It takes two
By Deb Drobysh and Tammie Payette
Published: Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Meet Deb Drobysh, mother
Juliet is a beautiful child who loves music, is known as the fashion queen and has a will of her own. Like most children she clearly lets you know her likes and dislikes.
She also was born 15 weeks prematurely, is totally blind due to ROP, has Cerebral Palsy and has had several shunt revisions (four this past school year) for Hydrocephalus in her short eight years. Did I mention that she is also considered non-verbal?
As she is going into second grade a new teacher arrives on the scene. Her certification is with deaf-blind students. Hope arises! Though Juliet is multi-handicapped I try to treat her as much as possible like a typical child. I have hopes and aspirations for her as I did my other children. She has chores to do and has to pick up toys she throws on the floor (with assistance). No spoiling here.
With the new year and a new teacher I was apprehensive about Juliet’s inclusion with her peers. Although during the first meeting with Tammie I was amazed as I’d been trying to get some assistance with some behaviors for months and no one was giving me any suggestions on how to handle them. Tammie was able to give me three suggestions that were immediately put into practice and the behaviors diminished drastically. I thought, “Wow, this is a great start.”
The first day I walked into the school I had the perfect opportunity to observe Tammie hands on with Juliet. I was amazed at how Tammie spoke to Juliet and waited patiently for her responses. I’d never seen anyone work with Juliet like that before. She knew how to work with a blind child. Those few minutes of observation calmed my nervousness and I knew that this year would be different.
As we discussed Juliet’s inclusion time in the second grade, I realized I needed to ask the regular education. teacher and Tammie what they felt would be appropriate for inclusion. We came to an agreement and thus began Juliet’s time with her peers. As a parent this was very important as Juliet was just beginning to use functional language and her peers in the intensive needs room were nonverbal.
Tammie was great in answering questions of Juliet’s peers and the second grade teacher. As time went by, the second-graders took turns reading to Juliet. This was awesome. It was a win-win situation. It didn’t matter if the second-grader was a great reader, everyone had the opportunity and they looked forward to having their turn.
I never thought it would ever have been so successful. It takes team work, patience, time and trust. At the end of the year Juliet could sing “Happy Birthday” from beginning to end using her words. This was a huge accomplishment, but then I realized she knew several other songs. She was speaking in phrases and some sentences. This was the year she progressed the most educationally and socially.
It is also very important for typical children to have the opportunity to be with children with disabilities. It teaches them respect, compassion and understanding of someone that might be different. I was told that when Juliet was in the halls certain peers would say hello to her. We want for our children what all parents want - acceptance.
With summer soon coming to an end I looked forward to the great opportunities that Juliet will have in third grade. I have confidence the second grade teacher will let the third grade teacher know that the whole experience was a positive one last year. Juliet will be with her peers again for part of her day and I’m excited to see what she will learn next.
When you are the parent of a child with special needs you are frequently told of all the things your child will never do. For Juliet we were told that she would probably never talk. She now has functional language which is growing each day.
Special thanks to Mrs. Doyon at Amherst Street School in Nashua for truly including Juliet in your class. Special thanks to Tammie Payette, Intensive Needs Teacher, who partnered with Mrs. Doyon for a successful year.
Meet Tammie Payette, teacher
“We are a community of home and school that consistently values and supports education. We foster good citizenship in a safe, respectful and supportive school environment. Together we build strong minds, healthy bodies and productive members of our community.”
This is what I saw throughout the building during my first visit to Amherst Street Elementary School in Nashua. It was March 2007 and I had come to New Hampshire from Utah for a job interview. It was a quick trip, yet more importantly, a productive one.
After driving my life’s belongings across the country in a 26-foot moving truck plus a 20-foot car carrier (nearly the length of an 18-wheeler), being back in the classroom was awesome. I had been hired to work in an intensive needs classroom with five students ranging in age from 6 years to 10 years of age. Each child - as all do - presented with a unique combination of abilities.
E., my kindergartner, is mobile and vocalized from arrival in the morning until boarding the bus in the afternoon. C., the tall, dark and handsome one, didn’t fuss too much and vocalized when he was happy or was in need of attention. T. was a bundle of stationary energy yet was also non-verbal along with having hearing and vision impairments. Juliet, with emerging formal language, was completely blind and loved to hum songs. F. was the oldest, most social—although non-verbal—and was returning after a rough year during the last school year. Whew! My work was certainly, at first glance, a near insurmountable task.
But that was then. In looking back at the year, it was very successful. At some point during the year each student took part in some type of general education activities; some sporadically and others on a very regular basis. I remember a meeting prior to the year starting with Juliet’s mom. She wanted Juliet, a second-grader, to be included in the general education class from arrival until lunch. What? Did she know what went on? Independent desk work, silent reading? This with her daughter who was barely talking, didn’t know Braille or how to read? So, I contacted the second-grade classroom teacher and asked her to outline the typical morning in her class.
After hearing the schedule, the three of us—Mom, second-grade teacher and me—decided to have Juliet attend class for up to 15 to 20 minutes as she tolerated the daily opening (calendar, weather, number families, money and a daily song that paralleled the language arts lessons). Juliet continued to hum quite regularly and this seemed to bother me more than her peers. I talked very quietly to her and she would be quiet for a few seconds then she’d go right back to it. The second-grade teacher was great. She would say, “Oh, you want to hear the music…here we go,” and she’d turn the music on sometimes right then or she’d wait a few minutes until the opening exercises got to that point.
Juliet’s peers were very interested in “why this was” or “how come that,” so I tried to answer all questions as best I could and allowed Juliet to answer when she could. Of course I wanted them to treat Juliet just like they would anyone else and I understood that the more comfortable they felt, the more success we would have. This past winter, Juliet required some surgery so I was honest with the kids and told them she’d be out for a week or so. They wanted to know what to do. Again, the second-grade teacher along with the students created textured cards using pipe cleaners, glitter, pop-up book style cards, cut-out foam pieces so Juliet would know they were thinking about her.
The circle time became successful as we incorporated story reading with her peers which eventually encompassed some of her speech sessions. The peers would read books, and with the assistance of the speech language pathologist (SLP), then ask Juliet comprehension questions. It was great to see not only Juliet’s growth, but also that of her peers. If Juliet wouldn’t freely answer the questions, the peers would offer her choices of answers - just like the SLP. It turned out to be more successful than I could have hoped.
During the last week of school, I asked the second-grade teacher if she ever had the chance to read with Juliet. She hadn’t. I happened to see one of Juliet’s favorite books on the shelf and asked her if she would like to read it to the teacher. She grinned widely and said, in her very quiet voice, “very hungry caterpillar, yes.” I suggested that the teacher begin reading and then pause allowing Juliet to “read” the remainder of the sentence or phrase (Juliet has an amazing auditory memory). As the teacher did this and Juliet completed each sentence with perfect accuracy, my eyes teared-up because I was watching the second-grade teacher’s eyes fill-up.
This is just one of my students. There was similar success for each of them as well in their own ways. The beginning of school will once again bring another set of challenges, but being part of such a great community will once again make them successes by the end of another year.
<i>Deb Drobysh is a mother living in Nashua. Tammie Payette is an intensive needs teacher at Amherst St. Elementary School, Nashua.</i>