I am conducting a training for substitutes in our county, which is designed to assist the subs in gaining an awareness of what it is like to have a disability, how to reach and theach these children and provide some successful strategies for working effectively with our kids.
I would like to provide them with some hands-on experiences, and I am open to suggestions from this board. I had a bunch of them when I was in the classroom, but left them there when I came to work for the district ESE department.
Your ideas would be appreciated!
Re: empathy activities
Have them do all their writing with their left hand, sitting at a right hander’s desk,
writing across the spiral of the spiral notebook.
Have them read a text full of made up words that are phonically correct - will give
them an idea of what it is like to read when you have to decode every word.
Have them read a paragraph full of tongue twisting words full of /b/ and /d/ letters
using /d/ where /b/ should be and visa versa.
“Dalberbash!” delloweb Dluedeard. “You are a dab bog and detter dring me my dlack
dall and de drisk about it!”
Anne
Re: empathy activities
The movie “Fat City” is probably the best intro to this whole area that I have ever seen.
Take a passage and type it so that you have to read it from top to bottom instead of left ot right.
Robin
Re: empathy activities
Robin,I agree! FAT CITY is a great video. Also another one by Rick Lavoie is “when the chips are down” I showed both at work to other pediatric nurses,as an inservice on learning disabilities. When the chips are down gave a much better impact on how the child feels about having the disability.
F.A.T. city workshop
Hi Eileen,
The actual title of this video is “How Difficult Can This Be?: The F.A.T. City Worship” by Richard LaVoie. I think the F.A.T. stands for something like Frustration, Anxiety, Tension. You might be able to find a copy at your local library. If not, you can purchase a copy at this website for about $50. Just go to the homepage and click on LD store. I have watched this amazing video several times and each time it has brought me to tears when I see how difficult learning is for so many of our LD children.
Blessings, momo
a) Take a passage from a book, retype, substitute all b’s for d’s, m’s for w’s, p’s for q’s, etc. Have the particpants read the passage out loud.
b) Put a line drawing on the table, set up a mirror in front of the drawing and have the particpant trace it, while they look at the image in the mirror instead of at the actually drawing they are tracing over.