Update COVID19 – NTI Tips for Parents Dr Clarke NKCES& Other COVID 19 Updates Webinar

Rhonda: [00:00:00] Thank you all so much for joining us today. We’ve got a lot of great information coming up. Just to kinda tell you, I’m Rhonda with Kentucky’s SPIN, Kentucky special parent involvement network. We have the great honor to have Dr. Clarke with us today from the Northern, Kentucky educational cooperative. And she’s going to share some great information with us.

Just for those of you who may not be familiar, Kentucky SPIN is the parent training and information project for the state of Kentucky. And each state does have what is considered a PTI, a parent training and information center, which is funded through the U.S. Department of Education under the individuals with disabilities education act, which is the same federal law that calls for IEPs in school.

And for our little bitty babies, the birth to three for First Steps. And what we are is we are all family [00:01:00] members or persons with disabilities helping one another. We are not here, we do not act as attorneys. We do not represent families. What we do is to help to empower families to help their family and others.

And is a peer support role and a listening ear. And many times, I know as a family myself, having someone who can relate, it makes a world of difference.

One of the things too, that is huge to us and in me, not only personally, but with the work with Kentucky SPIN is partnership. Because how our children truly succeed and become to be successful adults, no matter what disability they have is when we all work together. Even if we don’t always agree on stuff, we still work together in the best interests of our children. So one of the great things, and Dr. Clarke, I had the great pleasure of getting to co-present with her back in the fall. [00:02:00]

The Pritcher committee had, up in Northern Kentucky had an event, and we were both talking about IDEA and 504.

And although, we had just met then, I felt like we’d known one another for years. And when we presented, it had, you know, you have such a great knowledge, and willingness to share with everyone and we are so honored to have you to help us really.

During this time when we’re looking at the non traditional instruction program, it can be overwhelming for any child, but especially for our children who have disabilities and how to best help our children at home.

While they are on the NTI program. So thank you so much Dr. Clarke, and I’ll let you take it from here.

A couple of quick things because I always forget what I’m supposed to tell you all in the beginning, [laughing] is that Stella Beard is on here with SPIN and helping us out. There are handouts over, you will find on your dashboard that you can [00:03:00] download the PowerPoint and a couple of other handouts.

We’ll also follow up in email by sending those if you, don’t have a moment to download those. But the presentation handouts is all in there and Dr. Clarke has made sure that there are links to the resources when you click in the PDF that you can access. Also too, if you have questions, we’re going to pause periodically and check in.

Stella helps us, keep us all straight here and she will read those questions. And again, given time, because we do just have an hour if we’re not able to get to all of the questions, we can always follow up afterwards. But thank you so much for joining us and Dr. Clarke, thank you again for helping us sort of map out how to best help our children.

Thank you.

Laura: [00:03:48] Well, thank you so much for having me, Rhonda. It was so much fun getting to know you, at the event this summer. And like you, I feel like we have known each other forever. The mission of Kentucky SPIN is so [00:04:00] powerful and such a resource for the state. So I am honored to be here. I’m a special education consultant with the Northern Kentucky cooperative educational services, and, we’re one of the co-ops that serve our region.

There’s a co-op in every part of the state. So if you don’t know where your regional cooperative is, you let us know and we can help connect you with that resource. But our role is to provide, support to all of the districts in our region and to help connect them with services.

So I have a background in supporting students with disabilities, in the Northern Kentucky region. And also am honored to have four fantastic kids. Our second child, Daniel, has a diagnosis of autism and epilepsy and is considered pre verbal or nonverbal. He just turned 21 in January, so we, have just walked [00:05:00] through the guardianship process. And, began with Dan and first steps when he was, younger than a year and, have received services all the way through his life.

So I not only, have supported students with disabilities in the classroom as a teacher, but also as a mom of Dan. So it’s an honor to be with you guys. And we’re going to advance through slides together. So, we will chat through a little bit about different resources, but just to give you a little bit of a feel.

I mentioned I’ve got four fantastic kids. So we have three daughters. We teasingly say, that Dan is the Rose among our thorns. Our three daughters do a fantastic job of supporting Dan. and Dan is very patient with all of us. Maybe like some of your children, my children are, at different times, thrilled with the NTI process and staying at home and, it five minutes later, they’re miserable with the whole process and miss their friends, miss their routine.

So we’re doing [00:06:00] a lot to try and build our structure, as you can see in the bottom left picture. And we definitely have plenty of silly times. We’ve been doing lots of drives with Dan to support him and I’m trying to stay safe at home. So when we’re thinking about supporting families and supporting our families.

We’re going to look at some of what we call the big rocks. So the first is looking at what that nontraditional instruction is looking like during COVID-19, and when NTI was originally designed, it was often thought of as kind of a quick stop gap measure for things like snow days. Right? And so really, I don’t think any of us had envisioned that NTI would be used in something like this pandemic, over an extended period of time.

So, you know, we’re all in this boat. Kind of thinking together about what is best practice, and, this is all new for all of us. So we’re really looking at, all new ways of supporting [00:07:00] students and really trying to pull together to see what resources are there to help us through this process.

So we’re going to start our look, at what we can do at just thinking about what NTI actually is in light of the COVID-19 experience.

So for those of you that might not be familiar, the council for exceptional children is a, one of the largest organizations that support families and teachers and professionals in supporting students with disabilities. And they have an administrator side. It’s called CASE that, supports the directors of special education.

And they’ve been doing a fantastic job at sharing out and building resources, along with the departments of education at the national and state levels to really try and figure out, you know, what is this going to look like? So one of the first resource documents that we all received from CASE [00:08:00] had to do with knowing where our schools are currently located in this NTI process.

And so at the beginning of the process, you know, some of our districts were completely closed and students were learning at home. Some of them were still open or somewhere in between. Right now, everyone is learning at home. But as we move back into schools, hopefully in a few months, you know, that process also might be staggered, like it was when we all came home. So it’s good to kind of hang on to this graphic and just kind of know where you are in the continuum in your district. With how students are learning, whether they’re in a building, out of a building, and then what kind of learning that looks like. On our next slide, we’re going to look at that continuum as it pertains to what work looks like.

And so for students with disabilities, the expectation is that our work would kind of mirror what’s the general education expectations are. [00:09:00] Whether students are in a self contained setting or whether they’re in a fully included setting with some supports from the special education teachers. So if your students, in your district, are doing homework packets, then when we’re looking at supporting students with disabilities, the questions that we’re asking is, is the work that’s being provided accessible to all students?

Especially given what’s in your child’s IEP? And then how are districts documenting that support? So are we keeping up with the number of minutes that are being provided, the type of supports that are being provided? So that everyone’s on the same page with their understanding. Then we’re looking at maybe schools that are doing some, what we call continuous learning opportunities.

And again, we’re asking if that’s what’s happening for all students? And what does that look like for students with disabilities and are we providing access?. If you move to that lighter green color, then we’re thinking some districts [00:10:00] are fully doing what they call it e-learning. Right? So, and then e-learning situation, again, we’re asking is the learning that’s being provided accessible? Is the platform or the format that’s being offered accessible for our students, and do they have access to the content?

So no matter where you are in the continuum, we’re definitely getting guidance and support at the district level and school building level, as to what that could look like no matter what your school is doing.

The other thing that we’re really closely focusing on in school districts is that concept of free and appropriate public education. One of those pillars of IDEA. So our current guidance, it’s based on what’s called the Endrew F  standard. And so if a district is completely closed over on the right hand side, the dark red, then there isn’t a requirement for FAPE if no other students are receiving any kind of [00:11:00] services.

But all of us probably are in that middle section where there’s some kind of learning going on, whether it’s a homework packet or our district is fully online. So what we’re going to consider for students with disabilities is what’s appropriate in light of the current circumstances. So back to that prior slide.

If everybody else is using the platform Seesaw or Google classroom, how is that accessible to my student? Who needs a reader or who might need a scribe in specific circumstances, you know, how is that being provided? So we’re going to compare what’s happening with every other student and the specific needs based on the IEP for my student with a disability.

We’re always going to consider what’s appropriate and that bar of, in light of the current circumstances, and my child’s ability to learn, is my child’s needs being met?

So let’s talk about those [00:12:00] continuous learning opportunities. If you’re thinking about your child and what they received when they were in a brick and mortar learning environment, whether that was a self contained classroom or whether that was, if they were in their general education classrooms, what accommodations did they receive in their IEP or what modifications might they have received?

And again, thinking back to those examples. Did they get extended time on an assignment? Did they have a reader or a scribe or a manipulatives? You know, what were those services that were being provided when they were in the school building, and then what does that look like with a homework packet or an E-learning experience?

What accommodations or modifications were there? And the other thing that everyone is considering, that is new for us is, you know, what about us, parents and guardians? What skills do we have and how able are we to support our students’ learning? You know, not many of us have training [00:13:00] in teaching. So you know, if I was going to be teaching my child, I might need some significant coaching by the teacher to say, okay, now talk to me about how you’re teaching that and talk to me about how you’re providing that information to my child, during the school day.

We’re also looking at all of the services that our children, have had in the school building and what’s necessary to provide them with the supports that they need. So keep in mind as we’re looking at these slides, this is brand new guidance. Never before seen, never before provided until, as you see the date there, March 20th this was just rolled out across the nation and it’s filtering its way down into school buildings.

But you know in Kentucky SPIN, you know, you all are on the cutting edge of getting this information in virtually the same amount of time. We’re just a month out. We’re still trying to kind of conceptualize, okay, given this brand new circumstance, what does learning look like for our students?

[00:14:00] So if you’re thinking about your child’s IEP and what they have and what they need, we’re always going to be considering at the school level.

What’s that appropriate education based on that Endrew F ruling, and you’ll see that quote there in the middle. What we’re really considering is what’s “appropriate in light of the child’s circumstances.” Given that COVID-19 is a completely different circumstance than anything that we’ve ever seen before, we’re really trying to focus in on what does this mean for our students? And what does this mean for our students IEP?

Alrighty, so for some of us that have packets, those can look really different. So some of us are picking up at the school building a packet of worksheets. We might be given some books. Then in our packets, there might be some manipulatives. If you have a child, like I have, like Dan, Dan has never done packets or worksheets or [00:15:00] manipulatives.

Dan’s cognitive level has always been between 18 and 24 months. So Dan’s work packet work from his self contained classroom would look very different. You know, he would have been sent home with, some task boxes and his communication device. And, probably some data sheets and information from his teacher that says, here’s how we did the task boxes.

Hopefully, maybe some pictures included to show kind of step by step so that I know what I’m able to do, to support my child in a packet situation.

So for some students, like, Dan, there might be some really different e-learning platforms. So if your district is fully online, then maybe at the elementary level, your district is using something like Seesaw or Schoology. So I have a first grader. I’m sorry. She’s now a second grader. Don’t tell her I made that slip.

A second grader, and I’ve got a middle schooler. This second grader, [00:16:00] they are using Seesaw as their platform and the teachers are uploading daily videos. They’re having a once a day morning meeting, where she is on the computer with three of her peers and her teacher. They spend a half an hour to an hour talking about their day. Doing a lot of social emotional check-in. And providing supports that way. And then she’s pretty independently moving through and, doing all kinds of different tasks. For example, today she had a music choice board where she had to choose three out of six activities. Well, thinking through the lens of a parent of a child with a disability who might need help in organizing their work and might need a reader, you know, what supports would she need when she enters that Seesaw app?

For our middle school and high school students, a lot of them are using something like a Google classroom or Schoology. And again, we’re asking those questions. You know, if the teachers are providing information basically through bulleted [00:17:00] announcements, then is there ability for that to be read to my student?

Is there ability to send maybe some reminds, if your district is using the remind app, to help your students stay on task for the day. If they have an IEP for ADHD and, get those prompting queuing supports. So no matter what technology they’re using, the technology is on the left, in the little white box are used a lot with students with autism or on those lower incidents disabilities and autism.

The box, orange-yellow box on the right are primarily used in the gen-ed settings and can be used across both settings. But no matter what is being used as the system in your school, are those accommodations being provided? And, we all know that when we’re thinking about those accommodations that we need to really think through how does that look and how is that matching a student’s IEP? Knowing that teachers are still trying to figure a lot of that [00:18:00] out also because they’ve never done it before.

So if we’re thinking about what we can do to support our students at home, I’ve got a few ideas, and I know that probably you have lots of ideas too. So if you’ve got great suggestions, please enter those in the chat box and we can all learn from each other. I would say the number one thing that we can do as parents, supporting our children, including children with disabilities,  is take time for ourselves. For a lot of us, we’re also working from home. You know, my work setting changed from being in an office and out in schools all day long to me and my computer at home, while my kids are also at home trying to manage their learning.

And Dan is really struggling with being at home and so we’re managing his new schedule. Some of us are essential employees. You’re still out in the workforce, and you know, some of us, our businesses have closed down, and so [00:19:00] we’re not currently working in a job, but we’re definitely working at home.

So make sure that you’re taking care of yourself. There’s lots of great resources out there. I’ve provided some links in this resource. If you click on the pictures that I’ve included, like this ASCD in service picture. It will take you to the articles that I’m including in here.

When you’re thinking about talking with your children, no matter their age, if they’re in preschool or high school, no matter what their cognitive level. Some kids just like all of us are easygoing and nothing about this process has upset them or bothered them. You know, others of us, this has been a really hard process and it’s caused lots of anxiety and stress.

And so if you’re looking for, first of all, just ways to explain, kind of the unexplainable and what COVID-19 is. [00:20:00] And why we’re working from home and staying home, on the first resource I would recommend is tuning in at five o’clock to listen to Governor Beshear, because he’s been doing a fantastic job breaking it down and explaining it.

But if you’re looking for some written resources, the national association of school psychologists, has given us a great document that really walks through exactly what we can say to children to decrease anxiety. There are also other resources. The bottom left resource is from autism speaks website, and they’ve got some great pictures, supports and resources.

I’ve also linked in here, lots of picture schedules and visual supports. If you would like to use those to explain this to your children. In addition to resources like this. And there’s also some great videos that are being produced really quickly. For example, Sesame Street, and their character who has autism [00:21:00] and had a real nice video conversation with her virtual parents on what autism and COVID-19, you know how we can explain that to people with autism. So you might want to check that out.

If you’re looking for older resources. There’s all kinds of things that are being produced, you know, as we speak, kind of explaining COVID-19, depending on the age of your child.

And again, we’ve got some of those linked in.

 In addition to some resources to help us talk with our kids about COVID-19. There are lots of great resources that are being produced, like this one, which I loved because, you know, we all have notebooks sitting around the home. I don’t know about you. I’ve got about 50.

They just stack up year after year and they’re, you know, written in about 10 pages and then nothing else. And I wondered what to do with them. And now I know I’ve created lots of safe at home check lists. That we’ve been using on Saturday or Sunday. We sit [00:22:00] down and create them for Monday through Friday with my children.

 In our breakout boxes, we also have their classes that they’re taking so that they can record what work they’re supposed to do for the day.  But we also have done checklist of fun activities, and again, we’re using it more as a choice board. What would you like to do? Would you like to take a walk or would you rather play a game in the yard?

But making sure that we’re really taking care of ourselves and teaching our kids that important balance. I don’t know about you, but trying to work from home, I am having trouble just really honestly with my, with my balance. A, I think mentally it helps me to work, that makes me feel very calm. So I’m working much longer hours and I find I could probably sit at my computer from the time I opened my eyes until I fell asleep.

So I really have to set a timer on my phone to stop. And connect with my kids and do something that is fun that I normally would not do as part of my day, but [00:23:00] really trying to take, advantage of that. We’re also really trying to change our mindset. My husband and I. And so we’re taking time to do things we normally don’t have time to do.

So my little one wanted to learn how to sew. So I pulled out some old fabric from a back closet and found my sewing basket. And every day we’d been practicing some different kinds of stitches. I haven’t done that in 15 years, but we’re trying to really think about ways that we can, stay safe at home and kind of protect our mental health.

For Dan, all of this is just very odd and he can’t figure out why our schedules are different. So, he definitely has been exhibiting some signs that look like depression. Because he’s nonverbal, we’re kind of guessing but we’ve been really increasing his communication opportunities to really ask him some questions and really try to give him lots of choices.

For some of our kids, they’re going to exhibit some really different symptoms that you might think, Oh my word, why are they doing that? Things like, really rapid onset of anger [00:24:00] or really resisting doing any kind of work. For a lot of us, it seems like we have one extreme or the other. We see a lot of behavior at home that school might not ever see or school sees a lot of behavior that we don’t see.

And we might see some overlap of that now because in the past where we might not have been making a lot of task demands on our children to complete work, now we are having them do work. And that might cause some increased aggression. We also might see, a lot of frustration, or hostility from our kids that we normally don’t see.

And so making sure that as kids are acting out, that we’re kind of recognizing that for what it is and putting some supports in place.

As you’re thinking about things that you can do to support yourself and to support your students, there is a really significant research base behind the advantages to mindfulness. We know [00:25:00] that mindful practices can make a significant difference. In our physical health, they can also help decrease anxiety and stress. For students that might have an IEP for an emotional behavioral disability and that might have an IEP for other health impairments.

ADHD or are just kids and we’re just parents, right? And these mindful moments can really help decrease our anxiety. So if you haven’t had a chance to look into some mindful activities, we’ve linked some in. There’s also, a resource on the left from the national child traumatic stress network.

You know, definitely. this, different time can cause some trauma for our students and we want to make sure that we’re kind of keeping an eye out for that. And putting in place some strategies and interventions to help our families stay safe while we’re at home.

If you’re thinking about what else you can do to support your child in your family [00:26:00] through this time. The other thing we want to be thinking about is our student’s IEP and the implementation of the IEP. As I’ve talked to teachers, and staff at the Kentucky department of education, you know, everyone’s first focus, is that everyone be healthy at home, that we take care of all of our basic needs.

So making sure families have enough food and have enough to pay rent.  And can access all those basic life needs. So if those are things that you need, please reach out to your district, to Kentucky SPIN, send me an email so we can help connect you with resources.

After we make sure those base needs are met, we definitely want to be thinking about our student’s IEP. So the first thing I would recommend that you do, is pull out the IEP, and if you can’t find one, I would email your school, your child’s special education teacher and ask them to send you a copy and take a look at where their IEP goals are.

So whether your student has an IEP with goals [00:27:00] for reading or writing or math or behavior or speech, whatever those goals are, take a look at those goals. And then check the section that’s called a specially designed instruction. Specially design instruction is what that special education teacher, was doing every day or every week or every month.

However, your minutes were written in your IEP to help your child develop the skills they need to be successful in that goal area. Well, now we know that looks very different and when we’re in this brand new situation, of non traditional instruction. So we’re all thinking through what does that specially designed instruction look like?

And so I’ve got some examples, but I do want you to know, you know, it’s a new day for all of us and we’re really working as a state, as a nation, as educators to try and figure that out. But here’s where we are in our learning and we’re just learning and sharing right along with you.

If a student on the left hand side, in their IEP had something like this as our specially designed [00:28:00] instruction, modeling with the use of graphic organizers for writing.

Then what might that look like if a student has a take home packet? And so we’re kind of figuring out, okay, what might we do? So our thoughts are that could look like a PDF or a document that we’ve printed out that has numbered steps that are written, so that a parent could kind of guide a student through that.

Right? There could be examples of what that, graphic organizer looks like. If a family is in an e-learning district, and then what that could look like is the teacher creating or finding a video that already models those steps where the teacher is walking through that graphic organizer like they were teaching in a classroom, but doing that virtually.

If your district is at a packet level where you’re getting, you know, picking something up at the school or it’s being emailed to you and you’re printing it out, but you still have access to some technology, it’s possible that there might be a little cross over between that [00:29:00] packet and e-learning. So for example, you know, I might have a packet at home, but my teacher might’ve sent a link, to my email or to my phone, and it’s a YouTube video that she created. That again shows the steps for that graphic organizer. So it’s not that there has to be, this black and white lines. There could be some supports that go both ways.

What we’re doing right now at a national and state level is the exact form that you saw in all different varieties, but everyone is doing that same kind of thing where we’re taking and looking at student’s individual education programs, knowing they’re all individualized, but looking at what that specially designed instruction is for every single goal and then trying to conceptualize it.

What does that look like at home? And we all realize, whether you have a preschooler who has an IEP or you have a senior in high school that has an IEP. You know, there will need to be some additional support. So lots of partnerships between parents and [00:30:00] guardians and schools to make sure that we’re providing what’s in the best interest of your child.

We know that that delivery of specially designed instruction is going to look different. We know that any related services, whether that’s speech or OT or PT or behavior supports, that’s also going to look different. But we’re all in the same boat of knowing we need to provide that instruction. We’re required to provide that instruction, but how is that going to be delivered in the best way that’s going to support your child and your family?

And again, understanding. Hopefully all of us, that were, focused first on our students, social, emotional wellbeing, and then making sure they’re getting the learning that they need. The other side of the IEP, we want to make sure we’re checking out is that supplementary aids and services side, or those accommodations.

Those are the things that your child needs to be able to be successful in the classroom. And we’re really thinking through how do we provide those in an online format. For some of us on an [00:31:00] e-Learning platform, that might be really easy because the materials might already have a reader embedded, or you might have the Google translator that’s connected into your Google classroom and everything can be read that is in there.

So that’s an an easy integration. Some other things might be a little bit more complicated or require a lot of communication between parents and teachers to say, you know, the IEP says that, you know, Jonathan receives extended time, on his Google classroom tests. He’s got extended time. But given what’s happening here at home, with the fact that we have, you know, eight people in the house right now, and there’s not a quiet time for him to work, we might need extended time to look differently.

If you’re looking for great resources that continue to come out every day. The places that I would check are on these two websites. Edutopia is linked in on the left, they have fantastic videos and articles that are really nice short reads that focus on not only academic learning, but social, emotional, and sensory supports [00:32:00] for all students, including students with disabilities.

On the right. There are lots of great tech people that you could check in to. Jake Miller, happens to be one of those, and he just did a webinar with looking at how we can support students with disabilities in remote learning. He’s one of many that are doing great works. So if you want to know more about where you can go to find out the latest and greatest, I would keep up with those two people.

The next thing that you might want to think about when you’re looking at supporting students are, visual supports. You may be supporting a student with autism in your house, and you might be really familiar with visual supports. You might also be supporting a student with moderate to severe disabilities and have visual supports.

But I would say that visual supports are helpful for all of us, thinking through when we go out to restaurants, when we’re no longer staying at home, in the grocery store. [00:33:00] You’ll notice there are lots of visual supports that are in our environments that we don’t necessarily think of in that way.

But in general, most of us would say we process those pictures faster than we process words. So when our bodies are under greater stress, we can do some things to lessen those stress. Adding some visual supports are helpful. Fortunately, there are lots of free visual supports that are being created specific to the COVID-19 experience, like the one that I’ve linked in here that was shared by the Arc of Kentucky and lots and lots of speech therapists are putting their resources out there for free.

At NKCES, we’re trying to archive those resources in a Google doc. I’ve got a link to that later in this presentation. So as we find resources like that, we’re saving and sharing them. But if you need resources like this, this will be a good thing to work with your special education teacher and say, you know, these are the kinds of visual supports that would be helpful, to support my child [00:34:00] as they, stay at home and work at home.

In addition to visual supports like this, the autism educator, put together some great free resources that really help explain, not only coronavirus and what that means to our families. But also this whole change in calendar. And you know, we were in a school building and now we’re staying at home.

What does that look like? The autism educator has lots of great resources so that’s a great website to bookmark and kind of keep an eye on. I have a feeling that she’ll be really seeing more great stuff as the weeks go on. So if you’re looking for other resources besides these, Easterseals produce some great social distancing stories that explain not only Coronavirus, but what it means to be healthy and that is hyperlinked in so that you can print that one out.

Another great resource that is produced, in addition to this one, and that one is hyperlinked in by [00:35:00] the picture, not the title. If the title on the slide is blue and underlined, that has a hyperlink also, but most of the times are hyperlinked in the pictures as well. If you just click in the middle of the picture, it should pop up and take you to that website.

If you are looking for reading supports. This is a free website, called read a natural, I believe it was a newer resource. It has a modified font, if you have a student that has dyslexia, that might be helpful. But for, I’m sorry, it’s called natural reader. If you drag, if you can drag in your cursor and highlight text and copy it, then you can paste it into natural reader and it will read out loud for you. If you use Google Chrome, there are also readers available using that. But I thought this one was, a quick [00:36:00] and easy one to use, to access, if you’re looking for a reader that hasn’t been provided in another format for yourself or for your student.

If we’re looking for a few other resources, we’ve got a little lag time with slides moving. When you click, we just get to wait a little bit. If you’re looking for great math resources, both of these sites have virtual manipulatives. That can be very helpful. Your teachers might have provided if your student had manipulatives in their IEP, they might’ve given you a packet of some manipulatives to bring home, but often in the classroom, we’re also using these virtual manipulatives and these you can access on a computer, if your child is using an iPad, then using the Safari app. You can go either to didactics or to the national library of virtual manipulatives, and you’ll find virtually any manipulative set that you can drag [00:37:00] and count and,  graphs and do all kinds of wonderful things. If you’re like me in the area of math, I try and have a growth mindset, but I’ll be honest after about third grade, some of the skillsets for my child have advanced beyond my personal remembrance of school. And there are a lot of great videos out there, whether it be Khan Academy or videos your teachers are providing you that can help in the area of math. So I mentioned a few slides ago that at NKCES we’re putting together, and adding to almost daily this NTI student learning resource.

It’s a really large resource. As you see there, there’s over 175 links across multiple topic areas. But if you’re looking for additional information in this specific topic, this is a nice place to start. And we’ve shared this resource free and lots of teachers are accessing it as they’re trying to find best ways to teach your children.

[00:38:00] There is a section for parents and families in here. There’s a section for preschool. It’s also broken down by academic content area. And links into videos. There’s a very large section, if you have a child that is in that kind of autism, moderate to severe disability category and lots of resources that speech language had been providing. So all kinds of assistive tech resources in here and the resource was designed and it’s designed for teachers to use to deliver instruction, but definitely has helpful links for parents and you are welcome to access anything that is in there.

If you are looking for additional resources beyond this resource, one of my favorite sites, if I’m really trying to engage my kids and they are not as happy at learning, but they’d been asked to write or share something. This website called read, write, [00:39:00] think has all kinds of creative, virtual apps in their website that you can use to present information. So if your child’s been asked to write something or share something and you are stuck, or they are being a little less motivated than usual, if you click on the read tab on the right hand side, parent and afterschool resources, you’ll find all kinds of fun, free resources that hopefully you can get your child, engaged in in a different way to get them back on track.

I’ll pause here for just a second and check in. Are there any questions that we want to answer?

Stella: [00:39:43] The only question that ,I did answer for them was about the slides. And if they would be available and I told them that they could download them now or I’ll be sending them out in an email following the webinar.

Laura: [00:39:54] Perfect. Wonderful. Yes. And like I said, everything is linked in. So for example, if you click on this go [00:40:00] noodle slide and it’s going to take you right into the go noodle website. So at the top left, if you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing go noodle with an elementary student, I hope you’ll take time to dive in.

Go noodle has all kinds of free resources. They’ve got lots of different songs and activities. To get kids up and moving. So we know that for our emotional wellbeing, the best things that we can do are drink lots of water, get lots of movement, get plenty of rest. And go noodle helps encourage that. So my middle schooler, if I let her, she is like me, she gets up, she goes and sits at her desk chair and that she’s commandeered in the living room.

We have a desk and she has commandeered that for her workspace and she will sit there the entire day. So, we’ve set an alarm, as I said, and we are following what we call the 50 10 rule. So 50 minutes of work, 10 minutes of break. And so we’ve been doing a lot of [00:41:00] go noodle activities because they’re silly and funny and we can just be goofy together.

They also have lots of mindfulness activities that are really helpful. So if you haven’t spent a lot of time in mindful activities and you’re like, I don’t even know how to do this. I’ve been using the mindful videos through go noodle. There are also some great videos for us as parents. They’re called the six minute social emotional website lessons for social emotional learning, and they’ve been adding lots of resources for us to really help walk through, you know, how do we support students in social distancing and making good choices?

So these videos have been phenomenal and they’ve been producing lots of new ones with COVID-19 so these are great resources.

All right. The next set of slides, deal just exclusively with some other resources and we’ll go through these quickly. They’re all hyperlinked in so that you can check them out.

Some of the key suggestions I can have is one parent to another and a special education [00:42:00] consultant to parents is, you know, work closely with your general education and special education teachers and really let them know how your child is doing. You know, we’re all, we’re all in new learning. None of our teacher preparation programs dealt with this, that I’m aware of.

I, as faculty at Eastern Kentucky University for several years, and like we did not address this. This wasn’t part of what we taught people. So we really want to make sure that we’re working together and you know, teachers are trying to put out work that they feel like is appropriate and the right amount and that we’re providing the right amount of specially designed instruction.

But if you need more information or more supports, just be in communication with your teachers about that. If you’re running into specific barriers to learning, if your internet is running really slow and it takes too long to download videos, if things are too small and you can’t get them enlarged, if the reader that the teacher thinks they’ve enabled isn’t working for your child, let them know.

It’s highly likely if you have a student that needs social stories and picture [00:43:00] supports, they might need more of those. So communicate about those. A resource that I discovered in the past two years is called lesson pixs. So my son needs visual supports, like a first then support. And so lesson pixs, it’s less than $40 a year.

And so in our house, we consider that to be a pretty good use of our $40. So you can get an account with lesson pixs for the whole year. They’ve got all kinds of images that are there, and it will let you create just endless amounts of resources like this first then that I just shared.

We made this for Dan and we’ve been using this every day because we’re doing a lot more sitting and waiting. while adults finish up working or siblings finish up their work. Then we’ve done the class, so this is our first, then. First you sit down and then you wait. On the next slide, I’ve got a few more examples of things that I’ve created. I like to call them some great ideas. this one is, and I [00:44:00] am working for, again, I created this and lesson pixs.

Dan loves bubblegum. And he’s having to do a lot more waiting than he used to have. So at the bottom, you’ll see we’ve got first, you need to wait quietly, keep your hands to yourself. Don’t pull your sister’s hair and you need to listen to the mama, cause I’m telling you what your teacher wants you to do.

Once he does those four things, then we’ve got bubblegum that he likes. I don’t have a laminating machine at home, but I did have some, sleeves that I could use for book reports. And so we’re just using that for these, we’re printing those off on our printer at home and then popping those into a sleeve to use with Dan.

I’m also using creative amounts of tape to make those supports. A lot of your teachers will be happy to help you with this, but if you want to create them on your own,, lesson pixs is easy. Keep in mind you want to have lots of breaks. Lots of movement, plenty of time to really talk about how people are feeling and make sure kids are still eating healthy.

I don’t know about you, but my [00:45:00] kids are eating every snack in the house, so we’re really pushing yogurt first, then chips.

All right, next slide. We’ve got a few suggestions. There’s a lot of research behind like what works best to support kids learning. So here’s a few teacher tips, that work well with kids also, at our own house. On the bubble there, whenever possible, if we give choices rather than directives, we’re more likely to get kids to do what we need them to do.

At the end of the day, I need Dan to sit down. Right. But if I just tell him to sit down, he’s not as likely to do that. But if I say, hey, do you want to sit on the right side of the table or the left side? Do you want to sit on the blue chair or the green chair? He’s more likely to sit with those options than me just telling him, sit.

If possible. We want to give those polite directives. We want to say it positively. I don’t know about you, but if I tell my [00:46:00] child don’t do something, they’ll come up with 50 ways to not do the one thing I said, but do something else to irritate me, right? So I’m going to tell them what I want them to do.

Be as calm and non-reactive as possible. A lot of our kids are stressed and so they’re going to do things to heighten us. I’m trying to stay non heightened and make sure we’ve got some reasonable consequences. So whether I’m using a choice or just reminding them, you don’t have to do the work now, but you do have to do it before the end of the day.

At the end of the day, we were going to go outside and play soccer. So you choose now or during the time when I’m going to go outside and play soccer, but up to you, right? I’m offering these choices.

If we’re looking at other strategies that teachers use, that you are welcome to use at home, adding those picture cards have been very helpful.

There is a large research base behind what works best to support behavior. And I’ve shared those tips with you. All of these tips are also in a training that we have for free on our [00:47:00] NKCES online website. We’ll show that in just a few minutes. It’s in the overview of behavior strategies training. But here are the things we know that work well.

In addition to having that physical environment set, we know that if we set some clear expectations, usually visually is better, providing what we call behavior specific praise, and that just means instead of saying, great job, kids are like, what I do. Right? You want to be very specific. I really appreciate how you jumped onto your device, got started with the problem and asked your teacher a question that was really helpful, right?

Behavior specific praise.  Token economies, they’re really important. Some people look at them as bribery. I look at them, as just human nature, right? I work and I get a paycheck. I’ll be honest, I empty the dishwasher so that I can have a piece of chocolate. It’s hidden above the dishwasher. Don’t tell my kids, and I get a piece every day once I unload the dishwasher.

And our students are often the same way, our kids. So we might need to [00:48:00] increase the amount of reinforcers we’re offering for kids during this period. If we’ve never used them in the past, we might still want to think about that. And it doesn’t always have to be food. It can be just what I said before, you know, we’re going to go outside and play soccer.

I know you love soccer. As soon as you get your work done, let me know. And we’re headed out the door. In addition to these, there are some other great, research based strategies that we can use. And they will pop up here in just a second. All right. These two have really huge names. They kind of make me laugh a little bit.

So non-contingent reinforcement. We’re just going to do happy things. Not always because the kid did something great, but like we’re just going to reinforce the fact that they’re great kids and they’re trying their best in this really different situation. High probability response sequence. This isn’t one of my all time favorites.

And what this means is I’ve got a whole series of things my kid does really well and this one thing they hate to do. Like finish a worksheet, right? So I’m going to ask them to do [00:49:00] three or four things that they’re likely to do, and then kind of slide that last one in at the end. The research has shown that if we get ourselves on a track of doing, doing, doing, we’ll just continue doing. And so we’re more likely to get that. The high probability response sequence. Asking a kid to, Hey, do you mind writing your name on the top of the paper? Ooh, which color pen do you want? Blue or green today? Oh blue, sure. Write it with blue. Oh, that was a great job.

Can you circle the three problems that you think are easiest on this page? Oh yeah, yeah, I agree. Those are easy problems. Oh, you know what? Why don’t you put a triangle around two that you think you’re going to need some help with, and maybe we’ll do those together. Right? So I’m asking a kid to do a bunch of things I think that they’re likely to do, and then say, okay, that was awesome.

So if you go ahead and get started on the problems you circled, then I’ll come back and do this triangle problems with you in five minutes. Then we’ll play soccer.

All right. So there’s lots of great research out there, and if you want to dive deeper into some of those strategies, like I said, [00:50:00] we’ve got lots of trainings., we’re happy for you to take. They’re created with the teacher lens in mind, but you’re welcome to dive in and pull out all kinds of parenting ideas. I do the same when I create the trainings, I’m always thinking from the teacher and the parent lens. So if you got five quick things you want to make sure that you’re doing.

First of all, take care of yourself and your mental health needs.

Second, talk to your school and work with them about what does non traditional instruction look like in your district and you want to make sure that you’re working with them.

The third is ask for help when you need it. Reach out to your teachers, the principal, and give them feedback on what’s happening with that non traditional instruction. How is that working with your child and what else might you need.

Definitely take advantage of all the free resources that are out there. There are tons of free things that have been offered up that we’ve never had for free in the past. That definitely your child and you might benefit from, and I’ve linked those into that NTI resource page.

And then the fifth thing is let’s just, I’ll try and keep this learning time in perspective. [00:51:00] You know, this won’t be forever, so we want to make sure that we’re moving our children forward in their learning, but we’re first and foremost supporting their social emotional wellbeing and making sure that you’re safe and they’re safe.

If we’re thinking about a few other quick tips, we’ve got just a few more fun things on a slide. Here are some more free resources. This NKCES online training site. It looks slightly different because we just revamped and added a bunch of new trainings. But they’ve got some great behavior supports.

There’s a new tab at the top that says behavior, and we’ve got all kinds of resources that might be helpful to you. There’s also linked in, it’s called NKCES, one-stop NTI resources that are being shared, across the region. The resources there are free. There’s mindfulness tips. And, all kinds of strategies and supports that are available to help.

So please feel free to take advantage and if you need something and [00:52:00] can’t find it in the resources that I’ve provided, I have my email address because we know we can do this. We know that we’re better together and I definitely want to support you. Kentucky SPIN does a beautiful job of supporting our region.

So here is my email and my Twitter, handle reached out to me either way and I’m happy to help. And the Kentucky SPIN folks are also there and ready. Thank you so much for having me today. I have loved talking with you and happy to share the resources. Are there any other questions that we can answer?

Stella: [00:52:37] I’ve been answering a few of them as they’ve come in. Mostly just about they’re wanting your PowerPoint with all of those links, so I explained to them that they can download it now or I will also be sending it out to everyone following the webinar.

Laura: [00:52:53] Wonderful. Wonderful.

Rhonda: [00:52:55] Also too, our friends at the Kentucky autism training center had [00:53:00] shared, they have a lot of, they’ve really been working in, regardless, just like the resources you shared, Dr. Clarke, regardless of the disability, there’s a lot of great resources, access those. Cause even if it was created for autism, it can help on a lot of areas. So the autism training center has been compiling a lot of resources.

They are easy to use. That has a lot of visual support, social emotional supports, just the things like that you have been describing too, and we’ll make sure that we share that link with you all when we follow up in the email.

But just a short link. If you go to bit.ly/ASDathome, you can access those right away. And I know that, our friends at the autism training center [00:54:00] have really been putting out a lot of great things, just like you all have. And, and really just the coming together.

You know, I hate for the times that we’re having to live in now, but it makes me even proud or for the people that I get to work with and you know in the community because everybody really has come together.

Laura: [00:54:19] Absolutely. Absolutely. And as you’ve got on this slide here, the Kentucky department of education has been rolling out resources every day.

To support families and teachers and administrators, so definitely check their resources that they’ve got to share.

Rhonda: [00:54:38] Yes, and I’ve been so very proud. I mean, not just on a national level, but as you described too, on a statewide level, we are much further than many states. [laughing] And the great thing is, is not only, it’s, it’s not just for one area.

We all work together because we all know that is what’s going to be the best for our children. So [00:55:00] we’ll just go over a couple of other updates. Again, thank you so much, Dr. Clarke, for joining us and all of the great resources. And we’re just going to kind of go over a few things here that KDE had launched, they’ve had all along since this began.

The webpage that had told about, they made even more the user friendly. And as we have given our updates that the main goal and Dr. Clarke also had explained, you know, the educate, feed and support. These are huge areas. And, they launched this and you see the picture there when you go to that page, now you can access it within those three areas.

And I love the buttons because it just makes it very easy to know exactly where to go into.

So, another thing too that occurred since our last update, last week was that the Kentucky department of education rolled out some guidance documents, and I just want to make sure that you are aware [00:56:00] of those.

This is two districts and they address, five key areas. The consideration for the senior class of 2020, consideration for instruction, professional learning. Which I’m so thrilled to see because we need so much of that right now because we’re all, you know, we’re all learning it as we go. And so those opportunities for all of us to continue to learn. The consideration of the mental health and the wellness.

We know that that is just as important as our physical health, and assigning the considerations for assigning and reporting grades. So you can link to all of those. And the guidance, and I have found that, you know, again, Kentucky has kind of went above and beyond and makes me so proud to be from Kentucky.

And the resources that are available. You will know also that, the office, through the U.S. Department of Education, the office of special education and rehabilitation services also shared [00:57:00] in a tweet last, it was Friday.

What it is, is there is a website that, all types of resources are being, compiled and will be on this website and already are with different tools, strategies, and tips.

To support students with disabilities. So, just so that you are aware of that and access that website as well. And just as Dr. Clarke did in her slides, anywhere that you see that that’s a link, you’re going to be able to click on that in the PDF to access that directly.

Another thing too that I love along with the looking at the support was the professional development.

KDE launched the virtual teacher mentorship program. That really is going to help. It is so key, you know. It’s the same theory we all use as as family members or persons with disabilities. It’s the best, you know, once you live through certain things, you help one another. And I love this [00:58:00] opportunity where teachers can virtually mentor one another.

Another great resource too. is that think college had posted this webinar that you’ll be able to access and handouts, the intentional inclusion, creating circles of support. We know that in our lives, in many of our lives that we have to create those opportunities and make sure those are there regardless if it’s school or socializing.

So that we make sure that everyone in the family is included. And I just wanted to make sure that you all were aware of that.

If you all remember back as, I believe it was two weeks ago, we had had our special guest on with the department of Medicaid services talking about the home and community based Medicaid waivers.

The fact sheet, excuse me, the frequently asked [00:59:00] questions document that they compiled. They’ve updated that since then, it has still has the same great information that it did with the questions and answers, but they’ve updated it to answer more questions. So I want to make sure, and this is one of the handouts that you have within, your handouts there. And that will be followed up so that you have that. Because the update was issued on April the 7th where it addressed more questions that had arose from their webinar that they hosted. And questions that they had got from different providers, families throughout the state. And you’ll notice there if you have any questions, you can contact them directly or email them.

They will also be scheduling another webinar and we will share that out with everyone, when we know when that’s scheduled, as soon as we receive the information about that.

And also want to make sure that in everybody, some other important [01:00:00] updates, that I think they’re very important for us to be aware of that.

That Governor Beshear had said that the pharmacist can now dispense some emergency refills ,up to the 30 day supply of the non-scheduled medications for Kentucky residents. For many of our families that’s very crucial. So that they have that there, which will limit having to go out as much and make sure that you have plenty of medicine there at home as we’re going through this COVID-19. And stay in home healthy and safe.

So, another thing too, last week that, Governor Beshear had announced was that they had got the additional 600 per week payment for Kentuckians that were already receiving the unemployment. So that was some key critical news that they did receive that funding to help. Because so many of [01:01:00] our families and that own many of you, have had troubled signing up for the unemployment.

So please keep trying. I know it may be frustrating, but they’re really working to do the best that they can and really address that. Because I know it, it is very hard, especially when you have to have food on the table and a roof over your head, to have the patients with that. But please keep trying back.

Federal funds are coming down. And so we will make sure that we post updated information as we’re provided with it regarding unemployment. Also too making sure that, and I’m sure you’ve already heard it probably a million times, but making sure what, there’s only one that goes out from your house to go shopping because we are trying to limit the opportunity for the spread of the COVID-19 and to slow it down. So only when it’s a necessity to go out [01:02:00] and making sure there’s only one from each house that goes and does that.

Also too. I want to make sure, the human development Institute at U of K HDI, is partnered with the national center for dignity and health for people with disabilities. They released an important document that not only I think is personally, I was very happy to see, because it is very helpful.

If you are a family member of someone who has disabilities to where they need that assistance one-on-one. And someone around them always to make sure that this does also make accommodations. And this was based on guidance from the department of health and human services office for civil rights.

And one of the important things, as a sister to me, that was very important that you will see when you access [01:03:00] that document. We’ve also included as handouts, making these accommodations, making sure that everyone realizes that allowing a caregiver to go with a patient to ensure adequate support for decision making and treatment.

That was an important bullet on there.

I will personally tell you myself, this is one of the things that I’ve worried about. You know, my brother Grant, who has cerebral palsy and significant disabilities. One of the things, and Grant is very bright, brighter that I could wish to be. But the thing here is making sure, and one of our concerns as families is making sure that they’re going to always be someone with them regardless, you know, if there’s guardianship or not, or if they’re their own guardian. They can make sure that they are receiving and getting the support so they can make the decisions and making sure that their voices are heard. So I just wanted to make sure that you all had saw that, that this was issued.

There’s also a video message from HDI as well, that you’ll be [01:04:00] able to access. That I think is really important in trying to help spread the word. Because I do know not only was it with my family, but the families through out, these are daily concerns in our lives that. You know, we always worry about making sure that someone is with them. So that everything goes okay. But then also making sure that everyone that they may encounter gives them those opportunities that they would, regardless that they have the disability or not.

I wanted to take, I know we’ve went over time, so, but we’ve had a lot of great information here and I just wanted to see if there were any questions Stella or, and I think you probably had answered them.

One thing. I also want to make sure that y’all know that this Thursday.

Stella: [01:04:47] I think we’ve probably [inaudible].

Rhonda: [01:04:49] Okay. Thank you so much, Stella. This Thursday we’re having, the webinar 11:00 AM to 12, Eastern standard time, special education process. You could go to our [01:05:00] website, register for that.

It’s free, and we hope you’ll be able to join us. Again, we will continue to have these weekly updates with guest speakers, and updated information, continuing for as long as we need to be, on Tuesdays from 11:00 AM to 12 Eastern standard time.

Thank you so much for your time. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

And if you could complete the evaluation, you’ll be prompted to when this ends, we’d greatly appreciate it. Thanks so much. Stay safe.