This week, we are encouraging both students and staff to Listen Up! Several years ago, our school district moved to 1:1 technology, which has been completely amazing. Student engagement and learning continue to grow and evolve. It has been a very rewarding experience, and we welcome the continuous learning that comes along with it.
With the increased use of technology in our school as well as at home, we find ourselves becoming hearing cheerleaders. (I can't think of one student who does not have some type of gaming system, iPhone, iPad, etc. at home. It's our reality.) So, we created two Listen Up! posters that we shared with the classroom teachers and have posted throughout the school.
We included several QR codes for students to scan which link to an interactive sound ruler at Noisy Planet, a hearing loss simulator at Starkey Hearing Technologies, and a video. You can access video here or watch it below.
If you're looking for other helpful websites for hearing, check these out!
This is probably my favorite! It's called Dangerous Decibels: Virtual Exhibit. It's an interactive site where kids can learn about what sound is, how we hear, how loud sounds really are, how sounds are measured, how to save your ears, and a hearing loss simulation. This site also includes a test at the end of if you'd like some type of assessment of learning.
Finally, we are also offering hearing screenings to staff one day before school and another day after school. It'll be helpful for them and a great skill brush-up for us!
What are you doing to raise awareness during BHSM?
March is TBI awareness month, which is something that is very near and dear to me. In January of 1998, I suffered a TBI, and the repercussions have been trying, to say the least. But that is a post for later this week. This post is for awareness, resources, and advocacy. Enough said.
What is a TBI?
TBI (traumatic brain injury), as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015), is caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or a penetrating head injury that disrupts the normal function of the brain. While not all bumps or blows to the head result in a TBI, it is estimated that approximately 2.5 million hospital visits are associated with a TBI which contribute to more than 50,000 deaths per year.
Diagnosis a TBI
TBIs are diagnosed using one of two main systems: The Glasgow Coma Scale or the Ranchos Los Amigos Scale. The Glasgow Coma Scale is based on a 15-point scale and describes the level of consciousness of a person after a TBI and used to describe the severity of the injury. It measures the functions of eye opening, verbal response, and motor response. (To see a more detailed breakdown of these functions, please click here.) The Ranchos Los Amigos Scale measures the levels of awareness, cognition, behavior, and interaction with the environment. It uses eight different levels ranging from Level 1: No Response to Level VIII: Purposeful-appropriate. (To see a more detailed breakdown of these levels, please click here.)
For simplicity purposes, I am choosing to elaborate using the Glasgow Coma Scale. Using this scale, the severity can be described as mild, moderate, or severe.
Mild TBI
brief loss of consciousness ranging from a usually few second to a few minutes OR no loss of consciousness but some confusion
post-traumatic anmesia (PTA) for less than 1 hour of the TBI
normal brain imaging results
Moderate TBI
loss of consciousness for a few minutes to a few hours
confusion lasts from days to weeks
PTA for 1-24 hours
abnormal brain imaging results
physical, cognitive, and/or behavioral impairments last for months or weeks
Severe TBI
loss of consciousness for more than 24 hours
PTA for more than 24 hours
abnormal brain imaging results
may affect short or long-term cognition, sensation, language, and emotional impairments
Causes of TBIs
According to the CDC, TBIs between 2006-2010 were results of the following:
Long-Term Effects
Long-term effects of TBIs are variable and depend on the severity. Individuals with a mild TBI will most often have no long-term effects. For those that do, the symptoms may be longer lasting or even permanent including irritability, anxiety, and depression. Other challenges may also include balance, movement, attention, concentration, judgement, and reaction time. For many individuals with a moderate to severe TBI, the long-term effects can lead to life-long challenges. Physical changes can include sleep disorders, changes in appetite, paralysis, seizures, difficulty regulating body temperature, and hormonal challenges. Cognitive changes can include difficulty with attention, concentration, memory, processing speed, perseveration, confusion, impulsivity, and executive functions. Speech-language challenges may include understanding spoken words or generating words, slurred speech, reading and writing problems. Social-emotional challenges may include fluctuating emotions, lack of motivation, irritability, aggression, depression, and and lack of inhibition. Additional challenges may include sensory, perception, vision, hearing, smell, and taste. The list is even more extensive, however, these highlight the most common.
The CDC has a four-minute podcast about The Dangers of Brain Injuries that is also a great resource. You can check it out here.
References:
BrainLine.org (2015). Retrieved from http://www.brainline.org/content/2010/10/what-is-the-glasgow-coma-scale.html
Northern University: Traumatic Brain Injury Resource for Survivors and Caregivers (2010). Retrieved from http://www.northeastern.edu/nutraumaticbraininjury/what-is-tbi/severity-of-tbi/
Brain Injury Alliance (nd.) Retrieved from http://biau.org/types-and-levels-of-brain-injury/
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2015). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html
Center of Excellence for Medical Multimedia (nd.) Retrieved from http://www.traumaticbraininjuryatoz.org
This week is our first week of school and we are just getting settled our new students and schedule. For our 4th grade students it's a whole new staff and building to get used to, but this week we are already meeting them and talking about how they can advocate for their needs. We work with most of our students to verbally advocate for their needs but at times they need a nonverbal or visual way to communicate needs. Thus this year, we developed some advocacy quick-cards for students of all skill levels to let adults or peers know their needs. We are hoping they help when students are struggling to get words out, when a AAC device breaks down, or they are feeling too shy to directly ask the teacher for help. These advocacy cards can be laminated and taped to desks and binders or put on a ring for on the go use. Here is a preview:
We are finding that our students love the bright colors and we hope you do too! You can get yours here at our TPT store.
