Would you believe with me if I said that it was personal belief that how we feeel in our inner self, whether it be content, excited, or angry is connected to our mouths. So dont let the title fool you. This blog is all about one thing and one things only and f your wondering what the one thing could be, I willtell you but first I have to give credit where credit is due. Wait for that one thing for just one minute.
7 years ago I was giving a job for a dedicated assistant with a child who had autism. Now come to find out that child had the most severe kind of autism I will see within those next 7 years but I definitely know now what this wonderful time of day is because of that child with autism and the autism coordinator Sullivan who allowed me to sit in on the meetings to discuss this particular child's behavior plan. I worked with many wonderful people, and as with any experence, different kinds of people that were difficult to work with. One particular year that will always stand out in my head as the changing point in my autism training was thee year I was blessed to work with THEE autism celebrities in my my little world Truman and Casey! These 2 ladies are awesome with these kids and they took me under their wing for the year (whether they knew it or not) and taught me everything they knew about dealing with a diffcult disability in the classroom. So, this magical time that this blog is about is all thanks to one particularly important mentor like person in my life (again whether she knows it or not) But this one's for you Truman!
It's Oral Motor Time! It's Oral Motor Time! We'll pat our mouth and pat our cheeks because its Oral Motor Time!
That is thee intro to a great magical time of day that I believe is the yeast to all classrooms that have children with autism in them. This time of day is something I now am lucky enough to do with my students EVERY day and the progress during and after with social, language, speech, and many other learning objectives that are intertwined int the special time is not surprising to me!
If your wondering why I keep saying Oral Motor and magical special time, you really have to see what it is I'm talking about to understand and part of my journey I do hope to have instuctional videos for teachers to add this magic to any room with children with special needs, whether it be autism, ADD, OCD, ED, or other sensory dysfunctions that cause lack of concentration, irratability to change, and excess behavior problems that can take up alot of time out of the day when they do happen. So the goal of Oral Motor time is to decrease irratability while also creating an attention span and decreasing behavior problems. These children are not necessarly hard to teach, however you have to see it as you are "their" teacher not they are "your" student! For example "your students" may suppose to be seated while learning but because you are "their" (child with autism's) teacher, you may have bean bags or allow standing! That's just one example of how I try to be "their" teacher! They may be "my" students but they teach me more than I could ever teach them and for that I just want to give them what I KNOW they need from me! That isn't a spelling test, but the option to take it verbally. These small modifications for "your" student with autism are what make you "their" teacher.
So what is Oral Motor time and how can you add this regime to be "their" teacher this year! Oral Motor time is a time when you can be silly, have fun, and move about. Oral Motor Time which I now call Sensory Time is about sensory input at the start of the morning and afternoon to gain their trust and attention span. We begin by sitting at the table with mirrors and an indivudal sensory kit for the students. But the real fun is when we sing songs, get up and dance and do yoga before the speech lady comes to give her lesson. The sensory kits for each child can all have the same thing or you can modify the objects to be specific to the child's needs. In my boxes this year we tried to keep a toothbrush, washcloth, mini kalediscope, chapstick, and a tiny slinkie. Of course the teacher had a box of her own to demonstrate looking in the mirror at themselves toSEE where they are, the use of aroma was good to smell which they love and seem to be able to smell very strong scents that help get their attention to attend to taking turns and passing objects to their friends. We use the wash cloth to pat our face to feel and add lotion. We use the tooth brush to open their mouth while looking in the mirror so they can see and feel their mouths. By the end of the year, the child who never made eye contact with anyone is usually making faces at himself in the mirror. These little techniques that I learned along the way are things kids LOVE to do, so your building their trust by doing it with them. They sit on the bus to get to school and then we expect them to sit down and learn without gaining their full attention first. An autism classroom without a magical sensory time, where you can dim the lights and play music or sing songs is like a loaf of bread without yeast to me, because I know the children need this magical time so they can "rise to the occassion and pay attention to the lesson. This time of day can be set aside to be theme related where the activies are based around a story or objective on the chld's IEP. However, its fun for the kids so yu have their attention, its silly to watch to you have their trust, and this is the year I want to document this TRUE METAMORPHOSIS in the making.
After we teach the children to use their boxes independently they become responsible to put their box away. They claim this responsiblitiy on their own usually, this is a goal but was not taught just a natual consequence of loving their little boxes so much, they know where to put it away because they were paying attention. This gain of responsibility usually carries over to their notebook for handwriting and papers we hand out as well. After or Before Oral Motor is a good time for a snack or something tastey and then you may begin teaching the child with autism. You can try to without this magical time of day, but let's just say your life could be alot easier if you gave it a shot in the dark.
After they are all wormed up with lotion, washcloths, toothbrushes, mirrors, and silly games like Yoga Freeze and dance party USA we normally can sit for the rest of the morning until lunch. After lunch is another good time of day to practice this sensory regime to see how far their attention spans last in the afternoon!
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