Active Learning

Sophie and I have been going to a program run by CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) and the therapy centre she gets her services from.  It is called Active Learning and it is based on the premise that children learn by doing.  It was created by Dr. Lilli Nielsen and has changed the lives of so many children and adults who have multiple disabilities.  Sophie has been using many aspects of this type of play/learning for a long time, she also uses a HOPSA at her child life program which she just loves.

Sophie's early intervention specialist at CNIB was the leader of this program, we had done this program with her when Sophie was little, about 1 1/2 years old so it was nice to join in again.  Sophie really enjoys the objects that are presented to her and it is awesome to watch her get busy.  It is hard for people to understand that Sophie often does things very slowly.  Something may be presented to her to touch, but it may take her a few minutes to coordinate her arm, her eyes and her brain to get her to move towards an object with her hand.  She will often look away at something and then look back, sometimes moving her hand at the same time towards the object when looking away.  If you don't know that is what she is doing, you might think she is just not interested when she looks away and remove the object.  How frustrating would that be!?  So active learning allows Sophie to do everything at her own pace. 

Objects are placed within her reach, above, around, under and behind her so that she can CHOOSE what she wants to play with.  Seems like such a simple thing for a 4 year old to be able to choose what she wants to play with, but Sophie never has that chance, unless we facilitate that.  We also try not to talk while Sophie is interacting with the toys/objects, it just makes for sensory overload as she is concentrating on her activity.  So when she is done we give her praise and ask if she wants more, etc.

This is called a Little Room

Another Little Room

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Sophie was in a tent here with a lightbox and shiny objects, a foot massage, a sound machine with bird sounds or waves or rain, etc. and other toys.






This was under a table, we used a flashlight to spotlight the shiny paper, disco ball, rope lights, etc.

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