The Joseph Robert Shaw Foundation

Helping Children Recover from Brain Injury

Wait Time Over Zoom

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Wait time is one of the most vital supports we can give a child (or an adult). I’ve written about it numerous times on this blog. While it doesn’t involve any extra supports, gadgets, or tools, it is still recognizably hard to do. We, as teachers and parents, aren’t good at waiting. 

We aren’t good at providing enough in-person waiting time. Now that we are doing most of our work on-line, wait time is even more complicated. Not only do we need to wait to provide our students with the same processing time they need to respond in our in-person work, now we also have to account for a computer delay, the time it may take a child to unmute or speak into the computer, or to process the additional virtual and auditory information coming from the computer screen while shutting out the in-person visual/auditory information coming from real life. 

AND, to make it worse, when we are waiting on a computer, we cannot read our children’s body language. We can’t see the wheels turning like we could if they were with us in person. And so, we can easily find ourselves not providing the right amount of wait time needed. At least, maybe that’s me. Every week gets a little easier as we adjust to the new normal and learn the social patterns of zoom. 

Wait time is even more important right now as our kids seek to be seen and heard by those helping them. With a scary virus outside the doors and a sudden change of routine inside, it is important for all of our kids – even the ones who have difficulty easily finding their words – to know that we are listening to them. Listening, understanding, and waiting on their ideas and thoughts because their ideas and thoughts are important and valuable too. 

These virtual connections aren’t easy, and it’s good to remind ourselves to slow down. The pace of our interactions with children or the number of words a child produces during a session is not nearly as valuable as simply giving the child the space to be seen and heard. 

 

Helping Kids Identify Their Feelings With Books About Waiting

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As we get further and further into this period of self-quarantining, we are all becoming more and more restless. When will we go back to normal? When will we be able to see our friends and family in person again?

The answer of “I don’t know” just doesn’t really cut it, and yet, it is all we have. Sure, there are tiered systems of responses and levels of when we’ll be able to start implementing them, but in truth, we just don’t know.

Waiting is hard.

 It’s hard for kids on the best day, and right now – everything feels so much harder.

There are a few great picture books that can help us talk to children about just how ridiculous hard waiting is. My current favorite for this time period is The Very Impatient Caterpillar by Ross Burach. In this book a caterpillar tries to wait patiently to metamorphosize into a butterfly, but finds those first few days in the cocoon painfully boring. He tries to come out too early, only to find out he doesn’t have the wings yet. Finally, he slows down, takes some deep breaths, and is able to make it through the two weeks to become a beautiful butterfly (who now has to patiently migrate). I love telling kids that I identify with the impatient caterpillar right now – that I just want to come out and that it feels hard to wait. Their eyes get big and shocked as they wonder how an adult could be impatient too. It’s a great way to open up a conversation about how waiting is hard for everyone.

Another one of my favorite waiting books is Waiting is Not Easy by Mo Willems. I have had so many children tell me that this is their absolute favorite Gerald and Piggie book, and I think that is because the message truly resonates with them. In this book Piggie announces that he has a surprise for Gerald but that Gerald has to wait. Gerald finds this very difficult and in true Mo Willems’ fashion, becomes extremely dramatic as he tries to wait for the surprise. Again, this is a great book to open up the conversation about how waiting is hard, but that in the end it is often worth it. 

This time is difficult for all of our kids right now. Having book characters to relate to about how difficult waiting is for everyone will help normalize their feelings and help them recognize that we are all in this together, caterpillar, elephant, and us. 

Resources During COVID-19 Shut Down

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As a parent, I often feel that I am drowning in the resources that are out there right now during our period of quarantine. As we get deeper into our quarantine situation, more and more resources are popping up to support our children. It’s a wonderful problem to have – but can be difficult to navigate!

Here are a few resources I’ve come across that support AAC users during this time:

Using Proloquo2Go to talk about the Coronavirus: . 

Although this is written specifically for those using Proloquo, it has recommendations that can be used with any AAC user when talking about the virus and the current changes in place.

Core Virus Vocabulary

Smartbox includes a set of core vocabulary and printable pictures to give people language about the virus. 

Coronavirus Social Story from the Illinois Autism Partnership:

This social story provides simple visuals that explain the virus and why schools are closed.

Carol Gray’s Story about the Pandemic

Here is another social story about the virus, in more respectful language for older children. It provides more detail with actual pictures for visuals. The first picture is of a large group of people together, which was actually fairly jarring to see. How did we so quickly adapt to being threatened by pictures of groups of people?

CNN & Sesame Street’s Town Hall Meeting:

On Saturday, April 25th, CNN and Sesame Street held a town hall meeting to address COVID-19 from a child’s perspective. This link will let you watch specific clips from the 90 minute program that may address your child’s specific questions. For my own, typically developing children, I found it helpful because even with easy access to their own words they still cannot articulate all of the questions floating around in their heads. These segments nicely ask and answer those questions. 

 

Accessing Online Resources with AAC

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I rely heavily on the Pioneer Valley Book Builder subscription to create books for the children I work with. You can put a child’s name into the program and print out a book at the child’s guided reading level with their name within the text. This is a great resource, especially during this time of quarantine. As I was exploring the site the other day I came upon their Digital Reader, which is currently free. It allows you to access books digitally at your child’s specific reading level (they also have a free assessment if you are not sure where to start). There are even videos for some of the books that will guide the students through introducing the book, word work connected with the book, as well as writing connections with the book. 

As I watched my own kindergarten daughter participate in this virtual guided reading lesson from guided reading guru Jan Richardson, I couldn’t help but think of Joey – can these resources work for him as well?

I’m hopeful this resource may provide a great opportunity for Joey to experience quality guided reading lessons while he is at home. His family can play the book introduction and put the book on a large screen for him to read – this means nobody has to hold the book up for him and the words (depending on the screen used) will automatically be larger. 

Joey can use his device to read the beginning of the repeated, short sentences one each page (taking turns with his family so he does not get exhausted by the repetition). Most of the words on the pages are on his device. If Joey is resistant to reading the words on his device, he can read it silently in his head while someone points to each word on the screen. Afterwards, his communication partner can ask him questions about the story – “What is dad eating?” “What does Dad like?” and he can answer using the device.

The videos do ask for a child to have a whiteboard and marker with them so they can write – but instead of writing Joey can be asked to find those letters on his QWERTY keyboard on his device. 

The teacher asks “read this with me” or “say this with me”. The video can be paused so that Joey can make that sentence on his device, or he can at least find a target word on his device. If the sentence is “I like to eat apples”, Joey can find the word “like” on his device. As the recording asks for responses, the family member can pause it to give Joey the wait time needed to answer the question on his device. The lessons include a word study component, which Joey can participate in with his device.

It may take some adapting to make the videos interactive for Joey and students like him, but it could be a great resource to keep reading skills going during this time. It also gives him access to excellent grade-level instruction via the video, asking him exactly what would be asked of a typically developing kindergarten student. Because it is in an individual setting, the pace will be able to be slowed down to allow Joey to respond with his device – adapting the pace but not the content. 

I hope this will let Joey and other kids like him practice some of their skills.

 

 

Saturday Serenade

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Test post for Saturday Serenades https://www.musichealsglennjan.com/saturday-serenades

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