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Posted By Mary Grunmeier on January 24, 2001 at 22:09:20:
THANK YOU! I started building the cartoon today--there is a very cartoony manual for teaching kids, and I am photocopying and cutting and pasting. I will also make an arrangement with all the other instructors on the hill, that on a pre-arranged sign from me, they will congratulate her as we pass them. I think I can make the same deal with a supervisor that is usually at the bottom. She knows and loves a good "High Five!" so all of them can do that without disrupting what they are doing.
Thank you again! I have a plan for Saturday.
I originally got into teaching skiing from volunteering with the Special Olympics. So any lesson that comes into the mountain involving a mental or emotional disability is usually assigned to me. I am also working with a little boy (7) who is autistic and extremely compulsive. He's a trip! I love him! He likes to guess everyone's age, and I haven't seen him be wrong yet. Then, he adds them up, "You and you and you and you are 123." I usually work with him in a group of other children, and he just can't stand to have snow on anybody's skis--it all has to be wiped off before we can go, so we do. He can't really stand still and wait, so I always always have to give him something to do. Normally, I stick one of my poles in the snow and tell him, "Hold this. Really Important!" He circles it but doesn't take off.
I've also been working with an 8 year old boy with an Auditory Processing problem. I can't talk to him. Nobody can talk to him. Not only does he not process language, he gets quite agitated and frustrated if you talk to him. I usually work with him in a group, too, and he seems to benefit from the group situation--seeing the other kids do it. I just have to make sure that when I talk to the other kids, I move his head so he is looking in another direction and he knows I'm not talking to him.
There is another little boy of 5 that I've just started working with in private lessons. His parents aren't exactly forthcoming about his problems, just that he can't tolerate any noise. (The sound of the chairlift is really a problem for him.) Of course, they told me that after, during our first lesson, he went completely crazy when our med-evac helicopter landed. He has some kind of learning problem, and it may or may not be related to autism. I don't know. I need his parents to talk to me about how he learns. I guess people are afraid that if they own up to an issue of some kind, we won't take the child into a lesson.
There is an exceptional adaptive program at Winter Park and also near here in New York. I've been in touch with both of them for the teenaged girl in particular. I just thought that by posting here, I would get more information about real people. So much of what the adaptive ski centers deal with is theory. The students I get are who they are. I can't change their lives. I can only do the best I can to get them skiing if they want to. The ones cited here truly seem to love it. And, just so any reader of this board knows, I've been assigned lessons with people with learning problems, and in our first meeting, if the student is not the one who wants to ski (i.e., the parent thinks it's a good idea but the student just hates it) I won't take them.
One of the reasons I posted on this board is because I believe that the student should have permission to make decisions about the lesson, regardless of their mental and emotional abilities.
Doug, thank you again for your ideas and your help!
Mary MaryG2@aol.com
: Hi Mary,
: I love the idea about the stickers and your cartoon! I had actually pictured a cartoon, one of the slapstick ones, that showed one of the characters skiing the right way and one out of control.
: I was also wondering if you might be able to show her the movie you have with the sound turned off. You could say some short sentences where you thought it was appropriate. If your student is a good reader, you could make signs for her to read. Or, if you can use a movie editing program, you could add subtitles.
: Is it possible to have a person at the bottom of the course to congratulate and encourage her? We have always found that praise from a person is a very strong motivator.
: My sister worked at Winter Park outside Denver a few years ago in their program for disabled skiers. It is possible that they can help you out. Here is a URL for the page to contact them: http://www.nscd.org/contact/index.html
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