Don't Laugh at Me

I just read on one of my friends blog how her son was being bullied at school. Reading about this, just breaks my heart. I think I have been lucky and haven't dealt with bulling with Isabella. Most of the time the teacher as well as Isabella report how her classmates love her and behave in a protective manner with her. There was only one time that she came home and told me some girls called her "big baby". On my Behavior and Classroom Management we had to do a case study on a student and since I am not working, I decided to do my case study on my daughter Isabella. So I acted as if I were her teacher.

Our teacher also showed us the video of this song you are hearing right now by Peter Yarrow. Peter Yarrow has been an activist against bulling for many years. Some of my classmates who are currently teachers said they showed the video to their students and got really positive reactions, some of them even cried.

In fact in my class, when the teacher showed us the video, some of my classmates were crying, and our teacher by the way who was called Dr. Charles Robinson (best teacher I ever had) said it was the first time he didn't cried as he watched the video.

So here is my case study which by the way got an A+ ;):

Case Study

Isabella is a 5 year old girl. She is the middle child of three children. She has a 7 year old sister and a 7 month old baby boy. Isabella comes from a loving, caring, and supporting immediate and extended family. Isabella was diagnosed in uterus with a severe case of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, and was born via C-Section 3 weeks earlier. During her first year of life, Isabella went through 5 surgeries summing up to a total of 10 surgeries during her 5 years of life. She is paralyzed from the waist down.


Isabella was sent to a Montessori Pre-School/Nursery at the very young age of two years old. Most of the time, she uses braces and a walker to come to school. When this is not possible for whatever reason, she needs to be carried by the teacher or teacher assistant everywhere. Isabella is a very talkative happy and sociable child. She is very well accepted by all the kids at school regardless of her differences. Although most students love her and enjoy being with her, her mom sometimes reports Isabella is being bullied by some girls. They call her “big baby” since she sometimes needs to be carried by the teacher.

In “Maternal I” teachers noticed she had a hard time learning colors. But with the support of her mom, she was able to learn colors and rapidly catch up with the rest of her classmates in her same age group.

In “Maternal II” the teacher noticed she was easily distracted and didn’t like to cooperate on painting activities. Isabella argued that it was enough of painting and that she was tired. She then wanted to engage only in activities that she was interested in.

In “Maternal III”, she became my student and I noticed she was having a hard time learning numbers and vowels. She was still easily distracted and still didn’t like painting. Her mom began practicing numbers at home with no success. Since we are a Montessori school we really don’t force kids to learn something, but we try to respect the student’s own learning pace and rhythm. I’ve also noticed that she is short for her age and sometimes have difficulty looking at materials on her desk.

Her mom then decided to meet with the school’s director to talk about Isabella’s issues. The director then decided to refer Isabella to a developmental psychologist for a complete evaluation. The evaluations revealed Isabella had an above normal intelligence with an IQ of 111. Her verbal development is under normal parameters with limitations or weaknesses in psychomotor performance, visual and auditory memory, rhythm, and attention. She was diagnosed with ADHD.

Her mom reports attending weekly learning therapies with the developmental psychologist. Then she reproduces at home the orientations given by the psychologist. According to her moms she is now recognizing numbers from 1 -11, recognizing vowels and the letter “m”, beginning the reading process, tracing numbers 1 – 8, tracing vowels, and practicing counting. Her mom also reports playing memory games with 12 cards, doing auditory and visual memory exercises, tracing letters and numbers, playing with riddles, and performing fine motor skills exercise every single day, even on weekends. In addition to this, Isabella receives daily physical and occupational therapy for 1-hour long sessions. It seems she has a very busy schedule.

Isabella was also referred to a homeopathic doctor to treat her ADHD with some remedy called Bach Flowers. Her mom shared with me that she does not believe much in the efficacy of this medicine, but that she is willing to try everything and thus has decided to administer the drops 6 times a day as recommended by the doctor.

Recently Isabella has returned to school from vacations. She is now in Pre-K and I am still her teacher. I am finding that Isabella has worked very hard with her mom during Christmas vacations. She seems to have acquired all the knowledge her mom has reported and has improved her fine motor skills significantly. This shows Isabella is not only capable of learning but also capable of paying attention to learn new things. Nevertheless, I still find it hard to deal with Isabella in the classroom. She is not able to totally concentrate on activities in the class and still only wants to engage on activities that she enjoys. I am running out of ideas on how to work with her in the classroom.

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Solutions

· First of all try to build a positive parent-teacher relationship. Communicate successes as well as concerns. Parents most often know child best and con provide better ideas that could work with Isabella in the classroom.

· Ask parent for a copy of Isabella’s complete evaluation from the developmental psychologist.

· Read books on ADHD: Distrído, Hiperactivo, Me Conoces? By: Dr. Bauermeister.

· Read books about Spina Bifida: Living with Spina Bifida: A Guide for Families and Professionals by Adrian, M.D.

· Be aware that children diagnosed with ADHD have different learning styles than the rest of students.

· Use the Montessori Method advantages; such as individualized learning, building self-esteem by allowing them to work at own pace, and availability of a variety of sensory materials to accommodate for the differences in her learning style.

· Some modifications could be made to the Montessori Method; for example, although the Montessori Method emphasizes completing tasks from beginning to end, Isabella could benefit from breaking long tasks into smaller parts.

· Focus more on Isabella’s abilities rather than her disabilities. Use strengths to enhance learning by taking advantage of Montessori Techniques and multi-sensory materials.

· Ask parent to provide a booster seat and slant board/easel for better posture and positioning when writing, reading, or manipulating materials.

· When reading books to the class, try to include books about children with physical disabilities to deal with bullies. Some recommendations: Susan laughs by: Jeanne Willis; Ballerina Dreams by Lauren Thompson.

References:

1. Debbie Salter Goodwin, “Empowering Your Child Who has Special Needs”, 2006
2. Lauren Thompson, “Ballerina Dreams a True Story” 2007
3. U.S. Census Bureau. "ADHD Behavior Modification Techniques: Montessori." [Online] 3 May 2002.