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Lesson Plans


Re:paraplegic student

From: Melissa Enderle (melissa)
Date: Wed Aug 23 2000 - 02:28:58 PDT

  • Next message: sudz: "Re: new teacher.....5-8th grades"

    >Hi everybody,
    >Today I received a paraplegic student. He arrived with an aide. He cannot
    >speak and has no use of his limbs. She said he was there at the request of
    >his father for socialization. This is a high school class with mostly 9th
    >graders. Have any of you ever had this situation? I had a few minutes to
    >prepare the kids. I told them that although he didn't have use of his body
    >he could still think and hear and that they could talk to him and smile. Any
    >suggestions.
    >susie
    >
    >---

    Susie,
    How long has the aide worked with the student? I guess what I'm
    trying to say is, does he/she know what the student CAN do? Has
    anyone spoken to the parents regarding what he can do? I have worked
    with students who have no control of the four limbs, but can operate
    a computer through their head. That is, a switch is placed in an
    optimal position such as near one of the student's ears. Through the
    use of the switch and what is called scanning, the student can select
    things or commands on the computer, such as the paint bucket in a
    painting program, the forward button on an art appreciation program,
    etc. Typing can even be done this way - all with pressing a single
    switch. Does he have some sort of communication aide? Can he
    communicate through his eye gaze? The big challenge with kids with
    severe physical disabilities (I don't know what his cognitive levels
    are) is how to find out what they CAN do and how to work around
    challenges to utilize those abilities. I do have a CD that I made as
    part of my thesis research project that looks at the role of
    assistive technology in the area of art, orienting art teachers to
    what is out there for kids in art who have severe physical
    disabilities. If interested, email me and we can work things out. 

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                    |          Melissa Enderle         |
                  /)|       melissa       |(\
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              __(  (  art teacher/ adaptive art   /_)   ) )__
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Melissa Enderle
melissa

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