Great idea!

This blog is a great idea! I work with Raffi every Thursday afternoon and I have been doing a lot of Math, writing, and reading exercises with him. Although I can see him improving slightly, it will be good to know what everyone else is working on with him as well so that we can collaborate and reinforce what the others have been teaching.

I worked as a Special Needs teacher at Brent School in Manila last year, and from that experience, I learned that CONSTANT repetitions of the lessons are the best way to help them learn. For Raffi, instead of concentrating on concepts, etc, I think the best way is to just keep repeating something over and over again until he's memorized it.

For example, last week, all we learned was one quarter is 25 cents.. and 2 quarters equals 50 cents. I just kept repeating this until it was almost automatic for him to give me the answer. We then went to 3 quarters equaling 75 cents, and so on. I guess a good way to reinforce money concepts is also just simply relating it to an actual real life situation (what coins he can use to pay the bus fare or at the arcade?).

Raffi seems to learn better when using manipulatives or visual aids. He also responds better to learning when it is hands on.

One day, we baked a chocolate cake, and so that integrated math(measuring), reading comprehension (reading and following the recipe) and also helped him practice his fine motor skills. It was also really fun for us!

I think an IEP (Individual Education Plan) is currently being created, so I think that will help us figure out a more structured program that hopefully we can all work on together with him so that he can reach his highest potential!

Raffy's day (story mode)

Hi all,

From what I understand from Tita Chiqui, Tita A's suggestion for Raf's literacy program is to move away from the standard "learning to read" books and practice literacy through lived experiences (journal entries describing his day...)

As such, this entry outlines Raffy's day with Mariel and I in a "story mode" for Raffy's jornal.

=========

Last Saturday, November 22, I volunteered at Little Flower Academy in Vancouver. Mariel and I raked leaves.

Later in the day, Sam came over and we went for a bike ride. It was a great day for a bike - it wasn't too cold and the Sun was out for the first time all week!

First, we biked down to London Landing and on the way, we saw a family of swans. We could go right up to them and they weren't scare of us!


We went to the Bike Jump Park by #2 Road and rode around there for the bit. We decided to go down to Steveston and stopped by Steveston Bakery for a snack. I wanted a drink and the Ice Tea costs $1.10 so I gave Sam 4 quarters and 1 dime and I bought it!

After our snack, we went to the community center to play a couple games of pool. At the Rec room, I found a tennis ball and brought it home.


After, Sam went to work at Boston Pizza and I went to Church with my family - I played the drums at the 6:00 mass at St. Joe's.

Saturday, November 8

Math

* Continuing from our observations from last week, I focused on ordering exercises (from least to greatest, smallest to biggest, etc). I found that the most effective and engaging exercises for Raf were ones that involved physical objects (ex: coins or cars). Another good tool would be to use playing cards.

**What exercises and, specifically, what numeracy skills should we address with Raffy?** Please post suggestions!


After work, we drove to the Zone for some bowling. In the past, he's just bowled the entire game (for both our turns) but I explained to him that we have to take turns and showed him how to tell from the overhead TV. He was good with it! He also loves to play in the arcade and went to exchange his loonie (which he had been holding all day) right when we got into the bowling place.

We had lunch at Subway and the girl working there was very nice, asking him what vegetables he would like on his sandwich. He didn't explicitly say what veggies he wanted, but when prompted, he would say "yes" or "no" which I thought was really cool... From this, I think that in all situations, we should try to find a way to allow Raf to independently interact by modifying the situation or environment. In this example, the subway employee changed how she would normally take the order, and it allowed him to personalize his sandwich independently!

Saturday, November 1

Saturday, November 1

• We started off using his Dynavox. I would prompt him to use his dynavox by asking him to answer questions and asking his help while I tried to form sentences.
• I feel that the Dynavox system needs to be reconsidered in its use as a communication tool. As of right now, Raffy does not view it as a communication device and still relies on semi-verbal, body language communication even while using the Dynavox.
  
• The home screen buttons also seem cluttered and probably needs some re-programming to make it more intuitive so that it can act as a communication aid. As of right now, Raffy mainly uses it to tell me pre-programmed jokes.
• He did, however, press the "sushi" button to say that he wanted to have that for lunch. While it did let him express this desire, I think we should work towards using the dynavox to create full sentences (ie: I want to eat sushi for lunch).
• Reading: Raff's reading skills have been more or less consistent over the past year and a half that I've been working with him. A couple of points I want to share:
• Sometimes it takes him a while to sound out a word and may just try to skip it. If I notice that, I insist that he sound out the word before moving on.
  
• I like to test his comprehension of what he just read by asking him to point out the pictures in the page
• I make it a point to provide positive reinforcement and encouragement whenever he sounds out a difficult word, or reads a complete sentence without stopping.
• The main problem that I experience while practicing literacy with Raf is his ADD tendency to stop in the middle of whatever he's doing, and talk about something else (ie: point to my shirt and ask, new?) More recently, I've tried to curve this tendency by using the keyword focus. I use it in all settings (carwash, golf job, st. joe volunteering) to re-engage his attention. I also say, let's "do a good job."
• Math: Raf's numeracy skills fluctuate to a greater degree than his literacy. We all know that he doesn't like doing math and will usually cross it out if it's written in his schedule.
• Today, we practiced the "money" page from his Canadian Curriculum work book. He is quick to identify the worth associated with each coin (quarter = 25 cents)
  
• I noticed that he is unable to correctly order coins in terms of their worth (can't place coins in order from greatest to smallest). I don't know if he is really unable to do the task, or if he simply guessed randomly to get through the math as quickly as possible... BUT, I would suggest for the next math session, to try practicing ordering activities based on size or numbers (mabe draw a tree with x number of apples per tree and ask him to order them that way)
• Playing card games with him is a sneaky way to get math lessons in. He enjoys it, and it also gives him practice with numbers while helping him in identifying shapes and colors. Tita Susan likes to use it as a "break" during academic sessions.
• After work, we played wii golf for a while, played basketball, went for a bike ride to Steveston, mailed a letter for Tita Chiqui, and had our lunch in the sushi place (I also got extra sushi for us.) We biked home and played basketball again until Mariel came.
• Mariel and Raf took the C93 to go bowling in Riverport.
  

Welcome!

Hi All!

This blog is meant to be an online resource for the family, friends, and support workers of Rafael. Inspired by the written journal system, this online version allows support staff to review Raf's numeracy/literacy progress, prepare lesson plans ahead of time, share their thoughts and ideas, and most importantly, to stay on the same page while pursuing common goals for Raffy.

The usefulness of this blog will be determined by how often we contribute and refer to it, so I'd encourage everyone to bookmark this page, contribute, and read contributions!

- Sam