Sharing best practices and promoting inclusive opportunities for students with special needs
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Executive Director's
Message
To the LABBB Community,
November is a month of gratitude, with both Thanksgiving and Veterans Day being celebrated and recognized. A time when families and friends gather, showing gratitude and giving thanks. We thank our Veterans and those in active service as they maintain our fragile peace and we thank all our service members and their families for their ongoing service. Many of us celebrate Thanksgiving as a day of gratitude. During this time, we must also recognize that some of our friends and family members may be struggling and may have little hope. If we can each find one way to share our gratitude, our appreciation, and our hope with others during this month, even the smallest gesture can make a difference in someone's day or life.
There is ongoing research about the association between gratitude and well-being; research suggests that gratitude can make people happier. Practicing gratitude is an intentional behavior. Being kind to yourself and grateful to others just might make our world a kinder, happier place. Cultivating happiness with gratitude starts with letting yourself be happy; take a moment to thank someone who has had a positive impact on your life!
In the spirit of gratitude, I will share that I’m grateful for the opportunity to work alongside an incredible group of students, a supportive Board of member District Superintendents, Special Education Directors, and Principals of schools where LABBB programs are located. I’m thankful for the amazing LABBB administrative team and staff, who embrace our mission to teach, support, and encourage independence in our students. I’m thankful for our families, who send their children to our programs and help us to improve our collaboration. I am grateful to work alongside all of you.
A reminder that Parent meetings for the 2022-2023 school year will take place from 7:00 to 8:15 pm on the following dates:
November 17,2022 - “The Transition Planning Timeline”
January 19, 2023
February 9, 2023
March 9, 2023
April 27, 2023
May 18, 2023
We hope that our parents will be able to attend; all are welcome. These meetings are held at the Lexington Community Center (39 Marrett Rd, Lexington, MA).
With gratitude,
Pam
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"Rights and Freedoms"
By: Leanne Aiello
In room 212 at Chenery, we’ve been learning a lot about our rights and freedoms as U.S. citizens and how these rights and freedoms came to be. We reviewed everything we’ve learned about so far and summarized what is most important from each topic we have discussed. After we reviewed everything, we broke down the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. We spoke about Freedom of Speech and how we have the right to say our opinions and advocate for ourselves in all different kinds of situations. We spoke about how people celebrate different holidays and traditions through all the different religions we practice!
We also spoke about the right to peacefully protest when we feel something is wrong in the world and we want to make a difference in fixing it. We touched on key historical figures in a few important peaceful protests like Judith Huemann who started and put in place the 504 and the ADA. She was a woman who peacefully protested and used her freedom of speech to advocate and make a change in the world for all people with varying abilities and needs!
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SHOWING H.E.A.R.T. at LABBB@JGMS
This year, Mr. Hartunian, Principal of JGMS, started a new initiative. Each month, the teachers nominate a student who shows H.E.A.R.T.
H.E.A.R.T is JGMS’s student motto. Students are expected to exhibit HONOR, EMPATHY, ACCEPTANCE, RESPONSIBILITY, and TENACITY. For the month of September, Nola Jensen was selected from Mrs. Eleftheriou’s class at JGMS. CONGRATULATIONS, Nola! We’re very proud of you!
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Vocabulary Day
By: Jessica McAlduff
At the Butler Elementary School our students participated in Vocabulary Day. They marched with their inclusion classrooms around the school and had a blast! When their march was complete, they enjoyed watching the other classrooms march in the parade and seeing all of the other vocabulary words and costumes. Each student dressed up as a vocabulary word of their choice.
Vocabulary words included: Cubic, Homey, Bone, Marauder, Confetti, Bananas, Intelligent, Neon, and Mischievous.
Vocabulary Day is based off the book Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster, Written by: Debra Frasier.
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Clinical Corner: Vacation Routines
By, Karly Moore, MSW, LCSW
As the weather gets colder, it means holidays are approaching, which means more days off from school. Vacations can bring a sense of relief as a week without alarm clocks, racing to find a pair of matching socks, or managing tears about homework. It can also add a sense of anxiety, whether it is determining how to fill the day or managing more behaviors at home, vacations are not always relaxing. One way to help combat the uncertainty of vacations is to create a routine.
Even though almost no child or teenager will admit it, most students thrive in school because the school environment provides structure and routine. A routine creates order by helping kids know what to expect, when to expect it, and how to react. This is why almost all classrooms post their daily schedule in the room and practice classroom routines day in and day out. When kids know what to expect, it lessens power struggles because it is not a chore, but simply an expectation of that time of day.
While consistency is important, it is crucial to be flexible, as it will not be possible to replicate the structure of a school day. Vacations are a time to strike a balance and add routine to an otherwise unstructured time. Here are some ideas to get started:
- Create a “Vacation Bucket List.” Brainstorm activities that you and your family would look forward to, like a movie night, a walk in the neighborhood, or baking cookies. Once you have your ideas, choose which day to complete the activity. This allows everyone in the family to have a voice in what they want to do, as well as something for kids to look forward to.
- Keep bedtime and wake up routines! These are the easiest routines to let slide on vacation, but keeping them will help everyone stay on a schedule and will make going back to school even easier.
- Add things to the routine that you (the adult) enjoy! Whether it is reading a book together before bed, a high five in the morning, or sharing an afternoon treat after doing the dishes, don’t be afraid to add in something that makes you feel good too.
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825’s New Classmate
By: Christine Langone
We have a celebrity in class 825. Our new classmate, Aram, was on the news! Aram is famous for having a disability and being a Football coach. The students in 825 interviewed Aram.
What team do you coach for?
Bedford Buccaneers
What do you coach at Bedford?
Football
How many players are on the team?
Big group of people
How is the football team doing?
The team is doing really really really good.
What tasks do you do as a coach?
I do filming, fill the water, motivate the players,
bring out and set up equipment.
Do you like being a coach?
I like coaching them, filming them, and being
part of a team.
Who is your favorite player?
Eric Miles
Who is your favorite NFL team?
Buccaneers - Tom Brady
Do you like playing or coaching better?
Coaching
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LABBB Adapted Physical Education, Recreation and Social Opportunities
Can you believe it’s already November and that we are more than halfway through our Fall activities?!
Wednesday Walking Club, our Apple/Pumpkin picking trips and mini golf groups have been very lucky with the good weather for these activities.
This November, we are trying a new place for our monthly trips. CAMP is a store/crafts/activities location at the Burlington Mall. Stay tuned to see how it goes and look for photos on Twitter. The November 14 and 28th CAMP trips still have space.
The Lexington Lions Club is still collecting gently used coats for their annual coat drive. If you missed bringing coats to the Craft Fair, you can donate at the November 17th dance.
Remember to follow @LABBBREC on Twitter
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Fox Hill goes to the Pumpkin Patch!
By: LABBB Fox Hill Staff
The students at Fox Hill have been learning all about pumpkins throughout the month of October. They decided to end the month by taking a field trip to Smolak Farm in North Andover. The students had a lot of fun going on a hayride and picking out a pumpkin. After the hay ride they were also able to enjoy a snack of an apple cider donut and apple cider. They were then able to see lots of farm animals and play on the playground. This trip was also a great opportunity for students to practice their social skills out in the community!
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Omar’s Bistro - New opportunity for LABBB Interns!
By Karen Scopetski, Community Instructor
This past Friday night, October 29th, Community Instructor Ms. Paula Quinn and I joined the celebration for the soft opening of Omar's Bistro in Lexington Center. The Bistro is the latest addition to Omar’s World of Comics and Hobbies, opened in 2018 and Pixel Paradise opened in 2021 by LABBB graduate, Omar Masood, and his family. The mission of their family business has always been to strive to help create a world that is more accepting and inclusive for all.
As community partners with LABBB, the Masood Family has provided quality internships for our students since 2018. At the celebration of Omar’s Bistro, Ms. Quinn and I got to taste delicious food from the menu. We tried the Buffalo Chicken dip with chips, the cheese pizza, and a delicious falafel dish with fresh mint and vermicelli. We also tasted the Bread Pudding and Cheesecake. Yum! The Bistro is now open to the public on Wednesday through Sunday. What is exciting about this new culinary adventure is that LABBB students will soon have the chance to intern at the Bistro. Omar’s Bistro takes pride in producing fresh food from scratch, including toasting and grinding their own spice blends, baking buns daily, grinding their own burger blend in-house and making their own pizza dough. There will be lots of fun and learning for our students! Thanks to the Masood family for this wonderful opportunity for our LABBB student interns to learn kitchen and culinary skills.
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Transition Dept: Community Preparation and Practice @ Arlington High School:
By: Tori Dennis
Students at Arlington High School participate in both on-and-off campus activities as part of their Transition Services, and classroom programming. While the community can be a wonderful place to learn, it can be overwhelming with unexpected distractions! We all benefit from practice, repetition, familiarity, and concentrated effort in certain areas. Arlington students have access to an Occupational Therapy Gym where many simulated activities are created to support students to feel better prepared as they generalize their skills out in the community. Our COTA, Joel Moulton, and Community Instructor, Heather Notidis, have created stations throughout the gym to facilitate, teach, and practice skills to better prepare our students for community exploration. Students rotate through stations during group sessions, or practice individually to target specific skills. Each station is set up with visual expectations and task analysis, in addition to the direct support from staff.
Some examples of the stations are as follows:
Cleaning, Sweeping, Push Broom: This station includes table and desktop cleaning utilizing sprays and wipes or towels, along with practice utilizing a broom/dustpan, and push broom. Breaking down the motor task of using a push broom is actually quite complicated and a little bit abstract! Think of tapping the broom each time you push it forward, and the momentum of each sweep… far different from a regular broom! Each of these cleaning tasks support the use of household tools and increase student repertoire of general knowledge and use. Cleaning tasks are some of the most meaningful we teach, as they translate into daily living and vocational skills needed across domains.
Dress for Success: This station supports the understanding of styles/type of dress based upon activity. Students are presented with a location to dress for (most often a familiar community-based activity/work site or location) and they need to select the appropriate clothing for the environment from a clothing rack. Clothing donations of all different types are put to use on a clothing rack of options. Students must sort through the rack and find the most relevant clothing for the activity they are preparing for. This station also doubles as a laundry station, where students practice folding, hanging, buttons, sorting, zippers, and orientation (front, back, inside-out).
Environmental & Safety Awareness: Encouraging and teaching students to assess, respond to, and increase awareness in their environment can be challenging. Multiple room scanning activities are set up to support the visual awareness of our students. Such items as safety signs, shapes, colors, or characters, are velcroed throughout the walls of the gym on all different levels of sight. Students must fill a bucket, or laminated task board with 1:1 correspondence to practice this task. Once complete, students independently check their work using an errorless vertical surface counting wall to match the expected number of items they were searching for. Environmental and safety awareness relates to almost everything we do! Learning how to find information and increase awareness within your environment translates into increased independence in our daily lives. Think: looking for an item in a store, identifying a crosswalk and waiting until it’s safe to cross, navigating uneven terrain, and identifying danger…
Stall Mucking:
This station was set up to replicate the process of mucking a stall. Paper and weighted objects are used to mock shavings and fake poo! Students are supported to utilize a muck rake and dispose of “excrement” in a bucket. The process of sifting can be quite challenging (and confusing!) With practice and modeling students gain familiarity to try their skills at the farm!
Obstacle Course: This station is designed to work on gross motor skills. Simulated obstacles (think: stepping-stones) are placed on the gym floor for students to practice navigating different terrain, fine tune their motor planning, and follow a designated route across the gym. These types of activities prepare our students to navigate their community and feel comfortable on more challenging terrain!
Wallet & Money Management: Have you ever stood in a line and felt rushed trying to put away your cash and receipt because the person behind you was waiting? Utilizing a wallet can be a complicated task, whether you use cash, a card, or both. In this station, students practice with their own wallet (or one supplied) and familiarize themselves with where things go, how to hold it, take cash, receipts, and change in and out, learn where to put what. Learning to make purchases has so many embedded skills that the task can feel overwhelming to many students and adults alike. This station gives practice in an area often overlooked!
Volunteerism-Lions Club Glasses and Food Drive: This area of the gym has our Lions Club cleaning station where students follow a multi-step process of cleaning glasses (via ultraviolet machine) for donation. Practice following a task analysis supports students to move independently through each step of a multi-step process with decreased staff support. This station also includes our Food Drive items that students sort and package for delivery.
Preparing our students to become active members of their community, and to access and learn the skills that will support them to become independent adults is imperative. These stations are designed to give students structured opportunities to practice and make mistakes in a safe and supported environment. Familiarity with such skills will foster increased success, enjoyment, and learning, as they are generalized into the community.
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LABBB Bedford High Class D113
By: Susan Good
Parents, family, and friends, Happy November! We have entered our third month of the 2022-2023 school year, so we wanted to share our LABBB Bedford High School D113 class with guest appearances from our friends and teachers in D112 class! This video includes some of the daily activities (academics and social) the students participate in and how Bedford High's mainstream students integrate into our LABBB classrooms through an internship. We hope you enjoy some of the moments that we have been able to capture this school year.
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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 Parent Resources
Riverside Family Support
Join Autism Eats for Brunch With Santa!
All behaviors and ages are welcome.
Check out Autism Eats on 7 News Boston WHDH Special Report HERE
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LABBB Collaborative
123 Cambridge Street, Burlington MA. 01803| LABBB.com
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