Activities for Academic Pastoral Tutoring

Activities for academic pastoral tutoring

Charlotte Davies, 2011

Academic Pastoral Tutoring

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Academic Pastoral Tutoring

Table of Contents

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Academic Pastoral Tutoring

Introduction 3

Child Development Basics – grossly simplified! 5

Wider reading 8

Cognitive Games – teacher briefing 10

Games, broad categories: 14

Gross Motor Skills 14

Fine motor skills 18

Speech and language 21

Cognitive visual: 23

Behavioural, control and planning 40

Mathematical and reasoning skills 46

Empathy, and team working 55

Appendices 59

1.Gross motor skills - basic guidelines for how to do exercises, and what to do to correct problems. 60

2.Building spoken language skills using a child’s natural stages of development 70

3.Binocular vision contacts 71

4.Cognitive visual integration – how to do it 72

5.Remedial catch up 73

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Academic Pastoral Tutoring

Introduction

Objectives:

1.  To develop an approach to teaching that aims for excellence in child development for all children.

2.  To encourage children to develop their cognitive skills through play, and experiential learning.

3.  To use games to identify learning difficulties in school age children.

Background

Teachers are in a unique position, in that they see the full spectrum of children of all abilities for significant periods of time. It is vital that these professionals take greater responsibility for identifying children’s developmental problems and work to help children make more effective use of their inherent cognitive skills. The aim of this work is ultimately to show that most learning difficulties can be overcome, and most children can develop to be very able leaners.

Author background

Charlotte Davies is a teacher. Her own son experienced severe learning difficulties; his problems were substantially sorted out by Cognitive Visual Integration Therapy (a therapy that combines gross and fine motor skills therapy with behavioural optometry). In her teaching Charlotte has seen time and again that it is possible to use games and other activities to identify why students fail to learn effectively.

Once you understand why a student struggles to learn it is possible to identify how to correct the problem, or help the student develop really effective coping strategies. Teachers cannot work in isolation they need the support of a wide range of medical professionals, but they are a useful first point to cheaply and effectively screen children for difficulties that will block their life chances, and there is much they can do which does not require specialist medical training .

Towards a more effective educational future

Education does not start with reading or writing. In order to master the three R’s children need to be “fit to learn”, if they are not, they get emotionally damaged by the experience of trying and failing for years.

There is no point moaning about the deficiencies of modern society, technology, or politicians….

In the real World if we want children to learn they need to have:

a.  Properly developed gross and fine motor skills;

b.  Good vocabularies (which assume good cognitive auditory pathways and properly developed speech);

c.  A sense of rhythm;

d.  Good stereopsis of vision.

Children are then ready to sit in mainstream classrooms and enjoy challenging teaching.

If all children are able learners then all the problems of streaming, and comprehensives vs grammar schools, and vocational vs academic teaching largely disappear ………….

There is just a huge amount of marking and preparation……..

Child Development Basics – grossly simplified!

1. Up to 3.5 years of age children should be:

a. Developing beyond primitive reflexes: these remain in the brainstem as part of the neurological substrate, and there is learning from the primitive reflexes of complex movement patterns with voluntary control. Primary reflexes are well examined in youtube clips, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyVLD0hl0XY ;

b. developing voluntary gross motor skill control, midline crossing, balance.

Gross motor skills, refers to control of the big muscles in the body in the limbs and torso.
Crossing the midline: this is the ability of the one side of the body to cross over to the other side by moving across the centre line of the body, thus the right hand can cross over the midline and pick up an object from the left side of the body, for example. http://www.kidzworld.co.za/parentingarticles/crossing-the-midline.htm
Obvious signs that a child is not midline crossing include: keeping all their work over to one side of the desk; or passing items from one side of their body to the other using two hands, i.e. neither hand strays across the midline.

2. Fine motor skills cannot develop properly until gross motor skills are developed. Fine motor skills are control of all the little muscles in the body from winking to learning to control a pencil. Children need many varied and fun activities to develop really good fine motor skills, it becomes very tedious if all the focus is just on one skill, e.g. writing. Conversely writing is tedious and painful if fine motor skills are not properly developed.

3. Cognitive auditory pathways are hardwired in at birth – children should become skilled over their early years in using their cognitive auditory pathways. Ear infections and noisy environments can impair this process. Early auditory problems can trigger delays in other areas of cognitive sensory development. Most children are predominantly auditory learners until at least 9 years old.

4. Cognitive visual pathways are not hard-wired in at birth but develop over the first 9 years of life. Once a child’s cognitive visual pathways are developed they can then start using them to become skilled in their use, i.e. a child needs to practise cognitive visual skills in order to be able to master them fully.

Each visual pathway to the brain has a matter of a few weeks “window of opportunity” to develop, e.g. the ability to differentiate horizontal from vertical, if the child misses that “window”, without specific corrective therapy, they will not develop that skill.

To understand cognitive vision more fully watch Youtube clips such as the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWKWNPdxpyk .

In a properly developed secondary student 80% of learning is visual. If a student is not a visual learner they will have to work a lot harder than other students, this will impact on their behaviour and energy levels.

If a child does not develop good cognitive visual pathways they will be dependent on their auditory pathways and can become very disturbed in noisy environments. It is easy to confuse visual and auditory disturbance in young children, care must therefore be taken to have children assessed by professionals who are trained appropriately.

Our lifestyles have changed dramatically, particularly in the last 50 years – our children are still woolly mammals who need to develop in a free range environment. Many children are not getting access to proper development, hence we are seeing more children coming up with minor developmental problems, and infantilised in terms of not having long-term responsibility for chores at home, school, or in clubs.

Unfortunately, this generation are going into a knowledge based economy where the highest levels of cognitive development are richly rewarded, but there is very little tolerance for the low skilled.

Wider reading

This is suggested wider reading that links into how children develop, and how we have changed the way that we communicate with and educate our children. Some of the books are very easy to read, some are very difficult, start where you feel comfortable. If you do not like reading then watch children, play games with them, play with toys new and old, and work out how a child needs to develop in order to enjoy using them. Learn a new skill yourself and work out what you needed to do to develop that skill, e.g. take up Japanese language classes.

General Early Development

1. Understanding Children’s Development, Smith, Cowie, Blades, 2003

2. Cognitive Psychology, Eysenck and Keane, 2010

3. Toxic Childhood: How The Modern World Is Damaging Our Children And What We Can Do About It, Sue Palmer, 2006

Gross Motor Skills Development

4. The Well Balanced Child: Movement and Early Learning,

Sally Goddard Blythe, 2006

5. Patsy Rodenburg, Speaking Shakespeare, 2005

6. Patsy Rodenburg, Presence, 2007

Auditory Development

7. This is Your Brain on Music, Levitin, 2006

8. Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate, 2009

9. Michael Thomas Method, The Learning Revolution, Jonathan Solity, 2008

10. The Language Instinct, The New Science of Language and the Mind, Steven Pinker, 1994

Visual Development

11. See What I'm Saying: The Extraordinary Powers of Our Five Senses, by Lawrence D. Rosenblum, 2010

12. Basic Vision: An Introduction to Visual Perception,

Robert Snowden, Peter Thompson, Tom Troscianko, 2006

13. Dyslexia and Vision, Bruce Evans, 2001

14. Optometric Management of Learning-Related Vision Problems, Scheiman Rouse, 2006

15. (Children’s books are very good for understanding visual development, ask yourself how not being able to see 3D would affect your perception of the world,

e.g. Magic in Art, Discover how Paintings aren’t always what they seem to be …., Alexander Sturgis, 2003;

3D World, Atlas Tour, Marie Javins, 2008.)

Experiential Learning

16. http://www.learning-theories.com/experiential-learning-kolb.html

17. http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/special-programs/sp-268-the-mathematics-in-toys-and-games-spring-2010/

18. EBEA enterprise activities

http://www.ebea.org.uk/teaching_resources/lesson_ideas_and_resources/enterprise/short_term_activities/

http://www.ebea.org.uk/teaching_resources/lesson_ideas_and_resources/enterprise/long_term_activities/

Why nothing is done about anything

19. Wilful Blindness, Margaret Heffernan, 2011

Cognitive Games – teacher briefing

Objectives

These games are designed to meet a range of objectives, i.e.

a. to have fun and learn new games;

b. to develop the social side of your tutor time, to help your tutor group bond as a cohesive social group who enjoy meeting together;

c. to use and develop a wide range of cognitive skills that are neglected in a hi-tech World;

d. to identify learning difficulties and strategies to overcome/manage them.

Suggested plan to present activities

1. Make sure that you know how to run the activity;

2. Introduce the activity to the tutor group, make sure that they all listen carefully in silence. Do not tolerate the student who interrupts the briefing and hence undermines others ability to understand what is expected.

3. Play the game through as a trial to check everyone’s understanding.

4. Play the game/activity, let the group enjoy “playing”.

5. Watch carefully…… note mentally who is very good, note who struggles especially to complete really basic tasks.

Follow up to the games

1. Discuss with the class the skills that are needed to be good at the game;

2. Ask students for any tricks or strategies that they use that speed up their ability;

3. Reinforce with the tutor group the need to practise skills in order to develop speed – i.e. “use it or lose it”.

4. Give out prizes to participants, as appropriate.

5. Play the game again from time to time throughout the year.

6. If you are concerned about a student struggling discuss it with the SEN coordinator.

7. From time to time send home photographs of the tutees enjoying themselves – it reassures parents, and keeps things in perspective.

8. Vary the games and skills used throughout the term to ensure that all areas of the child’s development are considered and have a chance to develop.

Record keeping

Keep it very simple. Only keep a note if you are worried about an issue.

The prime objective is to play with the group, you are a form tutor, not a child psychologist.

Buying the Games

Go to charity shops to buy the games and resources they are all widely and cheaply available. Lots of cheap games are better than a few expensive games. If you really cannot source the games cheaply or for free the Happy Puzzle Company seems to have most of the obscure ones, www.happypuzzle.co.uk .

Training

Basic child development is a relatively under-researched field. Our understanding is growing rapidly as different fields of science confirm, or otherwise, their understanding through the use of brain scans.

The key areas that it is worth seeking specialist training in are:

a.  Gross Motor skills development – Peter and Sally Blythe at INPP have a huge amount of experience in this field and are well worth listening to. www.inpp.org.uk

b.  Binocular vision – the Behavioural Optometrists are the specialists in this field in the UK, www.babo.co.uk . This group work to ensure that a person has good focus, peripheral vision and effective links between their eyes and their brains.

c.  Speech and Language development is well supported by the Communications Trust http://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/.

d.  Self-assessment, play the games yourself and observe what you and others cannot “see” or process. Experiment with your own skills. Try to teach yourself to do an activity that you do not find easy. If you master the skill, then document how you did it and how long it took. If you do not master the skill, try to understand what you cannot cognitively process.

Communicating with the learner’s family

1.  SEN is a difficult subject in the UK. The emphasis is rarely on correcting the problem, yet that is the best solution for everyone in the long term.

2.  The main reasons parents and teachers seek diagnosis of SEN problems are (a) to get more time in public examinations; (b) to attract more funding to give additional support to the student.

3.  It is very difficult for parents to get good comprehensive information and support on how to help their child overcome developmental delays. This book aims to make developmental delays more comprehensible for all, and identify where help can be found.

4.  Society puts huge pressure on parents to correct their children’s problems. The parents are themselves in the dark as to why their children behave the way they do, but they often know that their child is distressed about their shortcomings. This is an impossible situation for anyone to be in, parents want to conform to society’s demands, but they also don’t want to hurt their own child.

5.  Developmental difficulties may be hereditary, e.g. everyone in the family may have some form of ADHD. It is very difficult to organise yourself with ADHD, never mind organising yourself and sorting out your child’s difficulties.

6.  Children with developmental difficulties often cover up the worst of their problems at school, but at home they may be extremely distressed, or difficult to handle. Listen carefully to parents they often have the best understanding of the child’s problems, but they are also often exhausted from dealing with it 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.