Category: EDUC 336

 FASD, ASD and Down Syndrome

Sara McManus

School of Education, University of Northern British Columbia
EDUC 336: Inclusive Education
Melanie Baerg, M.Ed. – Lecturer
July 31, 2022

Sometimes I feel like a broken record player in my reflections because I connect my past lived experiences so passionately to almost everything we study. But then I pondered, isn’t that the most genuine intention of a reflection? Isn’t it true that “without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful” (Wheatly, 2002)? Not that my past experiences have not been successful; that is to say, I am gaining a genuine appreciation for the value of this learning experience and its impact on my future practice.

Myles Himmelreich is the grown-up version of one of my Math & PE students at the Alternate school. He was one of the most challenging students that the school had in my two years teaching there. I couldn’t help but imagine while watching The Myles Himmelreich Story (Sask. Prevention Institute, 2018) that it was an inside look into my student’s amazingly complicated mind. Teaching him twice a day was like walking on eggshells. I never knew what to expect on any given day. (That is one of my favourite parts about the profession of teaching – no two days are ever the same!)

I appreciated seeing Myles Himmelreich’s growth in his teachings on FASD and his development of the Faith, Ability, Strength, and Determination acronym (Sask. Prevention Intervention, 2020) It gives me hope that my student will someday come to understand his life better in a similar way. I agree wholeheartedly that we need to focus on every student’s strengths and help them to forge their paths as they increase in age. This brings me round to the heart of my ongoing pedagogical development. I want my students to know that the World is Better Because They Are in It. One of the biggest gifts I gave my student at the Alternate school was that he knew that I saw him as a whole person who could accomplish anything he set his heart on.  When I stepped onto the school grounds this past spring, I was nearly pummelled by this young man’s energetic run across the field to hug me. I was so incredibly proud of him for accomplishing his goals, and he was so proud to share with me his future plans. There had been many days where his behaviours jeopardized his ability to continue his path to graduation within the high school environment.  Understanding more about FASD will enable me to become a better advocate for students like him in my future practice to ensure that their disability is accommodated appropriately.

I welcomed learning more specific FASD details in the second video with Myles Himmelreich, Let’s Change the Conversation and Challenge the Stigma (Sask. Prevention Intervention, 2020). I found myself thinking about how there were no sentinel facial features on any of the three students designated with Chronic Health for FASD at the Alternate school. In fact, I would not have known had I not been privy to their IEP meetings. All three students certainly did not see themselves as disabled. Using disability first language directly with them would have been beyond insulting. These three young men came from diverse ethnic backgrounds and socio-economic environments. Each of them had unique learning needs and different responses to my teaching methods, but had I not known otherwise, they were just complicated students, like everyone else. I believe they appreciated that I treated them that way.

Onto subject number two – Autism. I have much less experience with autism; however, I had one scout in my group when he was nine to twelve years old. He two graduated from high school this past year. He won the Citizen of the Year award and scholarship, and I was incredibly proud of him. When this young man was little, he taught me a lot about teaching children with autism. Similarly, I found that the YouTube video series embedded in the POPARD reading by Amythest Schaber was highly informative as an educator (POPARD, n.d.) My scout taught me that he was capable, and I was the one that needed to remember patience and to take extra time with him. He reminded me that I needed to vary my teaching style and give everyone good instructions (what I now know to be explicit instructions) through various methods. For example, if I needed to send the kids to bed at the end of a day at camp, I couldn’t say, “Time for Bed,” and send them off. I had to give them short, easy-to-follow directions with visual reminders. “#1 (pointer finger) Brush your teeth (move a finger up and down like a toothbrush in front of the mouth). #2 (two fingers up) Pajamas on (pretend to pull off clothes and put on PJs top and bottom – two things). #3 (three fingers) Quiet Time in Bed (hold fingers in front of the mouth – make shhhhh sound). #4 (four fingers) Sleep Time (lay head on the side of hands).”   This allowed me to quietly walk around the room as the time passed, reminding all the kids the order to do things, and they all had a small list they could accomplish with less than one hand because of him. (UDL and I didn’t even know it – LOL.) Schaber’s video series, Ask an Autistic, has expanded my learning. She goes into much more detail regarding the different aspects of autism that can be presented in people and how people, like educators, need to presume competence, such as in episode #10 – How to Be An Ally (Schaber, 2014).

I don’t know where my scout would have been placed on the spectrum; he was certainly not high functioning or incapable of performing self-care tasks. I remember his parents telling another leader that he was bigger in size than his average age but younger in every other way by four to five years.  We permitted him to stay two extra years with the younger group before moving him up with the “Explorers” when he aged out of “Timber Wolves.” We moved him to the older kids, that were less play-based when he showed interest in what the older group was doing. When he arrived back with his age-based peers, they accepted him like he hadn’t missed anything and had gained the skills he needed to be in the older group. I suppose, in retrospect, he might be one of the reasons I am hesitant to keep all students with their peers’ rules (especially when it is student-led). However, I am open to it, knowing that my one-off tiny life experience with one child pails in comparison to actual research on the subject.

In closing: Down Syndrome is something where my learning far exceeded my personal experience. However, it provided my mother and me a great launching point to discuss the history of Down Syndrome in our family and how she remembers people with Down Syndrome being treated when she was younger. I found the website from the reading list (https://cdss.ca/resources/general-information/) and enjoyed the embedded videos. As much as I enjoyed the light learning experience, I know that in my future practice, when a student with Down Syndrome is placed in my class, I will need to do a substantial amount of learning to make sure that I am doing everything within my capabilities to ensure that the student knows they are capable and valued within my classroom.

References

POPARD – Provincial Outreach Program for Autism & Related Disorders. (n.d.). Autism and Autistic Traits: A Strengths Based Perspective. Retrieved 07 26, 2022, from https://autismoutreach.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Popard-Handout-Autism-and-Autistic-Traits.pdf

Sask. Prevention Institute. (2018, December 111). FASD Realities and Possibilities – the Myles

Himmelreich Story. TommyBrooks. [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved July 26, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B81BNRyrHCg

Sask. Prevention Intervention. (2020, 11 04). FASD: Let’s Change the Conversation and

Challenge the Stigma. [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved 07 26, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb5A6eR_0XU&t=2120s

Schaber, A. (2014, April 24). Ask an Autistic #10 – How To Be An Ally. [Video]. YouTube.

Retrieved 07 30, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= JsllOQeWqNg&list=PLAoYMF syj_k1ApNj_QUkNgKC1R5F9bVHs&index=10

Wheatly, M. (2002, April). It’s An Interconnected World. Shambhala Sun. [Article]. Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://margaretwheatley.com/articles/interconnected.html#: ~:text=Without%20reflection%2C%20we%20go%20blindly,on%20what%20we%20just%20did.

 

 

 

 

A Critical Review of How Difficult Can This Be? The F.A.T. (Frustration Anxiety Tension) City Workshop by Richard D. Lavoie, Director of Eagle Hill School Outreach Program – Greenwich, Connecticut

Sara McManus

School of Education, University of Northern British Columbia
EDUC 3336: Inclusive Education
Melanie Baerg, M.Ed. – Lecturer
July 25, 2022

Richard Lavoie begins his introduction to the F.A.T. City Workshop with what would have sounded like a strong statistic of “six to ten percent of the children in the United States today suffer from learning disabilities” (Rosen et al., 1996, 0:51). However, today, not only is the statistic inapplicable, the language of a child suffering from a disability is as well. Research in the United States from the National Center for Learning Disabilities that was published in 2017 shows that these numbers are much greater now and states that there are “current challenges and opportunities facing the 1 in 5 children who have learning and attention issues such as dyslexia and ADHD” (NCLD, 2017).  The National Centre for Learning Disabilities describes that “learning and attention issues are brain-based difficulties in reading, writing, math, organization, focus, listening comprehension, social skills, motor skills or a combination of these. Learning and attention issues are not the result of low intelligence, poor vision or hearing, or lack of access to quality instruction” (NCLD, Snapshot, 2020). Although the framework Lavoie uses for a child with a learning disability or exceptionality may be like today’s language, there is an abundance of terminology that is no longer acceptable in society. Throughout the workshop, he uses disability-first language, beginning by classifying “learning disabled children” as children who are not functioning as they should be but are 1) not mentally impaired or retarded; 2) do not have primary emotional disturbances; 3) have not been given the opportunities to learn, and 4) do not have a modality deficit such as being deaf or blind (1:07-1:32).

Lavoie asks that his workshop attendees “walk for a mile in the shoes” of children with learning disabilities through a simulation activity meant to invoke feelings of “frustration, anxiety, and tension” that are felt by these children through his biased teaching strategies built on the belief that “LD means lazy and dumb” (2:17-3:28).  Simulation is a teaching technique that can be very powerful. Having lived experience with it myself in my scouting training can create sincere empathy and form new pathways of understanding. I wonder where this workshop recording fits in the timeline of special education reform. Were Lavoie and the producers of this workshop breaking ground when this aired on public television in 1996? Despite his language, he seems to have some excellent insights and teachings that are still relevant today.  Some of these would be that sarcasm creates victims (4:30); anxiety affects performance (5:11); teachers make the environment of what is acceptable behaviour, “I don’t know,” and “volunteer” examples (5:50, 16:10); forcing students to look at you doesn’t make any sense (8:27); students process information at different rates (9:56); kids need direct instruction (27:15); students may not know what they did wrong and perceived stimulus (28:12, 31:20); sometimes the most incredible gift can be the gift of time (43:56); object identification is not dictated by spatial orientation – alphabet letters break that rule (47:02), and using rhetorical questions serves no purpose (51:20).

The workshop activity Lavoie gave the participants that helped me better understand what it is like to live with a learning disability was the picture of the cow.  I found it interesting to listen to his perspectives on motivation versus perception. Lavoie said, “you can all see it, but you can’t bring meaning to it until I teach you what it is (20:53)… What the LD child needs is a teacher… to give him direct instruction” (21:02).  Watching the video for a second time a week later, I cannot unsee the cow, and I cannot fathom how my brain did not see it in the first place, but I know I did not.  Lavoie hit it home for me when he said, “all I did was give you direct instruction… but what they need is trained, experienced teachers” (22:22). He goes on to say, “…the real experience of learning disabilities is being the only person who can’t do it” (23:05).

The activity presented at the fifty-three-minute mark was dedicated to the difference between auditory and visual learners.  After the attendees read the passage, Lavoie read it out loud to them. He argues that some students with learning disabilities will only be able to understand materials by hearing the words rather than reading them because until they receive auditory input, it would not make any sense. This contrasts with current scientific thinking, which supports Scarborough’s Rope and the Simple View of Reading which says that Reading Comprehension is the product of Decoding and Language Comprehension. In addition to the fact that deaf people can have excellent reading comprehension, cognitive science has shown us that reading uses multiple parts of the brain, and although auditory components are extremely important to phonemic awareness and development, they do not stand alone in the process of decoding, and it is only one component of many parts. Using the first brief passage as an example, “Once upon a time” was written, “Won supporter dime” (54:53), it becomes evident in my opinion that the attendees of the workshop were struggling to understand what they were reading because the lexical and phrasal semantics created an incomprehensible sentence outside of the norms of prescriptive grammar. However, when the passage was read aloud to them with a purposeful pace and rhythm, the auditory version allowed for syntactic awareness, which enabled the attendees to recognize and interpret the word combinations.

References

National Centre for Learning Disabilities. (2020, March 7). Snapshot of Learning and Attention Issues in the U.S. 1-in-5 Snapshot. [Document]. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://ncld.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/1-in-5-Snapshot.Fin_.03142017.pdf

National Centre of Learning Disabilities. (2017, February 1). Our Research – The State of LD: Introduction. [Website]. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://www.ncld.org/research/state-of-learning-disabilities/

Rosen, P., Richard D., E. H., Peter Rosen Productions, & Video, P. (1996). How Difficult Can this Be? – The F.A.T. City Workshop. [Video]. Retrieved 07 19, 2022, from YouTube. Jennifer Clearwater. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3UNdbxk3xs&t=2s

 

 

Connections to Shelley Moore and Inclusive Education

Sara McManus

School of Education, University of Northern British Columbia
EDUC 3336: Inclusive Education
Melanie Baerg, M.Ed. – Lecturer
July 16, 2022

Shelley Moore has the best analogies! Her pedagogical framework of inclusive education has intrigued me since last fall’s Foundations in Education, EDUC 393 course. I was drawn further to her thinking during my EDUC 391 Experiential Practicum when I taught a diverse set of students and felt “the Split” referred to in her Bowling analogy (Moore, 2016). I love teaching with analogies too. I find that when you encounter a complex subject, analogies can offer you an additional means to help explicitly teach your topic. An analogy can fit right alongside auditory, visual, and kinesthetic means of demonstration, just like a mnemonic device or acronym might benefit some learners.  I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that a leading expert in Special Education has fantastic ways to break down tough subjects into thought-provoking analogies so that a vast group of educators can easily understand the concepts. After all, a universal design for inclusive education is her specialty.

The Five Moore Minute Video Series are highly entertaining and thought-provoking. Of course, there was no possible way; I was stopping at the few that were provided on the course syllabus! There were two more analogies that caught my attention that I have built into an ePortfolio Blog Post to keep as a reminder for my future practice. In the first video, Dr. Baked Potato: How can we scaffold complexity, Moore describes herself as a master teacher of Baked Potatoes who prepares a perfectly dressed baked potato for each of her students (Moore, 2019). In her analogy, when the students arrive, some cannot eat what she has prepared. She calls for help to remove the bacon bits for one student and then calls again to scrape the butter off for another group of students, as she is busy with all the other students in her class. Her analogy links the common practice of designing lessons for an assumed base of students and then trying to retrofit lessons for those with “problems.” Moore is proposing that, alternatively, lessons could be designed with the students in mind first. Knowing that there was one vegetarian and a group who were “off dairy” there would have been no need to retrofit the lesson in a panicked frenzy. Moore suggested a backwards-universal-inclusive design would have provided students an opportunity for choice and that support would have been embedded to assist students in their selection rather than trying to fix something that is hard to undo.

The second analogy that caught my attention is Moore’s metaphor of how Special Education was designed based on a medical model. She compared cupcakes to the support that students are offered after they have been identified as needing that support. In her video, Bringing Support to the Students, Just Let them Eat Cake  (Moore, 2020), Moore argues that students require support in education even when nothing is wrong, mainly because kids are “not broken”! This metaphor of cupcakes and cakes using the same batter shares her controversial opinion on Special Education funding, which I was surprisingly drawn to agree with on a theoretical basis. She refers to it as an “Equity model” rather than an “Equality model,” stating that it provides “wrap-around support for the whole community.

In the Five Moore Minutes Video, The Evolution of Inclusion: The past and future of education, Moore discussed a lens of inclusion through a timeline of Special Education and made two special mentions of Geraldo Riveria (Moore, 2018). I found this fascinating and worthy of some investigation, as I remember watching Geraldo’s controversial talk shows during my early twenties. It didn’t take long to discover Geraldo’s vast career accomplishments, including his award-winning work as an investigative journalist. His work sparked a revolution of change in Special Education. Geraldo flung the doors of institutions like Willowbrook wide open and changed the face of educating people with special needs forever with his 1972 exposé, Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace.

So unannounced and unexpected by the school administration, we toured building number six. The doctor had warned me that it would be bad. It was horrible. There was one attendant for perhaps 50 severely and profoundly retarded children. And the children, lying on the floor naked and smeared with their own feces, they were making a pitiful sound, a kind of mournful wail that it’s impossible for me to forget. This is what it looked like. This is what it sounded like. But how can I tell you about the way it smelled? It smelled of filth, it smelled of disease, and it smelled of death. We’ve just seen something that’s probably the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” as reported by Geraldo Riveria (Skinner, 1972).

I should have known by the warning on the YouTube video that it would also profoundly change my understanding of how we have gotten to where we are, but also why inclusive education is so fundamentally necessary. It is also why educators like Shelley Moore advocate for an equity funding distribution model.  We cannot allow any students, regardless of their type of need to be cast aside. Every student deserves the opportunity to be in an inclusive classroom with their peers throughout their educational lives.

Moore concluded her Evolution of Inclusion video with a provocation to her viewers: “Can we still do better? Do you think there is another evolution in inclusion? What might that be? How can we inch more forward to make inclusion more better” (2018)? My answer is an absolute yes; we need to do better. I have a new lens when I think about the custodian’s complaint about a student who made a mess in the Special Ed washroom when they were left to toilet themselves. I think about how if we continue down a path of less supports and supports only offered how they have been in the past (albeit better than in the 1970s), we are on a slippery slope of losing sight of the needs of every student in our classroom. For me, the most potent section of Moore’s One Without the Other is:

Is inclusion important? Yes, because students have a right to learn. Yes, because learning within diversity is the real world, but yes, also because these kids, all kids, have contributions to make – whether students have special needs or didn’t eat breakfast that morning; whether they are English-language learners, or whether they have a hard time getting to school on time. The students who are the hardest to reach also have so much that we can learn from, too, because if we can get to them, we can get everyone. We often forget that what helps one helps everyone, and it is precisely this idea that makes what we teach strategically more effective and efficient, even in learning communities (Moore, 2016).

This is how we change the face of Special Education. We move forward by bringing human decency to the forefront of our classrooms and where our pedagogical approaches are based on all students as capable learners.

References

Moore, S. (2016). One Without the Other: Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion. Winnipeg: Portage & Main Press.

Moore, S. (2018, October 01). Five Moore Minutes. The Evolution of Inclusion: The past and future of education, [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQgXBhPh5Zo

Moore, S. (2019, October 07). Five Moore Minutes. Dr. Baked Potato: How can we scaffold complexity?, [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j0oL1CNXAs

Moore, S. (2020, February 20). Five Moore Minutes. Bringing Support TO the Students Just Let them Eat Cake!, [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WuygB4j55U

Steve Skinner & Sproutflix (Producers). (1972, February 2). Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace. New York: [Video]. Retrieved July 03, 2022, from https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/willowbrook-the-last-great-disgrace