Transitions: Basic PowerPoint AT



Transitions are the simplest effect you can apply to your activity. They can help increase engagement by providing visual and auditory input. It isn’t tricky, but for students needing this additional feedback to stay engaged, it can make a big difference.
For example, you can draw a student’s attention to a page turning in an adapted book by adding a chime sound and a visual page turn. The effects take on even more importance if a book is set to play automatically for a child lacking physical skills to activate page turns.
Or you can quickly create a simple cause-effect activity by making slides of various solid colors and adding a variety of visual transition and sound effects. This can be activated by touch screen or switch. Feel free to download this Cause-Effect sample activity to reinforce mouse clicks or switch hits.
On the other hand, you can reduce input by using a slow automatic transition through a quiet black screen for a momentary pause between questions. This can help students with cognitive challenges or ones who are easily overstimulated.

Transitions are added through the Animations Ribbon

Transitions are easy to add. Click the Animations tab (1) in the toolbar to pull down the ribbon. Select the visual and auditory effects (2) you want to happen when this slide appears. You can also click the “apply to all” button to have every slide launch with this effect if you like.
In Advance Slide box (3), the last on the ribbon, you can set the slides to advance with a mouse click/keystroke/switch hit, or to advance automatically after a certain amount of time. This time can be set to vary for each slide, so if you are recording a narration or the student is required to read independently, you can allow ample time for these to happen.

To most easily see the transition times, go to Slide Sorter view (1). They'll show right below each page (2)

If you need to see the timings for all the pages and adjust individual ones, open the Slide Sorter view (1) for a nice little summary of transitions. They are listed just below each slide’s thumbnail image (2).

There. Easy as pie! If you have students struggling to stay engaged with PowerPoint activities, try adding visual or auditory signals to help them attend to the screen. It just might make a difference!
As always, please let me know if you are having trouble with any of this and I will be more than happy to clarify or brainstorm with you!
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For information on using PowerPoint to support kids needing Assistive Technology, check out these other posts in this mini-series:
1. PowerPoint as Assistive Technology--REALLY! (Intro)

2. AT Considerations for Creating Activities in PowerPoint (making sure the activities you design support the needs of your students)

3. Adapting Books for Computer Access (utilizes PowerPoint)
4. Shortcuts for Making PowerPoint Activities (easy steps for bringing elements from other activities into your new ones)


Shortcuts for Making PowerPoint Activities

Let’s face it, we’re all short on time. We've got lots of ideas for great activities, but little time to make them! Today let's start with that “short on time” problem. Rather than jumping in with some of the techniques in PowerPoint that build up into some pretty awe-inspiring abilities, let’s go over tricks to simplify and shorten your work.
If you master the simple techniques for copying elements and pages from other PowerPoint activities that already work for your students, you can spare yourself a lot of time re-inventing the wheel.

Remember, things will always work best (and fastest) in PowerPoint if you take the most direct path.
And sometimes that route involves borrowing rather than creating from scratch.
When you find something great in an existing PowerPoint activity, whether it is one item or a group of items or a great page (or two or five), you can copy objects into a new activity very easily. Then, once you have it saved into you activity, feel free to tweak the content and appearance and save it fresh so it works for your students.
To import an element you like from another PowerPoint activity into your new project, open the old PowerPoint. Click or drag your mouse over the object/s you want to select. Then copy (CTRL-C works easily, or right-click and select "copy" from the pop-up list) the object to your computer’s clipboard (1). Switch to your new project with a blank page in edit view, normal mode. Click the large page in the main pane to select it. Paste the item (CTRL-V) and it will stick in the same location as the old activity (2). You’ll notice all its behaviors—actions and animations—paste right along with it!
Bring objects in from an activity you like by pasting them
onto a page in the main pane of Normal View.
You can alter the element by replacing the text. You can record new sounds. You can adjust colors and textures and pictures. You can change the types of animation effects it has. You can switch out hyperlinks. All these changes will make your new activity look and sound entirely different.
However, you cannot change the shape of a shape without losing the animation effects unless you are working in PowerPoint 2010. For all earlier versions, keep the basic shape of a button the same and just tinker with the handles on its outline when it is selected.
What about copying a whole page? Easy! Let’s say you find a book adapted into PowerPoint whose pages have features you love:
--a great-sized picture area
--page-forward and page backward buttons
--a button for playing recorded narration
With that book open in edit mode and “normal” view, you can simply click one of the thumbnail pages in the left-hand side panel, copy (CTRL-C) a page (1). Open a blank project in PowerPoint and paste (CTRL-V) the copied page into that side panel (2). Voila! You should now see the same old page in your new activity. It is likely the new background will be white, but you haven’t assigned colors yet.
You can bring one or many pages from a PowerPoint activity
into the side panel of your new activity to create new pages.
You can modify the page by importing your own pictures and recording narrations for the page. I like to use Audacity for recording; it’s straightforward to use and does a good job. You can download it free from CNET here.
Another way to simplify the process of designing an activity is to use pre-made templates. You’ll find such goodies at teacher websites. Here are a couple great ones from Vicki Blackwell and Pete’s PowerPoint Station. I’ve also made and posted some sample activities at Google Docs that you can use and then save as templates.
When you open a new activity, the "new presentation" start screen offers you a choice of templates saved in various locations on your computer (1). It also offers you a list of templates you have used recently (2).
The New Presentation start screen lets you easily choose
from templates on your computer.
Choose one of these and make good progress right from the start! Just be sure to save your work often as you are working so you don't lose your changes.
Which brings us to the important topic of saving your activities. If you’ve put time into an activity, you want it to save the right way to make it most useful.
It is critical to save ALL relevant files incorporated into your activity in the same folder. Always. All your sound effects and recorded narration clips should be saved to the folder with the PowerPoint book. All video clips should also be saved in this folder as well. Doing this keeps the integrity of the links within your activity.
Then you choose the format in which to save your activity. If it is macro-enabled (stay tuned for more on this in a future installment), be sure to save the in the macro-enabled version of the same format.
1) Slideshow mode (.pps, .ppsx, .ppsm). Slideshow mode automatically launches the activity when it is opened. If fact, you can save it to your desktop and assign it a catchy icon and title from there so your students don't have to search for it. Changes to the activity will not save when it is closed, so students can’t accidentally alter the file. If you want to modify a Slideshow, open PowerPoint, select the activity, and edit it from there as for any other presentation.
2) Presentation mode (.ppt, pptx., pptm). Presentations open in edit mode. This is convenient for the teacher but requires that a student navigate to the slideshow launch ribbon. If you’ll be using an activity as the basis for others, save it in presentation mode. Then changes to support different access needs or different levels of sensory input can be saved as individual slideshows, ready for the students!
3) Template mode (pot., potx., potm). Templates are a great way to save an activity you want to modify often. If you frequently adapt books, you’ll definitely want to save one as a template! These files store in their own location, making them easy to find from the PowerPoint start menu.
Activities you make from templates are automatically assigned a presentation-mode file extension, saving you from accidentally saving over your template. You can edit a template, which is helpful, but saving it as a template again takes conscious thought. This is a good feature. Very good.
When you master this ability to snag elements and pages from existing PowerPoint activities, you will be able to create some highly customized and advanced projects. Even if you don't fully understand the advanced features we'll build from scratch over the next few weeks, your ability to borrow them from elsewhere and past them into your projects will serve you well.
Be sure to stick around as we explore how some of the basic PowerPoint functions can be used to support specific learning needs...and then as we build upon those skills and venture into the amazing world of advanced PowerPoint.
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Earlier posts in this series on using PowerPoint as Assistive Technology:
4. AT Considerations for Creating Activities in PowerPoint (thinking about the accommodations needed by specific students)

AT Considerations for Creating Learning Activities in PowerPoint


So you're ready to roll up your sleeves and jump in with some fancy PowerPoint activities to keep your students engaged...

What should you consider as you create activities in PowerPoint to meet the needs of students with Assistive Technology needs? You want to maximize the effectiveness of the activity AND to minimuze your work.

There are five areas you will address as you design an activity. The time you spend beforehand addressing all five areas will save you headaches later. Trust me.


All five areas are important in creating a successful learning activity.

1. What skill/s do you want to reinforce? Determine what you want your student to gain from the activity. Is your student working on independent reading, increasing independence of study skills, learning cause-effect with switches? 

2.  What are the learning needs of the student?
--Does your student have cognitive or attention issues that limit the number of tasks per page? Should there be fewer responses to choose from?

--Does she need high sensory input to keep her engagement? Visually stimulating colors, movements, and sounds may help direct her attention to the activity.

--Does she need reduced sensory input to prevent overload? Lower the visual complexity, avoid or simplify movements and sounds, make transitions more subtle.

--What needs does the student have for feedback? Should both correct and incorrect choices provide feedback? Or is the student more focused if only correct responses provide reinforcement? Should incorrects disappear so they cannot be chosen again?

--How strongly motivating should reinforcements be?

--Is there a need for auditory support for reading of text or directions?

--Does the student need help slowing down through an activity? If so, you can build in assistance for pacing.

--Consider other learning needs the student may have and include those in your design.

3. What features are needed to match the activity to the student? This is the meat of our PowerPoint series. While PowerPoint is feature-laden (and some of these are pretty spectacular!), only use the ones that match your student’s needs. It’s tempting to go over the top just because you can.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll explore the capabilities and ways to incorporate each of the following design elements into PowerPoint activities to meet assistive technology needs:

a.      Transitions
b.      Actions or Hyperlinks
c.       Animations
d.      Magic Invisible Boxes (MIBs)
e.      Trigger Events
f.        Macros and Visual Basic (yes, even in PPT2007)

4. How will students access the activity? PowerPoint can be accessed through any input method your computer can use. Its ability to work well with a touch screen makes it an exciting complement to iPads and other mobile devices. It functions beautifully with mouse input (standard, head, eye control). It also works with keyboards, alternative keyboards, and switches that incorporate key commands. This means it can be used with switch scanning, although it currently takes considerable energy to create scanning activities.

5. How can you simplify the design process? If you have tried creating accessible activities in PowerPoint before, you know how long and involved the process can be. However, there are lots of ways to minimizing time and effort, which I will share with you as we go along. I’ll also provide templates to download and show you how to borrow elements from other PowerPoint activities.

In fact, the first handout for you is a PowerPoint Activity Planning Sheet, which you can download here (note: this is the permanent link that behaves, in case you downloaded earlier from Googledocs and got jibberish). It steps you through these five elements of creating an activity that best meets the needs of your students—and your own need to streamline effort. Don’t worry if some of the terms seem foreign at this point; the Activity Planning Sheet can be handy for recording notes as we go through this series. I’ll post the link with each lesson so you can always find it.

This week, observe your student for cues about ways to support cognitive needs, needs for increased or suppressed visual or auditory stimulation, beneficial types of feedback, and physical access issues. The PowerPoint Activity Planning Sheet will help you organize your thoughts and keep them in mind as we look next time at some of the features that match your student's needs.
If you see other areas of student need to consider in creating a successful PowerPoint activity, please speak up. I know I've missed some but would happily revise the planning tool to reflect a broader student base. Thanks!

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Resources for this mini-series:

You can find the PowerPoint Activity Planning Sheet here.

A lesson on Adapting Picture Books for Computer Access using PowerPoint is found here.

DIY Disposable Swim Pants for the Larger Swimmer

Summer's just around the corner...is your older child ready for swimming? You have a few weeks still to dust off your sewing machine and whip up some disposable swim pants.

Can't find disposable swim pants to fit your larger child?
These will fit a 34" hip or 85 pounds.
There are times when disposable swim pants are an ideal solution for swimmers who must wear incontinence protection. They travel easily to summer camp or on vacation where laundering cloth swim pants would be impossible. Some pools require swim pants for children with continence issues.
Even bigger kids can benefit from these handy disposable pants. These adapted swim pants fit up to a size 34” hip or 85 pounds. They can be made in less than 5 minutes a pair.
Note:  I have no vested interest in the Huggies brand shown; it is simply one available in my area. Feel free to substitute with brands you have locally. The brand I’ve used can withstand a few trips through the washer and dryer to extend their use over several wearings (just make sure the Velcro sides are closed before you start the wash, as with all things Velcro). Cool!
Materials needed:
1 pair disposable swim pants, size 4-5T 

1 pair disposable pull-on pants with hook-and-loop side openings, size 4-5T or larger


Sewing machine, thread, scissors

Step One:
Cut side stretch panels off Pull-Ups where they are fused to the main absorbant pant. These will become side extensions to add up to 4” of unstretched width to each side of the swim pant for a total of 8" of added width!

Pull the two sections of each side panel apart and set aside. Do not throw the absorbent main section away, as it can be used to line the inside of another diaper when extra protection is needed (at night, on an airplane, when spending a long day at the mall…).
Cut open the side panels of the swim pants where they are fused to one another. Leave the fused “seam allowance" attached to one side, as this adds ¼” extra width to each side.

The red arrows show the fused seam allowance still attached
to provide a little more width.
Step Two:
Lay one side panel of the Pull-Up face up on the sewing machine bed. Velcro side up, overlap the front side panel of the swim pant by ¼”, matching top and bottom edges. Stitch down the overlapped edge with a plain or 2-step zigzag stitch set at a wide, long stitch.
Wahoo! Pinless sewing... We're aiming for speed and utility here.

I prefer a 2-step zigzag at 2.0 length and 6.0 width. The 2-step zigzag stitch will not tunnel. A 3-step zigzag is commonly found on most machines and will work also; it's just a tad slower to sew out.
This is a "2-step zigzag" stitch, which keeps the stitches from
pulling into a tunnel.
Repeat for second front side panel.
Step Three:
Overlap the longer side panel from the Pull-Up onto the swim pants back panel and zigzag into place. Make sure the Pull-Up is facing up and the Velcro tape is facing down.
If the shape of the extension is longer than the panel on the swim pant, it can simply be cut off after it is sewn.


Repeat for second back panel.
That’s it! In one quick afternoon you can whip up a whole package of large-sized disposable swim pants to take your child through the summer. Now your older child is ready to slip a swimsuit over their protective disposable swim pants and hit the beach or pool insecurity and style!


 Happy swimming!

If you found this tutorial helpful, please share it with a friend. Let's make life a little easier for all those terrific moms and kids who are adapting their lives creatively!

PowerPoint as Assistive Technology, Anyone?

PowerPoint has amazing potential for use as assistive technology. It can support independent practice, provide numerous onscreen choice-making activities, and even be used as an AAC tool! Is this something you care to learn about? If so, please leave me a comment to let me know. I’m happy to share if there is interest.

Next month I’m presenting a workshop on ways to maximize PowerPoint for assistive technology in the classroom. The Northwest Augmentative Communication Society is graciously allowing me to present at their April evening seminar. Of course, my first choice would be for you to be able to come join us in person. But distance is an issue for many. So I’d love to strike up conversation here on the blog about the material being shared-- you can learn some cool tricks with PowerPoint to use with your students and share with me the areas I need to clarify better. It’s a win-win situation.
Any takers?

Check this out: Kate Presents on Eye Gaze Communication

Did you catch Kate Ahern’s amazing presentation on eye gaze communication last night? She spoke to the Rett Syndrome Association of Massachusetts and shared with an even larger audience by streaming video. We are so fortunate that she shared the slides on her website because they are fabulous!!! Just take a look at this slideshow on Eyegaze for Education: Women and Girls with Rett Syndrome.
Be sure to check this out if you have an interest in eye gaze, whether or not your child has a diagnosis of Rett syndrome. Kate shares a wealth of outstanding information in them that is useful to anyone using AAC.
Unfortunately, the streaming video was not recorded for posterity. This is too bad because I’d love for you to see firsthand the commitment and passion Kate has for her kids. You would be inspired! Kate’s message is powerful, and thankfully she repeats it in the slides she has generously shared here.
Everyone have a lovely weekend!
Rose-Marie

The Role of "Yes"

If you interview 1000 parents of typically developing kids, 999 will say that their children learned the word “NO” before they learned the word “YES” (Anyone have the real statistic? I made up numbers to make a point, but then I have editorial privilege here). Because this is the typical pattern for learning these two words, I have long advocated that we teach these words in the developmental order of NO first, followed by YES. You can read about that here.
I still maintain that this is true. However, there is some interesting discussion going on in the AAC circles about this order right now.
Pati King-DeBaun, whom I greatly admire, is a long-time authority and advocate for children with severe communication needs. She posted an interesting discussion on her blog about “yes” on its own. You will find it here.
What Pati says is that acknowledging a child’s “yes” response gives them the ability to communicate through partner-assisted scanning. If you aren’t familiar with this communication procedure, it means that a partner lists off choices for the speaker, whether verbally or with symbolic choices (pictures, line drawings, or objects) or both. The partner indicates when the item of preference is offered. PODD, or Pragmatic Organization Dynamic Display, typically uses partner-assisted scanning.
Traditionally, we have asked kids during partner-assisted-scanning to tell us “no” for each of the non-preferred items and stop us with a “yes” (as in, “That’s it!”) when we reach the item of choice.
But Pati says “yes” alone will give the kids the ability to use partner-assisted scanning. She suggests kids don’t even need a “no” response to be able to successfully communicate using this system.
Does this conflict with my opening statements about teaching the word NO before the word YES? I say not. They are compatible practices and here’s why.
Pati is acknowledging the child's signal of affirmation of desire. This is innate in infants; just watch them. When baby sees Mama rustling up the ingredients to make up a bottle, he starts squiggling with anticipation. At another time, he reaches and kicks his feet when Daddy holds up a favorite toy. This occurs long before the child is developmentally ready to begin conventional word use.
This same baby will likely not respond when Mama gets out the cat food and can opener to feed Kitty. He has no interest. He does not yet pay attention when Daddy picks up the newspaper (give him a few months and that will change!).
These are the same innate reactions Pati talks about in her blog post. If we observe our kids, they have signals to affirm their desire for something. By ignoring what they don’t want, they are withholding affirmation and that is adequate for us to know they don’t desire it.
I really appreciate Pati’s thinking for several reasons:
            1) It allows children to communicate successfully before they have two consistent responses. All they need is an affirmation response. It is our job to observe what that response is. For kids with strong motor challenges, this need for a single resonse is such a gift.
            2) It saves a great deal of physical energy, since the child only needs to respond once out of all the choices offered. It also speeds the rate of communication…a LOT! Again, what a benefit to kids with motor planning issues.
            3) Developmentally, this is consistent with the ability to affirm desire before the acquisition of words (or, for non-verbal students, symbolic expression, including sign, picture symbols, etc). How wonderful that it allows kids to communicate before they are ready to leap into more complex developmental stages!
Now, all that said, I still maintain that when teaching the words yes/no expressively¸ “no” is most easily learned first. This is because word acquisition typically develops at the same time that autonomy rears its little developmental head. “No,” as a means of rejecting, is concrete and easily grasped and gives Little Miss Autonomous a way to voice her new interest. “Yes,” on the other hand, often represents more abstract concepts, such as things that are intangible (feelings, for example), future events, or simply agreeing with that Mother-Who-Threatens-My-Autonomy. And what toddler would want to agree with that awful lady?
For all the good things that acknowledging the affirmation of desire signal alone can do to help kids communicate through partner-assisted scanning, I am so grateful Pati opened up this discussion!
What do you think about this? Does signalling an affirmation of desire without a corresponding “no” work?
And if you haven’t read Pati’s post yet, please do. It gives us important things to think about.
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You might also be interested in reading "Yes, No, Maybe so..." 


PowerPoint as Assistive Technology—REALLY!

Next week I have a delightful honor. Our Northwest Augmentative Communication Society, NWACS, is allowing me to present ways to use PowerPoint to meet assistive technology needs (you can catch the details here if you are in the Seattle area). Pretty cool, huh?

I wish anyone here at the blog who wanted to attend the evening seminar could come. But geographically, that just doesn’t seem possible. We’ve got visitors here from every continent in the world, Antarctica aside. Those penguins probably don’t get very good Internet service anyway. And with gas running around $4.00 (US) per gallon, only the most local of our American friends could afford to come.
So, since it is likely that the seminar is too far for you to attend, I thought it might be fun to share the content and materials over the next few weeks. Is that something you would like?
After all, Microsoft’s PowerPoint is an amazing program that can be used to do all kinds of things. Folks (including yours truly) have been using it to adapt books for computer access for years. But it can do much more if you know some advanced tricks. It can be used to make interactive choice-making activities, self-directed review activities, and even to augment communication. There are tricks to make PowerPoint interactive and accessible for kids who use a touch screen or switches or who need activities to function without any input at all.

Sure, there are some great assistive technology programs that can do these things elegantly and quickly. But those programs are expensive. In this day of economic belt-tightening, PowerPoint is a reasonable way to achieve some of the same goals with a program you are likely to already have access to. And versions shouldn’t matter much—PowerPoint is wonderfully compatible between old and new versions. What I show you in PowerPoint 2007 translates to earlier versions. What is created in earlier versions can be opened in newer ones. How many assistive tech programs can claim that?

While I don't have an iPad, lots of you do. And the friendly salesman at the computer store showed me that yes, iPads CAN run PowerPoint, making all of these activities highly portable for your children.
If I walked you through the process of creating these activities, showing you some of the neat advanced tricks in PowerPoint along the way, would you be interested? NWACS will host the materials and files I share at the seminar so you could access them too. I love (love, love!) to give things away and would like you to have the templates and resources too.
Please let me know in the comment box if this topic interests you. I’m happy to share but don’t want to waste folks’ time if this isn’t something you care to learn about.
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You might want to take a look at Adapting Books for Computer Access, which is a PowerPoint lesson.

Knowing When to Back Off

Barbara at TherExtras asked us to participate in a blog carnival on the topic of recognizing readiness. It’s a happy and forward-looking topic. You are invited to take a look at my response here.
Some disorders that include loss or regression find us struggling to accept when our kids are not ready to move forward. In fact, they may be losing ground. It’s a difficult thing, but it’s important to acknowledge honestly.
How do we know when it's time to keep “pushing” forward and when it’s time to back off? Pull up a cup of coffee and let’s work through this.
Please allow me to share a little background.
A seasoned special needs parent shared a platitude shortly after our daughter was diagnosed with Rett syndrome. No doubt it was offered with the best of intentions. But I took it much too literally and ended up taking on tremendous guilt and self-depreciation. Back then, without the perspective of time or experience, how was I to know to question this “wisdom?”
That awful cliché was this: “Use it or lose it.”
By association, you can also conclude that if your child does lose a skill, it must be because you didn’t push your child hard enough to continue using it. Any loss she suffers, then, is obviously all your fault. At least, I made that connection.
Wrong direction to push an already wounded parent.
Rett syndrome is not the only disorder to cause skill loss or regression. There are others. But it’s the one I’m personally familiar with, and so that is the perspective I speak from.
In Rett syndrome, toddlerhood is an age in which loss of skills is the hallmark symptom of the disorder. These losses simply are. They are not within the child's control.
Like any parent crazy with grief and fear about the outcome of the diagnosis, of course I pushed my child harder than I ought, to do more than she was capable of doing. I certainly didn’t need trite platitudes haunting my every waking moment and robbing my sleep at night.
How much better all our lives would have been during that difficult period if someone had gently taken my hand and said, “Do your very best to help her keep all she can. That which she cannot keep, let go.”
So how do we do that? How do we know when to do our best to encourage her to move on? How do we know when to let go?
Our kids are our best leaders in this. We need to listen and to trust them. They are the ones living inside their skin, knowing when something is too overwhelming or frightening or painful. Toddlers may not have the best judgment at ALL times (for instance, the toddler who tearfully refuses a nap is probably the toddler who needs one the most), but we need to trust their perceptions of their abilities. Especially when their responses are consistent over time.
The most poignant story from our experience discredited the “Use It or Lose It” theory and eventually taught me to trust my daughter’s lead.
I was terrified watching her losing her ability to eat by mouth. She had been a great little eater up until her first birthday, picking up Cheerios or green beans with the finest pincer grip. She nibbled on grilled cheese sandwiches cut into long “fingers.” Homebaked chicken nuggets were an easy favorite protein. She had even begun feeding herself using a spoon.
Slowly, her ability to chew began to deteriorate. I found myself cutting her bites smaller and smaller. Large bites merely got mashed into globs that she struggled to swallow. It alarmed us that her eating skills were getting worse.
She stopped using her spoon and threw it instead. I also noticed that her amazing pincer grip, the one that allowed her to pick up dust particles from the floor, had regressed into palming. She’d try to shove fistfuls of food at her mouth and sometimes missed completely. She was hungry and acting out in frustration. I interpreted this as being naughty.
Enter her diagnosis:  Rett syndrome. I was terrified reading about the losses she might experience. When that older, more experienced mom cited the “Use It or Lose It” theory, I thought that maybe, if I worked hard enough to keep her using what she still had, she wouldn’t lose anything more.
I pushed. Five hours a day I pushed her to eat. We devoted one day a week to oral motor therapy and the lengthy drive to get there. I pushed her when her reflux told her to stop eating. I pushed her when she felt threatened by swallowing. I pushed and she cried. We both cried. No amount of forcing her to “use it” was keeping her from losing her chewing and swallowing.
After a year of pushing, a swallow study revealed why she resisted eating. She had been aspirating the bites I forced her to eat. The medical test explained what she did not have words to tell me.
Can you spell g-u-i-l-t?
How must I have made her feel, cheering her and pressuring her to do something she physically could not coordinate?
That test told us it was time to back off. She was no longer ready to eat by mouth. She had known all along, and she was trying to tell me. I hadn’t listened to her. While listening is certainly the first and best step, medical tests can also provide helpful information to let us know when it may be time to back off.
Medical tests can confirm bone or joint issues that cause a child to suddenly stop walking. They might confirm an illness that causes a child to stop swallowing food or saliva. They may confirm an inner ear infection that causes dizziness, impacting a child’s gross motor skill. Before we jump to panic mode over difficulties with a skill, we need to explore the possible medical explanations.
To be fair, when kids can’t use a skill because they are sick and bedridden, it can take a tremendous amount of work to recover a dormant skill. But we don’t need to immediately panic that the skill is permanently lost. There is a possibility it may be gone. But it may just as well be waiting to return.
While our daughter has yet to walk independently, she has come seriously close about four times in her life. Each of those periods of progress were interrupted by setbacks, whether illness or seizure. Those setbacks did not stop her from trying hard to regain her previous level of skill.
Many families can share similar stories.
Generally, especially for seasoned parents, there’s a lot to be said about trusting your intuition. Deep in your heart of hearts, you probably know if it is reasonable to push your child to practice a skill or not.
In the case of my daughter’s loss of oral motor skills, my intuition was no help at all. At other times, such as continuing to look for sparks of readiness for independent steps, my heart said to keep right on encouraging her to keep trying. Right now my heart does not say that; she battles issues that prevent her from being ready right now…but maybe down the road she will be ready again.
And that is the place of hope where I’d like to wind things up. We may not see readiness for a new skill today. In fact, it may be time to put a frustrating skill to rest. At least for awhile. Because maybe, with prayer and faith and hope, there may come a day when that readiness again raises its little head.

Creative Commons license
We prepare the conditions. We ready the opportunities. We pray. We wait. Just as faithfully as the crocuses push their way out from below the soil in the spring, readiness for that skill may re-emerge.
But pressuring, fussing, forcing will not make the crocus bloom. Neither will this ready the soil for that tender skill.
Is your coffee cup is empty now? Mine is. I hope this has helped. It has helped me tremendously. Thanks for sharing this time. I appreciate it. “Do your very best to help her keep all she can. That which she cannot keep, let go.”
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Be sure to check out Barbara's blog carnival at TherExtras!


3 Signs Your Child is Ready to Tackle a New Skill

How do we know when our kids are ready to move on to a new skill?
Since I deal daily with Rett syndrome, a land of ever-shifting terrain, this question is close to home. Rett syndrome, along with so many other disorders with a neurological component, presents an ongoing ebb and flow of skill gains. And skill losses. But for today, let’s look at how our family has recognized that our daughter was ready for greater challenges. The cues she gave weren’t always the standard ones we look for in typically developing kids.
1) Increased interest in new areas. Sure, this sounds pretty typical. But we have to look past the situation at hand to see the broader implications of readiness.
For example, our girl was a diehard Wiggles fan. The bright colors, the catchy songs, the silly humor, the MEN were all attention grabbers for her.
But when she began to show interest in documentaries about penguins, she indicated readiness to take in information in new ways. We could see that she no longer needed the multisensory input of bright colors or music or MEN to keep her interest. She showed us that her attention span exceeded the 60-second vignettes that made up the Wiggles show.
She was ready to enter a new world of information input, one which was supported by the general education classroom and age-appropriate learning venues. Even if it meant being taught by a woman.
Might I add this was a joyful time at our house? While my husband and I are indebted to all the Wiggles men and their Big Red Car for the smiles they brought our girl, Henry the Octopus was enough to make me hurl. We were not sad to see Henry or Dorothy the Dinosaur exit from our lives.
2) Boredom. Particularly for kids confined to wheelchairs, boredom is often expressed as shut-down. Sleep. Faking sleep. They escape from a boring situation by checking out.
The other option for them is tantruming. Screaming. Doing anything loud or aggressive that will get them removed from a horribly boring situation.
I suspect the route a child chooses has much to do with personality. Our daughter shuts down when she is bored.
When a child is bored, they are ready to move on. They may not have mastered a skill in its entirety, but they may be ready to generalize it to new situations.
Take, for example, an occupational therapy activity that was suggested to us. We were to assist my daughter, with as minimal assistance as possible, to scoop a walnut out of a bowl, carry it in her right hand across midline, and drop it into a second bowl. Repeat for 30 walnuts. Switch bowls and repeat for the left hand. Ho-hum (I see you yawning!).
After the second or third time I brought out the bowls of walnuts, the poor child would drop her head to her chest and fake sleep. Had she mastered the skill? Absolutely not. But she was ready to apply it to something else that would keep her brain engaged.
So we started sorting plastic letters into piles of capitals and lower case, using the same movements of scooping, crossing midline, and releasing. We did the same to separate consonants and vowels. She never did learn to love the activity, but at least she was able to stay more engaged in it when we brought it into a learning realm she was ready for.
3) Stagnating IEP objectives. This is a huge problem for children who have difficulty expressing themselves. I have seen it not only with my own daughter, but many, many other kids with complex issues. An example is the IEP with the goal for identifying colors (red, yellow, blue, green) from preschool until high school. Unbelievably, this happens in real life. No joke.
When an IEP goal is repeated several years in a row, the child is ready to move on! There are several scenarios that may be at work; each one suggests that the child is ready for new goals.
a. The child has mastered the goal. Move on. So what if the concept is easy and comfortable to teach? The child deserves to be challenged. Move on.
b. The child has internally mastered the goal and either cannot express it or, more likely, HAS expressed it but we’ve missed the responses. Move on.
c. The child hasn’t mastered the goal. Move on. It may not be intrinsically important to the child. It may be that our system for teaching that goal has been inappropriate. It may not be broken down to fit the child’s capability. There are many other reasons a child may not master a goal. But why waste their time doing the same thing that hasn’t worked in the past? Move on.
Granted, there are some situations where maintaining a skill is the objective. We see this with our daughter and physical skills; just keeping what she has is forward progress. I don’t see these as “stagnant” goals. Ideally, her continued goal to “walk 300 feet with assistance” would include fading of the levels of assistance, but for now, just walking 300 feet with as much assistance as she needs would count huge in my book as progress.
4) Bonus:  They just do it! This is the miracle of child development when it happens. While it’s not unusual for typically developing kids to spurt forward without much warning, sometimes our kids with disabilities will also magically sweep us off our feet. Suddenly, everything comes together. It may be out of the blue or it may come after months and months of rehearsal. Maybe they go from standing to propelling forward with steps (don’t pinch me if this ever happens. So far, it has only occurred for my daughter during my REM sleep). Maybe they invite a classmate to join them in play for the first time. Maybe, FINALLY, they reach out to touch fingerpaint after years of tantruming over balking at all tactile sensations.
One instance that has happily etched itself forever in my memory was when the consonant “m” came together for our daughter after she’d lost her ability to speak. Her sister, then a toddler, had been rehearsing a nursery rhyme by filling in the word “moon.”
“I see the ____ and the _____ sees me,
God bless the ______ and God bless ME!”
Little sister was reciting the rhyme for Grandma, filling in with the word “moon” (and “me!”) at the correct pause. Our non-verbal daughter started to get agitated, so Grandma asked her if SHE wanted to recite the poem. Happy smiles; that’s an affirmative, Captain.
Oh great, I thought. She’s going to be so disappointed when the word doesn’t come out.
BUT IT DID! Well, close.
“I see the MMMmmmmm,” she fills in, right on cue. Timing is another part of our daughter’s apraxia that is impossible for her to control. BUT SHE DID IT!
“…and the MMMmmmm sees me.
God bless the MMMmmmm and God bless MMMmmm!
Grandma and I could hardly see her for the tears puddling in our eyes, but the look of pride on her face was priceless! Everything just WORKED!! This so rarely happens for her, but when it does, it is a monumental occasion. And I’m happy to report that “mmmm” continues to be a consonant sound she has been able to maintain, especially because it makes up the bulk of that most important word—mom. What mother could ask for anything more?
Barbara at TherExtras has launched a blog carnival to discuss the topic of readiness. I hope you will check out her post and join in the fun!

Special Needs Blogger gets Kidnapped

Yes, me. I have been kidnapped.
Ok, maybe not literally. The “kid” part is literal. The “napping?” What’s a nap?
And what does any of this have do do with Special Needs blogging? Today is a bit off topic, but hopefully it will help you feel like you know a bit more about what goes on behind the scenes.
A couple of you have send kind emails asking if I’m still here and if everything is all right. Thanks so much for checking. Please accept my apologies for being so quiet lately; I’m just a bit tied up with the duties of a new mother. 
Awwww, how cute are they?

Here are my kidnappers—aren’t they darling? They are still going by their temporary names, “Black Collar” and “Purple Collar.” Dull names, yes, but we are watching their personalities unfold as we consider permanent names to make sure they fit. And personality may be a bit of an understatement.

“Black Collar” was born on St. Patrick’s Day, so he turned 2 weeks old yesterday. He’s tough and bouncy and a drinks with GREAT enthusiasm from his bottle. He is quite athletic, although his coordination hasn’t yet caught up to his aspirations. He can jump 2 stacked bales of hay but not quite land on top.
“Purple Collar” is a few days younger. He was born on March 21st. His hair has some curl to it, as does his tail and the way he tends to hold his neck as he nurses. He also is eager to eat but less coordinated than his herdmate and is learning to sneeze efficiently to clear the milk from his nose. He’s a snuggler and spends as much time curled in your lap as you can offer. His favorite place to be scratched is right along his jawbone…don’t get started or he won’t let you stop.
Bottle feeding these kids is sheer delight. They are bonding with us nicely and seek out petting and laps.
Each day they get to wear little harnesses and walk on a leash, which is preliminary work for the carting we plan to train them to do. This will take several years of training, so we’re starting now!
Right now, harnesses and leashes are associated with all things fun and frolicky, as there is a backyard playground waiting at the end of the walk. They get to spend an hour each day leapin’-hoppin’ around and causing side-splitting laughter. I really must learn how to import video into Blogger so you can enjoy these antics too!
Gilford (left) and Gordy (right) think new little brothers
do not belong here. 
Our ten-month-old goats, Gordy and Gilford, are most bent out of shape at the arrival of these intruders. These usurpers of their maa-aaa-aah’s time. These interlopers, invaders, party crashers. So, as Maa-aaa-aah, it’s my responsibility to make sure they know they are still loved and valued members of our cart-training and scrub-eating team.

That means an extra hour daily of focused attention and harness work with this older pair. Gordy loves this and Gilford...well, let’s just say one reason for getting our second set of boys is to train them to fill Gilford’s place in the tandem pulling team. He has no intention of working, thank you.

Everyone's trying to figure each other out.
So between kids just weeks old and kids soon to be yearlings, there has been precious little time to devote to the blog. It’s probably good to take a break, breathe in the spring air, and listen to the birds that have returned in the past week.

Gordy is eager to move toward pulling his princess.
He needs to grow some more, both in muscle and bone,
but he's going to be a great puller!

Do you have any wonderful distractions in your life right now that help balance out the demands of meeting special needs? I’d love to hear your stories!