to give these students additional help and when to back off.  He has an intellectual disability, which makes some concepts more challenging for him.  But at the same time, I don't want to sell him short!  

At any rate, I'm making a tactile map of his school campus for him so we'll see how that turns out...