LISTEN AND LEARN: UNLOCKING THE POWER OF AUDIOBOOKS FOR STRUGGLING READERS

 I'm a huge proponent of givings students time in class to just read. You can read my previous posts about Self-Selected Reading here and here.

There is one problem with S-SR though, and that's how to include students with significant deficits in decoding and fluency. If we just tell them to pick a book and read we'll end up with:

a) students who just pretend to read

b) students who reinforce errors by reading incorrectly

c) students who get frustrated trying to read (leading to decreased engagement and motivation)

So, how do we address this? Audiobooks.

The Magic of Audiobooks: Benefits for Struggling Readers

Audiobooks provide a wealth of benefits for secondary students with diverse learning needs:

1. Improved Comprehension: Audiobooks can help students better understand complex texts, as they can focus on the meaning without getting bogged down by decoding difficulties.
2. Increased Engagement: The narration in audiobooks can capture students' attention and keep them engaged, particularly for those with ADHD who may struggle with focus and attention.
3. Enhanced Fluency: Listening to fluent reading models can help students develop better reading fluency and expression.
   
4. Strengthened Listening Skills: Audiobooks can help students improve their listening skills. Students with autism can also improve their understanding of language, tone, and emotion.

Read and Listen: The Power of Synchronized Audiobooks

The best way to maximize the benefits of audiobooks is to encourage students to read the text while they listen. This multisensory approach allows students to see the words as they hear them, reinforcing both visual and auditory learning. It also helps students to make connections between the written word and spoken language, boosting their overall literacy skills. You'll be shocked how many times students will make comments like "That's how you say that word?" and "I've never actually seen how that word is written."

Some programs like Learning Ally have Synchronized Audiobooks available. I love these because they not only present the text with the audio, but they highlight each sentence as it's being read. This helps keep students focused and if they look away for any reason, they don't have to scramble to find their place again.

Discovering Audiobooks: Resources for Your Classroom

There are many sources to find audiobooks that cater to students' diverse needs. Here are a few recommendations:

• Learning Ally: Learning Ally is a fantastic resource that is specifically designed for students with dyslexia. While their are some books narrated with a synthesized voice, the vast majority are human-narrated texts. The included synchronized highlighting is what makes this my top choice. My state offers this program for free to teachers serving students with disabilities so you may want to check if it's available to you.
  
• Audible: Audible offers a huge selection of audiobooks, including popular titles and classics that can be easily accessed on various devices. If students are able to access the Kindle app or if you have Fire Tablets in the clsssroom you can use Immersion Reading with provides real-time highlighting like Learning Ally. Audible Plus is $7.95 per month and includes unlimited access to their Plus library, while Premium Plus is $14.95 per month and offers 1 monthly credit for any title in addition to the Plus library.
  
• OverDrive(Libby), cloudLibrary, and Hoopla: Many local libraries offer access to digital audiobooks through apps that allow students to borrow audiobooks for free with a library card. Alternatively if you're doing a whole class read, you can access the audiobook through your own library card to play in class.
  
• Project Gutenberg: For public domain titles, Project Gutenberg offers a collection of free audiobooks that can be downloaded or streamed.
  
• School Access: Check if your school district has access to any specific programs or platforms. Your media specialist or librarian will probably know.
  

I hope you'll consider giving audiobooks a try in your classroom, especially for Self-Selected Reading. Your students will thank you.

Book Review: Nerdy, Shy and Socially Inappropriate: A User Guide to An Asperger Life

Nerdy, Shy and Socially Inappropriate: A User Guide to An Asperger Life was written by Cynthia Kim, a woman who wasn’t diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder until she was an adult. As a result she provides an interesting perspective on receiving a diagnosis late in life, developing self-coping strategies and understanding, and being a woman with ASD.

Below is a review of this great book, and implications for teachers.

The book is broken down into separate chapters, each focusing on different aspects of living with ASD, beginning with a chapter about growing up undiagnosed. In this chapter, Kim describes a childhood in which she preferred to play alone, even playing games of Risk and Monopoly against herself. She collected coins, stamps, and baseball cards, and preferred organizing her Barbies over playing with them. She goes on to explain how she was bullied as a child because she struggled to navigate social interactions, and eventually became a bully herself.

The chapter titled ‘Rigid and Routine’ provides insight into these traits of individuals with autism. Kim explains that her own “strong reliance on rules, routines, and pattern recognition” (p.86) was developed as a coping strategy for dealing with some of the challenges of autism. They helped her feel like she had some semblance of control and stability when so much of her daily life was confusing. Understanding this, teachers should utilize clear routines and expectations in their classrooms to provide this stability to their students with ASD. Visual schedules, regularly repeated routines, and designated centers or zones in the classroom can all help in this regard.

There are two interesting chapters that cover sensory seeking, sensitivities, and the autistic body. For Kim, stimming often comes as a result of having to keep her body still when it is socially expected of her, so teachers should be aware of this and allow students to stim, if appropriate, or provide other means of movement for students such as exercise ball seats, standing desks, or rocking chairs. Often teachers fall into the habit of keeping students seated and still, even when it is not developmentally appropriate, and we need to break away from that.

Kim also explains that stimming serves a regulatory function, providing stimulation or a calming effect, depending on the situation, and that the form, and intensity of stimming can be very varied. Reading through this chapter, teachers may learn about forms of stimming they may have never considered before. Educators working directly to modify the behavior of students with ASD may also benefit from reading about how Kim’s stimming has evolved to be more discrete – a technique that may be beneficial for students who wish to maintain the functions of stimming without standing out too much from their peers.

In her chapter on emotions, Kim explains that she has trouble identifying and verbalizing emotions, an issue common for those with ASD. After further analysis, she realized that she had difficulties in three areas: modulation, identification, and discrimination. She dives deeper into all three areas, providing a wonderful insight into an area that is often very difficult for people with autism to explain. She also describes a strategy she uses called “Sketching My Emotional Constellations” to help identify and understand what different emotions mean and look like to her. This kind of activity could work very well in a clinical or education setting to help students better understand their own “emotional constellations.” It can also be helpful to demonstrate the depth of emotions. Kim explains that the word ‘happy’ is a “blurry splotch of a feeling” (p. 144) to her and she needed to explore it further, arriving at personal definitions or images for words such as ‘content’, ‘elated’, ‘peace’, ‘wonder’, ‘joy’, and ‘bliss.’ 

The chapter on executive function is also highly informative. Not only does she discuss what executive functioning is, but she provides clear examples of how this plays out in everyday life, such as when she visited New York City and could not answer the question “What do you want to do?” In this section in particular, Kim takes time to provide specific strategies those with ASD can use to cope with poor executive functioning, such as use of routines, reminder apps, and chunking of tasks. She also does an amazing job of explaining what goes on in her mind during what others would perceive to be “processing delays.” Any educator would do well to read this to better understand just how much our students are thinking when we often assume they’re simply not.

Peppered throughout the book are discussions about the manifestation of ASD in girls, and their perceived under-identification. Kim points out that, after her initial diagnosis she was surprised that no one had realized she had ASD as a child. She later reflects that as a child, she was a good girl who follow the rules and, as a result, she was left to her own devices. Any odd behaviors were chalked up to her being shy, nerdy, or quirky, and overlooked. She also points out that both Kanner and Asperger primarily studied boys when defining the traits of autism and Asperger’s respectively, so the signs we tend to look for skew towards the identification of males with autism. Both educators and clinicians need to be aware of these factors which may be causing us to under-identify girls with ASD, and make an active effort to look for perhaps more subtle signs in female students and clients.

There are further chapters in Kim’s book, covering topics such as meltdowns, romantic relationships, parenting, navigating social situations, and redefining and accepting herself post-diagnosis. All of it is incredibly insightful and well worth the read to gain a greater understanding of those with autism, and the challenges they face both in school and beyond as they reach adulthood.

ASPERGER'S AND MANIC EPISODES

I'm really curious to know if people with Asperger's get manic episodes, or if it might be tied to ADD? Either way I'm in one right now.

When most people hear the word manic, they think manic-depressive or bipolar. Thankfully that is not me, but I do still occasionally (read: every few months) will have a manic day. That usually means I'm hyper, super gung-ho about getting things done, and can't focus on one task at a time.

Today I woke up to check some of Amazon's black friday deals and ended up just staying awake. A coupon for $10 off a book purchase (good through November 28, 2016 at 02:59am EST) led me to hours looking through reviews and excerpts of a number of books in my wishlist about Autism in Women, and neurodiverse relationships (and going into archives of numerous blogs). At the same time I was trying to clear shows from our DVR, do laundry, clear through my desks, find receipts for Kellogg's rewards before they're too old, working on a T-Shirt design for our Autism Speaks Walk, clearing stuff off the stairs, and considering making new dog beds. Somewhere in there I ended up reading an article about artificial sweeteners, taking an OCD quiz, looking into a new planner, and depositing a check. Also on the agenda for later in the day was hanging shelves, putting up our new microwave, setting up my dogs training collar, setting up the new Keurig, and cleaning the bedroom. Plus, you know, maybe eating and such.

It was way too much. I could feel myself trembling with anxiety and also eagerness. I was an accomplishment machine! Except I was bouncing between stuff like a mad woman. When Ki woke up I just started babbling at him about random things, while he noticed the after effects of those things, like the half folded laundry, the dog bed covers sitting in a heap on a pile of boxes, and the disaster of receipts on my desk. Finally a cognizant moment struck and I started to apologize. He immediately acknowledged that I was having a manic day and gave me a good strong squeeze to help me settle.

Then I realized I had a major assignment due today and I had nearly forgotten it.

So Ki took over handing the microwave with Momo, and even did the collar, so I could focus on my stupid, stupid assignment that took hours to do. But it's okay. It's done now.

I'm still feeling hyper but have gotten a bit more focused (although Ki and Momo having "inspriational" music playing while they work on the microwave and it is amping up my anxiety for some reason. Grr). I'm trying to just brain dump a list of everything on my mind and settle in to focus on just a few key tasks and maybe later I'll research Asperger's and manic episodes.


Update: Between writing this and looking for GIFs to add, I got over exuberant about going to measure something, tripped, and almost face planted.

Update 2: The music has gotten louder.

Update 3: I made them turn the music down. Now I feel guilty, even if they understand. Sigh.

I'M GETTING DIAGNOSED

A super brief post (without even a title image!), to say that I finally got around to making an appointment with a psychologist to pursue a diagnosis of Asperger's and Attention Deficit Disorder.

I've been planning to call for a while now but kept putting it off until after the holidays. Today I had no excuse, and after leaving my cell phone out in the backyard yesterday and spending nearly half an hour trying to find it, I knew it was time.

 

The call went perfectly fine, but I had such horrible phone anxiety about it before hand that I was flexing and twitching my hands and arms (stimming?) and really had to psych myself up for it. Then the woman had to call me back, which gave me even more anxiety!

It was dreadful. But I survived and hopefully will end up the better for it.

Being Aspie and Dealing With Change

Today I had a complete breakdown. Thankfully it happened as a result of a text, not in person or on the phone, and thankfully my boyfriend was with me and helped me calm down but it was pretty rough there for a while.

What caused such a breakdown, you ask? Surely something horrible or tragic? A death? An accident? A betrayal? No, it was a schedule change. Specifically I found out that our school (or maybe the whole district or state? No one seems to know) is dropping double block reading and moving to only single periods.

Please, keep reading to understand why, as a person with Asperger's, this felt like a death blow.



My first reaction to the news was indignation on behalf of my students. These kids are in high school and reading at the elementary level. Many of them need to make 5 to 10 years of growth to be on level. The least you can do is give me two years worth of time with them to try to make that happen. Plus our school is on alternating block schedule, so now I'll only see them every other day instead of every day. Grrr.

But at least that response was logical and (I think) justified. I then spent a good hour depressed, frustrated, and occasionally crying because I was overwhelmed. The worst offense of all in my mind was that my co-teacher Janice and I literally met yesterday for hours, planning out the year, including a good chunk of time working out our daily schedule to try to cover as much as possible. Just before getting the Text of Doom, I was heading to the computer to start typing up plans.

Then there were the logistics of the change. This switch means I'm teaching 4 classes instead of 2 doubles (plus a period of ESE test coordinating), some without my co-teacher, and there are a total of 6 classes taught in our classroom instead of 3.

My mind swirled with thoughts (most of which are frivolous now that I'm thinking rationally):

• We'll need a new Turn It In Bin with 6 drawers. Or should we just get a second 3 drawer bin? Could I find the same drawer we have now so they match?
• What colors will be use to represent each class? Our class theme only has 4 contrasting colors. Can we really use brown for one? But that won't stand out from the walls. And who wants to be brown? And what about the last class? What other colors exist? What colors of paper do we have? Are we really going to run 6 paper chains across the room?
• How can I mentally switch between co-teaching and single-teaching for different classes?
• Crap I have to be in charge of remembering to take attendance
• Will we have enough notebooks? What about highlighters? DID I BUY ENOUGH HIGHLIGHTERS?
• I need to plan a new planner. I just figured out my planner. And plans. Now we have to redo our plans. How the hell do you track alternating plans? How do I get them organized enough to turn in to admin?
• Seriously though, 6 colors. Think! What other colors can we use? What colors do we even use now?
• New routine. We need a new routine. We didn't have enough time in double block, how do we make a routine with enough time in single?
• Should I print my own planner? Buy one? How do people do this?

All of that (and an assortment or thoughts in a similar vein) ran on repeat, punctuated by an occasional sob.

And this is how my disorders can affect my teaching.

First, let me be clear that-

[at this point I got distracted by my dog (hello ADD), started searching about font formatting on blogger, then accidentally removed my last blog post and spent half an hour redoing it]

Ahem, as I was saying:  First, let me be clear that I have never had a breakdown in front of my students. Typically I handle things well, and when I do get overwhelmed I can retreat briefly and be ok (Janice calls it going under the dome). Today just hit hard because it touched on some of my weak points.

The first is an unexpected change of schedule. This is a struggle for most people with ASD. We like our routines; we plan things out ahead of time and don't like when reality doesn't match the picture we had in our minds. Like I said, we had just made up our schedule and routine for our classes and the next day they were smacked down. I perseverated over that a lot.

The second was feeling betrayed by someone I trusted. Growing up I was bullied a lot, and learned not to trust people. Even if someone was nice to me, I assumed it was some sort of joke. As a adult I have grown past this for the most part, but that underlying fear of finding out people aren't really my friends is still there. It was a good friend of mine who texted me about the change and my mind immediately associated her as the cause of it. In reality she was being a good friend by giving me a heads up about it, but I couldn't see that at first.

The last trigger I can clearly see (there may very well be others I'm not cognizant of), is being forced into conflict. I HATE conflict. I avoid it like the plague. I don't stand up for myself. I don't argue or complain. I practically hyperventilate if I have to call a company about an issue, and spend half an hour psyching myself up before I do it. 99 times out of 100, I will put up with something rather than face the conflict of addressing the issue. So today I was put in a situation where I had to stand up for myself, my co-teacher, and my students, even though I didn't feel comfortable doing it. Even as I was arguing against the change, I was apologizing for saying anything about it. Those conflicting emotions of feeling justified and unreasonable at the same time can be very distressing.

In the end I argued my case, then accepted that I couldn't change things and, for the most part, was able to let it go. Even now though I feel agitated thinking about it, and spent the past several hours working on this post instead of planning because I can't face thinking about that right now. By tomorrow I'll be fine and start obsessing about putting together new plans (and color schemes), but for now it feels good to just get this off my chest.

Thanks for sticking with me through this whole post. I hope I've given you some insight into the Aspie mind. If you've got any suggestions for me, feel free to leave me a comment below!