education

Education

Education vs Frustration

Tips and Strategies to help your child succeed with home and Educators working together for a positive and productive learning experience.

I worked in education for over 8 years, combined with parenting these are some of the things I have learned along the way:

You need to be involved in your child's education, not only in what goes on in the classroom, but what is going on in the home as well, education starts at home! Remember to let the school know what routines you have in place and how they work at home, routines are key with these children, the school has to be flexible and work with you on this to have results!

You need to communicate your needs with the child's teachers, as well as the child's needs, openly and honestly, to make sure you are all on the same page, as Fragile X is a challenging and difficult disability to work with, lots of repetition, reminders, working very slowly at introducing new concepts, implementing routines, and changes in routine have to be mapped out early on during the week, especially field trips, fire drills, etc. These are important, as your child will react strongly when the daily routines are broken with no prior knowledge, they are creatures of habit and they thrive on that, it's their comfort zone!

You have to make sure your child's needs are being met to the best of the school, and teacher's ability, express your concerns if you feel the child is not learning at his or her own pace and is becoming overwhelmed, or isn't being challenged enough. If you are finding these needs are not being met you need to sit down as a team and discuss how it can be changed together, how you can help, if this doesn't work, take the next step and involve the principal and whom ever is in charge of special education at your child's school. Make sure you are happy with the level of support your child is receiving and that their needs are being met both educationally and personally. Toileting is a big issue you will definitely have to work with the school on, as is eating and keeping on task!

You need to be willing to take on extra work at home, as repetition for Fragile X children is necessary to learn and retain.

Don't hold high expectations for the school or your child, be supportive to both, but don't hold low expectations either, as these children are so capable of learning, they just have to find their comfort level, when they are in the right situation they thrive!

Don't close any doors at school, or at home with parents, try really hard to work together in the best interest of the child, respect each others experiences, knowledge and differences, you can accomplish so much more together!

There are some wonderful resources out there that work with students with Fragile X, here are a few things we have used and found success with:

Board Maker Symbols, Writing with Symbol Computer Programs - These are a great learning tool, especially if you have a child that is non communicative or really struggles with language and expression. Board maker symbols help to break down instructions to make life easier, they can hear and see what they are supposed to do. Writing with Symbols has this too, with a bonus option it speaks as the child or yourself types the words and it will also read back the entire sentence you have typed. These kids are great on computers and they love these programs as they get the words, symbols and speech. this program is much more affordable than Boardmaker too.

Sign Language - This is a wonderful tool for communicating with children that are both verbal and non verbal. They pick up on it very quickly and will use it if they can not find the right word to express thier needs. You can ask thier teachers or assistants on how to get some basic sign language information.

Social Stories or Story boards - Use in a variety of activities at home and school for teaching purposes it breaks down tasks into small components to make it more functional for the child. For example, If you want the child to clean up after a center activity, instead of using 1 step of a verbal command at a time to get them to complete a 8 step set of commands, take pictures of the child completing all these tasks from start to finish and make a book for him or her to follow, making them independent from you telling them what and how to do it, they can follow the picture clues designed especially for them. Step 1 "Johnny is going to get out of his desk" Step 2, " Johnny is going to the blue bin." Step 3"Johnny is taking the blocks out of the blue bin." Step 4, "Here is Johnny playing with the blocks." Step 5, "It is time for Johnny to clean up the blocks." Step 6, " Johnny is going back the blue bin." Step 7, "Johnny is putting the blocks away." Step 8, "Johnny is going back to sit in his desk." This is very detailed, you are using picture as well as word clues and repeating the child's name so they know what they have to do and see themselves doing it. These are a lot of work, but are so worth it! You can use them at home for teaching as well, brushing teeth, cleaning their room, making the bed, etc. You can use the story boards or board Maker symbols to let them know their schedule at school, using their schedule, make the symbols large, use the words underneath, ex Math, put them in order an up where the child can view them and incorporate this in your day, saying" OK math is over now, what come next?" As you are saying this, point to the new symbol or change it and get them to repeat it with you. Place them in a variety of places or make a small one to carry with you. You can try to get them to change the symbols on their own, when they know after math comes music or recess etc., this is a great tool for routine setting! You can use them at home for routines, as well going from homework to TV to supper, etc., they are not as complicated as the social stories. They work well with kids of all ages.

Sticker Charts or Simple reward systems - These children thrive on having visual and concrete reward systems in place that they can go to to check off thier progress during the day, it helps to motivate them to continue. The token-economy reward system has been proven really successful with special needs students like FXS and Autisim. Students have that concrete reward at the end of the day or week to symbolize the work and or effort they have put in and the tasks they have accomplished. This can also be continued in the home and become part of thier daily routine.

Sending simple concept work home- like reading, spelling practice, matching concepts, etc., this really works even if it is just 15 minutes a night.

Repetition is a key tool, it is so important at home and school when you are teaching a new concept, to keep repeating, send the concept home to be worked on as well, giving you more time to have it absorbed.

Learning through play- is so great for these kids, especially at learning new social skills, act it out, get them involved in the skit, or use toys to teach, like dolls for teaching feelings, caring, sharing etc., or Lego's for concepts like on, over, under etc., this keeps their attention, focus and lets them interact on their level, learning and having fun!

Make sure you have a variety of activities that move rather quickly from one to the other, as this keeps them focused longer and doesn't allow time for boredom, which can cause behaviour problems. Centers are a great activity, simple crafts, coloring, cutting, building, etc.

Make sure the child has an area to go to during behavioural or stressful times that they can relax and regroup, this can be as simple as a small corner 0f the classroom, where they can put on headphones and drown out all the noises around them, even for a short time, this helps. If they are smaller children, a large box like an empty washer/dryer box for them to climb into to escape from their stresses, these are wonderful tools to help with the long school days!

I will update this page as often as I can and welcome new ideas or suggestions on things that work well for teaching and learning at home or school, for kids with Fragile X.

You can always e-mail us for more suggestions or with any questions or ideas you have for us!

Our book has some great lesson plans and suggestions for both educators and parents.

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