The Joseph Robert Shaw Foundation

Helping Children Recover from Brain Injury

What’s Involved in Learning to Count?

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Joey loves numbers. He gives me big smiles when he sees that we are going to work with numbers, and loves to tell silly number jokes where he gives me the wrong number when we are putting our numbers in order. After giving me the wrong number he will crack up, and give me that large Joey grin that says “I think 1, 2, 6” is the funniest thing ever.

Yet recently in my work with Joey I realized that although he can give us the numbers in sequential order, and can match the numeric word with the numeral (which is something not all kindergarteners can do), he has difficulty counting a set of numbers. [Read more…]

What Makes a Good Book for Joey?

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I’m not sure what I’ll do if I have to read Room on the Broom one more time with Joey (OK, truthfully we all know that I’ll read it and be as excited about reading it as I was the first time…) but I honestly am not sure I can. I’ve stretched the book as far as I can. We’ve counted characters forwards and backwards, identified rhyming words, acted it out, spent time on the prepositions of the book, talked about weather, emotions, and even friendship. Yet still, Joey latches onto it. [Read more…]

Tracking the Purpose Behind Joey’s Communication

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“Turkey ready pool love” Joey said as we read Red Hat, Blue Hat by Sandra Boynton. Sure enough, on the next page, the turkey was getting fully dressed to jump into the pool. Joey giggled and held a small stuffed turkey in the air. “Up!” he said, grinning. “Up”.

As Joey’s use of his AAC eye gaze device has increased I have begun including the communication purposes of Joey’s utterances into my data collection. While at first we were just tracking how often Joey used the device within a ten minute period, this summer we realized that it was time to expand our observations. Now, when we take a language sample for ten minutes we track the observable purpose of Joey’s communication. [Read more…]

Reflecting and Questioning

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Have you ever heard the expression “As wrong as a vegetarian eating animal crackers?” That was kind of how I felt the other day after a session with Joey.

I couldn’t believe it when I arrived at Joey’s house and found that animal sounds had been added to his device over the weekend. This was perfect because I’d brought the book What’s Your Sound, Hound the Hound? by Mo Willems  to read with Joey. In this book a cat goes around and asks all his animal friends what they say. I thought it would be perfect for Joey because he like to make animal noises sometimes. Once I saw that the animal sounds were available to him I was even more excited. This is perfect! I thought. Now he can use the eye gaze and his voice to read the book with me.

Joey did not agree. [Read more…]

Looking for Competence

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“If you want to see competence, it helps if you look for it.” Douglas Biklen

In early August I was able to attend the Inclusive Schools Summer Leadership Institute in Syracuse, NY. It was an emerging, thought-provoking conference.

One of the handouts in our folder was this list of Strategies for Presuming Competence. As I read through it I immediately thought of Joey, and how these strategies support the work we do with him, and in turn, allows him to rise academically, socially, and developmentally. [Read more…]

Saturday Serenade

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