Education

     

  1. What about kindergarten?

    Ideally, I think it would probably be best if the child could have home schooling, though I realize that is typically not feasible. The problem is the noise at the school, particularly the cafeteria. I know the teacher may not realize that the noise is torturing his ears, and may only know that he seems distracted, and may not even correlate his being distracted with the cacophany going on in the room. I kind of think that if they had the hypersensitivity he has, then they would be very easily distracted, and more so than he is. I don't think the special ed class, with its noisy, frustrated, and screaming kids, is a good place for him either. The explosive sort of noise would cause him even worse torture.

 

  • What are some successful teaching strategies?

    I would have the following recommendations:

    1. Allow for activities that don't require talking following lunch period, or any other time the kids are exposed to crowd noise. The sensory confusion will settle down if given a chance, and they'll be better able to interact and converse.
    2. Don't pound on your desk, the wall, the chalkboard, etc. as this causes explosive noise and will hurt the kids' ears.
    3. Make everything you teach as tangible as possible, i.e. things they can see, hear, smell, and of course touch. They won't be able to grasp concepts that are abstract in nature, such as love, respect, acceptance. In the case of respect, I like to use a ruler indicating levels of it rising or lowering depending on who it is concerning.
    4. During this quiet time, if you're allowed to play harp music, I would recommend it, and it need not be very loud to be therapeutic.
    5. Tell each of them that you're their friend as well as teacher, that if you do something absently that hurts their ears, to let you know.
     

  • What about ideas for educational projects?

    Just anything that could help the kids better grasp concepts on a more tangible basis - things that they can see or feel.