My students are cute, smart, funny and love to play! I teach 2 classes of preschool students, a morning and afternoon session. They are between 3-5 years old and everyone of them has special needs. They have many areas of need: social skills, speech skills, language skills, pre-academic, behavior and life skills are the typical ones. My students’ needs result from autism, Down’s syndrome, emotional disturbance, speech and language disorder, intellectual disability, and sensory processing disorder.
Despite these needs, they are lovers of life and all have areas of strengths that help them get around those needs!
They enjoy being around each other and interacting with each other, even when they have very little communication. They love to demonstrate what they know through play and brighten the lives of everyone they come in contact with!
My Project
I am asking for a play sink, place mats and a chef’s costume in order to support skill development. My students learn best when they are happy, comfortable and participating in familiar activities. What better way than participating in activities in the kitchen! I envision them setting the table for their friends, getting water from the sink and pretending to wash dishes. They will play this way day after day happily!
What looks like very simple play to you and me is really the development of many different skills.
They will be working on developing language, using kitchen related vocabulary and working on asking and responding to questions. They will be working on social skills, interacting with peers, sharing, taking turns and navigating conflicts. They also will be working on preacademic skills with matching and categorizing.
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