I am a school-based Occupational Therapist working at the preschool and elementary levels. The students I work with are eligible for special education services due to a variety of disabilities and educational challenges. They range in age from 3 to 11 across three campuses. Their diagnoses include Down Syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Cerebral Palsy, Attention Deficit Disorders, Spina Bifida and Dyslexia. My students require special equipment, materials and learning approaches to help them meet their individual educational goals.
My students enjoy hands-on, tactile and kinesthetic activities to help them learn foundational fine and visual motor skills.
Traditional curriculum and curricular activities are often not sufficient, interesting or accessible to the special education population. Many students with special needs benefit from multi-modal and multi-sensory learning. Alternative materials that are play-based can make learning challenging skills more fun and engaging, increasing motivation and progress.
My Project
Standard curricular activities are often less interesting and accessible to students with special needs. Finding motivating multi-sensory activities and materials keeps students engaged and progressing towards their goals. Learning to read and write can be frustrating, especially for exceptional learners. Playing phonetic games with tongs and tweezers, or using colorful manipulatives to build words and sentences makes challenging tasks more motivating.
Students with special needs benefit from movement and multi-sensory interaction with materials.
Most of my students have a hard time sitting still at desks or tables for traditional paper-pencil tasks. I would like to have a variety of options to maximize learning. For example, the use of dynamic seating and movement breaks can increase attention while also working on postural strength and stability.
Having a variety of tools and materials to work with provides more opportunities to practice fine motor skills, to introduce novel motor experiences, and to increase or decrease the challenge as needed. Educational games also provide fun options for breaks and rewards during or after less preferred work, which is extremely important for my students.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Chiverton and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
