As you viewed the video, Inclusion, you heard the teachers discuss strategies that they use when working with children with disabilities. You also saw examples of adaptations they used to fully include all the children. When you reviewed the CARA’s Kit handout you learned about the continuum of approaches for providing adaptations to include children. These strategies, starting from the least restrictive approach to more restrictive approaches. The steps on the continuum included adaptations to the environment, activity, materials, instruction or assistance.
When one of my son’s was young, he was treated for a lazy eye. He received eye glasses and patches and his vision improved. Or so we thought! By the time he reached third grade he was starting to be frustrated in school. He struggled with written work. So we had him assessed and discovered he was three years delayed in fine motor skills and still had some vision issues. We found a good eye doctor and made the necessary adjustments. He did not qualify for an IEP, yet his teacher made accommodations in her class to support his vision issues. Since third grade was the time to learn cursive writing, this was a struggle. His teacher made an adjustment to his activities. While the other children might practice a page of cursive S, he only need to practice two lines of cursive S. His adaptations included changes to activity (his cursive writing assignments) and materials – his eyeglasses. He received bifocals and prisms in his glasses which improved his vision.
In my father-in-law’s final years, he lived with Parkinson’s disease. This disease affects motor skills. Over the years he used many materials to help him manage his life. He used a cane and later a wheel chair. He used a grab stick to help him pick up items from the floor. He used a special tool to help him pull on his socks. These are examples of materials that he used to assist in his daily living.
This post has three parts.
First, select two adaptations you observed (see my examples above) in the video and answer the following questions for each adaptation:
Describe the adaptation you observed.
Identify if the adaptation was for environment, activity, materials, instruction or assistance.
Second, think about adaptations you have observed in schools, in your family or in your own life. Describe those adaptations and identify the level on the CARA’s Kit continuum
Third, generally we want to start with the least restrictive adaptations whenever possible. Reflect on why it is important to use the least restrictive practices.