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Special Ed Kindergarten Class
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Assumptions/Questions/Connections |
New student visiting! Potential student for next year
Tours with mother than leaves even though plan was for him to stay the morning through snacktime
Teacher said that he is 5 chronologically but “much younger mentally”
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Left because he was nervous? Uncomfortable? All of the above? |
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M. says “he seems nice. I hope he stays” while playing at art table |
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Morning question: “How are you feeling today?” check marks under excited, tired, or happy |
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Two teachers talking about “good pairings” – Ms A tells Ms. C that Z and P are not a good paing based on loft activity – “remember when we were talking about good pairings? Z and P are NOT one” |
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M. gets a ball again |
Last observation you asked what kind of ball it was – and it was one of those small plastic ones with spikes on it. They also used these at a known special ed school in DC. What’s interesting is that M. will then pass it to other students when he’s done – it never stays with him, and then the teachers have to take it away from other students. |
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During morning meeting the teacher points out that there is a “popcorn” word in the sentence and asks a student to come up and point it out. Even after the popcorn word was identified, students continue to point out other words that aren’t popcorn words |
Do they just want a turn ;)
Miss N. (head of school) was in the classroom during this part so maybe they just wanted her attention?
Or does something like this happen each time? |
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Speech Pathologist center activity – making sentences out of pictures using past tense (yesterday) Some examples of what were said: - Woman is grocery storing - Putted - Were brushing/were raking rather than brushed/raked - Her ate her cookie |
Language acquisition – overgeneralization. After studying language in psychology, I’ve noticed that the speech delayed 5 year olds make the same overgeneralization mistakes on past tense as 3 year olds are stereotypically expected to. |
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M., same boy with ball at circle time, gets a transition chart on behavior because he was getting “touchy” or violent with other students during transition between centers |
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M. seems to be very competitive (as told to me by a teacher) and whenever he is in a group, they need to make sure it is a non-competitive game (ie., today it was the FROG getting the gumballs, rather than the person who was hopping the frog, or a couple weeks ago when it was the snail race) |
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What?
I knew M. when he was in the preceding preschool and I seem to remember him (possibly incorrectly) as rather quiet and polite. Now, though, in kindergarten he seems to have issues regarding hyperactivity and behavior. The last two times I had seen him during circle time he needed a ball in his hands, and this day I learned that he was getting “touchy” during transitions and needed a behavior chart. For the behavior chart, each rotation (for reading and math) gets a happy or sad face and a little note (I am assuming this goes home to his parents). I also noticed how competitive he tends to get with the other students, and this was something that the speech pathologist discussed with me.
So what?
I am wondering what instigated this change in his behavior. I am unsure if he has ADHD, behavioral issues, or something else. I noticed during the game that he seemed to be very attention-seeking and I wonder if this is related to his competitive nature and behavior problems.
Now what?
Ask the teachers about M.! I know he is in the high language group but I wonder about his other issues.