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by Mrs. Gonzales
Jamie is a 6-year-old in the first grade with an engaging
sense of humor and a great imagination which can be very entertaining
but can also act to distract him. He enjoys drawing and listening
to stories about animals as he has 3 pets at home!
This little guy has trouble paying attention in school and
is very hard to "get started". His fidgety behavior
causes the teachers that work with Jamie to become frustrated.
For example, yesterday his teacher assigned a short writing
assignment (2-3 sentences) to the class about their field
trip to the zoo that week. They had been talking about it
all week. She provided a special paper for the students to
write their stories on. The first thirty seconds after she
made the assignment about the field trip, he let his pencil
roll off his desk twice, fell out of his chair and dropped
the worksheet he had been writing on. The teacher repeated
the instructions and told him to get started.
The classroom aide feels like he is doing Jamie's work for
him: in fact, he actually says that writing is the aide's
job! He often sits just with him. He is able to dictate short
sentences to the aide- but he does not initiate writing himself.
He really needs to begin to compose short sentences independently
and is falling far behind the other children.
To help him with the "field trip" story the aide
asked him questions to help him to begin writing his story.
He also pointed out the "zoo words" that had been
written on the board all week in preparation of the trip.
He wrote one 3- word sentence by the end of the activity but
didn't want to hand his paper in.
As far as writing, he knows the letters of the alphabet- both
upper and lower case and recognizes approximately 20-30 sight
words. He is able to copy words when he is given a model with
flash cards. He has a hard time expressing his thoughts in
a written form; he often draws pictures to try to accomplish
a writing task and may add a word for a title. We have tried
placing weights on Jamie's wrists and using a slant board.
These both seem to work well with him.
Jamie seems to also have difficulty making friends with any
of the kids in his classroom. He usually works by himself
or with his aide and is picked last when chosen to be in a
group project as he doesn't seem to hear or follow the rules
of the games. One child, Sandra, will play with him on the
computer from time to time.
Jamie can spend long periods of time on a single activity
such as washing his hands. It takes him sometimes 20 minutes
in the bathroom because he says he likes the feelings of water
over his hands. Jamie's parents say that he watches a lot
of TV at home; sometimes 2-3 hours. They feel it seems to
focus him. They say that they feel guilty about how much TV
he watches but they donÅft quite know what else to do
to calm him and spend time with the other children in the
family.
When Jamie gets on a computer with headphones, he can be a
very hard worker. He loves being on the computer any chance
he gets and takes turns well when with another child. His
favorite computer games include Kids PIX, Math Blaster and
using keyboarding software for children. He also enjoys using
the Living Books Series where he can have the story read to
him over and over again. He was using one of the stories with
Sandra the other day, and they looked like they were having
a great time! When asked why he likes the computer so much,
he comments on any animation or graphical pictures accompanied
by spoken words and sounds.
We feel like we're trying all we know and that we aren't meeting
Jamie's IEP objectives very well. There just doesn't seem
to be much change as we move through the school year. He's
just so dependent upon his aide and even with all her time
with him, he is not keeping up with the other children in
the class.
What other AT options and classroom strategies might we try?
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