Field Experience Day 3

July 13, 2010

On this day I completed my 3rd day of 3 hour field experience time. The students did their usual daily routine. Breakfast, restroom, music, dancing, activities. At 10:20 the students have recess time where they are taken outside to play, at first I thought it was a little early for recess but then I realized that they went to recess first before the regular summer school classes did.

I asked Mrs. Flores why the students where not allowed to play with the other students. She said that usually on a regular school year they will allow them to play with other children as long as they are in the same age range and because it is summer there are many students and all different ages. She also said that regular students sometimes do not take certain reactions well and they do not want to expose the children to be hurt.

While at recess the children all seem to be enjoying their time. One of the things I noticed that is a little different from a regular class was that many of them where playing individually. Some where on the play grounds such as the slide and climbing wall, but others were in their only little world. Some were sitting by the flowers and picking at them and others in the small spaces under the playground. I want to do my research on why that is, I am guessing they like time alone. The only ones doing it where the autistic and DS children. The speech impaired seemed to have no problem communicating at that time. They were so happy, all the children were in their own way.

At recess Mrs. Flores was telling me a little about the classroom arrangement. She said that the reason she has the desk arranged a certain way is because each student should have their own desk and working area, no sharing or grouping because it leads to major distraction for a special ed student.

We talked about centers and their arrangements. She said centers should be arranged in various parts of the room where students can have easy access to when they are done with their school work they can individually go to centers on their own in a quiet manner.

The last thing we talked about was the arrangement of the teachers and aids. Because some of the students require much more attention then others the teachers and aids should be positioned at apposite sides of the room as in front and back to keep a close look at all the students from both angles.

HISD cuts back on special-education positions

I found this on KHOU, and I think it is really unfair, since many students depend on these teachers to achieve their goals.

HOUSTON—Marching in time with her drill team, Kiara looks like any other 10-year-old.

She has spunk, too, that allows her to communicate beyond words. It helps her get her message across.

Kiara is deaf, and her stepdad says her special-education classes in HISD have helped her both in the class room and out.

"They help her in sports and stuff, track, reading, writing, math—stuff like that—it’s just cool," said Ray Eseke.

So Eseke and Kiara were concerned when HISD announced they’re doing away with 200 special-education positions and looking to place those teachers in other areas.

It wasn’t clear which teachers and which schools would be affected, but for some special-ed students, familiar faces may be missing this year.

"It’s wrong, because kids like her, they need help," said Eseke.

The Houston Federation of Teachers doesn’t like it, either.

"There’s no cost reduction but they’re just taking teachers out of the classroom," said Andy Dewey of the Houston Federation of Teachers.

The teacher’s union argues that the district shouldn’t cut positions when there’s $35 million in unspent annual federal funding for special education. The district said that money is for the 2010-2011 school year and will be spent.

As the special-ed teachers learned their jobs were being phased out, they called the union.

Dewey said many of the callers were upset about the late notice.

The teachers are under contract, so they’ll be paid.

HISD said the number of special-ed students has dropped from 21,000 to 16,500, so they don’t need as many teachers.

"We really have just been way too generous with the number of teaching staff we’ve had in this district over the years," said Sowmya Kumar, the HISD Assistant Superintendent of Special Education.

HISD said special-ed teachers that were cut could apply for other vacancies in the district.

"The teachers will have employment for the whole year, we’re not looking to lose anyone and we’re not looking reduce services to any students," said Kumar.

Field Experience Day 2

July 12, 2010

On this day I complete 3 more hours of my field experience. Because summer school is almost over I had to do almost 3 hours everyday. The second day was a bit less stressful for me since I knew what to expect and what faces I was going to see.

The day started off the same as the first, Breakfast, restroom, routine morning songs with calendar days and months of the year. After those activities we moved on to the movements. The students would dance to a song chosen for the day. I got a look at the CD and it was Mickey's Favorite Dance Along songs. It had songs like the Y.M.C.A, the twist, the bunny hop, chicken dance, the swim and shout to name a few. For that day the song of choice was the Y.M.C.A. The students stood up, danced and singed along. Mrs. Flores said that the do this to practice the physical movements and instruction as well as to practice their oral instruction.

The teachers role seems very regular to as that of a Pre-K class. The only difference is that she is aware of disabilities and modifications like daily living and adaptive skills. The classroom has 2 teacher aids through out the regular school year but because it was summer there was only one. Her name was Mrs. Ruiz, she was in charge of helping Mrs. Flores with oral activities, speech delay activities, tongue position, sound annunciation and communication with others activities.

From 9:00 to 9:00 Mrs. Flores and Mrs. Ruiz were going to start working on the student individually so she asked me to read a book to the rest of the class while they worked one on one with the students. Mrs. Flores said she was thankful I was helping out so that they can do the evaluations on the students. The book I chose to read was the hungry caterpillar and since many of the students are bilingual I chose to read it in English and Spanish. The students had of course already heard this story and some would even tell me what was going to happen next. Once were were down with the book I asked them to help me dram them on the white board. They helped me by giving me things they saw in the book such as the fruit, butterfly and sun.

After reading time Mrs. Flores came back and told them that it was Activity at the desk time. She left my drawings on the board and asked the students to color their own on a white piece of paper. The students has crayons to complete this task. Some of the students really did not draw much, they just scribbled. But other really impressed me with their butterflied and caterpillars.

After all those fun activities the students were ready for restroom and snack time. Most of the students need assistance when it comes to going to the rest room, the most common one is that they need help to button their pants. Mrs. Ruiz is the one that usually helps with this. At snack time the students go to the cafeteria where they receive a brown lunch bag with a small lunch. Some students have strict diets so they have their own.

Sad story about Autistic Children

I found this article and video this morning when I was checking the news on KHOU and just wanted to share with you all because it is so heart breaking.

http://www.khou.com/news/Parents-of-autistic-children-explain-struggle-despair--99026734.html

Speech Impediment

Speech disorders or speech impediments are a type of communication disorder where 'normal speech is disrupted. This can mean stuttering, lisp etc. Someone who is totally unable to speak due to a speech disorder is considered mute (www.wikipedia.com).

My husband and my little cousin both have a speech impediment. My husband stutters when he has to talk to fast. Being a successful business man that travels all over the world, this impediment has been difficult for him because he feels he is not able to communicate at times. He has gone to several therapies to try to help him and they all give him good advice on how to handle the situation. Even with his stutter I am beyond proud of him and his accomplishments. Graduating college with honors and having such an amazing career just shows how people with impediments can be just as grand.

My little cousin who is 5 years old has an obvious speech impediment. When he supposedly speaks, it sounds like you are listening to a toddler that is barely learning their first words. I know there are many options for him and that he can really be all he can be an overcome his speech problem. The only issue is that his mother does not see the problem like everyone else does. I know they say love is blind but I think it is crucial for a parent to be aware and act fast. When the issue is mentioned to her she says that he speaks everything and for some weird reason she is usually the only one who understands his language, to us it just sounds like noises. I hope parents become very aware of this issue and realize the sooner they act the better.

At my field study most of the children have speech impediments but some more sever than others. There are two who are mute, they listen and obey everything but refuse to speak out loud. All of the kids here get special time dedicated to each with a speech therapist who really helps them with their communication skills. Even thought most of the times it is hard for me to understand what they are telling me, I try to make a great face and pretend I understood to help their confidence about their speech. Most of the students are still so young so I know they are probably in their beginning learning stage.

There is an article on this website http://ezinearticles.com/?Speech-Impediments,-How-They-Affect-Our-Lives&id=51716. The article talks about how speech impediments affect people lives. I think what the article says is very negative and horrible way to see a speech impediment. I do not think that having a speech impediment affects marriages and ordering food. I think that all has to do with a persons insecurities. Like I tell my husband every time he travels, do not forget you can do anything you put your mind to and do ever let your self think other wise.
These are the different types of speech impediments that can be developed at an early age:

Stuttering-Stuttering is a common speech impediment. As many as 20 percent of children will go through a stage of stuttering, as noted by the Stuttering Foudation of America. Stuttering often manifests in early childhood, and if left untreated can pose a large problem in future communication as the child matures. Stuttering is characterized as a repeating of certain letter sounds, prolongation of certain letter sounds, or even a stopping of speech in the middle of a word or sentence. Stuttering is largely genetic and can be remedied by regular speech therapy.

Cluttering-At first glance, cluttering may seem to be the same as stuttering, but it is, in fact, a much different impediment. Cluttering is characterized by unnatural breaks in speech. Whereas a child who stutters knows what he wants to say but has trouble saying it, a child who clutters often has long pauses of not knowing what to say. Speech is disorganized, jerky and often hard to understand. Therapy is needed so the child can learn to organize his thoughts before speaking and to speak slowly and clearly.

Articulation Disorder - Articulation disorder deals directly with a child;s inability to articulate certain sounds in speech. This could manifest as a lisp in an inability to make a 'th' sound, and many children have problems in substituting a 'w' sound for a hard 'r' sound. Most often, these disorders are corrected with age as the child becomes more confident in her speech. However, speech therapy may be needed if the problem does not resolve itself.

Phonological Disorder - A phonological disorder is an impediment that finds its roots in the difficulty that some children have in pronouncing words that begin with two consonants. Because of this, children will only pronounce one of the words or omit the letters completely, resulting in broken and confusing speech. This is yet another impediment that is prevalent in early childhood but is resolved as the child ages. You may hear this type of speech in a toddler, but that toddler's speech problem will resolve with age.

Apraxia - Apraxia of speech occurs when a child is unable to move his mouth and tongue to create common letter and word sounds. He may have trouble stringing certain word sounds together as the mouth positioning changes. Children with speech apraxia lack the proper control to make letter sounds and can become frustrated in trying to make letter sounds that they had done unknowingly. Mouth exercises such as blowing bubbles or making kiss sounds can help a child gain better control over the muscles in her mouth and tongue to remedy this impediment.(

s peech-impediments-children.html

Fiel Experience Day 1 (Continued)

Day 1 - 7/8/2010
I completed four hours of my field experience and like I had recently blogged the first day was great. After having a really nice meeting time with the students we moved on to their daily activities. Every day after breakfast and restroom break the students sit on their carpet to sing days of the week and months of the year as well as their ABC's. They do this activity for 30 min every day.

The week day song went like this:"There are seven days,
there are seven days,
there are seven days in a week
there are seven days,
there are seven days,
there are seven days in a week
Sunday Monday,
Tuesday Wednesday,
Thursday Friday,
Saturday;
Sunday Monday,
Tuesday Wednesday,
Thursday Friday,
Saturday.

All of the students really seemed to have this song down pretty well but when it came to the months of the year they just seemed to be following along with Mrs. Flores. I guess that can be because their ages are 3-4 and they have not yet learned all of their months.

The month song:
"These are the 12 months of the year.
Let's sing them together so we can all hear.
How many months are there in a year?
12 months in a year
January, February, March,
April, May, June,
July, August, September,
October, November, December."

Then they went on to sing the traditional ABC song. Most of the students were not paying much attention and I believe that was due to the fact that I was sitting there and I was new to them. I will try to figure if that is true within the next days or if that is how they usually behave because of their exceptional needs.

Some would stare at me but one of the little girls wanted to sit by me. She is a really cute little girl and at first I could not figure out why she was in an exceptional children classroom. I didn't think it was Autism but I had my doubts. I really had not considered speech impediment because since she looked 3 years old I thought maybe that she talked that way because of her young age. She seemed very normal and actually very smart. She asked me many questions like if I lived with my mother and father and when I responded not anymore she asked me if they knew I was going to have a baby. I am pretty sure she came to that conclusion because of my obvious pregnancy. When talking to her it sounded like you were talking to a toddler. I see why that can be a problem at her age but if I had not met her at a school I think I would of thought she was just fine and only talking cute.

I am breaking up my field experience days up in to parts because I did many hours a day to complete my field experience and in order to meet my requirements and to be able to keep blogging I need to break them up. I will always put what day and date each one belongs. Everyone have a great night and can't wait to blog tomorrow.

LUV
MEL

Being Around Children with Down Syndrome

The only real experience I have with exceptional children with down syndrome is being around my husbands aunt. I met her five years ago and like most people I see with down syndrome she always has a smile on her face. She is currently 42 years old with a heart and mind of a 15 year old teenage girl. It took her several visits from me to learn who I was but every single time I see her she fills me with compliments on my clothing. She loves accessories and make up so I always try to take her some for her enjoyment. One thing I noticed right away from her was that she always remember special events such as birthday and holidays. Every time I see her she tells me that it will be her birthday soon and what she wants for Christmas. Big events like family weddings also stick to her thoughts and she is always excited to talk about what she is going to wear. She attends a special school where there she has made many friends with similar needs. The school has really kept her active and happy.

At my field study school there are several children with down syndrome and the first thing they did when I walked through the door was smile at me and treat me like they knew me from forever. There was one particular one that stole my heart, he was the youngest at 3 years old and he was tiny, blonde with pretty blue eyes. He was all hugs the whole day and wanted to shake everyone's hand. They all looked and acted like normal kids to me and their smiley faces just made my whole day.

There are many options that parents can take with their exceptional down syndrome child's education. Some are special schools where the child is always surrounded by children with special needs and professional personnel. Another is home schooling, parents might choose this option when their child requires more needs as in medical ones or because they do not want their child exposed to uncomfortable situations or comments. My favorite option is when the choose public or normal schools, the child can be involved in a normal curriculum and have a normal school year by still having special needs professionals to assist them.

The definition of Down syndrome is the presence of an extra "chromosome 21" in the chromosomal makeup of the person. So the person with Down syndrome has three chromosome 21's, where as most people only have two. Hence Down syndrome is sometimes referred to as Trisomy 21- tri means 3, somy means chromosome, and 21 is the chromosome it is in reference to (www.cdadc.com)

"The National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) and the Down syndrome community invite the public to celebrate Down Syndrome Awareness Month this October. There will be special opportunities across the country to learn about Down syndrome and to promote acceptance and inclusion of individuals born with this genetic condition (NDSS).