Teach42

Just uploaded the photos I took yesterday. Unfortunatley, since the students hadn’t turned in their release forms for the summer session yet I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the children doing the activities. This shows some of the equipment though at least, better than nothing.

A thought just occurred to me. It is incredible just how similar this program is to Montessori! The S.M.A.R.T. program has an incredible amount of maniuplaitves that are used in very specific ways. It’s never just practicing scissors, it’s using scissors to cut out rainbows from right to left. It’s a set of clothespins to sort or play with, you use two specific fingers to attach the clothespins to a bowl, and then you use two other fingers, continuing until you have used every finger to do it.

Someone in the class just pointed out a Montessori activity that was similar to the one on the screen. It isn’t just me that noticed how similar some aspects of the programs are.

The main difference is that Montessori tools have been carefully defined over time and are all created to address very specific needs. This program is using every day tools as suggestions, but you can always substitute your own manipulatives or create your own variations. So far as I know, Montessori schools don’t believe in substitutions under any circumstances!

I’ll be really curious to revisit this program in five years and see if they have standardized any of their activates for the sake of effectiveness and consistency, to ensure that teachers are doing it appropriately in a manner that promoters optimal development. I’m still surprised that they aren’t offering us the opportunity to buy official “S.M.A.R.T.” gear, manipulatives and gross motor equipment that have been created in accordance to S.M.A.R.T.’s rigorous standards for excellence. Something like that Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they aren’t trying to push their own branded items off on us. The fact that they aren’t doing it lends just a touch of credence to their program. (Side note: I really wanted to double check to see if credence was the right word there and couldn’t get to Google: Definitions. This lack of Wifi is really cramping my style. Thank goodness for Word’s thesaurus.) If they were just trying to make a buck, there would be a sales pitch during every session.

So kudos to S.M.A.R.T. on that front. We’ll have to revisit this one in a few years!

After a few observations, we’re back in the classroom again. This time we’re learning how to actually take the S.M.A.R.T program and put it into the classroom setting. I’ve just had a spirited conversation with Charlotte. The more I discuss it, the more value I see to the program. I don’t believe that it will solve all of a child’s problems, nor do I think it will make every student a star. It does seem to me that it can help set students up for success by eliminating issues that may not be severe enough to warrant an IEP, but that can still have a direct effect on their learning.

To put it simply, a child with a mild auditory processing problem has a strike against them before they ever step in to a classroom. They may have perfect hearing, but have difficulty processing auditory input. Simple, everyday tasks may be a serious challenge to these children. If you have to exert a tremendous amount of effort just deciphering the directions, then how much energy will you have to complete the task at hand? The problem may be something as simple as a pathway in the brain being slightly underdeveloped that with practice could be developed full?

Without question, there are other sorts of issues that children can have. This is not a miracle cure all. I file it in the same category as social emotional development in kindergarten; children may learn to compensate for poor social emotional development in time, but if they learn those skills during early childhood, they will be naturally internalized for life. A child that learns to empathize with others in Kindergarten will probably not become a bully in middle school. In contrast, a child that never learns to consider other student’s feelings won’t even realize when they are engaging in bullying behavior.

Similarly, a child that learns internalizes these auditory and visual skills as well as the reflexs described, will have a distinct advantage in the educational environment over students who haven’t developed them yet. Let me put that a different way. They won’t be disadvantaged when they step into the classroom. It’s not about providing them with any sort of advantage, it’s ensuring that they don’t have a disadvantage. That doesn’t sound quite as sexy, but it’s closer to the truth.

Of course, buying into the theory is a completely different matter than buying into the system to address it. The system seems pretty well designed and I’m looking forward to implementing it. I do wonder if there are better ways to address these issues out there. If this program ever gets nationwide recognition and becomes mainstream, I wonder if people will come up with more efficient exercises for developing these skills. How were these skills created? I’m assuming that some activities are more effective than others, perhaps there are ways that the same goals could be achieved in a shorter time span (this program recommends 80 hours).

So where does this leave me? I feel like I’ve gained some valuable insight into my students that will help me better address their needs as individuals. I look forward to putting these theories into practice and seeing just how much of an impact they really have. I will continue to question it though. The day I stop questioning the way we do things is the day I should probably leave the field of education. More information is always more better though

People who teach PreK-3 may want to look further into it. If anyone has any questions or want to hear more about specific aspects of the program, leave me a comment and I’ll try to fill you in.

Buenos Dias, top of the morning! Welcome to my notes from day three of the S.M.A.R.T. workshop. After a very restless night (some BBQ from the previous evening didn’t quite agree with me), Charlotte and I got up just a little early today to meet Becky at the EEG lab. The morning sessions of the workshop are taking place at the actual school, so she agreed to give us a private demonstration of the machine and software that they use. She asked if either us wanted to be wired up and I jumped at the opportunity.

She attached four electrodes to my head and then asked me if I wanted the airplane game or the dolphin game. Being a typical American male, I chose the airplane. There were two computer monitors, one that I was looking at and one that Becky was looking at (I couldn’t see that one from where I was sitting). After a minute, the airplane came on the screen along with some really cheesy MIDI music. Sounded like a really bad ring tone! The airplane chugged along with the music and every once in a while it would fly through a coin. When it did, my score would go up by 10 points. Every once in a while, the airplane and music would pause for a second or two and then resume. At first, I actually thought that it was just computer lag. I quickly discovered that it was brain lag of sorts instead!

Whenever I was exerting conscious brain activity by concentrating on something really hard or by moving around, the music would pause. I could keep it going only by relaxing and sort of semi-focusing on the airplane. Whenever I shifted in the seat, the airplane would pause and when I concentrated too hard on trying to make the airplane keep going it would pause as well. I also found that it would pause whenever I blinked which caused me a fair amount of anxiety! I think it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. After a while, I expect it to pause whenever I blinked, so I would concentrate on not blinking as much as possible, but when I did blink, it was a significant event and of course the airplane paused.

I definitely had a hard time keeping the airplane continue on without pause. At one point, I stopped watching the airplane and instead stared at the stuffed animal on top of the TV. This did seem to work at first, but then I found watching the airplane in a relaxed state was actually more effective.

Midway through the test, Becky asked me to try to recite the alphabet backwards. I think I would have trouble doing this on the best of days, but considering that I was really tired this morning I found it very challenging. To be honest, I don’t really remember whether the airplane kept going because I was concentrating so hard on the reciting the backwards alphabet. I have to assume that the airplane was on pause most of the time, but it will be interesting to see the video that Charlotte took to verify that.

When I finished up, the first thing Becky asked me was how I slept last night. After disconnecting me and turning the other monitor so I could see it, she showed me how she knew that one already. The screen looked sort of like a stereo equalizer, but the bouncing bars represented different types of brainwaves instead. It was immediately obvious that the bars along the bottom were signfificantly longer than the others. She pointed out that those were theta waves (I’m pretty sure that’s the right term, I’d double check if I had WiFi). Those waves were the sleepy kind, the type that are longer when someone has more of when they’re tired. She also mentioned that they’re the type you would expect to see more of in someone diagnosed with ADD. Hmm… Double whammy, eh? Tired & ADD. Those waves probably should have stretched from Minneapolis to Chicago! Oh yeah, for the record, just in case I was going to be able to try the EEG for myself, I didn’t take any Ritalin or drink any coffee this morning. I wasn’t surprised at all to see those waves stretching out so far at all.

Becky also pointed out where the beta waves were (do I have those two terms confused?). She said that those were the waves that they wanted to train better. Ideally, they would be even with the theta waves. When that happens, a person is in a relaxed state of mind and yet actively ready to learn. Essentially, they’re a perfect model of the student sitting at the desk, pencil in hand, ready for the teacher to begin the lesson. No anxiety, no distraction, just relaxed but on task. When someone has decreased their theta waves and has an appropriate amount of beta waves, the airplane keeps moving along. I believe she said at one point a couple of days ago that someone who was really good at getting in that frame of mind could make the airplane go faster. Not sure about that one though.

We talked briefly about my blinking issue and she said that it’s a fairly common problem. She said that after a while, you just get used to it and stop being distracted by it. Obviously I never got to that point, but I was only hooked up for around five minutes.

I bet you’re waiting for me to answer the million dollar question; is this just a fad solution to a nationwide problem? I was much more impressed with this machine than I was with the AVE. One of my main issues with the AVE was that the person using it was basically a passive receptor. There was no conscious learning or training involved and I have a problem believing in completely passive solutions. That’s why I don’t believe mediation alone is really a solution for any problem along the lines of ADD. Behavior modification and awareness is just as important, if not more important, than medication in my own experiences. This EEG machine involved a person consciously training themselves to adjust their brain activity to create an increased sense of readiness. I wasn’t able to get into that frame of mind, but I did see how I could get to that point. It reminded me of a batting cage. If you keep swinging that bat again and again and again, when it comes time to be in front of a live picture you’ll feel calm, cool and ready for action.

A peroson who trains with this machine could certainly get to the point where they can put themselves into that frame of mind at will, but whether they could put themselves into that state on a continuous basis is questionable. They touted that this could in some cases ‘cure’ an ADD child without the use of medication. I want to know if children eventually can maintain that mind state without it being a conscious decision. In other words, does the child need to constantly be reminding himself to concentrate like they learned when hooked up to the machine, or does it just come naturally? I remember a device that I tried out way back in the day that was supposed to help students with ADD. It was basically a pager that vibrated every few minutes. The idea was that every three or four minutes, an ADD child’s mind would start to wander. By providing an aritificial reminder, it was thought that ADD children would be able to constantly jolt themselves back into a state of readiness. In other words, it didn’t eliminate the distractibility of the child, but it helped to get them back on task. The EEG machine seems to help to eliminate the distractibility, but does it need something like the pager to help remind them to put themselves in that frame of mind? Ideally, you want it to just come naturally, to train the brain to put itself into that state whenever it needs to be ready for learning.

I definitely see the benefit of this machine though. The ability to concretely measure brainwaves in real time and then training children to increase desirable waves while decreasing undesirable waves is incredibly valuable. I would love to spend a month or two with that machine on a daily basis and see what kind of impact it has on me. Would it eliminate the need for Ritalin? Or would it simply allow me to function more effectively when I’m not using medication?

The podcast I did with David Warlick also makes me wonder whether the persons personality, creativity, and thought processes change in any way when a person trains their brain in this way. David has said that he never takes medication when he’s writing, but he usually does before presenting. Writing is a creative activity, whereas presenting is more logical, analytic and requires a different frame of mind. Would this sort of training affect his writing in any way? In other words, he sort of turns his ADD on and off through his use of medication. I wonder if this sort of training would have a detrimental effect on his writing, if he wasn’t able to ‘turn it off’ and get back into his natural frame of mind.

Regardless, I definitely see merit in the exercise. I’m going to have to check out whether there’s a similar set up somewhere nearby in Chicago to find out more.

Did a quick session where we tried out the AVE (Audio-Visual Entrainment) for 15 minutes. The AVE is basically a set of glasses with a bunch of blinking white lights. The other piece of it is a set of headphones playing relaxing music that also has a distinct rhythmic pattern in both ears, almost like a rapid heartbeat. So you put on the headphones, close your eyes and put on the glasses. Then you just lay back and chill for 20 minutes (we only did 15). In theory, this thing stimulates specific brain waves and essentially exercises them. Supposedly, this type of therapy can address ADHD and control it without medication.

It was extremely relaxing. I caught myself falling asleep a few times. I happen to snore and there were a few times where I sort of heard myself start to snore and snapped back awake. Unfortunately, I had already taken Ritalin this afternoon. Otherwise, I’d be curious to know if it put me in the same frame of mind that medication does but in a completely natural way. Since I’d already taken it, there’s no way for me to know.

I’m still very skeptical though. I trust that there are positive results from doing this sort of therapy on a regular basis. What I’m not sure about is that there benefit is any greater than simply turning on some Pink Floyd, a psychedelics light, and taking a 20 minute power nap. Would there be any significant difference? I’m not certain. Or even without the lights and music, would just mediating for 20 minutes on a daily basis make a significant difference to a child with ADD?

I’m pretty sure that Sharper Image sells a set of glasses that just flashes lights in different patterns. Do you really need to get the official AVE glasses in order to have a significant effect or will any set of dark sunglasses with Christmas lights taped to them be comparable?

I wish I had some answers to go along with all these questions. Tomorrow morning I’m going to be meeting one of the presenters a bit early and she’s going to give me a tour of the EEG Neurofeedback machine. Maybe I’ll badger her with some of these things I’m wondering about and see if I can get some answers.

We’re on the vision section of the workshop right now and I missed a bit of the beginning due to the last entry. However, it did tie in to what I was writing. The presenter was talking about the difference between sight and vision. Sight is whether you need glasses or not, your physical ability to see things accurately. Vision is your ability to process and interpret the information your eyes are providing. They are very different areas. A person’s sight can be corrected through glasses or contacts, but if they still have vision problems then problems may persist.

Some vision skills that children need are visual efficiency, visual analysis/perception and integration. Visual efficiency is comprised of eye movements, ey teaming, and accommodation (focusing). Visual analysis is comprised of form perception, visual closure, sequential memory, and laterality. Integration is comprised of eye-hand coordination and auditory-visual integration.

Children with eye movement problems have difficulty maintaining eye contact during a conversation, they lose their place when reading and they often turn their head while reading. Their eyes just don’t move smoothly.

This one is interesting. Typical kindergarten activity. A few shapes on a piece of paper with dotted outlines around their edges. The student is supposed to cut the shapes out along the lines. The worksheet that we have though, has two sets of dotted lines, spaced about a quarter of an inche apart. The idea is that this is what a student with a vision problem might be seeing. Which dotted line should they cut along? I know I’ve seen students in this exact situation who instead of cutting on the dotted line, they cut just outside of it all the way around, so the shape has a border of sorts. Naturally, I’ve always assumed that it was a fine motor issue. However, it could very easily be a vision problem instead. That’s definitely something to keep in mind. Fine motor problems could quite possibly be vision problems.

Side thought: This stuff is pretty intense. Auditory issues, brain development issues, reflex issues, vision issues, all of which should have developed a certain way during the child’s formative years, but for one reason or another might not have. These people have acquired quite a collection of these issues. I wonder how many have yet to be discovered? Just for a completely outrageous example, what if it is discovered that the liver actually aids in logical thought. Children who don’t probably develop their liver before age 7 will have issues with logical thought from then on out until they get these things addressed. Exercises would need to be created to develop your liver to a specific point. I know it’s a terrible example, but you see what I mean, right? I wonder just how complete these things are and just how much is being ignored because we don’t even know that we need to address it yet.

One more side thought: During lunch I asked someone who worked for the program just how long we are supposed to do these exercises for. I don’t mean, what duration of time should we do them in a given day, week or month. What I mean is, once a child develops a skill to a specific optimal level, is there a reason to continue the exercises? Quite simply, the answer was no. It’s like riding a bike, once you’ve acquired the skill you have it for life. Most of these should have been acquired naturally before age seven. This is to address any that weren’t acquired or that the child didn’t learn fully. Once they’ve got it, they don’t need to do it anymore.

Can you think of a more catchy title than that? Sounds like this next session is going be introducing activities to target individual auditory systems.

Here we go! Auditory processing refers to the skills we use to interpret and organize auditory stimulus that we hear. Typically developed between 7-8 years of age. Auditory processing disorder is defined as a difficulty listening to or comprehending auditory information despite having normal peripheral hearing sensitivity. Reduced or impaired ability to discriminate, recognize or comprehend auditory information.

This isn’t children who have difficulty hearing, it’s children who have the ability to hear fine, but just can’t process the information that’s coming in. It’s easy to see how this sort of thing could be overlooked in a school. A typical hearing test just won’t pick up on this.

Children with this disorder typically misunderstand oral instructions/questions, or it there is a obvious delay between the question and the response. They have a lot of difficulty listening when background noise is present.

HSAS is non-verbal stimulation (music) to enhance auditory skills. Used with children who have learning difficulties, especially reading. Interestingly, the CD’s that they use are individually made. After testing, they customize the content based on the child’s deviation from the optimal hearing curve. They do this by amplifying frequencies below the curve and attenuating frequencies above the curve. Children listen to the CD for 15 minutes a day for several months. Then they come back in, get retested and get a new CD created. After a certain point, they get a maintenance CD that they do a few days a week for up to a year.

I always wonder how effective these passive devices actually are. It almost sounds like learning by osmosis. You know, just put your textbook under your pillow and the answers will just come to you! Or those exercise devices where you don’t have to do anything at all, electrical stimuli will exercise your muscles for you and the fat will just disappear. Does passive absorption of this nature really make a difference or does there need to be some sort of conscious action as well? I’d love to see some of the research, how this compares to a ‘placebo CD’, someone who does the exact same program but with a normal CD. Is there really a difference? I’d imagine that there must be, but I’d love to find out for certain.

We’re on the Auditory system right now and we started off with an appropriate example. Loud music playing, the teacher welcoming students back from recess, telling them to take out a worksheet, explaining what their homework is going to be and so on. Easy to see how overwhelming it can be.

Anatomy 101: The Ear. I’m flashing back to elementary/high school science, when we learned all about the hearing system and the inner ear. You know, the three bones in the ear that allow you to hear. Good to know that it all seems familiar still after all these years.

The auditory system is responsible for phonemic awareness skills. It’s a fundamental skill for reading and if there are auditory issues, then students will have trouble identifying the individual phonemes in words. Auditory discrimination is the ability to discriminate differences in individual letter sounds in words. One activity for this is to introduce three words daily, 12 weekly. Point out similar sounding words. “Launch, lunch” Don’t let kids see your lips though, because you want it to be just off of auditory cues.

Interesting study on the screen right now by Hart and Risley. Children from professional families had 2153 words per hour spoken to the child, and the child’s vocabulary was about 1116 words. Children from low income families had 653 words spoken to them per hour and had vocabularies of around 500 words. No surprise, I’d love to hear more from the study.

They’re recommending that you have music playing 30% of the time in the classroom and also that you turn down the bass so you stimulate the development of the higher frequencies. It also allows students to hear the lyrics better. Wouldn’t have thought of that one. Going to try that one later in the car.