1.5 STUDENT INDEPENDENT PERFORMANCE
During
the activity, let the student ‘do’ and ‘perform’
and ‘activate’ and ‘make it work’ without any
intervention or assistance.
Students who are severely physically disabled have
had people doing things for them, with them and 'to them'
for years. As parents, teachers and therapists, we constantly have our
hands on physically disabled children; moving,
positioning, dressing them, diapering, feeding, cleaning,
holding an arm to assist with reach, doing hand over hand
activities. Physically
disabled children are able to do so little independently
that they are used to having hands on them at all times
during activities. It
is extremely difficult for a physically disabled child to
develop a sense of autonomy, of independence, and a
feeling or ‘I’ did it!
From a young age, the typical feelings of autonomy
and independence start developing with toddlers saying no,
and refusing, and being determined to do it themselves,
regardless of the mess or problems.
Physically disabled children don’t have those
opportunities. So many people do things to and with their
bodies, in the child’s perception, there is little
distinction between the boundaries of ‘my body’ and
‘another person’s body and what ‘I’ do vs. what
everyone else does.
There are so few, if any, opportunities for
complete physical independence.
Switch
access
is one avenue that could and should provide for a
completely independent physical action and completely
independent physical participation in an activity.
The student must learn that this is an action that
he is performing completely independently, without any
assistance.
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1.6 FREQUENT CHANGES OF ACTIVITY
For
this focus on delineating the accuracy of physical switch
activation and abilities of the student to physically
activate the switch, vs. the motivation or willingness of
the student, the type of activity should remain of the
highest motivational level at all times!
Frequent changes of activity may be necessary.
Even during one 20 minute session, the activity may
need to be changed in an effort to maintain motivational
levels at the highest.
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1.7 MOTOR PATTERNING & PRACTICE
Hundreds
of switch hits per day!
Motor
patterning for switch use is no different to toddlers
learning to feed themselves or cope with buttons and snaps
on their clothing.
For disabled children, learning the motor skills
required for successful switch access in many cases, is
their most important functional physical activity. Setting
up switches for only a couple of quick activities per day
will never set the student up for success.
Children
need hundreds of switch hits per day to develop the motor
patterns and physical control needed.
At later stages, the need to activate the switch at
the correct time – to make the correct choice, is a
cognitive skill that will be built on the strong basis of
the competent physical skill of pure activation.
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