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Transition IEP Compliance: Postsecondary Goals Updated Annually
Posted by Michele Neumann on 1/13/2017 -
Camp "Yes And..."
Posted by Nikki Rankin on 12/9/2016 7:30:00 AM
Do you love going to improv clubs or watching improv on TV? Do you love it when actors make-up their own lines in a movie or play? Do you love to laugh? Did you know that students with autism spectrum disorder can be taught improv as a way to develop social communication skills? Camp “Yes, And…” was created for pre-teens and teens in middle school and high school who are on the autism spectrum or a similar disability to facilitate and support social communication skill building. The camp is free for students and also provides a free professional learning opportunity for teachers, special educators, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, behavioral specialists, paraprofessionals, supervisors, and just about any other professional working with students K-12 in public, private, university, and community-based settings. The camp is sponsored by the Center on Education and Lifelong Learning and the Indiana Resource Center for Autism at Indiana University. This past summer week-long camps were held in Bloomington and Indianapolis.
The camp was created and led by Dr. Jim Ansaldo and Lacy Alana, LCSW. Jim is a Research Scholar at the Center on Education and Lifelong Learning, Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, Indiana University Bloomington. He has 15 years experience facilitating school change and creating professional development for teachers. He also has over 25 years experience teaching and performing in improv comedy. Lacy is the Special Needs Program Director at the Hideout Theatre in Austin, Texas where she is a an improv performer and instructor. She has focused on working with youth on the autism spectrum by providing improv classes in connection with her therapy services.
I had the amazing opportunity to attend Camp “Yes, And…” the last two summers, and I had a memorable learning experience both summers. Last summer, camp was five weekdays Monday-Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm with an hour-long showcase for family and friends on Friday afternoon. I attended the Indianapolis camp which was held at IUPUI in the University Library. We had about 12 students and about 8 teachers and facilitators. Each day of camp began with a ½ day teacher training in the morning, and the students arrived at 1:00 pm after our hour lunch break. On the first day of camp, teachers were given a binder of over 160 pages that included training objectives, definitions of improv, possible student challenges and improv interventions, camp goals, curriculum including 12 modules with lots of games, exercises and activities, positive behavior supports, and resources. The trainings for the teachers each morning were a time for us to learn the improv activities and games that would be taught to the students that afternoon. At the end of the camp, each participant was given a certificate and earned a camp patch. Teachers were also given a certificate showing 40 hours of professional development.
Even if you did not have improv experience, Jim and Lacy met you at whatever level of improv experience you had and led you through the learning experience. Because I had no improv experience when I began, I was hesitant to jump right into the activities. The facilitators and other teachers, however, made me feel comfortable and part of the “cast.” Then I was able to enjoy my experience and share the joy with the students. Each summer we had a different group of students with different levels of abilities and willingness to participate. It was amazing the transformation we saw as our students started coming out of their shells to communicate what they had learned through the improv games and activities. Several times I had pains in my stomach muscles from laughing too hard. I cannot wait to see what my third summer of Camp “Yes And…” may bring!Also, Jim Ansaldo has started 2-hour classes on Saturdays once a month in Bloomington or Indianapolis throughout the school year for teachers and students who have attended Camp “Yes And…” as a way to keep us current on the improv activities and games. I have attended one class so far, and I plan to go to more.
Melissa Wilkinson, SLP
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Learning with LiPS
Posted by Nikki Rankin on 11/18/2016 7:30:00 AM
During the first week of September, I had the opportunity to attend a training provided by Franklin Community Schools for The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program for Reading, Spelling, and Speech (LiPS). This was a four day training for special education instructors and assistants, teachers, and speech pathologists, where we learned about speech sounds, how they are made, how they feel in our mouth, and then how we can incorporate this knowledge into helping our kiddos blend, segment, read, and rhyme!
Through this training, I learned that by using LiPS early on, we can not only target reading struggles, but we can teach strategies and methods in pre-readers to combat those later struggles with reading. With a caseload of preschool through 4, I knew that the LiPS program would be applicable for some of my students, but not all of them. I was mainly concerned about the fact that the LiPS program sounded great, but some of the card matching, letter identification, and sound matching require more knowledge than some of my preschool, kindergarten, and first graders might have. However, after introducing this program to two kindergarten twin boys with speech-only IEPs, I realized that not only was I teaching them all about their ‘speech sounds’ and how they are made and feel, but they were learning to read!
I enjoyed taking a step back and learning how to think about sounds and speech from a ‘back to the basics’ standpoint, but I also enjoyed learning how to teach this to some of my younger students. The LiPS program uses some of the fun “lip pooper” and “tongue cooler” labels with sounds, which make it easier to teach and appealing to some students, but unlike some other phonemic awareness programs that only go as far as teaching students to make the sounds, LiPS then teaches students how to USE them. While I have had some exposure to phonemic awareness programs, I had not witnessed a program that could be carried over into a high school student’s curriculum for reading.
The LiPS program is also based off of a ‘learn as you work’ approach, in that everything that is learned by the student through the program is first ‘discovered’ by the student. Instead of instructing and lecturing, professionals using the LiPS program are taught to allow students to discover what you are trying to teach them on their own. This concept alone taught me a lot about the learning process, and how we can allow students to be more incorporated into their own growth and learning. I learned about the discovery process as it relates to speech sounds, reading fluency, rhyming, and even error strategies.
After the training, while I was mentally drained, I was professionally motivated to look at speech as it relates to reading through a new lens. As a speech and language professional, I highly recommend attending any LiPS training that may be in the area. While I may not have been as open to the program in the beginning, I learned way more than I anticipated, and my perspective on speech sounds and reading was definitely broadened. For more information on Lindamood Bell and the LiPS program, visit http://lindamoodbell.com/program/lindamood-phoneme-sequencing-program!
Britani Turner, Speech-Language Pathologist -
Introducing the Transition IEP Compliance Series
Posted by Michele Neumann on 11/8/2016 -
Working with Indiana VR- The Fact Sheet Series in English and Spanish
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The New Age Appropriate Assessment Matrix Tool Is Ready
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