Special Ed

Back!!

fweep2 — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:19:04 +0000

Fweep is back after a long absence and has now found a new home at Area 51 Education – a new education and training centre for people with severe and complex learning difficulties in Haringey, North London. You can find out more about Area 51 by clicking here.

To start us off again, here is a great site with a range of interesting ideas and DIY projects for switch-based activities – have a look at www.oneswitch.org.uk. I am especially liking the DIY switch toys!

Thanks to Geoff Harback’s post on the SENIT list for posting the link to One Switch!

Transitions do Nickelback – video editing

fweep2 — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:21:39 +0000

A fun post, just to show some of the things possible with a video camera and some willing performers. Our SLD group produced this film using iMovie, the Nickelback song on MP3 and a video camera – not quite sure where the hats came from, they just seemed to appear!!

You can watch it here!

Cri du Chat Syndrome (CDCS)

fweep2 — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:06:37 +0000

CDCS was discovered in 1963 by a French geneticist called Jerome Lejaune. It is quite a rare syndrome, affecting around 1: 50,000 births. CDCS is characterised by a high-pitched cat-like cry that is present in newborns, although it almost always disappears with age.

Children with CDCS are usually developmentally-delayed, and will fall into either moderate or severe learning difficulties categories by the time they reach school-age. There is some evidence of a slightly different form of CDCS, which has similar physical features but does not cause learning difficulties. Physical features of CDCS include lowered ears, downward slanting eyes and only a single crease on the palms of the hands.

The most significant difficulties for children and adults with CDCS are speech and language, sleep disruption and behaviour.

Speech & Language – expressive communication is delayed and does not fully develop in some CDCS children. In most children, verbal communication is usually quite good, however. They show good comprehension (which is significantly higher than their expressive capabilities would indicate), and usually adapt well to alternative methods, e.g. sign and symbol use.
Sleep disruptions – a large number of children with CDCS show disrupted sleep patterns, usually waking repeatedly throughout the night.
Behaviour – children with CDCS can show aggressive and disruptive behaviour, and hyperactivity. This may be linked to sleep problems.

Other commonly linked difficulties with CDCS include proneness to constipation and respiratory / ear infections; most CDCS children will have lower muscle tone than usual.

This website gives a brief and clear overview of the syndrome, and also shows the development of Stephen from newborn to 20, through a diary kept by his mum.

You can also find out more at the UK CDCS support group

Common Knowledge

fweep2 — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:34:10 +0000

In reading an article by Seale (2007), i have come across this site “Common Knowledge”. They are based in Glasgow and have done some work with adults with learning difficulties around accessing the internet to tell people about themselves and their lives. I havent quite worked out how you reach the personal web pages as yet, however, it is a nicely presented site which demonstrates some good principles of organising and presenting information in an accessible format. It shows what is possible when you are not restrained by organisational network policies as many of us are within schools and colleges!!!

Blog of the hour..

fweep2 — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:34:22 +0000

edublogs have this site listed today, as one of the sites of the hour, and i agree! Its got lots of downloadable / interactive resources, grouped by curriculum area, some of which have good application to special education. I’m putting the blog site in my links down belw, but here it is in case you are desperately keen to get there and cant wait to scroll down the page!

Free resources from the Net blog

Also, one of the links i explored is below – a page of freeware software for PC, Mac, Linux etc that teach basic skills.

Basic Skills software

Animation 3…

fweep2 — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:02:59 +0000

I came across this video, seemingly produced as part of an e-twinning project between special schools, which i really like the sound of! Because our students are in and out at different times, we’ve struggled to get any kind of “e” project up and running, although i would love to give our students the chance to meet, virutally, others from around the world. Anyone out there who’s interested. please get in touch!!

Anyway, i really liked the animation and am going to show my ICT students this clip to get them going on their own animation projects this year!! Have a look..

Animation Shorts:

Drum Crazy

fweep2 — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:42:27 +0000

I like this too – a lnk to a drum web blog, featuring some work done at a SLD school

Drummers

A parent’s blogsite

fweep2 — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:38:40 +0000

Hi all,

“Parenting a Special Needs Child”

This site belongs to a parent with a son with complex needs. The site itself is quite interesting, but the most recent video post really cracked me up – it certainly rang some bells here!!

PKU – what is it?

fweep2 — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 21:19:37 +0000

PKU stands for Phenylketonuria, a rare genetic disorder which affects a persons ability to convert certain amino acids in their body. The unconverted amino acids are toxic to the central nervous system, and result in brain damage, epilepsy and other problems.

If children with PKU are identified within the first few weeks of life, they can be placed on a special diet that eliminates proteins. This prevents the occurence of brain damage and allows the child to develop normally. Undiagnosed children develop severe learning difficulties.

There seems to be evidence to suggest that symptoms of PKU will be reduced if a strict diet is followed, even for adults who have been diagnosed late in life andhave already suffered neurological damage. Most of the benefits seem to be around behaviour and immunity to disease. There is some suggestion that a mild form of PKU may cause similar symptoms to ADHD / ADD, resulting in possible mis-diagnosis.

Find out more on PKU here…

New Look…

fweep2 — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:29:38 +0000

I hope you find the new look easier to manage. I had some feedback that it was hard to read some of the text in the side bar boxes, so i’ve changed themes to this one.

The header image is taken from work by Kevin Chettle, an artist who has illustrated his experiences in a long-stay hospital – i think they’re brilliant!! You can see all of them by clicking here