Intent

English lessons support early communication and languague development skills through a range of sensory experiences. These experiences provide opportunities for learning utilising repetition and overlearning

Implementation

The nature of these lessons means that students are delivered the same lesson over a term with minor alterations in delivery or presentation in response to student learning. It is expected that students will demonstrate learning through anticipation, consistent responses and by communicating choices.

Communication will look different for each learner. During P-Group lessons we are watching for the following, accepting or rejecting a stimulus through their method of affective communication – for example turning toward a stimuli, smiling, moving fingers. Selecting preferred stimulus (from no more than two) again through their preferred method of communication – for example eye-pointing, gestures, vocalising, switch activation. Describing stimulus – using given options (no more than two) on an eye-gaze, symbols or switches.

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Our text for the Autumn Term is Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce. It follows the story of Liam, a 12 year old who is so tall he often gets mistaken for an adult. This case of ‘mistaken identity’ leads to Liam ending up in a rocketship in space. We follow Liams astronaut adventure as he struggles to look after 4 other 12 year olds, 3 of who believe him to be the dad of the forth. In class we would use the multi-sensory room to bring the story to life, utilising projections, sound effects and different sensory experiences all chosen to support specific student targets. I have tried to offer some suggestions below (Lesson content) of how this can be adapted for a lesson at home.

Targets

Students currently within the P-Group would be working toward one of these targets, these are taken from the Tor View Steps documents and adapted for the lesson.

  • Step 4 I can cooperate during turn-taking activities with a prompt when presented with sensory stimuli associated with the story ‘Cosmic’ examples: will move nose toward smell used for ‘dad’ | will move fingers through sand, returning to touch the sand again | will move hands/fingers/head/eyes toward ‘stars’ (fairy lights)
  • Step 5 I can explore stimuli associated with the story ‘Cosmic’ in increasingly complex ways examples: will deliberately throw or drop an item and watch it fall | will move lights (stars) deliberately and watch their reflections move around the room | will press switch in order to activate known result and look for that result (not the switch) | Will look for an item (e.g.rocket) when it is moved out of view
  • Step 6 I can actively explore objects and events associated with the story ‘Cosmic’, for more extended periods (at least 30s-1min) examples: will explore or attempt to explore the sand as evidenced by touching the sand or by obvious concentration on attempts to touch sand (attempting to move hands to it whilst looking at sand and/or hand) | will follow the path of the rocket ship as it moves around them and the room (depending on focus proximity) | will watch the ‘space’ animation with interest

If you are unsure which Step your child should be working toward please ask and I will provide you with that information (you should be able to get an indication from their Annual Review paperwork).

Resources

Resources you will need for this lesson

  • a phone / toy phone or sound effect of a phone (there is a link to the side)
  • a scent that you might associate with ‘dad’ – e.g. some aftershave or soap
  • waterspray
  • some sand or if none is available some flour or couscous
  • a small flag (you could make this with a stick and piece of paper)
  • something to represent a rocket (a toy or shape cut out of card)
  • some fairy lights to represent stars (alternatively there is a video provided)
  • sound effects for ‘space’ (one is provided below)
  • a larger light or cut out to represent the moon (alternatively there is a photo provided)

In order to get students ready for the lesson we will use a cue song. For this lesson we will use a specific song which can be linked to the book and use it each time we deliver the lesson, we will be using ‘Rocket Man’ by Elton John but you could another song – just remember to use the same song each time you do this lesson.

Lesson content

We will be exploring the story in a similar way to a sensory story, however it is important to remember that the focus of the lesson is for your child to work on their target. As such when exploring the resources they need to be presented in a way which will help support this. So a student working towards STEP4 would be supported (physically or verbally) to explore a sensory stimuli, a student working towards STEP 5 should be encouraged to explore an item independently even if it is only for a few seconds and a student working toward STEP 6 should be demonstrating a sustained interest – so motivating items may be placed slightly out of reach, for example, to encourage interaction.

Each part of the story is denoted by a symbol below. You will find details of which stimuli to explore and some ideas on how to present them, in addition text in bold type can be used as narration to help tell the story as you go.

The following video can be played to introduce the story – read out the words as they come on screen (using exaggerated reading)

Liam is in Year 7 – he has just started secondary school. Liam is super tall for his age – so tall that lots of people think he is an adult. Liam and his friend Florida use this to pretend that Liam is Floridas dad, so that they can get away with visiting lots of different places.

Olfactory (smell) stimuli : aftershave/soap. Present either side of your childs nose and note how the respond, do facial expressions and responses suggest they like it or dislike it (moving towards/pushing away). If it seems to be a ‘liked’ smell move it around and see if your child follows it’s scent. Repeat after a short break and see if they demonstrate the same responses.

Liam has a phone but it is a ‘clone’ of his dad’s. Liam’s dad gets invited to enter a competition, but doesn’t want to take part. Liam enters the competition, pretending to be his dad – he spends the whole day ‘on hold’. Liam wins and Florida agrees to pretend to be his daughter and go to get the prize.

Autitory (sound/hearing) stimuli – phone sound effect (see the video below). The video has 3 different phone sounds, is your child noticing each sound – do they have the same response for each, do they appear to prefer one over the others? The phone sounds have repetitive patterns, is your child anticipating the sounds. (Play with the recording, pausing and repeating if you see if is encouraging certain behaviours)

Tactile stimuli – phone. This can be explored by your child, if it makes sounds and your child is able to create them (even by accident) look for signs that they recognise behaviours involved in cause and effect.

Liam and Florida go to get their prize, which is a trip to an amusement park. They get on a plane to go there! When they arrive it turns out that they are in China and the amusement park is really astronaut training! All the children are going but only one adult – whichever wins the most children’s votes during training. Florida is cross with Liam and they have a water fight.

Tactile & proprioceptive stimuli – water spray. USe this to get responses and to build anticipation.

The first training task involves going in search of a flag in the desert. It is dark and the desert is hot. They find the flag while having fun surfing the sand dunes – which was Liam’s idea

Tactile (touch) stimuli – sand. Support your child to explore the sand if needed, otherwise encourage them to explore independently.

Tactile (touch), proprioceptive (body awareness) and auditory (sound) stimuli – flag. Use the flag as a fan, can your child feel the breeze created, can they hear it ‘flapping’ – do they show signs of wanting to touch the flag.

The second task involves trying on the space suits, Liam is ill so he misses this task. The third task is to use the flight simulator and land the rocket ship. Liam is really good at this because he plays on his PlayStation all the time!

Vestibular (balance and body movement) Stimuli – movements to simulate flight.

The final task is to experience g-force. Liam loves amusement park rides and is so good at this task that he goes on it with each of the children because the other ‘dads’ don’t want to go on (everyone has to go on in the end)

Vestibular stimuli – spinning

Visual stimuli – rocket ship (tracking)

Audible stimuli – rocket launch sound effect (see video below)

Liam and the children are sent to space in a rocket. The children have a fight and press the launch buttons in the wrong order, leaving them all stranded in space!

Visual stimuli – flying through space film (see video below) | Fairy lights. You may want to find an alternative video on youtube to fill the entire screen in order to promote more obvious visual stimuli (in class this woul dbe projected across the entire wall), does your child seem captivated or obviously interested? You can use fairy lights to simulate stars, these can be moved around your child to encourage visual tracking.

While they are stuck in space they get stuck behind the moon!

Visual stimuli – moon image (see video below) | Moon lamp or representation.

The children eventually come up with a solution to get home (they are very bright!). They have some time to spare though so they decide to visit the moon. Liam stays behind to look after the rocket. On the moon the children try to have a water fight – but the water doesn’t behave in the same way!

Tactile & proprioceptive stimuli – water spray

While he is alone on the rocket, Liam gets a call from his dad. He is really happy to speak to his dad and tells him he will be home soon. When the rocket crash lands Liam’s dad uses his cloned phone to find them and get them home.

Auditory Stimuli – Phone sound effect

Tactile stimuli – phone

Celebrating achievement

Use this time to celebrate and re-visit anything your child has done that is an achievement. This could be good tracking, good responses, following a simple direction or engaging in an activity for a period of time.

Independent target work

Remind yourself of your childs target and work with your child to support them doing some more intensive focussed work on that target. This could be re-visiting one of the parts of the story or it could just be exploring one particular resource further.

Choices

If your child really enjoyed exploring a particular resource and it wasn’t relevent for their target work then give them the chance to choose it now to explore for fun. They may not choose the one you expect, but ensure that you give them the item that they choose – don’t offer more than 2 items at a time.

Ending the lesson

Use a cue song to end the lesson – this can be the same one you used to start the lesson, or it could be a different one, however it needs to be the same each time you end the lesson.