Kid-Eze Therapy Services

INCLUSIVE LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES CONFERENCE 2012

Christine Siddle will be attending this 3 day conference at the Gold Coast from the 23rd May to the 25th May. This conference is run every 2 years and Christine has been in attendance at the past 2 conferences, as she feels it’s important to keep up to date with the use of technology in assisting our students learning abilities through technology. Some of the sessions she has registered for include:

• Inclusive Learning Technologies: Learning from the Past, Teaching to the Present, Training for the Future.
• Exploring Digital Books.
• eBook Creation with the iPad: Which App?
• Speech recognition from desktop to mobile.
• Differentiation with digital pens: enabling and augmenting access to learning.
• Texthelp Read & Write Gold for Windows & exciting new web apps.
• What Works? Assistive technology and literacy strategies for learner success.
• Building electronic study skills through assistive technology supports.
• Literacy for All: blocks for building literacy success.
• Helping every young person to become cybersmart and cybersafe.
• Making learning interactive, personalized and mobile.
• PLUS SO MUCH MORE!

So watch this page for an update on the outcomes of this conference. It is generally a very exciting, innovative and practical technology conference, and Christine always comes back with lots of ‘technology tools and ideas’ to put into practice.

JUST THE WRITE HANDS PROGRAM - NEW

“Just The Write Hands” Program was designed for all primary school aged students to work on the following goals:
1. For the student to develop better precision and control when manipulating fine motor tools.
2. For the student to develop improved confidence and success with tabletop skills such as drawing, colouring, cutting and pasting.
3. For the student to be able to form the lowercase letters correctly and automatically across all writing tasks, but especially within the context of words.
4. For the student to demonstrate improved writing legibility.
5. For the student to be able to demonstrate a functional pencil grip.
FORMAT OF THE PROGRAM
The format of the group has been designed around 6 x 1 hour sessions, and ideally, for about 4- 6 students per group. It is felt that more individualised instruction can be provided for those students who are struggling with their fine motor skills if done in a small group environment. However, you can readily adapt any of the activities to accommodate more students, if necessary, or you can implement many of the user-friendly strategies within a larger group setting, such as the classroom. It may even be used for individual students.
STUDENT EVALUATION
An evaluation booklet for the students has been designed to be implemented prior to, and at the completion of the group. This booklet also asks the student what they think about their own colouring, writing, cutting skills etc. in order to provide greater insight about the student’s awareness of their fine motor abilities.
STRUCTURE OF THE SESSIONS
Each session is divided into 3 main categories:
HAND SKILLS
The first part of the session focuses on various ‘hand skills’ as part of an exciting, novel game and / or warm-up. Playing various fine motor games are a fun and motivating way to practice essential hand skills so students can move fingers / hands more smoothly and with greater control and accuracy in whatever they choose to do. Many researchers have identified this skill as a contributing factor to precise and rapid manipulation of a writing tool for efficiency in handwriting. There also seems to be a strong relationship between in-hand manipulation skills and colouring accuracy.
VISUAL AND FINE MOTOR SKILLS
The second part of the session focuses on important tabletop skills that are needed for everyday school-related tasks, and includes cutting, drawing, colouring, and tracing. Each task has been carefully analysed, and after many years of practice from a clinical and school basis, has been designed to help provide the students with the best chance of putting these strategies into everyday practice in other situations as well, which ensures the best learning of the strategies. The strategies are also very simple and easy to remember and use.
HANDWRITING (LETTER FORMATION)
Despite the increasing use of computers in schools, handwriting remains a very important skill for recording information, expressing one’s thoughts on paper and communicating ideas to others. Also, regular assessment is based on handwritten work. By the time a student reaches the final years of primary school, they should be able to produce legible, fluent handwriting that they can employ flexibly in different situations.

When the mechanics of handwriting become automatic, the student can better focus on writing content and composition. Hand skills and visual and fine motor skills are important foundation skills, but students also need to have the confidence to form letters correctly and automatically, without having to stop and think about how each letter is formed. That is why this program focuses more specifically on letter formation.
COST OF PROGRAM & WHAT DOES IT INCLUDE?
The entire program costs $605 and includes the following: Teacher’s manual, parent information handouts, student evaluation / screening booklets, all the games / activities mentioned in the program, drawing workbook, handouts, letter formation worksheets (for the group), letter formation worksheets (for homework), pencil grips, specialized scissors, and novelty pens / pencils. The only thing you have to provide is ‘blank paper’.
FINALLY…
Christine Siddle has been a paediatric occupational therapist for about 20 years now, and has worked on these areas with many different children; some with a diagnosis, but many without. She has worked in different educational settings both here and abroad. She has tried many different strategies, until finally discovering these strategies which have proved to be very effective. Christine has used a similar group format in various local schools, and has also used them at our clinic on an individual basis, to great effect. This program is specifically designed for other therapists, integration aides and teachers to administer, but can also be used by parents as well.

Please contact us if you are interested in purchasing this program.

THRASS ACCREDITED

THRASS (Teaching Handwriting Reading And Spelling Skills) is a phonics teaching tool that is now being used at our centre, after Christine Siddle became accredited in the teaching of it in 2011. This approach focuses on the 44 most common sounds (Oxford Dictionary) and the 120 most common spelling choices for those sounds. We have combined this approach as part of our handwriting programs to provide that important link between hearing,seeing, saying and writing letters in order to work on reading, writing and spelling skills. For example, the letters ‘ch’ can actually make 3 different sounds as you hear in the words ‘chef, chair, school’; not just one sound. It is also a good visual based strategy as it uses 2 different charts: one with pictures, and one with just the spelling choices. We also use a phonics handbook to record spelling patterns and to identify common errors. There is also quite strong evidence to support use of such an approach to improve a students reading and spelling skills. If you would like further information about this approach go to www.thrass.com.au.

HANDWRITING GROUPS IN SCHOOL

Christine Siddle has recently run a number of fine motor / handwriting groups within local schools with 4-6 students at a time. The group often begins with a screening assessment of each child’s strengths and weaknesses in the first session. Five treatment sessions follow and an intervention summary report is provided for each student at the completion of the group. The emphasis of the group is on fine tuning ‘detective skills’ so the students are more engaged and ready to learn; playing various games to address important hand dexterity skills; improving visual-motor skills such as colouring and drawing; improving fine motor skills such as cutting; and addressing handwriting skills, with particular emphasis on legibility and letter formation. The strategies taught are meant to be easy to recall and easy to put into practice. Parent attendance is also encouraged at these groups, to ensure carry-over of the skills at home, and colourful, but concise, handouts are also provided at the end of each session for the parents and teachers who are unable to attend the sessions. This is what one parent had to say about her son’s progress from the group:
Thank you so much for your assistance with helping (my child) to be a more confident writer. We have attached a couple of examples of then and now for your record to see just how much he has improved. He really is a more ‘happy writer’ because of these sessions. It would be great if these were available to all students learning to write, even in a larger class setting. The method has stuck in my mind and (my child’s) so it is really easy to correct if things start to slip; not that they do! All the best and hope to see you at the school again.
Old Diary.  New Diary.

OUR STUDENT’S ARTWORK

Our staff at Kid-Eze Therapy Services help students to discover their true artistic potential. Actually, drawing is a very important foundation skill for handwriting, and that is why we use a variety of strategies to simplify the process for our students, so they are able to draw with greater success and confidence.