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,
I love when our world comes alive in spring, the new greenness of the leaves and the wonderful blossoms everywhere! My Dad and I shared a love for Robert Frost’s Poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay:
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
May is also Mental Health Awareness Month. Daily we hear about the impact of the pandemic and social media on our and our children's mental health. The National Alliance on Mental Health is promoting the message of Mental Health Awareness Month with the theme “Together for Mental Health.” For more information on Mental Health Awareness Month please navigate to NAMI Mental Health Awareness Month.
The importance of taking care of one’s self should be one of our top priorities.
LABBB’s high school graduation ceremony will occur on Thursday, June 8, 2023 at the Scottish Rite Museum in Lexington, MA. More detailed information for this event will be forthcoming from your child’s teacher.
The last parent meeting date for this school year is scheduled for May 18, 2023 from 7:00 to 8:15 pm at the Lexington Community Center. We welcome Cathy Boyle who will be presenting on applying for affordable and subsidized housing, including section 8. This topic came up in a couple of the sessions at the Transition Speaker Series at the end of April and we wanted to follow up.
Respectfully,
Pam
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The Impact of Using Art to Reduce Behaviors in the Classroom
By: Lori Doherty
Everyday, stories appear in the news about the impact of the COVID pandemic and its effect on student behavior in classrooms across America. Increasingly, disruptive behavior is being reported by educators in classrooms in every state. For teachers of differently abled students, getting to the root of these behaviors can be especially challenging and often impossible to identify. Even still, it is our job as educators to teach self regulation strategies to our students in hopes of reducing anxiety symptoms and improving their learning.
In our special education classrooms, one effective strategy many students choose to use for self regulation is art. For that reason, many teachers are adding art activities into their daily classroom schedules. For Room 632, many of our students use art techniques such as wet wool felting, decoupage, alcohol ink painting, and yarn work.
“I feel calm” says Dana, after working with beads that she fashioned into creatures. DJ reports his body feels relaxed when painting.
Talia and Erica enjoy making surprise jars the most!
Currently, Mr. Callahan in our vocational department is putting together a worksite focused on students making creations which can be included for sale at our LABBB craft fair.
There is no question that providing meaningful art activities has proven to be an effective tool in relieving student anxiety and disruptive behaviors in the classrooms.
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“Who says you’ll never use Algebra or Geometry in the real world?”
By: David Dooks
The students in Mr. Dooks' math Class had a special visitor on May 2nd. Mr. Robert Cunha, the Facilities Manager for the Burlington School District came in to tell us how he uses Geometry and Algebra in his job on a daily basis. Mr. Dooks met Mr. Cuhna when he had popped into Room 309 to take measurements of the classroom area with a laser measuring tool. He reports this information to the State to show how much square footage the different entities that use the building take up. This is reported for funding purposes. Bob spoke to the students and fielded questions on how and why he uses math in his job. He explained how he didn’t like math when he was in school, but he realized in his job as Facilities Manager that he uses both algebra and geometry on a daily basis. The students asked a lot of pertinent questions and had a great conversation with Bob! Thanks Bob for joining us!!
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Clinical Corner: What is ABA and Common Misconceptions
By: Laura Leonard, M.S. B.A., BCBA, LABA
What is ABA?
ABA or Applied Behavior Analysis, put simply, is a scientific approach to understanding behavior. It refers to a set of principles that centers on how behaviors change, or are affected by the environment. Some may see the word behavior and only think negative behavior or those behaviors we want to decrease, but behavior is anything that an individual does that involves an action and response to the environment or something in the environment. ABA looks to change any behaviors that those around them deem socially significant. These can include teaching social skills, communication skills, self-advocacy skills, play skills, daily living skills and academic skills.
Common Misconceptions:
- ABA is only for those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
Although it is widely known as a treatment for those individuals that are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ABA is a science that is defined by its principles and methodical approach not by one specific diagnosis or age group. There is decades of research that has demonstrated its effectiveness in changing behaviors with individuals that have varying diagnosis/ disabilities (e.g., ADHD, learning disabilities, panic disorders), lifestyle and health challenges (e.g., obesity, smoking, medication adherence), organizational needs (e.g., staff training, safety).
- ABA uses bribes, like food, to change behavior
Applied Behavior Analysis uses positive reinforcement to increase behaviors, but it is not always food and it is not a “bribe”. Instead, what the individual is motivated by is provided after a behavior occurs, not before to coerce the individual. For some individuals, food is a motivator and may be used as a reinforcer in the beginning, but for others it is not. Other things such as social praise, tangible items such as toys or books, or time with peers or adults doing preferred activities are also used. These are typically known as extrinsic reinforcers that are added in to benefit many learners who haven’t accessed the natural types of reinforcement without additional support. The hope is to always try to fade out extrinsic rewards and create learning opportunities in which a learner can access natural reinforcement. An example might be giving tokens to a learner that they can use to earn the iPad when they appropriately gain attention and say, “Excuse me.” We might also know that this learner finds attention from others valuable by seeing that they may exhibit challenging behaviors to gain attention in other ways (i.e. yelling). In teaching them a replacement behavior (gaining attention), the idea is that eventually they will learn that this behavior will get them attention from others. The tokens and added rewards also help if they are highly motivating for this learner, but these should be faded once the skill has been learned more consistently.
- ABA turns individuals into robots
This misconception may come from 1 of 2 places. The first is that ABA teaches individuals new skills and when new skills are taught, they are not perfect. It takes practice to develop a new skill. Think of a new baby learning how to walk or an adult learning how to play a new sport. At the start it may look awkward or be a little robotic but over time the skill becomes much more fluid. Another place this misconception may come from is the perception that ABA is having the learner sit in a chair for hours drilling them repeatedly. So, yes, depending on the learner, a task may need to be broken into smaller teachable steps and then taught with repetition until they are learned BUT a large component of these repetitions and teaching is planning for generalization. This means that although some individuals may need to learn a skill in a structured, repetitive pattern, the thought should always be how can this move past the table into the “real world.” This can be done by using a variety of instructions, a variety of stimuli including stimuli that are in the natural environment, being taught by more than one person, and being taught in multiple environments.
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LABBB Bedford High School Intern Appreciation Breakfast
By: Susan Good
Special Education is certainly just that! Every day is special, and if you are fortunate enough to teach these amazing students, you are in the company of the most extraordinary people. This is not because of their unique challenges and disabilities, but because those challenges and disabilities make the students the utmost special people to know, teach, and care for each day. Everyone has his or her distinctive personality, and like with moments with typical children, they grow to become not just classmates, peers, or friends; they become close family-style friends.
Aside from having two self-contained LABBB classrooms in a public school setting, one unique opportunity the Bedford High School administration offers is an internship course for students to earn credits while engaging in hands-on weekly experiences with our LABBB students. Students can earn credits for participating in the internship course that involves learning and teaching their peers with different abilities. It is an incredible opportunity and partnership for all involved. High school students come into our LABBB classrooms twice a week for a full period (70 minutes) and assist teachers with group activities or individual needs of students. The high school interns provide valuable presence and support that they can not give in a mainstream classroom when they need to focus on their own schedule and learning. They are guided to provide 1:1 or group interactions that can not be duplicated or experienced in a typical classroom. We are fortunate to have one, two, or three interns at a time engaging with our students multiple times daily. Being embedded in our classrooms allows LABBB students to build real relationships with their high school peers in a more flexible environment unlike the constraints of special education students being pushed into mainstream classes. This is a model and structure that is invaluable and inclusive for all students.
So on April 14, 2023, Bedford LABBB students showed their appreciation for past, present, and future high school interns by providing them a fabulous breakfast to kick off the Friday morning before departing for April vacation. Together, the students organized the delicious event! They made a list of items to serve and assigned the food and drinks list needed for a successful morning treat. A big shout out to our parents for their contributions to making this Intern appreciation breakfast possible!
We all enjoyed thanking our high school interns, friends, and helpers! Thank you for all you do for us!!
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Signs of Encouragement!
By: Keith Muise, LABBB Butler
The 4th grade Butler community has continued a tradition to support their LABBB peers the day prior to the Special Olympics by creating signs wishing their friends well in their upcoming Special Olympic events. This is always a welcome surprise to the LABBB Butler students. Thank you Butler community for your continued support!
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Transition Dept. Bedford High Student’s Vision is 20/20
By: Sara Carver
While guardians and staff may have a range of emotions leading up to an IEP, for our students at Bedford High, they are an exciting moment in the spotlight. From a lawful point of view, once a student turns 14 they must contribute to their IEP process. Here at Bedford High, we facilitate this opportunity through a vision statement presentation. Student’s utilize a powerpoint template that outlines areas of interest, likes and dislikes about their programming, future goals, and areas of strength or needed support in the classroom, community, and home setting. Students spend time prior to their IEP individualizing this presentation, both with meaningful information, and decorative style that allows their personalities to shine through.
These vision statements serve a multitude of purposes outside of the IEP process including an exercise in self direction, self advocacy, and self esteem building. For many of our students this may be the first IEP they’ve been aware of or involved in. We begin by educating them on the general purpose of an IEP, who will be there, and what will be discussed. This information allows students to better participate in conversations around their programming, a skill we work to promote in transition aged students who will soon enough be involved in discussions about their post-22 planning. From a self advocacy perspective, the ability to express which classes and worksites they prefer vs what they find more challenging has served as meaningful insights for our team to develop strength based programming as well as individualizing accommodations based on student needs. Finally, and potentially most importantly, it has become obvious that these vision statement presentations have become quite the point of pride for our students, who enjoy the opportunity to present their strengths, growth, and interests in front of their guardians and staff.
While these may sound like lofty goals, student participation in a vision statement can happen at any age and ability level. Staff or guardians can facilitate this process with various levels of support. Here at Bedford, we utilize a template that has outlined areas and sentence starters, such as “Student Strengths, I am good at….” or “Independent Living Skills, at home I help with the following chores…” but this can be further modified with written/visual choices or pictures of the student completing tasks on their daily schedule. From a student engagement standpoint, the sky's the limit with creatively individualizing the presentation. From drawings to taped video segments, students seem to most enjoy this creative aspect of the process. And as we can all relate to those pre meeting jitters, students tend to benefit from practicing and previewing the presentation with their classmates prior to the meeting.
With all of the planning, logistics, and let's be honest, stress, that can accompany the IEP process, it is easy to forget the ultimate goal we all share. In reality, both guardians and staff are all simply supporting players on the team of which the student is the captain. Involvement in a vision statement promotes not only best practices for students, but has served as a meaningful exercise in starting the IEP process with our students and their best interests top of mind.
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LABBB Chenery Community Trips
By: Leanne Aiello
Community experiences are an integral part of our classroom in room 212 at LABBB Chenery Middle School! Not only is it fun to get out of the classroom, it helps generalize the many skills we learn in the classroom out into the real world. It brings purpose behind a lot of the hard work that students put into the classroom lessons!
In our classroom, we go out into the community once a week. Before we head out, we plan. We make shopping lists, look at the stores online to see what is in stock, what aisle items are in, and how much things cost. We budget our money throughout the month and go back and forth about things we want to buy vs. what we need to buy! Sometimes, we have scavenger hunt days where we just work on navigating the store and saving our money. The skill of saving your money and not buying everything you want can be tough for all of us so we definitely work that into practice as well!! Our students work really hard on these skills and the amount they have grown over this school year is astounding.
Our class worked so hard on saving money, budgeting, and planning that we got to take our savings for a fun trip to Bertucci’s for lunch with our friends! We talked about short-term goals and how saving your money in the moment can ensure you’re able to afford fun opportunities with friends later too. These community experiences provide us with so many learning opportunities that guide us to being the most successful and independent people!
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LABBB Adapted Physical Education, Recreation and Social Opportunities
In 1986, LABBB went on our first trip to Disney. How did it start?
A student brought in a pull-out section from the Boston Sunday Globe, and said, “Ms. Rizzo, can you take us to Disney for a LABB trip?” Back in those days, Disney only had 2 parks (Magic Kingdom and EPCOT), like LABB only had 2 Bs. We went from Thursday to Sunday those first years and stayed off Disney property. We took either vans or local buses to the parks.
Eventually, LABBB expanded as Disney did. MGM Studios (now called Hollywood Studios) was added to Disney and LABBB added our third B. We began staying on Disney property and added additional days to our trip.
All these years later, we have four parks to go to (with the addition of Animal Kingdom). Disney also has 2 water parks which we have visited over the years. Disney Springs has evolved from Disney Marketplace and Downtown Disney.
While things have changed over the years, one thing that has remained the same is the excitement and laughter in the students' eyes as they get ready to go on the LABBB Disney trip, and when they arrive on Main Street USA. This year was no different. Students’ excitement built for weeks beforehand. Some had been with LABBB on the Disney trip and others had not, but they all had the same expectation - fun! Students went on rides, met characters, spent time at the pool, saw fireworks, and generally hung out.
Save the Date for upcoming events:
● May 18, 2023 LABBB Last Dance of the School year
● June 8, 2023 LABBB Graduation, Scottish Rite Masonic Museum
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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