So I decided to stand in for a teacher at a school for kids with special needs for a couple of days.
I tell you there are some of these kids that really can teach us all a lesson or two.
But, what broke my heart.
A few years back I taught a grade 10 class at one of the leading schools in the province, and there was a particular girl, always very friendly, not too hard working, but great attitude towards others.
She is at this special school now in grade 11, should have been finished.
It turned out she had a stroke after I left, and lost a whole school year because of that.
She has now lost her ability to speak.

Man that was really stabbing at my heart.

I think the Paralympics should have preference above the Olympics.
Well done to all who competed. They're amazing people.

 

Wow. That's sad. Was she able to remember you? Hopefully she will get her speech back. What is her name. We can say a prayer for her.

 

I do not know if she'll recover.
Don't seem as if she remembers me, maybe she does, but how will she say that. I do not want to get too communicative as it will lead to a problem - how do we communicate quickly without disturbing the rest of the class (Writing only).
Her name is Vivian.

Have to get back to the school now. Next class starts in 15 mins.

 

The brain is an amazing structure. It's been said that the neural transmitters can adapt. A recent study on how the brain can re-wire has proven that people with strokes are able to regain speech and learn to walk all over again.

All depending on how much damage has occurred.

But it is somewhat of a struggle and it takes a lot of time to do the therapy.

It's the same thing baby's go through. Crawling to walking the muscle memory it all has to be slowly developed. Worse thing to do is nothing and let her sit in a corner.

A speech therapy program may help. Or contact organizations who have helped rehabilitate Stroke Victims.

kv

__________________
Truthiness Monkeys : Obedience, Ignorance, Fear.

 

That's what is so great about this school.
they basically have a small hospital on premisses, small meaning not able to perform operations and stuff, but to see to the special needs.
They have dedicated speech therapists, and other specialists.
I've been watching a girl today, she has an illness where the control of muscles slowly go(Afrikaans - spier-distrofie). These kids normally do not really make it to adulthood. She likes to work on the computer, but man, I have no idea how she get it right to type.
It seems her hand is all over the place, and just suddenly it strikes the key she needs.

Worst of it is, a couple months back the gov stopped the school's funding, nearly causing it's closure. Individuals, companies and organisations came together and provided the required funding to keep it going. Then these people took gov to book on what they are doing.
Now they have reinstated the funding to the full.

 

Well you sound like a good yourself their arrie. Glad to know you man I will say a prayer for young Vivian. I just have a feeling she will be just fine. What kv says is definitely true. It's a good thing she has a place like that to go to school.

 

I had a bit of a chat with her, she seems able to form some words, and even very small sentences using easy words.
Sometimes she tries to say something, then it just comes out garbled and she end up pointing towards things.
I also think she'll recover eventually.

 

What I know about the subject is the stroke victims without the proper use of a limb they are forced to use it. They would tie down the good limb and then make them do exercises making the brain respond. Making up for the lack of mobility by building new neurotransmitters and coordinating networks.

This is what the speech therapy will do. She must struggle every day before she will have any gains. The more she tries the faster she will regain that lost muscle coordination.

kv

__________________
Truthiness Monkeys : Obedience, Ignorance, Fear.

 

hi arrie,
Its in these areas of disabilty that engineers can design simple ideas that can be a great help to the disabled person.

__________________
Eric " Good enough is Perfect "
I will NOT answer PM's requesting technical help, please use the Forum
PIC tutorials: Nigel's www.winpicprog.co.uk/ Bill's: www.blueroomelectronics.com/

 

Just keep doing what you are doing. You are adding value to other peoples life. If more people gave the time that you are giving then the world would be a much nicer place.

Good on ya.

Mike.

 

Unlucky for me then, I'm not near an engineer, but only a technician of sorts.
I am willing to listen to ideas, and even try some out, so lets fire away.

 

OK then.

As you are in a teaching environment with the kids, can we assume that they may have to take notes if capable?

We often take for granted, seemingly simple tasks as gripping a pen or pencil, but for some of these kids it may be quite a challenge.

Polymorph/Shapelock (Polycapralactone) as described in the Robotics section, is a plastic which has similar properties to nylon when cold, but when heated to 60 Degrees C becomes mouldable.

Maybe having someone grip a lump of Plasticine, then moulding Polymorph into the same shape around a pen or pencil, could help ease the problem of gripping and actually being able to use a pen or pencil for these kids.

 

Alright, what I'll do is to contact the school next week, and get figures of how many kids have problems with gripping something like a pen or pencil, and, if whether being able to grip it using such a "device" will help them to write.
Then hopefully it'll not take to long to get stats back, then we can "build" something for those kids.

How does that sound for a start?

 

Can you describe the teaching environment for us?

Is it a regular style classroom with the teacher at the front and the students at desks/tables, where the teacher turns his/her back and writes on a wallboard?

How do the kids get the teacher's attention if they do not understand something?

Could certain students benefit from some form of noise-maker to attract the teacher's attention?

Could non-verbally-cummunicative students benefit from a yes/no switch panel inconjunction with certain questioning?

Just a few ramblin' questions.

 

It goes down pretty like a normal school, the computer applications technology class is very hands on, since things are done on the computer and very hands on, but something like math is indeed normal classroom setup with whiteboard, and indeed, the teacher then has to turn away from scholars to write on the board.
Most kids can make some form of noise or speak.
I've only come into contact with very few kids, but it seems most there have some form of mechanical problem - muscle control - or are otherwise very slow in grasping something and performing certain tasks.
I had to for example explain how to calculate the area of a floor and wall to one child about 12 times. Did not mind really, but I'm sure on Monday that same kid would warrant the explanation another time.
Maybe if one can put forward enough helpful ideas, you can set up a questionnaire to present to the school as to obtain what device/s will really make a difference to the lives of the children.