Tuesday Tips: NTI Virtual Tips and Strategies for Families without Internet Access Webinar 9/29/20

Stella: Well, thank you all so much for joining us this morning for Kentucky SPIN’s Tuesday Tips webinar. We are going to be talking about some NTI strategies and also I believe Dr. Clarke is going to help us understand a little bit of, some tips and tricks that we can do when, we don’t have great internet access.

[00:00:22] And so we are very excited to have our special guest, Dr. Laura Clarke with us today. She’s with the Northern Kentucky co-operative for Educational Services. We’ll let her talk a little bit in a few minutes. My name is Stella Beard. I am the Assistant Director for Kentucky SPIN. And so I just want to give you just a little bit of information about Kentucky SPIN before we get started.

[00:00:45] We are the Kentucky special parent involvement network. We are the parent training and information center for the State of Kentucky, we are funded by the U.S. Department of Education under the individuals with disabilities education act. We have actually been the PTI or the State of Kentucky since 1988. So we have been here for a long time.

[00:01:09] We really provide training, information and support for children and youth, with all types of disabilities, birth through age 26. We help their families, and we also provide resources and trainings for families and professionals.

[00:01:26] What we do not do is we do not act as attorneys. So, our main focus is to empower families to effectively advocate for their children. And we provide peer support to help families access needed information and resources. All of our staff, are either a family member who has a child or an adult with an intellectual or developmental disability, they could have a disability themselves, or they could be a sibling of someone with an intellectual or developmental disability. So I think that provides a really great platform that we can share with families.

[00:02:04] I myself have a 24 year old with an intellectual disability. So, I feel like, you know, I’m able to talk to families on their level and understand exactly what they’re going through because I, myself, have been there. And still walk through many challenges as my son is getting older and we are deciding on his future.

[00:02:25] But this is just something that we usually shared all of our webinars, if you’ve ever attended our webinars before. But together we can accomplish great things for our children, and none of us have all the answers, but we are all working through this pandemic and adjusting as we go.

[00:02:40] And I believe every one of us could shout out a big yes, on that because things are changing every day. And we are trying our very best here at Kentucky SPIN to stay on top of things. We are so grateful though, to have Dr. Laura Clarke with us, and you can see her beautiful face on the screen. You are not going to see mine however, because my wifi is extremely slow here. And I just now got a pop up that says, my network might have some difficulties.

[00:03:10] So without further ado, I am going to let Dr. Clarke, I’m going to let her share her screen now so that she is able to show you all her presentation. And let’s see, I’m going to give you those rights now, so let me know if you’re able to take over Dr. Clarke?

[00:03:30] Dr. Clarke: I think so. Let’s see what my options are here. Let’s see, you let me know if you can see the slides?

[00:03:43] Stella: I can see.

[00:03:43] Dr. Clarke: Wonderful. Well, let me scoot the controls over so I can make that a little bit bigger. So you don’t have to see all the side clutter. All right, excellent. So slides can be seen?

[00:03:54] Stella: Yes. Ma’am.

[00:03:55] Dr. Clarke: Wonderful. All right. Excellent.

[00:03:58] Stella: Well, one quick thing I forgot to say at the beginning, is over on your dashboard folks, there is a little box called questions. And if you have a question throughout the presentation for Dr. Clarke, please type that in there, I’ll be monitoring those for her and she can stop periodically. And I’ll let her know if we have any questions, but I believe we’ll leave a little bit of time at the end, possibly for some questions then, so, okay. There you go. I’ll let you start now.

[00:04:24] Dr. Clarke: Absolutely. All right wonderful. I’m so happy to be here. I’m going to turn my face a little bit sideways to my other monitor. So my apologies for the sideways look. But I’m super excited to be here. Kentucky SPIN has always been near and dear to my heart, as my son has been growing up. And so I thought I would just share a little bit, with you, about me and our world.

[00:04:50] First of all, I’m with NKCES, we’re the Northern Kentucky, educational co-operative service. But wherever you are in the State of Kentucky, there is a co-operative for you. So if you are not familiar with which co-operative serves you in your region, please reach out to Kentucky SPIN or to me and I’m happy to direct you to your co-op. All the co-op’s are assigned districts throughout the State of Kentucky and we provide special education supports to every district throughout the State of Kentucky.

[00:05:22] So just a little bit about me and my crew. A picture on the left, you see our happily family pre-COVID. We loved to go out to eat. If you’ll notice the girls are thrilled, but my son, Daniel, not so much. He is not a fan of going any place new, unless he’s been there multiple times. So taking a picture on a bench, was on his least favorite thing to do activity.

[00:05:50] Dan just turned 21 in January. So we had just transitioned out of school-based IDEA services when COVID-19 hit just a few months later. So he was just in his adult placement for just a few months before he quickly transitioned back home with us. And he is still at home with us while we kind of wait for things to settle down a little bit.

[00:06:17] We’ve been doing lots of communication supports at home. So you’ll see there on the right, he uses Proloquo and his iPad, his all-time favorite food is nachos. So we’re working on requesting nachos, as you can see, that was a huge hit to be able to say that.

[00:06:35] So just a few COVID-19 fun activities, you probably have done some of these too. We have read discovered all of our board games that had gotten buried in the basement. So we’ve been playing lots of shoots and ladders, and clue. And the cool thing is Dan is learning to put cards down for us. So he always plays with one of his sisters as a partner, and then he puts down the cards on the table. Between you and I, he’s not really sure why we’re doing this very weird activity, but we usually have popcorn and Skittles. And so he’ll stay to play for that.

[00:07:09] We have modified a lot of activities, maybe in your world, it might be like my world with Dan’s diagnosis, he is not a happy mask wearer. So in order to get him to wear a mask from here to there, then we have to usually, sisters on each side, holding hands, we help put his mask on. He does, and what I like to call the magic funny face, where he stretches his mouth until he can move his mask slowly down and we keep scooting it back up. It lasts about 2.2 Seconds.

[00:07:40] So we’re doing haircuts at home. As you can see, my husband is working away there. And we’ve just been modifying all kinds of activities to what can we do and how can we do that at home? How can we make this work, for our current world? And I’m sure many of you are probably in the same boat adjusting to a new life, a different way.

[00:08:06] So before all of us as we’ve started with NTI, and then we’ve moved into various forms of remote learning, depending on where you are in the State. And some of you are back to maybe some form of in-person learning, your district might be doing hybrid situation where you’re in the building part days and your kids are at home part days. You might still be fully at home. You might have chosen remote option like we did with our younger daughters. So they’re learning at home at least through Christmas, and then we’re going to reassess. But maybe you had some of the same emoji experiences, that or Bitmoji that my husband and I have.

[00:08:47] Like some days it’s like, just the most blissful experience and everything’s lovely and Dan is happy and the girls are enjoying it. And, you know, just tip toe through the roses. But we also descend into all the feelings at our house [chuckles] where we’re in some denial, it’s not happening, a little hostility, maybe to the five people that are in the house all the time. Calling out to friends for a little help, help from our friends.

[00:09:19] [coughs] These are definitely where we are, and this can all happen within a five minute period, if you’re like us where we’re happy, sad, angry, and then back to happy again. Hopefully we end the day happy, but definitely remote learning probably for you, if it’s like us, we’ve had some challenges.

[00:09:37] So I wanted just to start by sharing a few of my favorite resources. I try not to over social media, but I do really enjoy Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for different reasons. So these images are a part of things that have popped up in my Facebook feed recently. I’ve been reminding myself and my husband and our oldest daughter, Catherine, who just graduated from college that for our younger kids, you know, their emotions and their feelings about COVID-19 can look really different. And it just like, we have really different emotions.

[00:10:14] And for a lot of our students and a lot of our kids, what I’m seeing, it’s just a lot of forgetfulness and distractedness. Where I’m like, I’m looking right at your face and talking words out loud and they’re like nodding, yeah. And they walk away and I’m like, what are you doing, you’re wandering around the house? And I, I just said pick up your paper, pick it up. And they’re like, what’d you ask me to do? Really distracted, more than we would expect for an early adolescent.

[00:10:45] So whether it’s anger and resistance or just that forgetfulness and kind of wandering around and you’re like, what are you looking for? I don’t know, what am I doing in this room? They just have no idea. We also are seeing some increased anxiety for some of our kids. And there’s a whole lot of reasons for that, right. And in addition to experiencing COVID-19.

[00:11:07] A lot of our kids are experiencing a lot of feelings about what’s happened to Breonna Taylor and you know, our feelings about supporting Black Lives Matter movement and the election is coming up and you know, all the feelings that come with that. And whether I’m going to school or not going to school. And if I go to school, will school be able to stay in or will we come back home? Just all kinds of stress.

[00:11:29] So the 75 calm down activities for kids, I’ll be honest, I found them to be really helpful for myself. Now you probably won’t see me doing number 16, a hand stand anywhere, but I definitely have been practicing number one a lot, slowing down my breathing.

[00:11:47] I’m definitely taking walks. My youngest is a sensory seeker, she needs a lot of deep input in her hands. So she has been making lots of slime. I’ve probably spent about $200 in Elmers glue since COVID-19 started cause she just makes gallons and gallons of slime and then we give it away. We make gallons and gallons more. She’s also been making a lot of palm-palms with yarn because that sensory is really nice, but she needs a lot of that deep input.

[00:12:20] So whatever your child or young adult needs, I thought these calm down activities are good for adults and for kids. We are seeing, and a lot of us, that our kids are seeking a lot more attention. So whether they’re just really sticking close to adults a lot more wanting to be in the same room when in the past they might’ve been out playing with friends, out in the neighborhood, out with sports, you know, they’re with us a lot more.

[00:12:50] And so there are times when I need to really remind myself that some of the behaviors that I’m seeing at home with my kids, in the past, I would say, Oh, you’re attention seeking. And I’m really trying to rethink that. Like, what do you actually need? Are you needing some connection? Do you need me to hear you and see you and acknowledge that? Do you need some help kind of organizing and validating your feelings? Attunement seeking or attachment seeking, you’re distressed about what’s going on and you need some comfort from me?

[00:13:21] On the right this really cool graphic. We printed this out and put this on our refrigerator and we talk a lot about the happiness chemicals, because my youngest daughter in particular has been just experiencing a lots and lots of sadness. Right. Things are so different. I don’t see my friends as much as I used to. I don’t understand what’s going on. Why are people being mean? Just all those feelings.

[00:13:46] So we talk about those happiness chemicals that happen in our brain and how can we activate a happiness chemical? It’s okay to have those sadness feelings, but we don’t want to stay there for a long period of time. We want to get back to happiness. So what can we do? And we choose one of the activities here, she picks something to do, and we do it together.

[00:14:05] One of the most popular activities we’ve done with her that worked really well, with my students also, is trying to get some additional physical activities. And so we call it, You be the boss, which my nine year old loves to be the boss. So she gets to be the boss. She chooses 10 stretches or activities that we do. And then the adults all mirror that. So whether, you know, we’re doing deep stretches and she likes to do jumping jacks, deep knee bends. She’s choosing some kind of activity and we’re modeling that, and that helps bring on some happiness chemicals.

[00:14:44] So hopefully you find a few activities in here that might be helpful to you. I have linked into the slides, in the notes, all of  the places where these links or the pictures came from so that if you’d like to explore them yourself, you’re welcome to.

[00:15:01] We’re definitely really encouraging a lot of growth mindset for ourselves personally,  but also with our kids, because for many of them they’re learning in a different way. Even if they’re back in school, you know, they’re learning at a further distance from their peers. Their desks are further apart. They’re wearing a mask. Their lunch might be happening in a different place. And all those new experiences can be stressful for some of our kids.

[00:15:26] My daughters are learning at home and that’s a very different learning experience. So we’re really tackling, all-day long growth mindset and working through these mantras. I definitely replay these a lot and have this on my mirror in my bedroom so that when I get dressed in the morning, I can just remind myself growth mindset Laura, you’re going to make it.

[00:15:47] If you just needed a little bit of humor for the day, my husband and I had been laughing just about every evening on the small things in life that have been making us really, really happy and how really little things can bring us great joy. So whether it’s writing with a really nice pen to getting that corner brownie, yes, I did have one on Saturday and it was delicious, really trying to take those opportunities to just celebrate. Because it can be really stressful and overwhelming as we’re processing all these changes for our children and ourselves.

[00:16:22] So having laid that foundation, hopefully a tip or two was helpful to you or reminded you of something wonderful in your own life. [chuckles] I don’t know about you, but at this moment in COVID, I can totally see my daughter’s looking like this and turning around and painting the wall with permanent paint. That’s about where we feel like we are some days. It’s not going to make it on the paper, it’s going to be on the walls.

[00:16:49] But let’s really look at how lovely paint looks on the paper and talked about that remote learning or non-traditional instruction, depending on what your district is calling the current learning opportunities. Whether you’re in a hybrid school schedule, you know, whatever you’re doing to support your child right now. And let’s just kind of chat about some of the options.

[00:17:14] I know that some spots were really experiencing some internet access challenges. So I wanted to just throw out some general suggestions, if you don’t have any internet access that is consistent right now, where are some places that you might be able to chat with some helps that might be able to give you some resources?

[00:17:35] And whether you’re really rural or in the middle of a city, the first place that encourage you to talk and check is with your school family resource center. For families that have access issues, and need some support with bills and paying for that internet access, family resource center sometimes have additional funding or supports that can help.

[00:18:00] You can also check with your cell phone carrier. Some cell phone carriers right now are offering some additional supports, and even free resources for families depending on who that carrier is in your region. The same with the phone company that supports your region. Some of them are offering some special supports or different free resources for families that are in the middle of remote learning.

[00:18:25] In addition, your community library might have some additional resources that help. We live in a city and our library, you know, their internet, you can pull up close to the building in your car and access the internet in your car. So sometimes we’ll do that if the internet’s spotty at our house, I’ll drive the girls up with their iPads and they’ll jump on the internet there at the library.

[00:18:52] Some community centers and churches are opening their doors to share internet access at specific times. If that’s not currently available, I would go ahead and chat a little bit with your school family resource center to see if they would be willing to kind of help you reach out to some of those people to see if they have some access. There are also quite a few restaurants that have internet access that are offering for families to use that. So, even if you’re not going to go in the restaurant and eat, the same thing as we do at the library, still pulling up close to the building in a parking spot and using the internet there, they’ve got open access that you can share.

[00:19:33] If anybody’s got any other ideas of ways that you’ve found access, please share that in the chat and we’ll share those ideas out.

[00:19:42] If there is no internet access available or in your district either you have chosen or your school has chosen to do some form, of what a district might call packet work or non-computer work, here’s a few things that you should expect. One is a lot of the packet work that this coming home, is focused on practicing learned skills. So it’s something that students at your child’s age and grade should have mastered. You know, so if they’re going into the second grade and in first grade they mastered one digit addition, then you’re probably seeing some one digit addition work coming home.

[00:20:22] If there’s brand new learning, so for example, in second grade, if they’re starting to work on two digit addition and, I’m using an elementary example that you kind of can extrapolate up to your child’s grade and age, if there’s brand new learning, then there should be some form of written directions, hopefully with some visual supports that walk the student through, here’s how you do this work. With some and what we call worked examples. So for example, if it’s, you know, two digit addition problems, there should be some directions, there should be some pictures. There should be some examples of problems that are solved correctly, probably with some arrows and circles that say, this is what the work should look like.

[00:21:02] Hopefully you’re also getting an information packet for you as a parent or a guardian, the adult in the household, to kind of capture the key ideas. You know, why are we doing this learning? What’s the Kentucky academic standard that this matches? And how can I help the child, children in my home or my child master this content? So packet work should hopefully look like this. There should be a variety that moves your child across the Kentucky academic content for your child’s grade.

[00:21:34] If your student has a 504 plan or an IEP and receives accommodations, those can be a little bit more challenging when we’re doing packet work. Right? So if you’re a student usually has a reader during the school day, then providing a reader to a packet, you know, this comes with challenges. Hopefully though, what you’re seeing is increased picture supports and maybe some simplified writing. So instead of, you know, three paragraphs, there’s some three or four word sets of directions, bullet points to walk your child through the content.

[00:22:10] If it’s possible at all, to access, the internet during the day, there might be a few things that you would want to discuss with your teacher. Over on the right, you’ll see a smaller picture for Remind. So if you haven’t accessed Remind before, Remind is a feature that is free for teachers to use and often middle schools and high schools have used it with our students, more and more elementary teachers are using it. And it really, usually on the parents side, looks like a series of text messages. And the nice thing about that is if you have access to text messaging, then the teacher can provide those text messages throughout the day. Within the Remind app and the text messages, they can also provide links to videos.

[00:23:03] So, a free feature that teachers can use, and across the State of Kentucky many teachers are using Google, Google Chrome, Google classroom. And a free feature within that world is called Screencastify. And Screencastify lets you screen record, small bits of instruction to share with students. And the great thing about that is you can upload those videos for free to our free YouTube channels. So you’ll see down there in the bottom right, my YouTube channel and some short videos that I’ve made for teacher education purposes.

[00:23:38] But any teacher can utilize that. So the great thing about a Screencastify and uploading to the YouTube channel is if you don’t have consistent internet access, but you do have some internet access, throughout the day or the week, the teacher could, using the Remind app or through email, send links to some short videos that they can make to provide new instruction to your child or to provide that reader accommodation to your child. Or, if your student needs a scribe for writing and then they can share with you some technologies that your student could record themselves talking and use that speech to text option to support your students’ learning.

[00:24:25] When we have times of intermittent internet access, where you know that on Fridays, you are going over to grandma’s house or to your aunt’s house and they have internet and you’d be able to use their internet,. then a good idea is to really communicate carefully with your school and say, these are the times that I have access to the internet. So if you can share information and links and videos so that I can access when I have a chance to get to the internet, we call that, you know, that asynchronous access, then I could do that.

[00:24:59] Some teachers in remote learning are providing that kind of live teaching where, you know, I’m on Facebook live or Google meet, Google hangout, you know, some platform or the other, like we are on a web platform now, and I’m sharing with you live and in a moment. And if your internet access is not at all or is not consistent, that you can access that, you could chat with your teacher about possibly recording some sessions that your child could access, when you do have a chance to access the internet.

[00:25:33] Some of the key things to think about and share with teachers are, for example, with the Remind app, it’s possible that the teacher could schedule to send your child messages throughout the day and to kind of help keep them on track, check it where they are. So if they had an accommodation that includes reinforcement and reminders to stay on track, they can absolutely do that using the Remind app. But if it’s not possible for you to receive multiple text messages throughout the day, that system wouldn’t work.

[00:26:05] Are you able to access YouTube videos? You know, do you have the bandwidth for short periods of time? Does your cell service allow for that? So letting teachers know exactly what works and doesn’t work for either your phone or if you have access to a computer, what does that look like?

[00:26:25] You also want to be really clear about the best ways to reach out to you and your student. And I think, many teachers are happy to accommodate as much as they can, if they know the schedule that works best for you. So if the morning is never going to work, but the afternoon does, you know, let them know, these are the windows of time when we can answer the phone. When my child can access some kind of technology or chat with you on the phone for a little bit of time.

[00:26:54] If you are running into communication challenges, and you’re just feeling like either you’re not connecting or you’re not being understood I would recommend that you just always start with the teacher first. I’ve given four examples of ways you might want to reach out. So if you’re reaching out by email and you’re not getting an answer, I would try calling. If you’re calling and not getting an answer, I would try emailing. Or sending in a note or sending a text message, if that’s a possibility. If you’re not getting a response one way though, I’d encourage you to try a second way before you reach out to someone else, because it’s just possible that the teacher like you is having internet challenges or not being able to access things as quickly as they normally would if they were in the school building all the time. So giving them those other options is helpful.

[00:27:47] Just some general suggestions, you know, these kind of work for all of us, how we’d like to be approached. Right. I always start with teachers, with anybody, with some kind of a thanks or a compliment, or just a nice starter. If the only starter I can come up with is I hope you’re having a great Tuesday, that’s still a nice start. And then, I usually start with things like I have a question about, I’m not sure I can access this. You know, I looked at Sam’s math grade and I was wondering, or could you help clarify. You know, all of those tend to be good ways to approach people and start nicely.

[00:28:28] And in that contact, I would always let them know the best way to get in touch with you, and the best time. You know, I’m available after five o’clock or I’m available in the morning and it’s easiest to reach me by text message. It’s easiest to call whatever system works best.

[00:28:47] If you have tried your best and you just cannot get ahold of that teacher, or can’t get an answer, and you and the teacher are trying to come to some understanding and you’re just not there, then the next person I would reach out to is the school counselor. Often they have that school-wide understanding and can really help support what you’re trying to work on with your student. The next person I would reach out to, if the counselor isn’t able to help, you know, check with the assistant principal, then check with the principal.

[00:29:20] And I would just kind of follow that same system, be as clear as you can. You know, offer compliments where things are working well and ask for clarification where you’re having issues. But I wouldn’t, you know, start, hey I’ve got a frustration and I’m going to call ADE or start at the district office. You know, I’ve found that you get best results if you start at that teacher level and just kind of work your way up. As long as we’re all solution seeking, and recognize this is a changing time. Then hopefully you can come to a good conclusion.

[00:29:53] I would definitely think through, as much as possible, if it’s not time sensitive, then I would allow at least two business days for a response. And we talked about that, you know, ask for in a few format. If you’re moving up to the next level, you’ve tried, you haven’t really get in touch with the teacher or you guys just can’t come to an agreement, when I talked to the counselor, I would just try and be as clear as possible. You know, I reached out to Mrs. Smith on this date and this date, I haven’t heard back from her. Can you check in with her and just see if she’s gotten my emails? Here’s what I’m looking for. Here’s what I’m trying to understand.

[00:30:30] And if you are looking for something in particular, I would offer some suggestions for what you would like to see as a solution or a resolution. You know, what do you think will work best with your child to support their learning? So that everyone has some kind of basis to have a conversation.

[00:30:49] We have produced quite a few resources and the co-ops have been sharing out lots of supports. So, if you’re looking for some information to support your learning at home, I would love to share these with you. The links I’ve hyperlinked in here, I’m going to kind of start on the right and work my way up.

[00:31:10] In Kentucky, we have some wonderful resources, Kentucky SPIN has shared so many fantastic resources, and they share out on Facebook, on Twitter. They have their YouTube channel. The Kentucky Autism Training Center also has some phenomenal resources on their website. I’ve linked in here to their site specific to COVID-19 resources, but they also share a lot on Facebook and Twitter. So you can definitely follow them and learn some great information.

[00:31:41] I had not heard of Marshall Street before this week. But if you haven’t had a chance to check them out, they have some fantastic resources. I’m going to unshare my screen and hop in. And if you can’t see the changes I’m making, if y’all would holler out and let me know so that I can jump back amd kind of reshare my screen.

[00:32:02] Marshall Street though has some COVID-19 resources. They have lots of resources for teachers, but they also have resources for families and lots of great suggestions and ideas for supporting our kids at home. So from at home activities, for those of us that have high school students, the career map activity was really cool. Parent tools, community resources. Lots, lots of great information.

[00:32:32] In addition to Marshall Street, we have a parent learning support site, and I shared that a few weeks ago on Kentucky SPIN. We continue to add more resources here and there are resources across a whole variety of topics. So if you are supporting a child with a disability, we have resources, everything from how to wear a mask, to social, emotional supports and growth mindset. You know ways to do brain breaks at home, to some academic supports for students. So lots of resources here, and again, we’ve got that link to the Kentucky Autism Training Centers resources.

[00:33:12] If you support a child at home, like Dan, who’s using alternative communication, we even have some modeling suggestions for using AC devices at home. If you have a child who has deaf-blindness, low-vision, is hard of hearing, we have resources here. We have added literacy supports and math supports on our site. So feel free to dive in and share these resources.

[00:33:42] And if you are looking for anything in particular, please let us know. One of my favorite fund resources that was added by my colleague, Kim, there’s a whole series of virtual math manipulatives, specific to elementary, middle school and high school and virtual math library. Great resources. If you are a foster or adoptive parent, we have a few resources specifically to support you and your family. And also, some excellent resources to support integrating the arts into work you are doing at home with your child.

[00:34:22] We have a site, it’s a professional learning site for teachers and administrators, but I did want to point out there are, these are all free trainings. And some of them might be really helpful to you depending on where you are in your journey with your child. We added this brand new site called Behavior Interventions and Strategies, quick tips and resource., and the way these trainings all work, if you click on the name of the training, it will typically take you into a document and the document just has step by step directions that you can walk through.

[00:34:58] You can do every step in the training or just participate in the parts that you would like. But for this training, you’ll see that we have like a little bit larger, some presentation slides that you can view. And then there are some videos. All of these videos have been uploaded to YouTube and you can watch them at your own convenience. The presentation slides here, I’m gonna open this up real quick. If you’ve got a child that is sharing some challenging behaviors right now, and you’re really looking for, wow, I need a strategy to help, and balance our family life back out.

[00:35:41] What we’ve done starting on slide seven, we have these little cards. And they’re designed so that you can print them out and you’ll see that every card has a little circle hole, so if you wanted to put them on a ring, you’re welcome to do that. But these are all what we call evidence based strategies, which means that there has been some research done with these strategies to support students. And so what we try to do on each card is just kind of share the name of the strategy, a quick summary of what it is and how you could utilize that to support your child with some examples.

[00:36:15] There are more than 20 evidence-based strategies, and what I often do is if I’m talking with a colleague and they’re sharing, here’s this behavior challenge. This is when it’s happening, this is what it looks like. We take those cards and spread them across the table. And then we just kind of do, like we do with a deck of cards. We’re like, well, not this strategy, not that strategy. Turn them upside down and then you’re left with three or four that you think might work pick the one that works best for you.

[00:36:42] If you’re interested in one of these and think, wow, that sounds cool, but I really don’t know enough about this to do anything with it, down at the end of the training, there are links to a whole series of places you can go to dive much deeper in to those strategies. Or you can reach out to your teacher at school and say, I’d really like to know more about this. Can you help me with that?

[00:37:05] For some of the strategies, we actually have additional deeper trainings. So specifically we saw one of the cards that said pre-correction. Well, here is a two hour training on pre-correction, so you could dive into that strategy.

[00:37:19] So all different strategies that you can access, if you’d like to know more about any of these to support your child, there’s also some literacy supports, math supports. If you’re really trying to support your child using technology at home, we have some free technology training,. You’re welcome to dive into.

[00:37:40] If you are supporting your child and you’re seeing, you know, that they really need some social, emotional support. They’re really having a hard time regulating their emotions. We have this social, emotional learning in changing times training that has some of the latest research on ways we can support our children through COVID-19 and all of the different changes that are happening across our culture.

[00:38:05] So, lots of resources there that you are welcome to access whenever it is convenient for you. Feel free to bookmark them all and, share them when they work for you.

[00:38:16] So those are kind of the big rocks of things that I thought hopefully are helpful. And do we have any questions or anything else that we can dive into together?

[00:38:28] Stella: Dr. Clarke, someone had just asked for me to post the links and stuff in the chat box. But I explained to them that they will get a follow-up email that will have your PowerPoint, which has all the links embedded in it.

[00:38:41] Dr. Clarke: Absolutely. And that you can click on every single link and it will take you directly to all of the resources.

[00:38:50] And do you think anything —

[00:38:53] Stella: That was the main thing that a couple of people are asking about. One of the questions that we get a lot, you know, is all the resources are wonderful and amazing, but if you could pick your favorite one, which one would it be? For a family that, you know, really doesn’t have the time to do all that research and finding and looking and diving into all of them? What would you suggest would be one of the, your top one for someone to really look into?

[00:39:26] Dr. Clarke: For academics or for behavior?

[00:39:30] Stella: Well, one of each. Just pick, I mean, let’s do one for academics and one for behavior.

[00:39:36] Dr. Clarke: Gotcha. If I was really trying to do some great support for math, I think the first thing I would do is check out the virtual math manipulatives. They can really be helpful.I will be honest with you, one of the best things that we have done in remote learning with our child who is really struggling with new math concepts, I went to the dollar tree and the dollar tree has all kinds of wonderful things. But there’s three things they have that we purchased that have made a huge difference to supporting remote learning.

[00:40:13] One of them was, and they have about 12 different versions of these, but  white boards. And then they also had more like the chalkboard look. So, we got white boards, one for me and one for my daughter. And, When she is really struggling with a new concept and we’ve done several different things with it. Like with math problems, we do kind of beat the clock or, you know, we work out problems together. But using that whiteboard for some reason at home, made a huge difference to the buy-in and made it easier. When we try to do it in a notebook or paper and pencil, I got a lot of resistance, but that whiteboard made a huge difference.

[00:40:51] The other thing that the dollar tree has is they’ve got the little sand timers. They’re either one or two minutes. And we’ve been using that a lot because, I get the whole, either laying across the back of the chair, [mock upset voice] I can’t do it, I’m not doing it anymore. And all that, and I’m like, turn the timer and give me one minute. That’s all I need is one minue [chuckles] to focus. And if you can focus with me, we’ll get something done. And that has made a huge difference, and kind of added to her power to be able to kind of persevere through.

[00:41:21] The other thing and, you know, feel free to judge on me people, [chuckles] but, the other thing that helped us, we got Smarties and Skittles and Starburst. And, we only have that out during work. And for every five minutes of good attention, she gets a piece of candy. I know some of you really think that’s awful, but, you know what? We have survived many days of remote learning, off of two Skittles. And I say, if that’s all it took the day was good. So, we’ve been using that a lot.

[00:41:51] She also has been using a sticker reward chart. She doesn’t use it for herself. She uses it for me, which probably is a good thing. So, for every time that she asks a question and I answer in a nice voice, please don’t judge too much, I get a sticker from my child. And again, it’s that reinforcement. She was having a hard time hearing her own tone, and how she was coming across. So we started kind of modeling that back and forth and having her judge, if we have a nice tone or not a nice tone. And so she’s given me stickers when I have a nice tone and then I have a really nice tone and sometimes I’m just not pleasant and I don’t get a sticker. But she is able to articulate now because she’s got that power and control.

[00:42:37] That we know with a lot of kids, that things that we can do, when we’re really struggling with getting them to engage, give them power, give them choice [chuckles] and make it fun. And so those pieces all together kind of do all that. I give her power and control. We make it fun with the dry erase boards. Sometimes I solve my math problems incorrectly and she knows I’m like, sometimes I might be wrong. You better be watching. And so every time she catches me with a wrong answer, she thinks that’s the most hilarious thing that’s ever happened. And, we get lots of good new practice so that I learn to solve it correctly.

[00:43:14] So that, to me, those were huge game changers that I would absolutely say make a huge difference. The other thing that’s made a huge difference for a lot of kids with behavior, is the power of technology. I’m old, I’l just freely admit it. And so when my daughter, I said to her, what do you want to do as an adult? So my 12 year old, she was like to be a rock star and she’s priced out her bus that she plans to purchase with her cousin, they’re going on the road. And apparently I told her I would go get my certifications, I could be a driver. And she said, she doesn’t trust me. She’s hiring a different driver. So, you know, I’ve given up that dream.

[00:43:54] But anyway, we have a rock star and the other one wants to be an influencer. So for those of you that like me, I had to go and look that up. So apparently an influencer, is someone who makes videos and people pay them to do that on Instagram and YouTube and Facebook. So she wants to be an influencer. So what we have started doing i. she has been recording herself working. Sometimes these videos are hours long. But like recording reading, recording writing, recording problem-solving. And I let her record all she wants on her iPad. And then we watch them together and we give them likes and stars and all of that. That’s kind of part of what motivates her.

[00:44:36] And so we do that and it’s all free using YouTube, youTube has a free webcam. And we make all the videos private, so no one else can see them only us. But that’s made a huge difference. As I’ve been in middle schools and high schools and elementary schools over the past two years, I hear lots of kids saying similar things, when you talk about their career aspirations, you know, they want to be on YouTube. They want to be on some kind of TV show, so for a lot of kids that’s been working well.

[00:45:05] Stella: Oh, my goodness, I love that example. That is so great. I mean, I have a 19 year old in college who, she is all about the influencers and stuff like that.

[00:45:16] Dr. Clarke: Yup.

[00:45:16] Stella: And so I almost kind of did the same thing where I’ve read up a little bit and try, so I could just at least have engaging conversations with her about something that was important to her. So I love that. That’s wonderful.

[00:45:30] Dr. Clarke: [chuckles] Whatever it takes, it’s the running motto at the Clarke house [laughs] is whatver —

[00:45:36] Stella: That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. Well I think this has just been wonderful Dr. Clarke. I mean, you always provide us with such wonderful resources and tips and now everyone online is anxiously going to be awaiting for that email to drop this afternoon. So they’ll have all of these links and stuff. So, I really appreciate it.

[00:46:02] Was there any other slides that you had or anything else that you wanted to share before I wrap it up?

[00:46:08] Dr. Clarke: I think that we have covered them all. At the last slide, I think I just had my email address. So if anybody wants to contact me, feel free to reach out. I’m happy to connect you to resources, or to your own regional co-op. I’m always happy to share, and I’m always happy to be a part of Kentucky SPIN, it’s one of my favorite family places to go.

[00:46:33] Stella: Well, thank you so much. And we so enjoy having you here too. I’m going to flip back to my screen and make sure that I go over just a couple of things with everyone about some of our upcoming webinars that we have.

[00:46:51] Dr. Clarke has actually done a few of our Tuesday Tip webinars. We are doing these every Tuesday at 11. And every Tuesday at 11, we usually talk about a lot of different things. Right now, we’ve been focusing on stuff that’s going on with COVID-19, but we are, next Tuesday actually, we have special guest speaker, Pam Smith, who is a Division Director for Community Alternatives. And she’s going to be talking about some of our Medicaid waiver updates and things that are going on right now, with Medicaid waiver. So that’ll be a very informative Tuesday Tips webinar.

[00:47:29] You can go to our website, and we’ll have the — well, I’ll give you the web address, but it’s www.kyspin.com, you can go on there and register for any of our upcoming webinars. And also visit our COVID-19 page, that has many, many wonderful resources on there too.

[00:47:52] We also have an e-news that goes out on a regular basis, right now we’ve been pretty much sending it out every week, almost weekly or every other week. And you can register for that from our website also. That was pretty much what I wanted to share at the end. This is our contact information.

[00:48:10] And at the end of the webinar today, you will be prompted to complete our evaluation. We would really appreciate your feedback, input, any suggestions that you have for some topics you would like to see in some upcoming webinars. We also are going to be doing a five part series on charting the LifeCourse. So we are going to be able to provide you with some wonderful resources about transition, after high school. We’re really excited about that. So look on our website, get some wonderful information and sign up for all of our upcoming webinars.

[00:48:45] But thank you, Dr. Clarke, again for being with us, and thank you everyone for joining us today. And so please complete that evaluation at the end, and you will receive an email this afternoon with the PowerPoint. So you’ll have all the links. But thanks again so much for joining us.

[00:49:02] Let’s see, someone is, Dr. Laura Clarke just said, thanks everyone for inviting me to share today. So she was very happy to present all these resources to us today, and we really appreciate it. Thanks so much. And everyone have a wonderful Tuesday.