Occupational Therapist Sally Wilson – Early Years PLG session - 280819

Seven occupational therapist in the Canterbury region – Hanmer, Cheviot to mid Canterbury.  How to apply for support.  If applying for help give as much practical information as possible.  Waiting list is usually no more than 3 months.

Three levels of service

·        on- off consultation

·        referral onto  another discipline – assessment

·        training

Occupational therapists are happy to come and do professional development across schools.

See a range of children

·        ORRS

·        Physical disabilities

·        ASD

·        Global developmental delay

·        Sensory issues

Help with PMP programme, muscle tone, cannot participate in sport or playground, personal care skills (no longer do toileting programmes-public health nurse), activities of daily living e.g. dressing.  Good at task analysis, breaking tasks into manageable steps.  Handwriting development

Specialised equipment and applications.  Innovative learning environments have changed these considerable – e.g. different height desks, lighting etc.  Some children need specialised desks. 

Assisted technology – support for learning and applications.

Sensory issues.  From OTJ point of view, everyone has sensory issues.  Unless a sensory issue is affecting a child’s ability to access the curriculum, they will not be seen.  Behavioural problems may be sensory.  Five things that define a child with a sensory issue.  OTL do not do sensory profiles.  For these kids they need movement breaks.

Can support ORR’s applications.  Section nine applications for special schools.  Provide support for the behavioural team.  LLI applications. 

Property modifications for children who are runners.  Visual modifications for low visions.  Modify bathrooms – hoists, change tables

Free social stories on line. 

Formulating our Inquiry Question

How can we best met the needs of distruptive learners through the modification of the physical, social and emotional classroom environment.


Since formulating the questions we have implemented these things:

Physical Environment - We have

• Opened up the learning space by removing excess furniture (desks, chairs, trolleys etc)
• Calm down space/work area
• Removed crayons/scissors from easily accessible spaces (Room 9 pencils on wheels
• Lock things away
• Putting out interactive activities so children can be engaged in classroom from 8:30am onwards

Plan to

• calm visual reminders

Emotional Environment - We have

• Spot antecedants as early as possible
• Calm down kits
• Circle time lessons -weekly and as needed.  Focussing initially on playground behaviour
• Capitalising on Life Education Lessons - Empathy
• This/then visual strategies
• Sticker chart
• Caught being good coupons
• Working with the Ministry - UBRS lworkshops
• UBRS Plan
• Mindfulness/breathing to start the day
• Checking in and out with children at beginning of day and end of day
• Calming strategies as needed eg reading a story 1to1 after breaktime to calm down

Plan to

• Referral to RTLB
• keep working on modifing the strategy to suit the child
• Different strategies to calm children
• Check in before and after break times setting the child up for success

Social Environment - We have

• Kemu (game) after mindfulness to build relationships
• Guidlines - from the beginning of the year set class expectations
• Circle Time

Plan to

• Build on the links between circle time and daily practise

Establishing our Target Group

Initially are were considering:

Room 8
Dakotah
Jazmine
Roman

Room 9
Ashton
Cooper
Rico

Starting to Scan

15.5.19

Discussion for the overarching question.

Initially we discussed focusing on DMIC implementation and pedagogy to enhance our professional learning and practice. However we found disruptive behaviours exhibited by a few students were have a huge impact on our teaching and learning environment.  After a number of discussions, we felt that this would be a timely and worthwhile focus for both us and our learners.

Ideas we are pondering before we decide on our big question

·         Some of the school systems don’t work for these disruptive students i.e. steps

·         Role of incentives – why they work for some and not others

·         Knowing the child’s/whanau story

·         A deeper understanding of the research behind why these students act in this way

·         How best to engage them in their learning journey?

·         Friendships

·         Playtime

·         Transitions – within class, within collaborative learning spaces

·         Medication

·         Outside agencies

·         Turning negative attention into opportunities into positive attention

The Inquiry Process