Bullying is probably one of the worst things that can happen to children. Most vulnerable to bullying are children with special needs.

No matter how much we brief our children on what to do just in case they get bullied, it is another story when they are on their own.

Young children are not exempted from bullying.

Online bullying happens and is probably just as scary as being bullied at the back of the school building because more people read and see what is happening. It is important to teach children about being careful when they do online activities.

For the teens, with the many issues they are going through, there are some things happening that make them vulnerable to being bullied or becoming bullies themselves. Coping with the challenges they face may make them unsure of what they should do and there are cases when they act out unexpectedly. continue reading this entry »

Activities for Daily Living - these are activities that will help students with special needs to adapt to “real-life” situations like waiting for a bus ride, ordering food and preparing your own food like making a sandwich or a bowl of soup.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I got several ADHD related posts here.

Affect is the general feeling tone. We can feel the happiness or sadness of a person based on his/her affect when they express themselves. For children diagnosed with autism, however, they need to be taught how to talk differently depending on their mood because most of them exhibit monotone voice when talking.

Alternative Career Options for those who are mainstreamed but would probably have difficulty getting full academic college degrees.

Auditory Discrimination is the ability to detect differences in sounds. One of the exercises for this would be drills about homographs. More about the terms pertaining to the auditory functions in this post.

Assessment is testing and evaluation to know what kind of services are to be given to a child diagnosed as having learning difficulties.

I am sure there are a lot more important terms that I missed so I am hoping I would be able to add more to this list.

A is for Autism

Autism is classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder that can be diagnosed during early childhood and is characterized by three major signs/symptoms:

1. communication problems
2. problems with social interaction
3. repetitive, restricted and stereotyped behaviors

There are different types and range of autism according to DSM IV-TR or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Classical autism is considered as “severe” because of the inability of children diagnosed with this as having no or low eye contact, facial expression and use of gestures and body language to communicate, among other characteristics. Spoken language is severely delayed or not developed at all. There is a preoccupation to one object or part of that object like a certain toy car’s wheel.

If a child has very delayed or showed no attempts with communicating with others, it is best that he/she is brought to a specialist.

Autism spectrum disorder or ASD on the other hand is considered a “milder” form of autism. A child diagnosed with ASD has the ability to develop his/her language, self-help and cognitive skills but needs help in several areas of development like: developing social interactions, adjusting to changes in routine and rituals, emotional reciprocity and being able to share interests with peers.

PDD-NOS or Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Other Specified is a diagnosis that cuts across the two previously mentioned conditions. DSM IV-TR lists that: PDD-NOS is a type of childhood developmental disorder which forms part of the group of Autistic Spectrum disorders. (ASD) This group also includes Classical Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. The diagnosis of PDD-NOS is one of exclusion, made when a toddler or child clearly has a Pervasive Developmental Disorder but the symptoms and signs do not comply with the Diagnostic Criteria for any of the other ASD’s (or childhood psychiatric disorders).

Autism and Communication

Children with autism have difficulties in talking to or expressing themselves using words the way other children do. There are those who usually “keep to themselves” and are able to communicate with devices.

These children can’t usually “connect” or easily understand the underlying language symbolisms which include non-verbal language cognition and the more advanced skills like pragmatics and listening. They usually respond to short and easily understandable instructions rather than long complicated ones. Their names will be called but they do not look at the person calling them.

They react differently in situations like when there’s a thunderstorm or a certain part of a tv/radio commercial or song being played.

Social Interaction

Due to these children’s difficulties in communicating with others, they have a hard time making friends, start conversations and “get” the humor behind jokes.

Repetitive, Restricted and/or Stereotyped Behavior

They thrive in routine like putting socks on the right foot first and not the other way around. They do repetitive behavior like banging or clapping. In some of those classified as having classical autism, these children manifest hand-flapping, rocking back and forth, turning things around over and over among other things.

Causes
The number used to be much bigger but these days, it is said that autism affects 1 child in every 150 children.

Scientists are still baffled as to the cause of this condition for one because of the complexity of the human brain.. Some believe that some of the brain connections that have something to do with communication, emotions and certain behaviors affecting social interactions do not develop as it should.

There are instances of sibling or cousins with autism.

How to Deal with Autism continue reading this entry »

I’ve recently re-read a bookmark entitled 25 Manners Every Child Kid should Know By Age 9. These seems easy to do, the ones in the list, because children are more likely to do what is asked of them, especially when they know their parents will be pleased.

I’ve made some mental observations about how some of these relate to us, adults.

Among these are the top three consisting of the “magic” words: Please, Thank you, Excuse Me.

As adults, we beam when we hear our children say these words. Ironically though, as adults, we seldom use these words unless we feel we have been unjustly and unfairly treated, when we want to stress a point or simply we use these words when we want to drive a point home.

“Please naman…” we plead when all else fails and we don’t get what we want from others or what we want others to do for us.

“Thank you ha!” we tell those we did favors to but has forgotten to acknowledge what we did. There’s no cherry on top of that thank you but it is doubled with sarcasm and there’s much stress at the word “you”.

“Excuse me?!” is said with conviction when others interrupt us as we explain our side or clear the air up. This is also what we say when people contradict our ideas or even say that we did and said something that we know we didn’t do or said so.

Anyway, teaching manners is more effective when adults/parents “walk the talk”. You know, when answering that phone call from the title loans Massachusetts person rather than asking your child to tell him you’re not home can be equated to teaching honesty.

With so many things children need to learn, we have to be the ones to show them how to do these things and eventually, we get to send the message across without giving them reason to not like us because we nag them to say “please”, “thank you” and “excuse me”.

It’s April 26 today and we are halfway through our summer vacation. That fast? Yes, but not because it is summer means the children are off the books. Nope. Summer means upping the reading skills by more fun choices.

I’m sure children will get bored if they are not engaged in summer fun activities so reading, and not just clicking on those gadgets, will give them fun and excitement too. Now is the time we parents and teachers and parents lead the way and make them love reading.

I’m sure when they are adults they’d rather read fun stuff than read minute details of work-related literature like contracts, North Carolina health insurance, and manuals.

Here is a list of books for summer reading. Let’s hope the reading continues on till after summer vacation. I know *rolls eyes*, it’s 2009 but it’s still a list 😀

Here is another reading list.

I’m not one who get books with popular animation characters because the children can watch these characters on TV so why bother have them in books? I’d rather children read books that will take them to different places, stir their imagination and make them want to read more. Or maybe be a children’s books author some day.

I’ve read about Tomatis years ago during my early foray with the web and I’ve learned from a student about Tomatis Philippines branch. Ok, this is circa late 90s. Among the so many articles I printed about special education, the one about Tomatis method was read again and again. It interested me so.

Fast forward to three years ago, I had a student who underwent a Tomatis Listening Program in Alabang. The parents were so happy with the results. They said that their child, my student, has greatly improved after she underwent a Tomatis Listening Program.

What is Tomatis Method?

The Tomatis Method was developed by Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis, a French Ear-Nose-Throat or ENT specialist. The study of auditory processing and language development was pioneered by him which led to a new multi-disciplinary science called Audio Psycho Phonology or APP.

It was the Tomatis Method which led to the discovery of ear and voice interrelationship: the voice can only reproduce what the ear hears. One of the causes of learning problems is the inability to listen.

The Tomatis Method allows children and adults alike to improve their listening skills for better and improved learning skills in a non-invasive and drug-free way. This can be coupled with occupation and/or speech-language therapy and/or special education services.

Listening and communication are the targeted learning modes wherein the auditory stimulation between the ear and the voice are given focused to stimulate the ear’s ability to listen and the brain’s ability to understand what is being heard.

The Tomatis Method makes use of the Music of Mozart because of these three elements: rhythm for human balance, harmony for reaching emotions and melody for the intellect.

The Tomatis Method also uses Gregorian Chant (which by the way, our nun teachers had us learn to sing via Latin songs) because of its proportional beat that is close to the respiratory rhythm. This beat has a succession of sequences of unequal length said to be found in ocean waves that come one after the other but not identical.

The Tomatis Method re-trains the listening system through:

• use of electronically modified music and language to improve auditory information processing
• enhances the ability to know the difference between frequencies which are all necessary for language development and auditory information processing
• use of Electronic Ear

Why is Listening an important factor in Learning? continue reading this entry »