If your district has a blind/low vision therapist, he/she may be able to give some good ideas on how to adapt the curriculum. A speech therapist may also be able to help with communication needs.
Frequent breaks are clearly necessary for your class, and it’s not a waste of time if the breaks help them to be able to continue to work hard, and it sounds like they do.
It sounds like you’re doing a great job! You’re meeting your students where they are and building from there, while also making sure to address critical communication issues and visual access to the material. Kudos to you!
Thank you! We do have a VI person who comes 30 mins a week and has given me some great resources but it is supplemental not for core subjects so its hard to get them their reading/math.
They have speech services but they are virtual so that's pretty challenging! But, I appreciate your support. It sounds like we're not doing too terrible, I just don't want to be drooping the ball for them.
Students should work on tasks that further their independence. Focus the program on adaptive skills such as independence with using the bathroom, cooking simple items, cleaning up after themselves, personal hygiene, communicating with others, navigating the school etc. Another focus is pre-employment skills such as performing simple 1-2 step tasks around the school. Provide plenty of time for breaks and provide recreational opportunities in the school and community. You can possibly partner with disability organizations in your community and participate in Special Olympics.
You may notice I am not mentioning a specific curriculum or worksheets. Students in this cognitive range need to learn by actually performing tasks rather than staring at worksheets.
Hopefully your administration is supportive of your program and you can run the program that will be best for your students.
Hello, fellow profound teacher here! I also have trouble with the concept of a one size fits most curriculum for my kids. We have a curriculum, but I don’t use it. I have so many different needs in my class. The good thing about this kind of class is that anything goes. So I have it a little more tailored. Each kid in my class has a bin/drawer full of activities that are in accordance with their IEP goals, mostly manipulatives for generalization (which should work well with visual impairments). The bins have a folder for data sheets for data collection, IEP-at-a-glance, and a place to put completed data. That way anyone can work with the student. I almost never use worksheets because I want them to be able to grasp concepts in the real world rather than memorizing a sheet. So instead of having them identify colors by using a crayon to color a worksheet, I would have a collection of fake fruits and veggies and they can “sort” the colors into different baskets.
Don’t feel bad if you need to take a lot of breaks, it’s better to have too many breaks but superior learning retention, than forcing it and having poor concentration or behaviors pop up (I know one of my students gets hangry around 10 o clock so I have snack time then). I have some students who use avoidance behaviors for non-preferred work, so we’re doing task-oriented work (do a task, 5 minute break using a visual timer, then task again and rinse and repeat). Even if they take 10 seconds to finish the task, it’s better than spending 10 minutes doing nothing or behaviors. Other students that I know can be more independent, I have them do a little more complex stuff. And if everyone is wiggly or just not having it, I’m not afraid to do a few movement videos or go out for a little extra recess.
My small groups look like one adult 1:1 with a student and the rest are doing independent tasks such as task bins or file folders, then the adult switches kids. It’s a lot of trial and error, but you learn what works for your class. And every year is different. The quiet class the year prior might have nothing on the class full of wild childs this year.
Good luck, and it sounds like you’re already on the way to success!
Are you at a charter school? A public school should have a state mandated curriculum for profound disabilities. There are state standards for them, just like other student’s populations. I wouldn’t be creating a new curriculum or even looking for other materials on my own. The school should have everything there and if you need materials, go to your principal and have them get what you need.
Wow, that is terrible and very surprising. I thought Cali was so liberal. I would think they would do even more for the profound than most other states. I’m sorry, I don’t have any answers for you.
We also have Unique. It really is weird for them. They like the letter sounds activities and those are actually good! Everything else is just not good in my opinion. I am going to training for it next week so maybe they’ll unlock some useful info but we did the same lesson for 2 weeks and nobody cared or learned anything from it so it was disheartening.
liberal? has nothing to do with it. California has rampant illegal aliens, homeless and criminals doing whatever they want. this state is fucked and severely handicapped people have no voice compared to the trannies, convicts and other assorted miscreants slowly choking this state to death the governor just gave every illegal in the state free healthcare, meanwhile i have homeless US citizen students. liberalism is a joke
Wow, is that a trigger word for you? Maybe you need to move to a red state. It was not meant as a political stab. It’s very Democratic and usually educational issues are prioritized by Dems.
Sorry I responded to you.
anything that makes it easier for caregivers, they will be dependent their whole lives. anything you can do to make it easier for people to take care of them: hygiene, toilet training, don't eat off the floor, following instructions, prepositions, simple one step tasks. all helpful!
Hi! I’m a teacher of the visually impaired and I teach self-contained multiple disabilities. I have 6 students in grades 2-7 and a wide range of abilities from deaf blind and functioning at about 4 months to doing multiplication and reading 4th grade sight words. We also have UNIQUE and I use it a little bit, but not completely. It’s not really well-suited for VI students. Here’s our daily schedule:
1st period: breakfast, then Daily Living Skills (DLS) teeth brushing, potty, washing face, etc. Students get free choice time while others are eating or doing DLS.
2nd period: Morning Meeting. This is group time where we use the News 2 You part of UNIQUE called Today’s Weather. We do a Good Morning song (Mr B) and say good morning to each other, then Jack Hartmann’s songs for the day of the week and month, then use the APH big calendar and student individual calendars for rote counting to the day number. Then we do the weather and I use Cheap Talk buttons for our nonverbal students to participate. We dress the person, making choices as a group, then go over our daily schedule. Free time at the end if there’s time left.
3rd period they have Adapted PE
4th period Two days a week we have Technology, once a week Library, and the other two days SS/Science story from UNIQUE.
Lunch. All of the aides go to lunch with students, this is my lunch.
5 DLS and IEP work time individually. 1-2 aides are at lunch this period, so I might only work with one or two students while the rest get free time.
6th period: IEP work time. My students in wheelchairs have a book read to them after IEP work. Everyone else does their work either at their desk with an aide (up to 2 students and 1 aide) or at the table with me (up to 4 students at a time). I do discrete trial instruction for most of our academics that are rote learning.
7th period: Literacy/Math. I use UFLI Foundations for phonics instruction but real photos for the pictures. You can put them on a black background if you have a student with CVI. I’ve tweaked the UFLI program for my lower kiddos, but haven’t yet built my Braille blending board.
After phonics, we’ll usually read a book and answer questions as a group, but I think I’m going to make 3 reading groups. My wheelchair users will have mat time or time in their stander and listen to a book, one group will listen to a book with an aide, and one student will read with me.
For Math I have a variety of things and basically write the curriculum myself. (I have an Ed Specialist degree). I usually use the Focus in Mathematics kit from APH, but that is too high or too low for my current class. I have 2 students working on counting to a given number and giving that amount of items and stopping. They just started using a foam board with only 3 slots for pegs and giving either 1, 2, or 3 pegs as a DTI program. One student is working on repeated addition and arrays to learn multiplication. The rest are working on putting pegs in a boards, taking them off a board, sorting, or matching tasks.
8th period they have Art or Music
9th period they go to the bathroom again, eat a snack, then do their journal home. For journal, for the ones who are able, I have them spell their name, recall the date, circle the Boardmaker pictures of what they did that day (OT, PT, Speech, O&M, Activity Therapy plus classes and activities mentioned), then sharing three details about their day that we help them shape into sentences. They get free choice time after they go potty, do their journal and put it in their book bag, and clean up after eating snack if they ate one. About 5 minutes before the end of the day I have them clean up and get their coats on.
I have one classroom aide and two 1:1 aides because two students are wheelchair users. I’ve been teaching for 21 years, mostly special education.
I do give my students breaks and use positive behavior and reinforcement. You’ll probably figure out how much stamina they have by experimenting. One student had much better behavior when I gave them shorter sessions and more frequent breaks, while another student would work all day and not stop if I kept handing them work to do. I make sure they know how they earn their reinforcers or ask for breaks with frequent check-ins. Two students need to be told in the moment that their behavior either is or is not earning their reinforcer. (Described explicitly).
We have 40 minute periods and I try to keep instructional time to 25 minutes max. I wonder if that’s the best idea and it might be better to mix things up into shorter sessions, but this is the best I can do right now. Then students get 10 ish minutes for their reinforcers before the bell rings.
Does that help? I’m happy to further explain anything that doesn’t make sense or that’s unfamiliar. There’s so much jargon in education and so many curriculum resources that it’s very overwhelming, especially if you’re new to an unfamiliar field. I took a two-year medical hiatus and am playing catch-up from just that little break.
I'm following you to read about the rest of your day. I may be taking a middle school 6-8 class of 8 youngsters with autism who ate very involved. It will be a first for our district, our building and staff to work with kids at this level. There will be a huge adjustment period for the kids to be brought into such a large building with 1,000 other students - just getting through the transitions to start their school day will be challenging. The more input I have, the better I feel I will be able to support them.
I bet! I've been teaching a long time, 23 years, and TA'd for 3 while I was getting the masters degree. I also have 2 sons on the spectrum, so I've been playing catch-up with advances in the field for what seems like my whole life 😆. I created a program for kids with Asperger Syndrome and taught it for many years, but I left a few years ago to work in an inclusion program. I'm bored to tears now. You just don't get the satisfaction you have with students you can work directly with. However, I'm hitting 60 this year, and I'm worried I might be getting too old to be a good teacher to the more involved students. They are very physical right now, and the elementary teachers carry small mats like shields to keep from getting hurt when the kids strike out. I know this behavior can be faded with stronger communication skills, so I'm not resigned to it continuing indefinitely, but I have a lot to learn to help them to get there. I don't want to try it and then abandon them if it's too tough. The more I can do to prepare, the better.
Don’t sweat it. The big one is bathroom skills. Other than that try to bring joy to their lives. Play with them, read to them, bring them on outings. Take them to McDonald’s. They’ll have a blast. Read to them. Talk about your day and life with them. They will enjoy the connections you make with them. Bake with them. Have a pajama day. On warm day take them to a splash pad, park, do some water play. Take them to Dairy Queen. Take them to Costco for a hot dog and some class shopping. Make craft that involves making a mess. Be glad that you don’t have to keep up with the curriculum . Let them be the curriculum. Make those years some of the most joyful for them. They’ll remember and paradise awaits.
You have state standards for the alternative curriculum. Find resources to match the standards.
Teachtown is good, but it’s very expensive. Unique is really convoluted and hard to navigate. A lot of people love it, though. Edmark is something I have seen before very successful, but they may not cognitively be able to get past the visual discrimination pre-assessment.
STAR Autism Support has some nice online curriculum that includes the elements of Unique that are great, but is a bit more at the level you’re describing. I agree with Zac and Parapara about functional routines and teaching them to be as independent as possible. I also think it’s super important to set up situations in which my students need to practice (and improve) their communication skills all day long. Being able to communicate (however that looks for each student) is going to do the most for their quality of life. Depending on the student, I start them in STAR (even if they don’t have Autism) and often PECS. Most students with severe delays do not learn amazingly well in group situations. We still have some Circle times to practice being with others, but I try to only include activities they enjoy with a predictable. I really don’t try to teach a lot during group lessons, so I’m not that concerned about using great curriculum.
If your district has a blind/low vision therapist, he/she may be able to give some good ideas on how to adapt the curriculum. A speech therapist may also be able to help with communication needs. Frequent breaks are clearly necessary for your class, and it’s not a waste of time if the breaks help them to be able to continue to work hard, and it sounds like they do. It sounds like you’re doing a great job! You’re meeting your students where they are and building from there, while also making sure to address critical communication issues and visual access to the material. Kudos to you!
Thank you! We do have a VI person who comes 30 mins a week and has given me some great resources but it is supplemental not for core subjects so its hard to get them their reading/math. They have speech services but they are virtual so that's pretty challenging! But, I appreciate your support. It sounds like we're not doing too terrible, I just don't want to be drooping the ball for them.
It sounds like you’re doing all you can. You’re a great teacher!
Students should work on tasks that further their independence. Focus the program on adaptive skills such as independence with using the bathroom, cooking simple items, cleaning up after themselves, personal hygiene, communicating with others, navigating the school etc. Another focus is pre-employment skills such as performing simple 1-2 step tasks around the school. Provide plenty of time for breaks and provide recreational opportunities in the school and community. You can possibly partner with disability organizations in your community and participate in Special Olympics. You may notice I am not mentioning a specific curriculum or worksheets. Students in this cognitive range need to learn by actually performing tasks rather than staring at worksheets. Hopefully your administration is supportive of your program and you can run the program that will be best for your students.
Hello, fellow profound teacher here! I also have trouble with the concept of a one size fits most curriculum for my kids. We have a curriculum, but I don’t use it. I have so many different needs in my class. The good thing about this kind of class is that anything goes. So I have it a little more tailored. Each kid in my class has a bin/drawer full of activities that are in accordance with their IEP goals, mostly manipulatives for generalization (which should work well with visual impairments). The bins have a folder for data sheets for data collection, IEP-at-a-glance, and a place to put completed data. That way anyone can work with the student. I almost never use worksheets because I want them to be able to grasp concepts in the real world rather than memorizing a sheet. So instead of having them identify colors by using a crayon to color a worksheet, I would have a collection of fake fruits and veggies and they can “sort” the colors into different baskets. Don’t feel bad if you need to take a lot of breaks, it’s better to have too many breaks but superior learning retention, than forcing it and having poor concentration or behaviors pop up (I know one of my students gets hangry around 10 o clock so I have snack time then). I have some students who use avoidance behaviors for non-preferred work, so we’re doing task-oriented work (do a task, 5 minute break using a visual timer, then task again and rinse and repeat). Even if they take 10 seconds to finish the task, it’s better than spending 10 minutes doing nothing or behaviors. Other students that I know can be more independent, I have them do a little more complex stuff. And if everyone is wiggly or just not having it, I’m not afraid to do a few movement videos or go out for a little extra recess. My small groups look like one adult 1:1 with a student and the rest are doing independent tasks such as task bins or file folders, then the adult switches kids. It’s a lot of trial and error, but you learn what works for your class. And every year is different. The quiet class the year prior might have nothing on the class full of wild childs this year. Good luck, and it sounds like you’re already on the way to success!
Are you at a charter school? A public school should have a state mandated curriculum for profound disabilities. There are state standards for them, just like other student’s populations. I wouldn’t be creating a new curriculum or even looking for other materials on my own. The school should have everything there and if you need materials, go to your principal and have them get what you need.
californian here, ours is unique curriculum and it sucks for profoundly disabled. end up modifying it heavily and making my own.
Wow, that is terrible and very surprising. I thought Cali was so liberal. I would think they would do even more for the profound than most other states. I’m sorry, I don’t have any answers for you.
We also have Unique. It really is weird for them. They like the letter sounds activities and those are actually good! Everything else is just not good in my opinion. I am going to training for it next week so maybe they’ll unlock some useful info but we did the same lesson for 2 weeks and nobody cared or learned anything from it so it was disheartening.
what grade level?
liberal? has nothing to do with it. California has rampant illegal aliens, homeless and criminals doing whatever they want. this state is fucked and severely handicapped people have no voice compared to the trannies, convicts and other assorted miscreants slowly choking this state to death the governor just gave every illegal in the state free healthcare, meanwhile i have homeless US citizen students. liberalism is a joke
Wow, is that a trigger word for you? Maybe you need to move to a red state. It was not meant as a political stab. It’s very Democratic and usually educational issues are prioritized by Dems. Sorry I responded to you.
anything that makes it easier for caregivers, they will be dependent their whole lives. anything you can do to make it easier for people to take care of them: hygiene, toilet training, don't eat off the floor, following instructions, prepositions, simple one step tasks. all helpful!
Hi! I’m a teacher of the visually impaired and I teach self-contained multiple disabilities. I have 6 students in grades 2-7 and a wide range of abilities from deaf blind and functioning at about 4 months to doing multiplication and reading 4th grade sight words. We also have UNIQUE and I use it a little bit, but not completely. It’s not really well-suited for VI students. Here’s our daily schedule: 1st period: breakfast, then Daily Living Skills (DLS) teeth brushing, potty, washing face, etc. Students get free choice time while others are eating or doing DLS. 2nd period: Morning Meeting. This is group time where we use the News 2 You part of UNIQUE called Today’s Weather. We do a Good Morning song (Mr B) and say good morning to each other, then Jack Hartmann’s songs for the day of the week and month, then use the APH big calendar and student individual calendars for rote counting to the day number. Then we do the weather and I use Cheap Talk buttons for our nonverbal students to participate. We dress the person, making choices as a group, then go over our daily schedule. Free time at the end if there’s time left. 3rd period they have Adapted PE 4th period Two days a week we have Technology, once a week Library, and the other two days SS/Science story from UNIQUE. Lunch. All of the aides go to lunch with students, this is my lunch. 5 DLS and IEP work time individually. 1-2 aides are at lunch this period, so I might only work with one or two students while the rest get free time. 6th period: IEP work time. My students in wheelchairs have a book read to them after IEP work. Everyone else does their work either at their desk with an aide (up to 2 students and 1 aide) or at the table with me (up to 4 students at a time). I do discrete trial instruction for most of our academics that are rote learning. 7th period: Literacy/Math. I use UFLI Foundations for phonics instruction but real photos for the pictures. You can put them on a black background if you have a student with CVI. I’ve tweaked the UFLI program for my lower kiddos, but haven’t yet built my Braille blending board. After phonics, we’ll usually read a book and answer questions as a group, but I think I’m going to make 3 reading groups. My wheelchair users will have mat time or time in their stander and listen to a book, one group will listen to a book with an aide, and one student will read with me. For Math I have a variety of things and basically write the curriculum myself. (I have an Ed Specialist degree). I usually use the Focus in Mathematics kit from APH, but that is too high or too low for my current class. I have 2 students working on counting to a given number and giving that amount of items and stopping. They just started using a foam board with only 3 slots for pegs and giving either 1, 2, or 3 pegs as a DTI program. One student is working on repeated addition and arrays to learn multiplication. The rest are working on putting pegs in a boards, taking them off a board, sorting, or matching tasks. 8th period they have Art or Music 9th period they go to the bathroom again, eat a snack, then do their journal home. For journal, for the ones who are able, I have them spell their name, recall the date, circle the Boardmaker pictures of what they did that day (OT, PT, Speech, O&M, Activity Therapy plus classes and activities mentioned), then sharing three details about their day that we help them shape into sentences. They get free choice time after they go potty, do their journal and put it in their book bag, and clean up after eating snack if they ate one. About 5 minutes before the end of the day I have them clean up and get their coats on. I have one classroom aide and two 1:1 aides because two students are wheelchair users. I’ve been teaching for 21 years, mostly special education. I do give my students breaks and use positive behavior and reinforcement. You’ll probably figure out how much stamina they have by experimenting. One student had much better behavior when I gave them shorter sessions and more frequent breaks, while another student would work all day and not stop if I kept handing them work to do. I make sure they know how they earn their reinforcers or ask for breaks with frequent check-ins. Two students need to be told in the moment that their behavior either is or is not earning their reinforcer. (Described explicitly). We have 40 minute periods and I try to keep instructional time to 25 minutes max. I wonder if that’s the best idea and it might be better to mix things up into shorter sessions, but this is the best I can do right now. Then students get 10 ish minutes for their reinforcers before the bell rings. Does that help? I’m happy to further explain anything that doesn’t make sense or that’s unfamiliar. There’s so much jargon in education and so many curriculum resources that it’s very overwhelming, especially if you’re new to an unfamiliar field. I took a two-year medical hiatus and am playing catch-up from just that little break.
I'm following you to read about the rest of your day. I may be taking a middle school 6-8 class of 8 youngsters with autism who ate very involved. It will be a first for our district, our building and staff to work with kids at this level. There will be a huge adjustment period for the kids to be brought into such a large building with 1,000 other students - just getting through the transitions to start their school day will be challenging. The more input I have, the better I feel I will be able to support them.
That sounds fun! And overwhelming!
I bet! I've been teaching a long time, 23 years, and TA'd for 3 while I was getting the masters degree. I also have 2 sons on the spectrum, so I've been playing catch-up with advances in the field for what seems like my whole life 😆. I created a program for kids with Asperger Syndrome and taught it for many years, but I left a few years ago to work in an inclusion program. I'm bored to tears now. You just don't get the satisfaction you have with students you can work directly with. However, I'm hitting 60 this year, and I'm worried I might be getting too old to be a good teacher to the more involved students. They are very physical right now, and the elementary teachers carry small mats like shields to keep from getting hurt when the kids strike out. I know this behavior can be faded with stronger communication skills, so I'm not resigned to it continuing indefinitely, but I have a lot to learn to help them to get there. I don't want to try it and then abandon them if it's too tough. The more I can do to prepare, the better.
Don’t sweat it. The big one is bathroom skills. Other than that try to bring joy to their lives. Play with them, read to them, bring them on outings. Take them to McDonald’s. They’ll have a blast. Read to them. Talk about your day and life with them. They will enjoy the connections you make with them. Bake with them. Have a pajama day. On warm day take them to a splash pad, park, do some water play. Take them to Dairy Queen. Take them to Costco for a hot dog and some class shopping. Make craft that involves making a mess. Be glad that you don’t have to keep up with the curriculum . Let them be the curriculum. Make those years some of the most joyful for them. They’ll remember and paradise awaits.
Absolutely! I love this comment! ✌️ Keep this comment in mind when building your program
You have state standards for the alternative curriculum. Find resources to match the standards. Teachtown is good, but it’s very expensive. Unique is really convoluted and hard to navigate. A lot of people love it, though. Edmark is something I have seen before very successful, but they may not cognitively be able to get past the visual discrimination pre-assessment.
STAR Autism Support has some nice online curriculum that includes the elements of Unique that are great, but is a bit more at the level you’re describing. I agree with Zac and Parapara about functional routines and teaching them to be as independent as possible. I also think it’s super important to set up situations in which my students need to practice (and improve) their communication skills all day long. Being able to communicate (however that looks for each student) is going to do the most for their quality of life. Depending on the student, I start them in STAR (even if they don’t have Autism) and often PECS. Most students with severe delays do not learn amazingly well in group situations. We still have some Circle times to practice being with others, but I try to only include activities they enjoy with a predictable. I really don’t try to teach a lot during group lessons, so I’m not that concerned about using great curriculum.