Proprioceptive strategies you can use in the core classroom: T1I S1 E6

Cheri Dotterer: by waking those
up, and doing that before you do

academics, you're preparing your
body for the ability to access

your education. Hello,

Jonily : everyone. Welcome to
tier one intervention podcast,

talking about strengthening the
tier one poor classroom with

academic and non academic
interventions, strategies and

techniques to meet the needs of
all students regardless of

ability or disability. I am
Jonily Zupancic, and I am here

with my partner and education
partner in crime. CHERI

daughter, who is going to help
us answer the question today.

Why do students not remember
when I teach lessons? When I

give quizzes, when I come back
to content? Why do students have

so much trouble retrieving the
information and recalling the

information after I've taught
it? So Sherry is going to

enlighten us today on everything
that's happening? That affects

memory, and retention of
content?

Cheri Dotterer: Hey, everybody
is great to be here. I'm Cheri

Dotterer. And yeah, do today a
little bit about all that non

academic part of what's
happening inside your brain. In

this episode of tier one,
interventions, I am sharing the

second half of my training on
the senses. Remember, last week,

we talked about the five senses,
plus we started talking about

proprioception. Today, we're
going to continue that

conversation, I look forward to
hearing what you have to say,

please put your comments down in
down in the comment section, or

do us a big favor and subscribe
to the podcast. So if you've

ever heard a therapist, say
you're not, don't just write

with your hands, but you write
with your whole arm. That's

absolutely true. Because the
nerves start in the brain and go

all the way down your arm, they
start at your fingertips, and

they go all the way up your arm
to your brain. And all of your

joints, you you've got 123 in
this finger, you've got two in

your thumb, you've got three in
this finger, you've got

sensation, and very complex set
of bones in your palm and in

your wrist. Then you've got the
bones that are in the nervous

system coming up your arm, so
that your arm can rotate. You've

got the elbow so we can bend,
you've got a shoulder, shoulders

a little bit more complex,
because it's going to go around

in a circle. And then we have
these nerves that are coming up

through there that go up into
our neck and back into our

brain. And then we have the
reverse, we have the nerves that

are coming back down to make the
motor function. So all we've

done so far is talk about the
messages coming from our body

going to our brain. We haven't
even reversed the response to

what it says afterwards. So all
the proprioception is doing is

sending messages to the brain as
to how much pressure that joint

needs to do the task that you're
asking it to do. So a lot of

kids that struggle with writing
have difficult time with this

proprioception. They either are
riding too heavy or too late.

They their fingers don't have
the control to keep the pencil

in the right place. So they have
awkward pencil grasp these other

things that that impact the way
the joints work. So I wrote some

actions down. These are motor
actions that impact the

proprioception brushing, whether
you're using a brush to brush

your hair, you could be using a
brush to brush your arm or your

leg. You could be using a brush
to paint a wall combing that

that motion. Chewing we talked
about. That first line is in

black, just because I was trying
to group them in groups. What do

you think I was thinking by
putting those in groups of color

the black bear the brushing the
combing. In the chewing, what do

you think I was thinking about
when I was putting them in that

kind of a group? Krista, how
about you? Ken was Where do you

think I was going? No, no, I

Unknown: was thinking like,
maybe it's like they're all our

movements. But then chewing is
not an arm movement. So I don't

know, I was trying to see what
they had in common to put them

together.

Cheri Dotterer: To net maybe you
have a good idea what I was

thinking,

Unknown: I was trying to think
of that proprioceptive feedback.

But I don't know about the
brushing definitely does. I'm

not sure about the combing

Cheri Dotterer: the comb, she
has a little bit, it's not as

much. But what I was thinking
was activities of daily living.

So in the world of OT, anything
that it is something that takes

care of yourself, that involves
like bathing, dressing, eating,

that was those kinds of
activities, I put in black. And

so I was thinking that, yeah,
they're not necessarily things

that we do in school, for
academics. But yet, there might

be things like that they do in
school. So the girls might be

spending a little bit too much
time in the bathroom, brushing

and combing and fixing their
hair. Sometimes the guys are

just as bad. But that's what I
was thinking when I was putting

grouping these things together.
Then I was looking at another

group. And this is one that I
was thinking about the classroom

carrying, pushing, pulling and
bouncing. And so a lot of times,

you may hear an OT talk about
pushing a bunch of heavy books

down the hallway, like on a cart
that pushing down the cart, or

pulling something out of the
cabinet, or carrying something

or I was thinking about
bouncing, like on one of the

therapy balls or something that
if there were one of the

adaptive seating. So it was
looking at that from that

perspective. So those it is
things that you can carry things

that you can push, they're going
to put this push and pull on the

joints, not on just your arms,
but your other parts of your

body as well. By waking those
up. And doing that before you do

academics, you're preparing your
body for the ability to access

your education. The third
column, I was thinking of tasks

that you have to do while
sitting. So cutting, squeezing

like squeezing putty or
squeezing the glue bottle or

something like that tearing
where you could be tearing

paper, and then taping you pull
it out of the dispenser, then

you've got to pull it to cut it
off. Those are things that you

do when you're more a little bit
more sedentary. And then there's

also jumping and climbing. And
the reason I put them on a

separate bouncing goes over here
as well as separate is because

they fall into this other
category, that second set of of

hidden sensories called the
vestibular system. And I'm not

going to go into those today,
we're going to save that one for

another session. Because just as
looking at this amount of

information today is enough to
get you thinking about things

that you can do in your lesson
plans to help prepare kids or

educate their education.

Unknown: As a middle school or
sixth grade teacher, I know it's

interesting that caring would be
something to use to stimulate

because we always worry about
how much they're carrying. To

us. That tends to be our worry.

Cheri Dotterer: There is some
ergonomic limitations on what

you're supposed to carry. But
there's also the balance where

if they go down to the weight
room, they're over stimulating

that, that lift where they're
lifting mega amounts sometimes

of weight. But yeah, if they're
carrying too much in front of

them, they're going to arch
their back. If they're carrying

too much on their back. They're
gonna have they're gonna arch

the other way. So yeah, with how
much they're carrying. As far as

books go. Learning how to
balance that ergonomically is

what you're thinking of there.
What I was thinking with

carrying, not just with carrying
books, but even carrying a cup

of coffee will stimulate your
hand to prepare for the another

activity. But Amy says in the
chat Sometimes we have kids

carry some books to another
teacher saying we need them.

When we see they need a sensory
break. Beautiful as what can you

tell me about? What do you see?
What do you notice? gives

everyone an entry point into the
conversation?

Unknown: Yeah, one thing I
noticed as far as that

proprioception, when you're
looking at kids who's doing a

lot of kneeling in their chair,
standing up sitting down, that's

when I do a lot of the, oh, you
know what I'm gonna send them to

go carry the books to another
classroom, or I'll have them do

you know what the whole class
let's do a two second plank or

something that gives them that
joint compression as well, just

so that they're more grounded to
do more of their work to in the

classroom.

Cheri Dotterer: Yeah, Jeanette
just used a technical word

called Joint compression. And
that's what we mean by putting

the joint back together. There's
also the terminology, when you

pull it apart, you may have
heard of eccentric and

concentric contraction. That's
that back and forth part. Okay,

I said, some, we sent some
technical stuff to you, we don't

expect you to know that. Yes,
while push ups. Another thing

that I am going to suggest, even
for sixth grade there, Christa

is having some of these footlong
bands, but pulling, bringing

around the back pulling just 30
seconds of that kind of activity

where they're just both
directions. And down the back.

You'd be surprised how that will
just wake up your upper body.

The other thing that OTS have,
that you may not have in the

classroom, but you have
playdough is therapy, and

therapy, it is how it comes in
different strengths. So if you

have have an OT in your school,
that can get you a couple

different strengths, kids can
choose what they want to do. So

it's an it's a different texture
of a poll, and a push and a

pinch, then what playdough is
playdough has gluten in it. So

if you have kids with a gluten
allergy, you've got to watch

playdough. Look at all the stuff
that's going on in your body

that you aren't even aware of as
a teacher that could make or

break. And that the limbic
system is a filing cabinet. And

every time you have a memory, a
moment of your day, it goes into

a folder folder goes into the
filing cabinet. On the outside

of that folder is an emotion.
It's red, yellow, green. When we

get into some of the more
technical behavioral things will

will add blue in there as well.
But if you just think like the

stoplight, is it good? Is it can
I do this again? Yellow? Oh, I

didn't really care for that. But
I'd be willing to try it again

or is it red, I am not going to
go there. Again, I think it's

really good for what Jonily has
in mind as far as the math goes,

because we totally is going to
be talking about involves a lot

of hand manipulation with the
activities that we're going to

do with the kids. Today,

Jonily : I wanted to focus on
the improving number sense piece

of that. When you get access to
this, these materials, you'll

get this recording of the
training, you'll get the PDF

resources, you'll get the audio
files of me teaching in

classrooms, even if you're a
seventh grade teacher, listen to

the first and second grade. Even
if you're a first grade teacher,

listen to the sixth and eighth
grade. Because you're going to

find these are not grade level
specific. You will find and pick

up on instructional strategies
and nuances of me teaching this

with kids that you can use in
your own classroom.

Unknown: I think my biggest
takeaway from today is just

looking at it from that whole
sensory piece. Even like the

Whisper counting that that time
to share the moving around to

find the partner like all those
different sensory pieces looking

at it from a math perspective as
well. I really will look at

things different for sure. Now.

For me, as I've worked with you,
I've been conscious on the fonts

I've been using for that visual
piece in colors. But one Aha I

had is that you look at students
who asked to get a drink as

they're trying to free class.
But then I'm like, What is this

just that they need to activate?
And so that's something that

going forward, I'm gonna keep
Yes, you can go get a drink. Now

obviously if we go 500 times in
a class that would be like,

Okay, we need to look at
something else. But oftentimes I

want to say Now, but because I'm
worried about the missed

instruction, but if they do need
to get themselves regulated, and

they need to get themselves
ready to learn, and that drink

is going to help them, then
really, if they stay in class,

they're going to be missing that
instruction. Anyway, Amy put

Cheri Dotterer: hers in the
chat, I'm going to read it, I am

going to start having kids take
a break to do some planks or

wall push ups, when I noticed
them getting up and down in

seats, sitting on their knees,
etc. I've never thought of that.

And it's, it is quick. And, Amy,
I'm glad that you were able to

take away something from the non
academic portion today that will

help your kids because your your
kids, the first graders are

really in a crucial spot, as far
as that difference between the

learning and the actual
applying. Thank you. But the

idea of my of what I want to do
on May 11, is take that stuff

that you saw up on the board, I
gave you like an overall

category chewing, balancing and
stuff. And I am working on

dividing activities from those
categories into what is really

good to do in tier one, what do
you really need to shift into a

tier two or tier three, and
really give you some guidance on

how to think about spontaneously
and just having your toolbox?

What is happening overall, with
different activities that you

hear about all the time. But
what's the best place to use

them? Those high school
students, I see the the

dimension chart, the grid paper
being so powerful, with eight

through 12, even as an OT. So
really take some time and think

through some of the last three
sessions. And the next two

moving forward are going to be

Jonily : powerful. So once that
wraps up our time today, and I

just have a couple of final
thoughts. We started today with

this question, why don't kids
remember. And Sherry walked us

through the complexity of the
brain, the body and the spirit,

and how all of those things
interact together to produce

access to learning. Typical
traditional math classrooms are

not structured in a way to allow
these positive sensory

experiences. I'm hoping that
through this making rectangles

session today that you've seen
ways that we can connect the

medical brain based cognitive
science, occupational therapy

world to what is natural in
learning, and have a place in

our math classrooms. So that
numbers come alive. So that

numbers are things that we not
only see the notation, but we

see the visual representation.
We hear all of the

representations. And we do the
representations of numbers by

drawing and building and
chunking so that our kids have a

stronger number sense and have a
better innate intuitive

understanding of the magnitude
of numbers magnitude, meaning

how small or large numbers are
the size of numbers, the value

of numbers, and most
importantly, have access to

higher level mathematics because
the notations and the symbols

are connected and associated
with the visuals and the tactile

pieces. They're not just another
mathematical notation,

mathematical notation comes to
life, and students understand

number better, so they're going
to be able to achieve higher and

they're going to have a stronger
math fact fluency and

automaticity to engage in deeper
level mathematics. So thanks,

everybody for being here. This
was session three, tier one math

interventions making rectangles.

Unknown: Lima says tier one
interventions was a sensitizing

workshop systematically thought
through but into an easy to

understand framework and well
presented. Thank you to you

both. Thank you Nilima. You've
been listening to tier one

interventions with Jonily
Zupancic and Cheri daughter.

Tier one interventions is
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cheri Dotterer educational
consulting