What About Foundation Skills?  Working smarter, not harder…

by Tere Bowen-Irish OTR/L 

With that said, as an Occupational Therapist I am witnessing more and more children who cannot sit in a circle without leaning on a wall or for that matter, on another child.

I am noticing poor pencil grips, difficulty with using playground equipment, challenges with basic daily living skills such as zipping, buttoning and opening packages. On top of these observations these children appear to lack strength and demonstrate problems with overall endurance. Teachers will often mention poor tracking, scissor and constructive skills. Other observations in the social emotional area can encompass independent work skills, sensory processing and cooperative play.

As a school-based therapist, I look at the roles that children must take on as they enter a classroom. These kids have "jobs". Just to name a few, they are expected to be leaders, followers, friends, and community members, as well as independent or cooperative workers. From pre-school onward these roles expand, and become more and more refined.

Developmental facilitation is dependent on the teacher mixing a concoction of curriculum and presenting the child with just the right amount of challenge specific to age and grade expectations. RTI calls for measuring ability over time versus specific evaluation. The teacher’s differentiated instruction can be measured in terms of the child’s performance over time. I often marvel at the many roles the teacher has to play when delivering the curriculum. Nevertheless there always seems to be a small, but significant percentage of children who lack some core skills and therefore are unable to master the concepts or tasks expected within their grade.

Believe it or not, these foundation skills are easy to analyze and track. The classroom is a perfect venue for following their growth. Portfolio collections of draw a person, writing the alphabet at near/far point copy or from memory, writing numbers, constructive tasks, timed samples, dictation samples, independent work time are all examples of ways of "proving" advancement in these basic areas. By gaining mastery over the missing foundation skills, the child will then be better equipped to tackle core curriculum.

This summer, The Learning Tree Store has offered me the opportunity to conduct a series of seminars that can be attended individually or collectively. The purpose of the series is to focus on the above mentioned foundation skills. I encourage new teachers as well as veterans to come and discuss your role and what you have experienced as a teacher in this new millennium.  (See Homepage for Teacher Workshops)

Let’s work together to help those borderline children. Let’s problem-solve how to promote the type of classroom environment that will help ensure that these kids access their curriculum. By building endurance and strength, improving tracking, encouraging independence, assisting with social experiences and fine/gross motor skills… your job and the child’s job will be easier as you get down to the brass tacks of academic learning.