Learning Tools & Ideas #4

Agenesis Corpus Callosum
Teaching Tip:

What is so unique about this teaching tip?

Well, it comes from a pre-Kindergarten teacher,
Patty, and SHE has Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum!

When I created the Learning Tools & Teaching Tips
section on this blog I asked for input from a lot of
people in the ACC support groups that I belong to.
Patty sent a note and reminded me of the previous
input she shared, in her own ACC story, about the
midline exercises SMART program that she uses with
the students in her classroom.

And then today another pre-Kindergarten teacher, who
has a young nephew who was recently diagnosed with ACC,
read Patty's ACC story (and read the section of Patty's
story where Patty mentions and describes the midline
crossing exercise program) and the teacher posted a
comment regarding her interest in the SMART program!

I believe that Patty's input about the midline crossing
exercise program, from the standpoint and perspective of
a pre-Kindergarten teacher AND as an adult who has ACC,
is absolutely worth reposting here in this Learning Tools
and Teaching Tips section.

I hope that you will, too. Please read it for yourself...

PATTY TALKS ABOUT THE SMART PROGRAM:

It is very evident to me that Patty is a dedicated
teacher who cares about helping her students learn
and I have seen her passion for teaching and helping
kids/students take place before my own eyes.

Patty belongs to one of the same ACC online e-mail
support groups that I belong to. In fact, just
recently Patty reached out to the parent of a young
child who has Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum who
was asking for help with her child's learning needs
and challenges. Patty gave advice to the parent and
offered specific, detailed teaching methods and ideas
to try. Along with Patty's specific reply to the parent
she also included this information:

"If you stimulate the different hemispheres of the
brain with crawling activities and stretching across
the body activities, the brain will begin to be
stimulated.

Even with having a ACC-C myself. I have found that
these midline crossing activities help my cognition
to engage better that day, and I am the teacher!

Look into a local S.M.A.R.T. training program near you.
The program is for struggling students in the early years.
The program is very hands on and was designed by some
people who had children with special needs. It combines,
OT and PT and ST mixed in. The activities themselves are
between 2-5 minutes each."

S.M.A.R.T.  stands for:

Stimulating Maturity through Accelerated Readiness
Training.

S.M.A.R.T. is a multisensory program.

Many kids who have Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
have benefited from using a multisensory teaching
approach. The midline crossing exercises that are
incorporated into S.M.A.R.T are an added bonus for
someone who has ACC.

The S.M.A.R.T program is being implemented into
some schools in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and
in some first and second grade classrooms and seems
to be a big hit with the students and staff.

Because I have a child who has Agenesis of the Corpus
Callosum, I was curious to learn more about S.M.A.R.T.

I asked Patty:

Do you know of a specific website for S.M.A.R.T.?

"I have my resources at school. go figure. SO I
would have to look the website information when
I get back to school. I can check on Monday.
I know there is a 4 day training seminar that all
"moderators" (and teachers too) are supposed to
take to be accurately trained. I am doing the
budget version and having my sister train me
(until my district would pay all or part of my
way of course.) My sister is the moderator for
her school. So she does the activities with all
kindergarten, all first grade and some second grade
students. She had them on a weekly scheduled time
just as gym or art would be scheduled. The reading
and math scores have greatly improved in one years
time from the impletation of this program. She has
several of the large motor activities done in her
classroom. In addition, each of the dedicated
teachers do more activities in their daily routines
such as I do. The only class that did not show
improvement with measurable success was from a
teacher, who had students in a half day program.
She was "too busy" to be consistent and take time
to do the activities. I heard that and knew I
could make it work in my half day program.

I will send you an email containing exact details
off the materials that I have at school. I should
have time to grab the books on Monday... if I
remember.... ha! I crack myself up! Note to self:
bring SMART books home! I know the creators of this
program set out to help their own child with special
needs. It worked for them so they wanted to share it
with others!"

I love that Patty is able to make a joke about her
difficulty with short-term memory loss and can laugh
at herself.

In my own research I found the following information
about S.M.A.R.T. and will share it here for anyone who,
like me, may be curious and interested:

Check out a school in Wisconsin where a teacher uses the
S.M.A.R.T. program with the PreK students in her class.

The teacher, Miss Beth, wrote:

"The S.M.A.R.T. curriculum is designed to help each
student progress at her or his own rate and to enrich
and enhance the student's abilities in a positive and
"play-like" atmosphere."

Have a detailed look at S.M.A.R.T. in the News

and

A S.M.A.R.T. new program at Jefferson

Minnesota Learning Resource Center-S.M.A.R.T. Info.

S.M.A.R.T on Facebook

S.M.A.R.T. News-April/May 2008

S.M.A.R.T. E-Newsletter Archives and E-Mail Sign Up

S.M.A.R.T. Online Resources

I asked Patty:

Do you do midline activities with the students
in your classroom?

"I do midline activities every day. I have received
many compliments from parents that they have new
children with their profound improvement of skills.
I have not done a ton of "academics" I do a ton of
"train the brain" activities. It may look like we
don't do much to the untrained professional. Yet by
golly I have a class of students, where 95% of them
are ready for Kindergarten. Hallelujah!"

"I do the "hulk stretch" where we reach up and grab
something, with both hands, big from the sky on the
left and carry "it" over to the right side with our
arms going from extended up to lowered down and SMASH
the thing across our knees. My 4 year olds of course
have to show me a good "grrr" muscle pose before it
as a added humorous body building move! Hulk-smash...
get it! Then we do the crossover "smashing about five
times on each knee, alternating left/right/ left right/
etc....."

alligator crawl - picture not Patty's class


"We do the alligator crawl where their belly must
stay on the floor but they have to crawl with
their bottoms down also, Their knees alternate
as if to crawl, left arm up right knee up, right
arm up left knee up. Their bottoms must be down
at all times and their arms can not carry them
they must bring their knees up in te correct
pattern. I had 3 to 4 kids who could not do it
in October that are able to do it more successfully
now. THey do not do it 100 % all the time but their
success is up from 0% correct body patterns to about
75% of the path is done correctly. My path for this
is about 10 - 15 feet long. I moved tables and chairs
away from a part of the room."

"I do the bear crawl where their hands and feet
do the crawling pattern with their bottom in the
air....I had a few kids tip over from having their
legs go faster than their hands...The length of
the path is the same as the gator crawl.

I do a flamingo stand with one foot in the air at
a time, counting to 5 at first, then building to a
count of 10. Also I do a heel tap where the child
stands up and taps the right heel with the left
hand both in front of the body for x amount of
times and then behind the body for x amount of
times."

sensory crawl - picture is not Patty's class


"There is a sensory crawl where pictures of objects
are in clear pockets taped to the floor. The child
names the object and taps the picture. then he
crawls to the next picture on the floor and does
the same. use 10 pictures of objects at least.

Hook board- little mug hooks are on a post and a
child puts varying size washers on the hooks all
with one hand and then uses the other hand to take
all the washers off. start with bigger washers
and then move to smaller washers.

Wipe off boards- Make simple maze patterns and
have the child follow the right path with their
finger first. Another activitiy is drawing letters
or lines on the wipe off board and have the child
erase the lines using their pointer finger.

Use small tongs (without the sliding ring- it
pinches fingers) and have kids pick up pon poms
from small bins, putting them from one bin to
another bin.

Do the same with eye brow tweezers and small
pon poms or beads. Boy do they really have to
concentrate on that! I love their little tongues
sticking out trying to focus on a steady hand."

spin in circles - picture is not Patty's class


"Spin in circles counting to ten. or get a
"sit and spin" and let it rip (counting to 10)!
Then reverse the direction they are spinning.
I had horrible problems with one girl's need
to spin before I was told by my sister
(trained in SMART) " let her do it"
"do it daily" we did it daily for 4 weeks.
She was a new child! She sat still better
and had better focus after we spun! Spinning
builds the core muscles in their belly needed
to sit better on chairs.
I could on and on....."

She could go on and on and I could listen to
her with great interest.

As a mom myself of a child who has Agenesis of the
Corpus Callosum, I am highly interested in what Patty
has to say from both the perspective of an adult, who
has ACC, and as a teacher.

Thank you very much, Patty, for your willingness
to openly share your ACC Story, for taking the time
to answer my questions and also for sharing some of
the S.M.A.R.T. multisensory and midline crossing
exercises that you do daily with the students in
your classroom.


Do YOU have a learning tool that you would like to share here?

I'd love to hear from you, and so would a lot of other people too, who will be able to see and read all about the learning tools and ideas that you use with your child who has Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum.

It is my hope that this section will become a collection
of multiple learning tools (for families to browse, see and
read about) to find a variety of new and inspiring ideas to
help their young child, teenager or grown child in many
different areas--from academics, to fine motor/large motor
skills, to sensory issues, to potty training--and anything
else that comes to mind.


Note: this new topic was inspired by Amanda, the mom of a child with ACC, at Blogging for Beau, where she shares some excellent ideas and fun "Learning Tools".

Learning Tools & Ideas #3

Agenesis Corpus Callosum
Parent Teaching Tip:

Parent of 4-year-old child with ACC, says:

"About the only thing we have done that is unique, is our
son (age 4 c-acc) seems to need a lot of repetition to
retain things. So we used painters tape to make his
letters (and numbers) on his bedroom walls."

"He loved this, and it seemed to help him memorize his
letters (we are working on numbers now). We would just
do a couple of letters a week and whenever we would walk
by them we would ask him what they were. Eventually he
started to retain them."


On a personal note:

After reading this parent's tip, my husband went out and got some blue painters tape and adorned our child, Matthew's, bedroom wall with a capital "A" and "B", displayed in the photo above.

I was working on teaching Matthew the letter "B" and the sound "B" makes,

"buh buh....BOY",

"buh buh....BABY",

"buh buh....BEAR"

And he would make the sign for each word. I have been asking Matthew to show me the letter "B" and he will reach up and touch the "B" on his wall!

Then later he was standing by his television in his room (where I was also) when the "Bob the Builder" show came on, with the musical theme song.

Now this is not a show that Matthew watches, but that day it definitely caught his attention to the tune of Matthew babbling bunches of "B" sounds!! I am certain he was telling me that Bob the Builder has the "B" sound. So, with an enthusiastic smile, I told him...

"Yes, you're right". "Bob the Builder starts with the letter B", and then pointed to the big "B" on his bedroom wall.

Matthew's bedroom wall
For some unknown reason, the "A" mysteriously disappeared. My husband reported that someone → points to Matthew ← peeled the "A" off the wall, and it's sticky wadded remains were found in his bedroom. But hey, I'm all for that too...because it helps develop his fine motor skills and eye/hand coordination.

For now, we'll continue to work on the letter "B", which has remained on his bedroom wall for several weeks.

While putting this article together, I was searching the
internet and came across another neat idea using painters
tape and letters, by a different parent.

Much to my delight (with permission from the author:
Summer Kinard) I am able to re-print her terrific
idea here (complete with cute as can be pictures) for
you to see and read:

Summer, Mama of 2 adorable kids, (who do NOT have ACC), wrote:

"We are studying the alphabet, beginning with vowels. Most of the standard methods bore Pip. He abandoned the pasta gluing project after putting just six pieces onto his letter A glue outline, for instance. So I took it in a different, bigger direction. Andrew thought up the idea of putting the juggling balls over the taped outline, which was brilliant. Pip immediately "got" the lesson. Within a few minutes, he was looking for a juggling ball, and he was all, "Oh, there it is. It's on the letter A."

"Blue painter's tape is easy to peel off for at least three weeks. We'll add lowercase "a" next week."

© article and photos re-printed with permission from author.
view original article: A for a kinetic learner

Thank you to Summer Kinard for graciously allowing me to re-print your wonderful article and share it here on the blog.

Thank you also to the parent of a 4-year old child with ACC for your very informative input and great idea!

After reading these fun ideas shared by both parents, I was
inspired with all kinds of blue painter's tape letter
concoctions for how to make learning letters fun by gearing
it to a child's unique learning style and incorporating
motivational toys/items/games that the child loves.

I thought about Amanda (the mom who inspired this learning
tools section) and her son, Beau, who has partial ACC, who
LOVES matchbox cars!

I wondered if Beau might have fun playing with his favorite
cars, lining them up on top of the painter's tape letter "A"
on the floor, or maybe even on the "C" for Car?

One thought that came to me just now (for my child) is:

I plan to put two different pictures of balls (something Matthew loves) inside the top space and bottom space of the "B" on his wall.

Then we can change the pictures with new "B" words
that Matthew is familiar with and likes. He also really
loves....balloons!

You could use real photographs, drawings, you could
cut pictures out of magazines (if that's something your
child likes to do), you could take pictures of your child
holding their favorite Bear, Basketball, Cat, etc., or your
child could draw/color/create pictures of their favorite things that start with the letter "B", or whatever letter
they're working on learning.

I hope that the terrific ideas, shared by both parents, help to inspire all kinds of thoughts and ideas of your own for how to create fun techniques that fit your child's learning style.

These ideas promote Memorization, Multi-Sensory Methods and Meaningful Motivation, things that can help a child make some marvelous learning discoveries.

Plus, they also offer the ability for a child to have as much repetition as they need. And the need for massive amounts of REPETITION is one thing that many kids with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum have in common!

Do YOU have a learning tool that you would like to share on the ACC blog?

I'd love to hear from you, and so would a lot of other people too, who will be able to see and read all about the learning tools and ideas that you use with your child who has Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum.

It is my hope that this section will become a collection
of multiple learning tools (for families to browse, see and
read about) to find a variety of new and inspiring ideas to
help their young child, teenager or grown child in many
different areas--from academics, to fine motor/large motor
skills, to sensory issues, to potty training--and anything
else that comes to mind.


Note: this new topic was inspired by Amanda, the mom of a child with ACC, at Blogging for Beau, where she shares some excellent ideas and fun "Learning Tools".

Learning Tools & Ideas #2

Agenesis Corpus Callosum
Parent Teaching Tip:

Parent of 6-year-old child with ACC and hydrocephalus, says:

"When our son was non-verbal we used the Signing Time
videos to teach him sign language. He was already
infatuated with music so the videos held his attention."

Note: check your local library to borrow Signing Time videos.


"We also used the multi colored foam letters and numbers as
a bath tub toy. By the time he started Pre-Kindergarten, he
could count to 20 and knew all of his letters and colors."

UPDATE!
Re: Little Tikes Bath Letters and Numbers

Please be advised that testing in 2008 by HealthyStuff.org shows that they are toxic and contain high levels of mercury.


Thank you very much to the parent of the 6-year-old child
for your great ideas!


I have to say that I also use Signing Time videos with my
child, Matthew, who has ACC, and we love them! I borrowed two of the Baby Signing Time videos from the library so I could try them with Matthew. He really liked them. Then I borrowed several of the "Signing Time" videos. We liked them so much that we purchased some of his favorites!

Signing Time - read my personal blog post review

Other Sign Language resources (we also use) are:

Baby Einstein My First Signs-See and Sign with Baby

Baby See 'N Sign (Volumes I and II)

My Smart Hands

The bath letters and numbers, the parent mentioned,
provides visual and (hands-on-touching) sensory input
for a child, allowing a multi-sensory learning experience.

Many kids with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum learn
best through the use of multi-sensory teaching methods.
In other words, when they are learning something they
benefit from receiving input to 2 or more of their 5
senses: (See, Hear, Taste, Smell and Touch)

Thank you so much to the parent of a 6 year old child with ACC for your great ideas!

Have a learning tool that YOU want to share on the ACC blog?

Tell me all about it. I'd love to hear from you and so
would a lot of other people, too, who will be able to
see and read all about the learning tools and ideas
that you use with your child who has Agenesis of the
Corpus Callosum.

It is my hope that this section will become an expansive
collection of numerous learning tools (for families to
browse, see and read about) that will offer a variety of
new and inspiring ideas to help their young child, teenager
or grown child in many different areas--from academics, to
fine motor/large motor skills, to sensory issues, to
potty training--and anything else that comes to mind.

Do you have something that you would like to add?


Note: this new topic was inspired by Amanda, the mom of a child with ACC, at Blogging for Beau, where she shares some excellent ideas and fun "Learning Tools".

Learning Tools & Ideas #1

Agenesis Corpus Callosum
Parent Teaching Tip:

Parent of 2 1/2-year-old child with ACC, says:

"I saw your email in the ACC listserv and wanted to add something that has helped my daughter. One thing that has helped her learn her letters is the Leap Frog Refrigerator Magnets."

LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter Set (uppercase)

LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter Set (lowercase)

Note: there are a few older versions of this LeapFrog toy that look different

"I got it for her 2nd birthday and her speech person told me it wouldn't help her at all. But she loves the music and whenever I am in the kitchen cooking dinner she would play with it. She is just about 2 1/2 and now knows a lot of her letters and even goes in the kitchen, takes a letter off the fridge and brings it to me in another room and tells me the letter and what sounds it makes."

I asked the parent if her daughter uses it with uppercase or lowercase letters.

Parent's reply:

"We are using it with the uppercase letters."

Parent also said:

"Another thing that has helped her (I forgot until you mentioned the lowercase letters) is the Rock 'N Learn: Letter Sounds DVD. (We only focus on the beginning part with the letter sounds. The later part of the DVD goes into sentences and things that are a little advanced for her right now). It has both upper and lower case letters and says the letter, the sound and a word that begins with that letter with a picture. It also shows a mouth of a person saying the letter and sound."

click picture to enlarge

Read more about the DVD:
http://www.rocknlearn.com/html/letter_sounds.htm

Surprisingly, I recognize and am very familiar with both of
these learning tools, mentioned by the parent. I have owned
both of these learning tools for several years and use them
with my own child, Matthew, who has complete Agenesis of
the Corpus Callosum.

My child LOVES watching the part in the video where the
person's mouth/lips move to say the letter, make the sound
of the letter and say the word of the object that begins
with that letter! This DVD has a lot of music and singing
in it, a big plus!

The LeapFrog Fridge Phonics toy also helps encourage fine motor skills, requiring a child to manipulate the letter, turn it to the correct position to put it in the toy, then take it back out.

We own the older version of the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics toy below.

Note: Please be aware that the magnetic alphabet letters are not interchangable between the old and new versions.

Put the letter "A" in...
Push the "A"...
And you hear it say and sing (in a kid voice) with music...
♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫

"A"
A says "A"
A says "ah"
Every letter makes a sound
A says "A" and "ah"

And when you push the musical note, you hear the "ABC's" song (in a kid voice).

Lastly, the parent adds this info regarding Sensory Input:

"Some sensory related things that have helped her lately are the swing and the pool (which I found out just kind of by chance since it is summertime and we are outside doing those activities a lot more now)."

"Her speech has improved greatly just recently and it seems to be a lot better when she is on the swing or in the pool. Her OT and PT say it is all sensory related. The swing is because of the motion and how it relates to her vestibular system and the pool because of the added pressure the water has on her body."

OT = Occupational Therapist    PT = Physical Therapist

Thank you to the parent of a 2 1/2 year old child with ACC for all of your very informative input and ideas!

Have a learning tool that YOU want to share on the ACC blog?

Tell me all about it here. I'd love to hear from you and so
would a lot of other people, too, who will be able to
see and read all about the learning tools and ideas
that you use with your child who has Agenesis of the
Corpus Callosum.

It is my hope that this section will become a collection
of multiple learning tools (for families to browse, see and
read about) to find a variety of new and inspiring ideas to
help their young child, teenager or grown child in many
different areas--from academics, to fine motor/large motor
skills, to sensory issues, to potty training--and anything
else that comes to mind.


Note: this new topic was inspired by Amanda, the mom of a child with ACC, at Blogging for Beau, where she shares some excellent ideas and fun "Learning Tools".