by Penny Rogers, SPED Homeschool Blogging Partner

When it comes to the overall  sensory system, vestibular and proprioceptive inputs play a huge role in its function. Without understanding them, most kids have issues that are passed off as something else and not treated, which can cause problems later in life.

Perhaps you’ve identified these sensory issues in your child and are looking for activities to improve their overall attention. Keep reading to find out what vestibular and proprioceptive inputs are as well as activities to help with  sensory processing.

 

What is Vestibular Input?

Without sounding too encyclopedia-ish, vestibular input is the sensation caused by any change in position (direction or movement) of the head. This sensory system is made up of canals filled with tiny hairs and a bit of fluid. When our head moves, the fluid acts as triggers that, when touched by the hair, then become receptors that tell the brain we’re moving. 

Children seeking vestibular input will constantly be on the move because they want to max it out, so to speak. These children climb super high, spin, swing, and hang upside down.

Vestibular input is important because it also affects other areas, such as visual-motor skills and body awareness.

 

What is Proprioceptive Input?

Proprioceptive input is the sensation gained by body awareness through the movement of joints, muscles, and connective tissues. Think in terms of pushing, pulling, and lifting heavy objects. This connects with vestibular input by making the body aware of where it is in space. 

Proprioceptive input has a role in self-regulation, posture, body awareness, coordination, speech, and the ability to focus. While this input can be calming for some, many autistic children seek this input to regulate their emotions. 

On the other side, some children are over-responsive to proprioceptive input and avoid certain kinds of activities. By now, you can see how these two inputs work together and deserve attention for the child who experiences challenges.

 

Indicators for Children Seeking Vestibular & Proprioceptive Inputs

 

Vestibular-Seeking Input Indicators

For children seeking this kind of input, they are fixated on certain movements because their brain under-processes vestibular input. Signs of this are:

  • Never getting dizzy.
  • Always running and moving.
  • Frequently spinning.
  • Climbing extremely high

 

Indicators for Proprioceptive-Seeking Input

This kind of input can be alarming to children who are overwhelmed by sensory stimulation. In essence, you may see some of the signs listed below;

  • Biting or chewing on objects.
  • Enjoys playing roughly.
  • Likes to sit with knees tucked.
  • Toe walks. 
  • Bangs body part.

 

Activities for Enhancing a Child’s Vestibular & Proprioceptive Input

These inputs can be worked simultaneously or individually. In most cases, these activities can act as a calming technique and be stimulating and arousing. The best way to gauge what your child needs is to pay attention to how they respond to the activities.

Modify them as you see fit. And although some suggestions are being provided for you below, don’t hesitate to create your own.

 

Vestibular Input Activities

  • Rocking on a yoga ball.
  • Practice yoga techniques.
  • Pretend to row in a boat (rocking back and forth).
  • Skipping.
  • Galloping.
  • Running.
  • Jumping rope.
  • Handstands with feet against the wall.
  • Cartwheels.
  • Jumping on a trampoline.
  • Roller skating.
  • Riding a bike.

 

Proprioceptive Input Activities

  • Crawling. (weight-bearing)
  • Push-ups. (weight-bearing)
  • Playing tug-of-war (pushing and pulling). (resistance)
  • Carrying boxes or books. (heavy lifting)
  • Running. (cardiovascular)
  • Blowing bubbles. (oral)
  • Tight hugs. (deep pressure)

 

When should you do these activities?

If you have identified your child’s triggers, you can begin an activity before they show signs of anxiousness or distress. Incorporate the activities naturally into the child’s schedule to help keep the flow of other activities already established.

 

Give your child cues they can use to help identify when they may need to do an activity. Consider labeling it something as simple as a “calming activity” and provide a visual support cue as well. A visual reminder can be used to point out a particular activity your child wants to do.

When it comes to how often these activities should be done, it will depend on the sensory need of the child. Regardless, the activities do not need to be long as short activities can be the most beneficial. Activities can last anywhere from 30 seconds to a couple of minutes.

It may be hard, in the beginning, to figure out what activities your child needs. Whatever you do, be sure to include your child’s suggestions and keep trying until you find what works.

Penny blogs over at Our Crazy Adventures In Autismland. Based on her personal experiences with autism, she educates autism families on how to navigate their world from diagnosis to adulthood. She offers real-life advice and ideas through her blog by providing homeschool printables, at-home therapy techniques, ebooks, and DIY posts. You can also follow her adventures on Twitter ,  Instagram, Facebook, or in her group, Life In Autismland.

Also, check out this YouTube video on Penny’s channel for additional information on this subject.

 

 

 

 

 


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By Jan Bedell, Ph.D., Master NeuroDevelopmentalist, SPED Homeschool Board Member & Partner 

 

Documentation of your daily efforts to homeschool a child with special needs can seem tricky. Each state has its own requirements, so you have to stay abreast of that, of course. Beyond that, you need a system that can easily assure you – and well-meaning relatives – that the best education possible is happening for your child.

 

Remember Homeschool Is the Best Place for Your Child!

In a public school, your child would have an IEP (Individualized Educational Plan). That plan would put in place modifications and recommendations for more individualized instruction and traditionally only includes academics. What could be more individualized than a parent who understands their child better than anyone in the world and can modify on the fly for academics and life-skills? The answer: NOBODY! A motivated, informed parent is the best advocate for successfully educating a child with special needs, but progress for a child that learns differently is sometimes hard to document. 

 

Be Creative with Your School Day!

Depending on the severity of the developmental, academic, or intellectual delay, your school day will look different. It is not like a typical student where you show how many pages were completed in a given period. At Brain Sprints, we encourage our families to use a detailed checklist where each item for the day can be easily checked off for documentation of work done with the child. The list would include non-traditional school activities like how many times a day you work together on auditory or visual processing (short-term memory). Or what work you did to normalize the tactile system with specific stimulation. Or activities that would organize the lower levels of the brain for better coordination as well as organized thought. Each checkmark is a step in the right direction for the functional ability of the child and should be celebrated. These activities can be more important than completing a particular page or reading that is done each day. Academics can be on the checklist, too, but addressing the root of the challenges a child faces is even more strategic. The list can quickly help you see where you need to focus more or just a reminder of progress, even if it may not be evident to others yet.

 

Plan for Interruptions

Checklists can be divided into two different lists. One list consists of the activities and/or academics you do with the child. We call it the Daily Parent/Child Conference list. The other list is the activities the child can do independently called My Responsibilities. These lists can keep you both focused and productive each day. When there is an interruption, you can say, “Work on your My Responsibility list while I do x, y, z.” This can keep the progress for the day going when those inevitable interruptions happen. The My Responsibility list can also give the child some say in their day. He/she can decide what gets done first, second, or third instead of someone else dictating every step, which is important for maturity and self-reliance. We often find that if the child has some say in what is happening, there is more compliance. Also, the My Responsibility list helps with accountability and motivation.

 

Life Skills Are Work, too!

Don’t be shy about documenting life skills like learning to wash hair, cooking, making a bed, or tying shoes. These may be just as important or even more strategic to your child’s future as anything else in the educational plan. If you document it, you will feel better about your time spent each day. You are making a difference!

 

For more information about a neurodevelopmental approach to homeschool: www.BrainSprints.com

 

 

 

 

 


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Ashley Campbell, SPED Homeschool Blogging Partner

I have never met anyone more passionate about their child’s education than a homeschooling parent. I have also seen how these same parents stress themselves out to the point of losing their peace by not remembering why they started the journey in the first place. Do you remember why you began this journey?

I have been homeschooling for the last fourteen years, and I want to share what I have learned for tracking my children’s achievements and goals. I hope this gives you encouragement as well as a reminder that you are more than qualified to teach your children. You were made in the image of God, and He has given you the authority to rule and subdue the earth. Influencing the lives of your children is the first step.

 

So, how do you track your child’s achievements and goals?

Let’s look at both words – achievement and goal. The word achievement means to accomplish; finish successful (Webster Comprehensive Dictionary). It is different from a goal which means, “a point toward which effort or movement is directed” (Google definition). One is the end, and the other is the means to that end.

 

Here are some questions to consider when considering goals and achievements:

What do my children know?

What do my children not know?

What is their age?

What content do I expect them to learn?

Is what I am expecting what I expect for someone else?

Is this realistic for them in the context of what they do know and what they still need to practice?

What do they need? 

What resources are needed to fill that need?

 

I use end-of-year testing to see what my children have achieved and what goals we need to set. If a score is REALLY LOW, that is an indicator I need to set a goal for them. The goal is for them to know more than what they demonstrated on the test. I will then get resources that will give them what they did not have. When they test again, and the score has increased, they achieved their goal. Of course, not all qualities that are taught can be tested. One example is I focus on character building and living by values. I have yet to see that on a test. 

Another way I track is to separate subjects into skills and content. Skills are what can be done. They are reproducible and take repetition. Content is more information-based. This is more comprehensive when the questions of who, what, when, where, why, and how are considered. I will track their achievement depending on what I am assessing: skills or content. As far as skills, if they write poorly in terms of letter formation or struggle to read because they don’t know the letter sounds, I will make it a goal for them to practice their handwriting and learn the letter sounds. I will know they achieved it when I can read their writing and they can read BOB books. With content, I find out where they were low in science or history and just YouTube it! After we have gone over the information long enough, I ask them questions and, if they can answer them, I know we are in the process of achieving our goal to know what we did not know before.

Do you remember why you began this journey?.. Let your reason you started this journey be the passion you have to spark the life inside your children.

I encourage them for what they know and give them resources for what they don’t. I set goals that will fill in the gaps of what is needed. When the goal is met, I praise them for that achievement.

If you homeschool, you must establish why you decided to homeschool and, as your children grow older, find out what their interests are. This will make the homeschooling journey enjoyable for you and your children. You will have peace knowing your motives and spark their hearts to finding their purpose. There are skills ALL children should know. Listening, reading, writing, speaking, and math are all foundational. These are skills useful in finances, careers, and relationships. Other subjects like history and science can be more interest-driven. What are you interested in? Let your reason you started this journey be the passion you have to spark the life inside your children.

 

 

 

 


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The SPED Homeschool Team

Record-keeping is an art, not a science. What works for one may not work for another, and what may work for you now may need changing in the future. 

Founder of SPED Homeschool, Peggy Ployhar, and the rest of our team created a list of what records and documentation we have kept over the years. Requirements vary from state to state, so make sure you know what the requirements are for homeschooling where you live. Even if certain records are not required, it is great to keep examples of work and see what progress your children have made. Of course, your system may change from year to year.

 

Checklists for planning and tracking:

  • Booklists
  • Calendar
  • Daily or weekly lesson plans
  • Daily or weekly checklists
  • Grading rubrics
  • Necessary supplies
  • Student tasks/assignments
  • Teacher prep tasks
  • Unit study items
  • Syllabi
  • Scope and Sequence from curriculum or homeschool co-op

 

Schedules:

  • By unit
  • Extracurricular activities
  • Monthly
  • Per student
  • Student activities
  • Therapy 
  • Travel and field trips
  • Weekly
  • Yearly

 

Grading:

  • Report Card
  • Rubrics
  • Spreadsheets with project and test scores
  • Transcripts

 

Records:

  • Annual goals or focus
  • Binder 
  • Individual Education Plan (IEP) or Student Education Plan (SEP)
  • Picture collages of a student’s year in review
  • Pictures or scans of assignments, tests, stored on Cloud or Google Drive
  • Yearly testing summaries (required state standardized testing)
  • Yearly portfolio boxes

 

Our Pro Reminders:

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Our team members Amy, Dawn, and Melissa save lesson plans and daily checklists. These are not just planning tools but also records of your school day. “Every day, my son has a checklist of ten assignments to do for school. He is seven and, while that may seem like a lot, most assignments take under 10 minutes! Most days, he is free to skip around on his checklist, and he frequently completes his reading or math before we start our school day. This list has been one of the best ways to make homeschooling a smooth experience,” says Melissa.

Dawn adds, “Keeping track can help you and your child what needs to be done and gives everyone a way to visually see what is expected.”

 

UtilizeTechnology

Amy utilizes technology to keep records as well as share them with people outside the immediate household. “I take pictures of tests, work samples, and activities and upload them into organized folders in a google drive that is set up dedicated for this purpose. I share those folders with the other person, and they can view them as they need/want. I try to include samples from all required areas, as well as an annual email about what our focus and main curriculum will be for the year. I also include evaluations and results from any standardized tests we participate in, and for any therapy my boys are doing. I even have a folder for extracurricular and other fun activities.”

 

Mastery over Grades

Our team members Cammie and Dawn believe in mastery. Cammie adds, “I’m a strong believer in mastery as well as following directions. As a result, a student will only receive an A or an incomplete. This makes grading simpler and reinforces learning.” 

Dawn reminds us, “If they don’t do well, the beauty of homeschool is we can go back and relearn till they master the material.”

 

 

 

 


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Ruth Meed, SPED Homeschool Consulting and Blogging Partner

I have used charts, checklists and graphs over the years to track progress for real-world goals. What’s a real-world goal and why is it important? And how can we chart progress toward meeting our goal?

 

What is the standard for the subject and grade level?

A real-world goal starts with discovering age-appropriate goals for all children. You can find lists of goals by grade level at any of these websites.  Remember, grade-level standards are a suggested list of steps. You know your child and how they learn so the suggested sequence may need to be changed to meet your child’s needs. For example, a universal standard in most countries is that children should know their multiplication facts by the end of third grade.

 

Is this set of steps or end-goal appropriate for my child?

If they are realistic, then use the steps listed in the standards guide for your state/province. A child should have learned how to skip count these in 2nd grade. This sets them up for success in third grade to master multiplication.

If they are not realistic, then ask yourself:

  • How much of this goal can is realistic and will challenge but not frustrate my child?
  • Are there steps that they can do? If so, what are they?
  • Are there steps they cannot do? What are they?

You can print out the entire list sequence for a particular grade or subject and mark or underline it with green for good and red for hard rather than rewriting it.

 

Can it be made applicable to the real world?

Can you tell your child how they will use this as they grow older or become an adult? Sometimes this is easy. Balancing a bank account, measuring ingredients, or building a project are real-world skills. Other times the real-world application is that it teaches a life lesson like perseverance. Practice makes perfect is more important than the end goal because it gets you to the end goal. 

It is always wise, especially with kids who struggle, to consider what they will do with this skill in real life. Take multiplication facts, for example. If it looks like they might enjoy construction or engineering, they’re not going to be writing them out as much as they will be reciting them as they are figuring out how to measure lengths for a job. It is good to start with reciting them orally and also writing them down. Both of these skills take the concept of memorizing to a whole new level when spoken and written.

Learning a new skill that they find challenging and encouraging them that their choice to persevere is more important than getting 100%. Every time they persevere, they build not only brain muscle but also emotional, social, and spiritual muscle.

Practice makes perfect is more important than the end goal because it gets you to the end goal.

 

What can we see and measure for this goal?

In the education world, we talk about observable and measurable. This means you can see that your child can demonstrate their skill or knowledge. This can be measured on a test, a quiz, or some other form of assessment. Assessment can simply be a worksheet, quiz, test, report, activity, or project that lets you know your child can do what you want them to do independently. 

We can write our goal:

Student Sally will recite all the multiplication facts from 1 to 10 by the end of the school year. 

Typically the easiest ones to memorize after multiplying by one are twos, fives, and tens. So we might set up our benchmarks like this chart below.

 

Mastery Date Objective Test Method Mastery Goal
  By the end of the first nine weeks, my child will be able to recite all of the multiplication facts for 2, 5, and 10. written 100%
  By the end of the second nine weeks, my child will be able to recite all of the multiplication facts for 3, 4, and 6. written 100%
  By the end of the third nine weeks, my child will be able to recite the multiplication facts for 7, 8, and 9 with 100% accuracy. written 100%

 

Modifying the goal or objectives to match your child’s ability

I used the measure of all of the multiplication facts, which would be 100%. If your child struggles with memorizing things, you need to consider setting the bar lower to be more realistic. You may decide you will be happy if they can do 80% or 8 out of 10 facts. Or they may be successful based on their skills if they can learn 2, 5, and 10’s.

Another change could be, instead of reciting the facts, write them out. Or, have them point to a number on a chart to show that they know that fact.

Listing the goals and checking them off on a chart like this is one way to track goals and show your child what they have accomplished. For more examples and how to use them go here.

 

 

 

 


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