Teach the Way They Learn — No Stone Left Unturned

I have been writing for the last few weeks about what a difference The Joshua School (TJS) made in Travis’s life, that it was the best thing to happen for Travis and our family at the time.

In Travis’s own words, “they accept me just the way I am”. Our hope was if others could accept Travis, would that help him to learn to accept himself?

TJS tried many different approaches to meet Travis’s needs. Travis was (and still is) a tough case to crack. Travis’s daily schedule consisted of some 1:1 time. As I wrote last week, the bulk of this time was spent with staff on his various internships. The idea behind the internships was to find an interest that could maybe one day turn into a way for Travis to earn some money and contribute to his care. Maybe even earn a living. His goal was to live as independent a life as possible.

His daily schedule at TJS also consisted of some independent time. During this time he was given work or projects that he could work on independently. He was given work that he was familiar with in order to increase the amount of time that he was able to stay on task.

His daily schedule also included Social Group. As I have written about in the past, individuals on the autism spectrum lack social skills including but not limited to: limited ability to have a reciprocal conversation; intense interest in a particular subject; unable to read body language; make comments that are true but potentially embarrassing; less aware of personal space; dominates social interaction; self centered; difficulty not interrupting and not motivated by desire to please teachers, parents or friends.

Spending time on social group topics daily was obviously important. And imagine every one of your students being on the spectrum! Here is a list of some of their daily topics as reported in Travis’s back and forth book. As I read through them I imagined what may have been happening daily in the classroom. (And I hoped they were not all brought up as a result of a Travis situation!)

Transitions and changes.
Off-topic questions.
Sharing and conversation game.
How to take a break.
Asking questions when you meet someone new.
“I feel _____when _____.”
Group rules.
Emotions.
Discussed how to walk through the building quietly.
Looking at and listening to a speaker.
Choices you make and the consequences.
Making good decisions.
Discussed cleanliness of the bathroom. (Lol! His class was all boys!)
Making the right choice. (Choices and good decisions was listed often!)
Playground rules.
Brainstorm ways to improve behavior on field trips.
What it feels like to be new and left out.
New friends.
Staff changes.
Friendship lesson.
Ask and find out.
Dealing with angry feelings.
Ignoring bad behaviors.
Party etiquette.
Coping with anxiety.
Being supportive of each other.
“I” statements - problem solving.
Bullying.
Personal hygiene.
Greetings/conversation.
How to resolve conflicts.
“How to be a Gentleman” book.
Staying on topic.
Practiced “Silence is Golden”.

Travis did not have homework during his time at TJS. Which certainly made family time easier! Not to mention how late it was by the time he got home from school in Denver, over an hour away from our home.

Oftentimes Travis will share something he knows in conversation and I wonder how it is that he knows it. And then I look at his back and forth book at the topics discussed during his daily literacy group:

Aesop’s Fables - moral of the story.
Locate the 50 states - fill them in.
Looking up state information on the internet.
Dinosaur unit.
Geography.
Computer searches.
Ramps, wedges, screws - machines.
Looking up National Monuments.
Story sequencing.
Class newspaper.
Going green PowerPoint.
Poetry - Shel Silverstein.
“What I Like About Me.”
Learned about Grand Lake.
Video about water.
Water - steel pin experiment.
Fact vs Opinion. (We are still working on this one!)
Intro to water cycle project.
Space facts.
Elections and voting.
Science of Precipitation.
Direction/Travel.
Mapping skills/Globe.
World’s Oceans.
Inventions and creations from the past 500 years.

All of these topics were from just one year of his time there!

One thing that I loved about TJS was their openness to directing Travis’s learning to what was going on in his personal life.

Travis has always had a love for water. If you have been following our story you have already heard me describe him as a fish out of water when he is on land. And you know that we bought a hot tub and used it as a method to de-escalate Travis.

Travis wanted to become scuba certified. We knew that he would not be able to reach this dream in a traditional class. Based on past experiences we realized that he would not do well in a class with several students. If the instructor asked the class if anyone had a question, Travis would most certainly raise his hand and ask a question. (Some related to the material, most not.) And he would want to share all of his knowledge. (Some accurate, some not.)

It would be difficult for him to stay focused and keep up.

The scuba school told us that we could hire one of their instructors to perform a private scuba certification class. We became certified as a family. This process was way outside of my comfort zone. But Tracy and I decided that if we had to read the entire manual out loud to Travis, watch the DVD’s with him and bring him to the pool portion of the training, then we might as well get certified too.

TJS worked with Travis on learning the material in the manual at school during his 1:1 time.

The scuba instructor was incredible with Travis. He gave Travis the written portion of the exam orally. Travis was a natural with the equipment and underwater portion of scuba diving. It made him feel good to help me and make sure that my equipment was working correctly. He watched to make sure that I was handling my equipment properly. I could see him beaming because it made him feel good to be good at something. And I believe that he focused on helping me because he knew that I was uncomfortable with the process.

It was also important to Travis to learn to drive. Tracy had allowed him to drive on our property a bit when we visited our farm in Kansas. He also had experience driving a motorcycle on dirt roads. I gave TJS a copy of the Colorado DMV handbook to study with Travis at school. They worked with Travis during his 1:1 time on reviewing the handbook and completing practice tests. They even went as far as to make flashcards to study road signs.

Travis obtained his driver’s permit and practiced with us driving with his permit for a full two years before he got his license. He was given the written portion of the exam orally.

TJS worked with us to help Travis become as well-rounded as possible. They worked hard on teaching Travis social skills. They investigated and came up with several internship opportunities. They worked with us on helping him on his personal dreams.

During his time at TJS Travis also participated in therapeutic horseback riding. TJS took their students on many trips to Winter Park. Travis learned to ice skate and snowboard on these trips.

Travis participated in music therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and art therapy. His learning consisted of very few worksheets/workbooks as this was not a successful way for him to learn. Most of his learning involved hands on activities or games.

Math was taught using real life scenarios such as measuring the area of a classroom, amount of money needed to buy a meal in a restaurant, and measuring for a recipe.

Community outings included the Wildlife Sanctuary, Denver Zoo, miniature golf, bowling, museums, hiking, outing to Home Depot, bike shops, Pirate’s Cove and the Aquarium.

The Joshua School made every effort to teach in a way that Travis could learn.

“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.” - Ignacio Estrada

Travis learned to snowboard during Winter Park outings with The Joshua School.

They said he could get as big a pumpkin as he could carry!

So many fun outings with The Joshua School.