Flexible Seating Options

Last week, I spent a couple of days working with third, fourth, and fifth-grade teachers on conferring and small group work. Even though I was focused on helping teachers with those areas, I spent time noticing good minilessons, strong classroom management, and differentiated learning environments.

I walked into a remarkable third-grade classroom that seemed to scream “everyone gets what they need” from the moment I crossed the threshold. After the minilesson, the students made an oral plan with their writing partner and went off to their focus spots. I looked around the room and noticed kids working in the following places:

• At their desks sitting in a four-legged chair.
• At their desks sitting on exercise balls.
• By a bookshelf while writing on top of it.
• On the floor or carpet with their writing sprawled out alongside them.
• On a park bench (Yes, there was an actual park bench in this classroom!) with the writing beside the child.
• In scoop chairs with the writing on the child’s lap.

I admired the way the classroom teacher honored each student’s work style. She knows every child is able to focus when they’re working comfortably. It was clear every student’s needs were met with diverse seating options. (NOTE: The class had 21 kids and there was not a single instance that I noticed of a child taking advantage of the flexible seating options. Impressive!)

Numerical saccades practice was more tolerable while standing.

On Friday afternoon, Isabelle was more fidgety than usual when it was time to do vision therapy homework. She couldn’t keep her tush in her chair. I invited her to stand up, but she kept one leg on the chair at all times, which meant the wiggling continued. As a result, her posture was off, which meant her Harmon Distance (i.e., the distance between a person’s elbow and middle knuckle on the middle finger) was incorrect. Hence, her ability to concentrate on the vision tasks was degraded. Yesterday, I made a suggestion: either sit or stand. She opted to stand. As soon as I moved the chair away, I noticed an immediate difference. Therefore, I gave her the choice to sit or stand again today. Again, she decided to stand. Since she had some practice with standing and completing the tasks yesterday, I noticed a marked difference in her ability to focus on the vision therapy tasks at-hand today. In fact, she finished quicker today than she had all week!

There are times kids need to sit. Sitting still is a skill we need to be successful in life. However, sitting still isn’t something we have to insist upon all of the time. As a parent, I often forget my child doesn’t learn and work like I do.  I was reminded, thanks to this third-grade teacher’s classroom filled with flexible seating options, that I can meet the needs of my own child by providing her with what she needs when she needs it.

…..

To read more about flexible seating options for students, check out “Grab a Seat, Grab a Pen, & Get Appy” by Deb Frazier over at Two Writing Teachers.

Head over to http://twowritingteachers.org on Tuesdays for more slice of life stories.

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When does it get easier?

Vision therapy homework lasted

Over 30 minutes

Which means she’d fought me tooth-and-nail whenever something was hard

So when she gave up on the balance exercises

I walked away

Our fight felt soul-crushing

Even though I didn’t raise my voice

Or utter anything I later regretted

I walked away

Rather than screaming

And that’s when she began to cry

And yell

At me

What should I do now?

Who else will help me if you don’t?

I can try again!

But it was too late

You’ve yelled at me so many times.

I don’t like it when you scream at me.

I’m finished working with you today.

She yelled at me for awhile longer

Until she noticed I was going to remain unresponsive and unflustered

What would you like to eat?

Yogurt and apple juice.

I set both on the table

And she sat immediately

I grabbed a Muuna from the fridge

A spoon from the drawer

And began eating at the island

A few minutes later

A small voice asked a question

Will you come sit with me?

I softened

As she de-escalated the tension between us

So I sat

We chit-chatted

Until she complained of being cold

She went in search of a sweater

That wasn’t there

So I offered her my lap

She crawled in with her juice cup

You know I love you, right?

Yes, I know.

I don’t want to fight with you about vision therapy. I want to help you get through this quickly so reading and writing aren’t so hard for you.

I know, Mommy.

May I read you a book you might connect with before bed tonight?

What’s it called?

Thank You, Mr. Falker. It is about a little girl who had trouble reading, but worked hard to overcome the problems she had and went on to become an author and illustrator.

I’d like that.

We walked away, hand-in-hand, in search of the book

Which she later asked

to keep in her book nook

After we read it together

Together

we will get through this

We always have

But with just four weeks of vision therapy so far

This journey promises to be rough

Trust Your Gut.

Anyone who knows me well knows I’ve been making decisions by listening to my gut for the past decade. Every time (except for one) I haven’t listened to my gut, I’ve regretted it.

My gut told me something more was at-play with Isabelle who has been having reading difficulties. Despite hiring a tutor and buying Elephant and Piggie books for at-home reading practice, my gut told me there was a bigger problem well-before Isabelle declared “I hate reading!” in late June.

Last year, Isabelle’s occupational therapist informed me she was having trouble with visual perception. Upon her recommendation, I subscribed to Puzzle Buzz and helped her with the hidden pictures pages. I thought she was making progress, but my gut still told me something was up. However, after she passed her most recent eye exam with 20/15 eyesight, I told the optometrist about the visual perception issues and trouble with reading. The optometrist referred me to a vision therapy specialist who we saw in mid-August. It was my hope I was spending money just to rule something out.

Nothing was ruled out. Instead, a diagnosis of Ocular Motor Dysfunction was given. I cried despite being happy my gut was correct — again. The treatment for OMD meant weekly vision therapy sessions and nightly vision therapy homework. The eye doctor reassured me that diagnosing this now would help Isabelle as she progressed in school. I continued to cry so she handed me a cheat sheet about OMD. Upon reading it, I quickly realized my six-year-old could be an OMD poster child.

I waited until the school year was underway for Isabelle to start vision therapy. She had her first session yesterday. This afternoon, I mapped out what our afternoon would look like:

Click on the image to enlarge.

 

This doesn’t look horrible, right? I’m hoping it isn’t. In fact, the first, second, and fourth activities actually look fun. (The third one is tedious. I tried it myself. It’s challenging!)

 

The third activity requires Isabelle to put on colored lenses that block out one eye at a time. She has to place dots in the center of each shape. (There are ~200 shapes in all.)

 

We’ll get through the vision therapy homework — and everything else — this afternoon. I’m more nervous about what happens three weeks from now. You see, in three weeks, Isabelle will begin having nightly homework. She’s been dreading it because she thinks it’ll be too hard. Now that I’ve created a schedule for how her afternoons will go, I am dreading it, too, since it means she’ll have virtually no free time after school. She’s six. That’s not okay. Kids need unstructured time to play after being in school for a full day.

I’ve been chatting with some of my TWT colleagues about homework for a while now. I’ve also been reading articles — scholarly and popular — about homework in the past six months. I plan to share some of my thinking about the impact of homework in the elementary grades soon. For now, please send positive vibes. It’s my hope vision therapy will be the key to helping my daughter become a confident and successful reader!

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