Patric Barbieri LABBB Special Olympics 2023 |
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Sharing best practices and promoting inclusive opportunities for students with special needs
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Executive Director's
Message
Dear LABBB Colleagues and Families,
It feels like summer here! As we begin to wind this school year down and think about “summer break”, I encourage you to think about how transitions impact each of us. Our routine may be off (fun family vacations or trips to the beach), we may be staying up later, or we may even just be hot! It is important to recognize that transitions are learning experiences and that routines are important! Understood.org and National Summer Learning Association share some summer worthy resources. Other resources can be found at Greater Massachusetts Special-Needs Events or Adaptive Sports and Activities Guide. A gentle reminder that as we return to pre-pandemic life, some of the resources shared may be operating differently.
As we end this school year, a note of gratitude - for collaboratively working with us to support your children, for your patience as we navigate challenges, for your smiles as we share successes, for sharing your ideas and feedback to help LABBB flourish, and for being with us on this journey.
With gratitude,
Pam
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Classroom Meetings - A Teaching and Learning Tool for Staff and Students
By: Stephen Goodwin
For this past year in LABBB Lexington High School classrooms 821 and 822, LABBB Counselors Trish Costa and Karly Moore have been consistently conducting Classroom Meetings twice a week (typically on Monday and Wednesday mornings). As described aptly by Heather Clayton, Principal of the Mendon Center Elementary School in Pittsford Central School District (NY), there are five core reasons that classroom meetings are vital.
They include:
- Building trust among the adults and students in the classroom.
- Establishing an environment of respect and an appreciation of differences.
- Creating a sense of belonging and inclusiveness.
- Setting a positive tone for learning
- Laying a strong foundation for student (and staff) collaboration*
Each week, Ms. Costa and Ms. Moore will robustly greet each student and check in with them about their weekend/week. Additionally, they will have brainstormed thought provoking questions that activate conversation (i.e., "If you could be one Marvel Superhero, who would it be? And why?"; "How do you best learn?"; "How do you like to receive good news and/or challenging news?";"What has been a skill you struggled with in elementary school, but now feel confident about?"). These questions generate discussion and let our students know that they are more alike than different. Also, we learn that success is not a straight line for any of us. Mistakes do and will occur and that is okay! We all learn from our missteps and that is perfectly fine! That is what education/school is all about!
Many thanks to Ms. Costa and Ms. Moore for imbuing this important tool and feedback mechanism into our weekly class discussions. Some of the best learning as well as "fun" moments of the year occurred during their Classroom Meetings. We appreciate their weekly planning and instructional efforts in this regard!
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Skill Generalization at LABBB AHS
By: Mike Harrington
Over the past few months, students in the Transition classroom at LABBB Arlington High School have worked to develop their functional communication, daily living, and community access skills.
In March, students from the Transition classroom at LABBB Arlington High School started a new community partnership with the Lexington Community Farm (also known as LexFarm). Students have pulled old plants to make space for this season’s crops and filled sandbags to help weigh down tarps that the LexFarm farmers use to cover different planting areas. Our students have practiced functional communication skills in a dynamic community setting, worked collaboratively with peers, and diligently completed assigned tasks. Special thanks to Maria Sagan, a LexFarm volunteer and a LABBB parent, for her guidance and support for our students and staff during their weekly visit to LexFarm.
Back in our program at AHS, our students have participated in weekly Speech/OT Groups with Ms. Alaina and Ms. Katelyn that focused on snack and breakfast preparation along with exploring sensory preferences. In our food preparation groups, students rotated through various roles each week to help their peers plan, cook, serve, and clean up. When exploring various sensory materials, our students created lists of items they enjoy using during classroom breaks. These groups have been valuable in promoting teamwork and self-advocacy in our group. Shout-out to Ms. Alaina and Ms. Katelyn for providing awesome opportunities for our crew!
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Clinical Corner: Differential Reinforcement
By: Nina Riley
Differential reinforcement is a method/ strategy that uses reinforcement to increase desired behaviors and extinction to decrease challenging behaviors. Differential reinforcement uses two main principles of Applied Behavior Analysis; Reinforcement and extinction. Reinforcement is when something is added or removed from the environment following a behavior occurring that increases the likelihood that that behavior will happen again in the future. Extinction is when reinforcement that has historically been delivered following a behavior, no longer gets delivered and ultimately results in a decrease in likelihood of the behavior occurring in the future.
There are many ways to apply differential reinforcement within the classroom, home or community setting. First, identify what behaviors you would like to see occur more often and what behaviors you would like to decrease. These could be behaviors like asking for an adult's help rather than screaming, or doing laundry instead of having dirty clothes on the floor. The idea is to decrease challenging behavior while increasing appropriate replacement behavior.
This strategy works the best when behaviors that are identified to decrease, are replaced by behaviors that are more appropriate means of getting the same outcome. Like mentioned before, if screaming was an individual's way of getting an adult to help them, increasing the behavior of asking for help is a more desirable method for the individual to get their needs met and will decrease screaming.
Next, it is important to think about what you would use as reinforcement when the desired behavior does occur. It could be help from an adult, or money for completing a chore at home. Using reinforcers that are motivating to the individual and serve the same function as the challenging behavior are going to be the most effective at increasing the behavior. It is also important to consider when you are providing the reinforcement following the desired behavior occurring. You could give reinforcement following each time the desired behavior occurs, sometimes when it occurs, or when certain expectations are met. When teaching a brand new behavior, it is more effective to give the reinforcement following the behavior occurring as immediately as possible.
Lastly, and an equally important element of differential reinforcement, is responding to challenging behaviors by withholding reinforcement when they do occur. Knowing the function or what an individual is aiming to get out of doing a challenging behavior is very helpful when aiming to withhold reinforcement. If reinforcement is still given following a behavior happening, extinction is not occurring and the behavior will continue. It is important to note that this does not always mean “ignoring” a challenging behavior. Sometimes gaining attention is not the aim of the behavior and “ignoring” the behavior still results in reinforcement being given. For example, if leaving dirty clothes on the floor is to avoid doing laundry, then ignoring addressing the dirty clothes on the floor will continue to allow the individual to avoid doing laundry.
Differential reinforcement has many additional applications. How could you use it?
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Omar’s World of Comic
By Sara Carver, Transition Counselor
On Monday, June 5, 2023, Kate Merrill from WBZ, CBS News Boston came to Omar’s to record a segment on "It Happens Here." She had previously interviewed Omar Masood, President of Omar’s World of Comics, and came back to film and interview some of our Bedford High School Students who attend an internship at Omar’s on Mondays.
We arrived at Omar's at 9am to set up and prep for the crew. Our fabulous community instructor, Ms. Karen Scopetski, knows each student and their strengths so well, and the students worked collaboratively to choose individual segments they'd film. Soon after, Terry, the cameraman, and Kate Merrill arrived, Nick and Evan marked down sale books with price stickers, later relaying the task to Faizan; all while Drew expertly priced a box of Pokemon card packs. Faizan and Evan simulated a buying experience, Evan as the new customer and Faizan the expert cashier. Drew and Faizan both volunteered for a quick interview with Kate. Drew noted how kind his coworkers were, and Faizan explained how he feels at home in the store. All students ended with some additional shots facing the store, playing games, and working together.
It truly was an exciting and meaningful day where all students (and staff) were able to step back and take pride in their work! Thank you, Ms. Scopetski, for working so hard to provide these opportunities for our students.
The story is currently scheduled to run on June 22nd on CBS's segment "It Happens Here." The segment plays at 5am, 6am, and 5pm. The crew did note this may shift and they will update us with any changes.
Great job Drew, Faizen, Nick, Evan and Ms. Scopetski! We are all proud of you and you should be proud of yourselves!
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Real ID
By: Kathy Farley
Over the past school year, one of our students worked on obtaining a Real ID. It took a lot of time and we wanted to share with you some information that was discovered and may help others looking to obtain a Real ID.
Make sure you bring an original birth certificate with a seal. Please note, it can not be laminated. The DMV also wants two proofs of address. LABBB has put together a letter that documents school attendance and proof of address that can be used as one proof of address. The second proof can be challenging. The RMV does not accept envelopes with addresses on them. You may consider using a medication label with an address on it, a bill, or maybe a subscription for a magazine. The second proof can not come from LABBB. You need two different sources.
We suggest you make an appointment and then gather documentation. It can take up to three months to get an appointment. All RMV offices seem to have different rules. This student had success at the RMV in Wilmington.
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Transition Department: You Can't Go Home Again
By: Brian Walsh
This expression gained wide-spread popularity from the title of Thomas Wolfe’s acclaimed novel, ‘You Can’t Go Home Again’. The meaning behind this phrase was that if one tries to return to a place one remembers from their past, it won’t be the same as they remember it.
Our LABBB family, however, disputes this notion and welcomes the return of those young adults back home. Personal transition stories are shared and often include post-secondary experiences from continued education, training programs, employment, work opportunities, day programs, so on and so forth.
Inviting our young adults ‘back home’, serving as mentors and co-teachers in Career Education class not only recognizes and appreciates their person and experiences, it also fosters and supports high school students as they seek to construct their post-secondary vision and plan. To this, each individual in the space is then valued and appreciated. An authentic dialogue and relationship is formed through this offering.
The LABBB Burlington High School Career Education class has recently had two such former students, Theo H. and Brian E., returned home and gave willingly of their time to speak with and listen to the students present. Theo spoke eloquently about his change from LABBB to Upward Program and to his employment at Alexander Machine and Tool in Woburn.
Brian, similar to Theo, a graduate of LABBB Burlington High School, transitioned into LABBB's GO Program (Greater Opportunities) based out of Lexington. Like Theo, he maintains friendships, attends social gatherings, and is developing his independent living skills and abilities, while also working at the Atria Longmeadow Place (assisted living) in Burlington and at a local CVS store performing sales associate duties.
There are numerous mentoring models that are commonly used in post-secondary situations, One-to-One Community Based Model, One-to-One Employer-Based Model, and a Group Mentoring Model. Our efforts are a step in this direction. Regardless of the model, all mentoring relationships share a common goal of helping young people.
Joseph Campbell outlined in his work, The Hero’s Journey, framing our universal journey into its most basic form, dividing it into three parts: 1. Departure 2. Initiation 3. Return
The Hero’s Journey lies on the stages of the Hero, our LABBB students and we all pass through. At LABBB, we encourage our heroes to return home to share their journey, tell their stories, and by doing so, find meaning in their experiences with and through LABBB, as well as beyond LABBB for the benefit of others in our LABBB family. So yes, we can return home - again and again and again.
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LABBB Adapted Physical Education, Recreation and Social Opportunities
LABBB Recreation is winding down for this school year. It has been a fun year with some new activities. Look for the 2023/2024 issue of the LABBB Recreation brochure coming out in August.
Upcoming:
June 30th - July 4th - The 66th Annual Lexington Lions Club Carnival & Fireworks Show, Hastings Park, Lexington
Friday June 30th - The Lexington Lyons Club welcomes Groups/Families with Special Needs from 3:00 pm - 5:00 PM,. If attending on this date please email prizzo@labbb.net the number attending.
Remember to follow @LABBBREC on Twitter
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LABBB Parent Resources
Greater Massachusetts Special Needs Events
Family Support Center Directory by Town
Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress
20 Burlington Mall Road, Suite 261
Burlington, MA 01803
781-221-0024
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Families with MassHealth Need to Renew Coverage:
Families with MassHealth need to renew their coverage this year in order to maintain coverage. Coverage protections put in place during the pandemic will end soon, and MassHealth will return to standard annual eligibility renewal processes. Please help inform MassHealth families that they need to take the following steps:
- Update contact information – make sure MassHealth has their most up-to-date address, phone number, and email so that they do not miss important information and notices about what else is needed.
- Report household changes to make sure MassHealth knows about any changes in their household, like a new job, address, changes to income, disability status, or pregnancy.
MassHealth Eligibility Redeterminations Information
Merrimack Valley Disability Transition Fair: Virtual Event with the Lawrence Public Schools. https://bit.ly/3Mo8Lmq
• Visual Impairment “Early Connections” Conference: w/ Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown https://bit.ly/41mrOCJ
• The Inevitable Aging Process for Special-Needs Caregivers & Their Loved Ones: Webinar with the MinuteMan Arc https://bit.ly/3KqQkvX
• Higher Education for Those with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities in Massachusetts https://bit.ly/3KjDzCd
Special Needs Art Programs Inc.
Riverside Family Support
Extra Steps Launches Innovative Programs
Wilderness skill building can be a thrilling and empowering adventure for school age kids. A new program called Kids in the Wild is being offered through Extra Steps Pediatric Therapies. The first session will take place on December 10th in Sudbury for children ages 7-12.
Additionally, Extra Steps is offering Caregiver Workshops to help families build connections with one another and promote skill development in their loved one. An example is a workshop held on Nov. 2nd that focused on holiday stress.
For more information, contact Director Sherry Kenin.
Asperger/Autism Network (AANE) provides individuals, families and professionals with information, education. Community, support and advocacy is offering free community connection sessions .Our.Free Online Community Connection Sessions are single-session discussion groups and a great way to meet our staff and connect with the community for the first time. All times listed are in the Eastern Time Zone. Please click the date for more info and to register.
Housing Navigator Massachusetts
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Discovery Museum Announces 2023 Series of Free Events for Families of Children with Disabilities
Discovery Museum is ADA-compliant and all exhibits are accessible, designed according to Universal Design principles to be both aesthetically pleasing and useable by the widest possible range of people, without regard to age or ability.
Special resources are available to families including noise-reducing headphones, a sensory guide to the Museum, sensory-based programming, and American Sign Language (ASL) language facilitators at some events. Additionally, dinner, including a gluten-free option, is provided at all evening events.
All Especially for Me events are free to attend for all family members, but preregistration is required. Dates and registration links can be found online at http://bit.ly/EspeciallyforMe.
2023 Event Schedule
Sensory-Friendly Afternoons (open to the public, but no group visits are scheduled):
Tuesdays 1:30 to 4:30pm | June 6, August 1, October 3, November 7, December 5
Evenings for Families with Deaf, Hard of Hearing, & KODA Children (closed to the public):
Saturdays 5:00 to 8:00pm |
Autism-Friendly Evenings (closed to the public):
Saturdays 5:00 to 8:00pm | June 3, September 16, October 21, December 16
All-Access Evenings (closed to the public):
Saturdays 5:00 to 8:00pm | May 20, June 17, November 18
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A LABBB PODCAST
Patric Barbieri, Hosts a Podcast talking about special needs planning and resources related to our community
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In episode #22 we talk about our journey in building a mindful culture in LABBB. It is one of our core values that is posted throughout our collaborative. There is a significant difference between just talking about these practices and actually doing them. We made a commitment to offering mindful practices for all students in all our classrooms every single day. We also believe for us to be successful we need to offer and teach this to our staff as well. We are a community practicing together and this is the only way to get the true benefits. We have been fortunate to have many staff persons who have a myriad of unique mind-body skills to bring into our environments for both students and staff.
This initiative started organically back in the early '90s. We realized that these practices have a significant impact on managing the pervasive anxiety symptoms that people are feeling. Our mission was to bring these practices directly into our schools and for staff and students to know they have permission to practice at any time. When one individual is practicing it is benefiting their entire community!
Rayne Pratt and Lisa Poirier, LABBB Occupational therapists, join me in this podcast. They are members of our LABBB Mind/Body team and they are also the creators and facilitators of our all-day staff retreat that we offer.
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LABBB Collaborative
123 Cambridge Street, Burlington MA. 01803| LABBB.com
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