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| Scott Robertson elementary school
teacher Rae Finlayson appears to be wearing a halo of yellow fibre-optic
wires, part of a high-tech roomused to help calm students with
severe special needs. |
| CREDIT: Brian Gavriloff, the Journal |
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| Five-year-old Elise wears a tight
hug-vest that helps her be more aware of her body. |
| CREDIT: Brian Gavriloff, the Journal |
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| Kids can burn off excess energy
while class is in progress by using a rubber band attached to the
bottom of the chair to stretch their legs. |
| CREDIT: Brian Gavriloff, The Journal |
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| Nine-year-old Maclean Samis is
allowed to get up and move around as he needs to while the class
is in progress. A specialized rubber cushion accommodates his
wiggling when he sits down. |
| CREDIT: Brian Gavriloff, the Journal |
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| Janice Murphy with her bottle buddy,
which she carries between classes. |
| CREDIT: Brian Gavriloff, The Journal |
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EDMONTON - Maclean Samis is allowed to chew gum in class.
He also sits on a special rubber cushion that allows him to wiggle on
the spot without being too distracting.
And when everyone else is sitting quietly at their desks, the
nine-year-old is allowed to stand up and work.
For Maclean, who can't stop moving, special sensory strategies have
helped him focus on his Grade 4 studies at Scott Robertson elementary
school at 135th Avenue and 107th Street. Without the gum, Maclean says he
would chew away all the erasers on his pencils.
While the techniques are particularly helpful for kids with special
needs, more and more teachers are starting to integrate the ideas into
regular classes where kids have typically been told to fold their hands,
sit still and pay attention during storytime.
"In general, we think kids and adults are paying attention to us if
they're looking at us and they're not wiggling or fidgeting," said Rae
Finlayson, who oversees Scott Robertson's outreach program for special
needs kids when they head back to their community schools for
kindergarten. "But as adults, we've learned that there's a lot of us who
don't sit still."
She says she pays more attention in meetings when she doodles on her
papers. If she has no outlet for her fidgets, her mind wanders to shopping
lists and evening plans.
Other people twirl their hair, lean back on their chairs or bounce
their crossed legs -- all signs that people are trying to stay on task,
Finlayson said.
"They need constant movement in order to pay attention," she said. "For
a kid with ADHD (attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder), the more
wiggly they get, the more annoying they are for the teacher. But that's a
clue to us that they are actually trying to attend and pay
attention."
In a society where computers and PlayStations rule the roost, kids are
spending less time releasing pent-up energy at the neighbourhood park.
Even processed food takes less energy to digest, Finlayson said.
All those kids are piling into classrooms, creating frenetic
atmospheres that are sometimes difficult to manage.
"We live in a society where we don't have to move," she said. "But
physiologically, we still need movement."
As a result, the sensory motor approach can help every child. While
Scott Robertson school has a special, high-tech room to calm kids with
severe special needs -- a room filled with fibre-optics, bubble tubes, a
TV screen that mutates from one colour to another and a waterbed through
which kids can feel musical vibrations -- more everyday sensory techniques
can be used in every school.
Students in Heather Johnson's pre-kindergarten class lug "hallway
buddies" -- two-litre pop bottles filled with coloured water and sparkles
-- from class to class to get their large muscles working. That calms them
down during storytime.
Some students in the school slip on heavy backpacks during walks down
the hallway or even pull boxes full of binders behind them after they get
off the bus and shrug off their boots at the entrance.
"We've got to keep their bodies busy," Finlayson said. "The kids that
need it certainly perform much better after."
The Grade 3 teacher keeps a store of suckers and candies in her desk
and hands them out before tests. That gets blood rushing to the muscles in
the mouth which, in turn, feeds the brain and stimulates the cerebellum.
A student in Grade 1 is allowed to use a rocking chair after teachers
found it calmed him. The motion counteracted his hypersensitivity to
airplanes flying overhead, kids walking down the hallway and music classes
four doors down.
Kids in Jeni Kingston's high-needs class are all allowed to play with
fidget toys during circle time, like the tiny white rabbit that Elise, 5,
is petting or the squishy ball hidden in a pouch hanging from Kyle's neck.
He sits on a special peanut-shaped ball and wears a tight hug-vest,
which helps him be more aware of his body. Justin balances on a one-legged
stool to work his large muscles. Another student, rather than kicking his
legs noisily, winds his foot into a blue rubber band tied to the bottom of
his chair.
And everyone makes sour faces when Kingston hands out bright, tart gum
balls. "It will wake your mouth up," she said to them. "We're going to
shake our sillies out."
Throughout the rest of the class, quiet smacking noises -- rather than
interruptive outbursts -- fill the air.
"Without the stuff we use at circle time, there is no way the kids
would be able to concentrate or feel comfortable in their bodies,"
Kingston said, adding that if it weren't possible, she "couldn't imagine
this classroom working."
"Teachers need to be creative in how to integrate this in their
classrooms."
Carrie Riddle, an occupational therapist at the school, said she knows
a high school teacher who installed a bar across a classroom doorway so
that teenage students could swing into class and work off a bit of steam
before hitting the books. Other teachers are giving out candies or gum
just before tests to improve results.
No formal studies in Canada have proven that hypothesis, but Finlayson
said American researchers are studying whether students succeed more in
classrooms where kids can fidget, chew gum or use sensory techniques.
Finlayson, who has presented her ideas at teachers' conferences, said
she would like all schools to implement sensory strategies like those in
Scott Robertson. Her school has 100 special needs kids in pre-kindergarten
and kindergarten classes, but there are 150 other kids who are also
experimenting with the techniques.
Something as simple as having students stretch out, or do pushups or
sit-ups after 20 minutes of studying, can really help them focus -- and
even gets them to be more physically active.
"It doesn't totally get rid of the behaviours they are having, but it
definitely allows them to be a lot calmer in the class," Finlayson said.
"Being proactive will save (the teacher) 20 minutes of grief at the end of
the day, when the kids are just off the wall."
jsinnema@thejournal.canwest.com
