Charlotte Verity Professional Learning (School Based)

We have 3 other sensory zones, on top of the 5 traditional one. Vestibular: our ability to maintain balance and body posture. Strategies: wobble stool, wobble cushion, hanging upside down on playground equipment, rocking on a swiss ball, yoga activities. Proprioceptive: our ability to sense the position, location, orientation and movement of the body and its parts. What does it look like?  Frequent hiding, chewing, often rough play.  Strategies: Heavy work activities - running, jumping, swinging, climbing, weighted blanket Interoceptive: provides information about our internal sensory system. What does it look like?  not knowing when to drink, go to toilet, eat etc. Frequent moving/fidgety, possible melt downs, may find managing body a challenge.  Strategies: guided noticing of what our bodies look, sound and feel like when we’re thirsty, hungry, hot/cold and experiencing big emotions. Calming activities, breathing exercises, yoga - stretching, visua...

Resource:  Incredible Teachers  by Carolyn Webster-Stratton, PH D Chapter 11,12,13 & IYT Workshop 3.8.17 A child needs to have conflict management skills and social problem solving skills to help them regulate their emotions. Children who have difficulty emotionally regulating may also have trouble reading social situations and cues (p. 406 of text). When a child acts out/yells/hits frequently etc (cannot emotionally regulate), this will often result in negative social experiences and possible alienation/loneliness. This child then does not have the peers to practise positive social skills with, and they may become 'labelled' as difficult, defiant etc. Teachers can try to stop this by sharing praise publicly and personally with the child, being explicit with praise, social coaching, connecting with parents and maintaining positive self-talk//thought about that child.  Emotional regulation includes: * Nervous system * Cognitive (reasoning) and language systems ...

SELF-REGULATION = staying calmly alert, focused and managing emotions in a way that is socially acceptable. THE ALERT PROGRAMME... * is a way of thinking about internal state, without focusing on emotions. * uses neutral language AROUSAL = HOW ALERT ONE FEELS To attend, concentrate and perform tasks in a manner suitable to the situational demands, one's nervous system must be in the optimum state of arousal (Mercer & Snell 1977). We need to be in exactly the right state of arousal to attend and complete a task.                  How is your engine running? Take the time to stop and check, how is your engine running? Ask the students, how is your engine running? Discuss how the class' engine is running (as a group). You can use a speedometer picture to show this. What affects self-regulation? * Physiological needs e.g. hunger, fatigue * Sensory processing difficulties e.g. over-sensitive or under-sensitiv...

Tilting the Seesaw Workshop 2015 - Autism NZ Notes by Charlotte Verity This workshop was amazingly informative...it helped me build empathy for my ASD students, and provided lots of new strategies for me to try. Sharing ideas and challenges with other teachers of ASD students was highly beneficial...I have used many of their ideas in my own practise with positive outcomes. My relationships with two ASD students have improved dramatically as a result. Key strategies to try with ASD students Allow wait time - 5 words maximum then wait 5 seconds + for a reply IMPERSONAL WORKS - when speaking with child about an issue or upset that has happened, use WE / ALL / US   ...not YOU / ME / I Start a ‘proud of’ book...listing all the things you are proud of each day, for whole class or solely for an ASD child Points or other systems for participation or on task work - e.g. marbles in jar, tokens velcro’ed to a board CLARITY - be clear on expectations (don’t add ex...