My+Opinions

A lot of times we think of Assistive technology as having to be electronic, expensive or a state of the art appliance, but in class we have been learning about Assistive Technology for positioning which does not fit into any of those categories. When it comes down to it, Assistive Technology is something the child needs, and children need to be comfortable. Positioning Aids allow an individual to change positions to help maintain range of motion, to reduce dicubutis, help blood flow, and reduce exhaustion from being in one position for too long. What does this have to do with Restraining? I think these two things often blur together or are used for the wrong reasons. Restraining should be used as a last resort when the individual is causing harm to himself or others. It should never be done as a precaution or to try to “keep them from being bad.” We are forgetting that this is literally illegal! We do not have the right to tie kids down for behavior management or any other reason similar to that. We should remember to use Positioning Aids with our students as much as possible to make sure that their discomfort does not infringe upon their learning in the classroom.
 * Positioning vs. Restraining **

= Bullying  =

I know you are thinking that assistive technology has nothing to do with bullying but when it comes down to it, we are not going to be able to teach students anything if they are distracted by the hate that is going on around them. Today while I was tutoring a little girl came up to the teacher crying. She said “the kids at my table are making fun of what I am wearing”. The teacher brushed it off and told her to not pay attention to the kids. This is why our students stop coming to us so many times because we don’t do anything about it. Granted I realize there are some major tattle tails in 3rd grade but we cannot use that as an excuse. This girl could develop feelings that her teacher won’t stand up for bullying, and that she in return is weak for not just ignoring it in the first place. What are we doing? After a teacher has not listened or doesn’t do anything about bullying once, the kids will just let it happen to them, carrying around these feelings of loneliness and hate for themselves. Unfortunately this often results in suicide. We cannot take anything lightly. A few minutes later a boy came up to me upset saying that the girl at his table is making fun of him and laughing at him because he only has one sister when she has 8 sisters. I told her that she is not better than him for having more sisters than him, and that I don’t have any sisters either. He looked at me like I just changed his life. I could tell, even that small comment I had made, completely shocked him. It is almost like he was surprised that I did something. When students stop coming to us and are surprised when we stand up to bullying, that is when we know something is wrong.