If anyone follows the Bright Futures School updates on
facebook, you’ll know that a family has recently moved from Ireland to Oldham
so that they could try to get a place at our school for their daughter, Saoirse
(pronounced Seer-sha).
The family took the plunge and moved and we worked
together on the information that needed to be submitted for the EHC needs
assessment request. It was agreed by our
local SEN Team and panel that Saoirse could be placed at Bright Futures School
whilst the EHC needs assessment took place and Saoirse started with us in May
2016.
It’s always a bit hair-raising when a new pupil starts
because although you’ve read all the paperwork and maybe even seen video
footage of the pupil, you never know for sure whether it’s going to work. Factor into the equation that this family had
moved from another country for a place at our school and…….gulp……no pressure!!
Saoirse is a lovely, bright little girl with masses of
potential. We all love her to bits. She
and Lucy are developing a friendship – it is beautiful to watch it unfold as
each of the girls takes steps forward in their development.
We have made the decision, as we did with Lucy, to work
exclusively on guiding with Saoirse, so she is in her own room doing different guiding
activities with a series of different staff.
The objective is to use the guiding framework to support Saoirse to step
into her co-regulatory role in a turn-taking pattern.
The first clip is from one of Jo’s initial sessions with
Saoirse: they are taking turns to ‘fish’ in early July 2016.
Saoirse knows the concept of turn-taking but struggles to
allow Jo to have her turn. Jo has to
control the equipment in order to help Saoirse competently take turns: at
different points, Jo moves the fishy board away or puts her hand over it so
that the turn-taking pattern isn’t broken.
She also has to verbally set limits when Saoirse tries to go out of turn
(not taking on board her communication partner’s needs) by grabbing the fishing
rod when it’s Jo’s turn.
An example is at 2.08 when Jo tells Saoirse that it’s her
(Jo’s) turn. Saoirse says ‘noooooo’ and Jo has to repeat the framework ‘my turn
and then your turn’. Saoirse then places
the rod out of Jo’s reach on the floor and leaves her seat. Jo waits and after Saoirse has picked up the
rod, she holds out her hand for it.
Saoirse makes the decision to come back into the framework and step into
her role by giving Jo the rod. As Jo
takes her turn, Saoirse struggles again with not being on her own agenda and
reaches for the line. Jo has to place
the line in her hand to show non-verbally that it’s still her turn. So at this time, Saoirse is experiencing quite a lot of
difficulty co-regulating with Jo.
We move now to a clip of me with Saoirse from 22.9.16,
some 3 months after the above clip.
Staff have been working hard on basic turn-taking and
you can see that Saoirse is now much improved at stepping into her co-regulatory role (yay!). In this
clip, I’ve been tasked by Sharon, our external RDI guru to try to focus on using
the ‘sender/receiver’ role set as well as facilitating more experience and
emotion-sharing, now that basic turn-taking is established.
My analysis is in black and Sharon’s feedback is in blue.
Prior to this activity, we have been rolling
playdough. Saoirse let me know she’d had
enough after about 10 minutes, when she moved away from the table. I took this as my cue to change the activity,
as follows:
Clip 1 - When I state what we're going to make, this
seems to motivate Saoirse to re-engage and she returns to the table. As she
sits down, I set limits around eating the choc as I think she will struggle not
to eat it. I tell her and show her that there is some that we can eat
when we've finished. She repeats 'finished' as if accepting this (and using it
to regulate?)
I model breaking up the choc but soon see that this is
too hard for her so I change to sender/receiver again, break the choc into
single pieces myself and pass the pieces to her to place in the bowl.
Once we have established the pattern, (1:10ish) I pause for her to reference
before I pass the choc great stuff. I continue to do this and there is
some lovely referencing :):) I pull away when she goes to snatch and she
continues to reference me and seems to smile....? I'm not sure that the
beginning of this isn't more around learned behaviour but as you progress I do
think it looks more like social referencing 'are you ready / do you have more?'
We do more of this pattern and I introduce a chant I
think this really helps Saoirse & she seems to be joining in too!
Just has more of a 'we' feel around it. When we finish, I say we can eat
our choc. She seems not to understand as she moves her hand towards the
bowl so I model eating and she eats her choc.
She shares quite a lot of gaze whilst we are eating our
choc, which is lovely it sure is, no goals, no aims just sharing the experience.
I say we need to go to the kitchen to melt the choc and she says 'kitchen’ (she
is saying a lot more words throughout the school day). We go to the
kitchen. Initially Saoirse seems to react negatively to you saying that
'we can't eat anymore' but then regulates around the need to go to the kitchen,
maybe mentioning again the making of the rice cakes helps here too?!?!?.
Clip 2 - I set up for the next role set. I model scooping
and we do this. Then I pour. We have a spill and tidy up. I spotlight Saoirse's
good idea re tidying. She gets hold of the bowl so I wait until I see an opportunity
to move the bowl away When Saoirse was scooping from the bowl into the cup...
I'm not sure she just wasn't a little muddled as to what was happening next, as
she quickly adapts. She holds the cup and I pour. Then I reverse the roles. I
spotlight Saoirse's helpfulness and then wait until she has finished with the
rice crispies on the table. I pour from cup to bowl and invite Saoirse to
pour from jug to cup. I spotlight my change in pouring (JND of height) and say
that it’s raining rice crispies. Saoirse smiles and repeats 'raining'
with lovely dynamic gaze. Nice experience sharing.
Saoirse then gets up and is distracted. I wait. She
pours and moves away again. She starts to spin herself. I wait. When she
stops and references, I pour. ok
Off camera - we get the choc.
Clip 3 - I pour the choc in because it’s a bit too hot to
give her a role here. I set limits around licking the spoon at the end
(authentic reason = germs). When she goes to lick, I move the spoon back
and say 'mmmm hmmm'. I spotlight her helpfulness. I have to keep
setting limits around the licking but she manages to stay within them - major
progress :):) as she has struggled with this a lot previously. So sweet, she is
almost drooling but does well to wait.
Clip 4 - I acknowledge that it’s hard to wait to
lick. Zoe I'm wondering if it would help Saoirse's understanding of 'all
done / ready' if you showed her the bowl & stated something along the lines
of 'all mixed together now', so she can physically see the difference???
When I am ready, I offer the spoon to Saoirse. I say
'ready' and she says 'ready' and references. I emotion-share my excitement and
anticipation. We lick and I share my thoughts about the choc. She
references quite a lot. I continue to share my feelings about our
mixture. I spotlight that she has got some rice crispies left and she
responds by eating them. Agree again some lovely moments in this tiny piece including
Saoirse's yummy noises.
I loved this session. And me.... moving in the
right direction!
Where to: Sender/receiver (our turn-taking role set) is
working really well - think it's a case of using this in as many different
scenarios as possible, so Saoirse continues to grow in her ability to turn
take. She is so much calmer here.
Our underlying aim is to continue to grow the emotional
connection & experience sharing across interactions - well on track!
The difference 3 months of guiding makes :)
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