Lesson Plan For Students With Cerebral Palsy

Types of Cerebral Palsy and How They Affect Students

Lesson plan is an important tool which helps to teach a disable person who is not able to gain suitable learning from the normal learning process. In this regards, several tools and techniques have emerged to facilitate and instil requisite people with best services. In this scenario, a case involving a student would help in designing a universal learning for needy student.  Elizabeth is in Year 9 and is fifteen year old. She faces some a problem while studying, hindering her academic prowess. She is taken to the hospital and the doctor diagnosed her with cerebral Palsy which is a most common disability from childhood. Cerebral Palsy affects her brain (cerebral) as well as her muscles (palsy). Children who suffer from cerebral palsy have problems in muscles tone which affects their posture, balance as well as ability to walk and move. The disorder also impacts her brain therefore making her to lose her ability to control muscles. Cerebral palsy leads to students finding it difficult to understand and comprehend abstract and problem-solving concepts.

The disease (Cerebral palsy) makes Elizabeth to present low academic achievements. She finds it difficult to understand and comprehend abstract and problem-solving concepts. She as well finds problems while accomplishing other activities including meagre house chores and class assignments (Cerebral palsy, 2018). As a result of the disease she is not able take part or participates in games and other physical activities because her brain get disturbed and she loses control on muscles and nerves.

As per the modern trend education systems a number of things have been identified and changes have taken place to enable teachers offer universal education to the students with such disability (Kirton, 2017). To increase the education level, teachers are creating lesson plans which help each and every student in classroom to accomplish his or her optimal potential. The strength of Elizabeth who is suffers from cerebral Palsy are significant. First, she is well conversant with technology. She plays video games during her free time. Secondly, she demonstrates a lot of enthusiasm significantly taking part in class discussions. She is able to accordingly answer questions asked by the teacher and also complete project assigned to her complied with instruction of the teacher.  Thirdly, when she is engaged in class, Elizabeth can effectively operate both with limited assistance independently. During tasks such as game-based learning, independent research, and numeracy application, she has a number of times proved to have an inspired and creative mind

Elizabeth’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Notably, there are four types of Cerebral Palsy. The first one is referred to as Spastic. It is most common among individuals and research show that 80% of the people can contract it. It encompasses stiff muscles which manifest themselves as a result of increased muscle creating awkward movements. Spastic has three subtypes including diparesis; which mainly affect legs, hemiparesis; which affects one side of body, and quadriparesis; which affects trunk, arms, legs as well as face. The second type of Cerebral Palsy is Dyskinetic. It involves difficulty in controlling movement, especially in the arms, legs, feet, and hands because tone of muscle changes frequently, from being too tight to being too loose. It also affects face and tongue making talking, swallowing difficult and also leading to sucking issues. Thirdly is the Ataxic which impacts balance and coordination. It makes student to face difficulty in writing, walking as well reaching places. Lastly is the Mixed. According to Auld and Johnston (2018), it involves symptoms of more than one disease which mainly includes spastic and dyskinetic.  

Generally, Elizabeth loves to involve herself in sitting games because her walking ability has become less or minimal as a result of the disorder. She also does several other things like independent research, numerical applications, and games like abacus while seated. While on going with these tasks, Elizabeth proves that she has brilliant mind. She does not distract any other student when involved in class room activities, which is one of her major strengths. But in one way or another, Elizabeth faces several difficulties in class as well with the teaching style because her brain stops her muscles from working properly. If Elizabeth is not able to sit properly, walk and cannot participate in any physical activity then she cannot be able to perform any of the activity in better manner. Additionally, she may also distract other students while doing their work. In some situation Elizabeth refuse to do work due improper functions of the muscles. Therefore, she frequently distracts other students available in classroom as well some taking part in outdoor activities. As a result of the difficulties, she fails to take part in outdoor activities.

One of the main weaknesses of Elizabeth is poor organising skills which sometimes make her not to prepare for classwork (Kurtts and Gavigan, 2017). Other students feel bad when she get extra attention from the teacher. They feel that she is loved more than more, therefor, creating a platform for discrimination. According to Kurtts and Gavigan (2017), special treatment given to individual in educational institutions can create differences.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): A Tool for Equipping Knowledge and Skills to Special Students

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) was firstly defined by David H. Rose, Ed.D. of the Harvard Graduate School of education and the Centre for Applied Special Technology (CAST) in the 1990 as a tool for equipping knowledge and skills to special students. UDL concept was developed on the basis of an idea intended towards creating a classroom which fulfils the needs and wants of all students in a school set up (Vitelli, 2015). This includes the environment of classroom, equipment used as well as the activities for the teaching lessons (Hord & Xin, 2015). Along with these, special benefits are given to the people who are facing cognitive or behavioural difficulties and physical disability in which a student’s brain does not allow muscles and nerves to work properly. From a research, it has been identified that strategies formed by teachers should equally aid to mainstream Elizabeth as well as other cerebral Palsy children. UDL need flexible teachers who can teach every kind of student. In Elizabeth’s case, the teacher should be able to identify her varied strength and give her the opportunity to stand out in her own manner (Miller, 2018). Before teaching Elizabeth, the teacher should always prepare a plan process. UDL will give positive impacts on the teacher by reducing the time duration which the teacher would spend in doing lesson modification as per Elizabeth requirement or to suit Elizabeth needs.  According to various researches, it has been observed that around half a million people in Australia have been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy (CP). Symptoms of this disease are different from person to another. In many cases, a child suffering from Cerebral Palsy would show signs of paralysis, muscular weaknesses, slurred speech, visual impairment or lack of coordination. Other children suffering from CP are ambulatory while some are bound to wheelchair. If a child is diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy by the age of 3, then a referral need should be created to the Committee on Preschool special education (CPSE).

A child would be known as a pre-schooler with a disability, and she would also be offered various related services which are appropriate according to CPSE. In most of these cases, services provided by CPSE consist of Physical therapy, and speech and Occupational therapy. Various studied concluded that providing these services before the beginning of kindergarten help the child to have better success when she starts schooling. When it agreed that Elizabeth may have her curiosity best served in a mainstream classroom environment, then parents, teachers and therapists must create an Individualized Education plan (IEP) to cater for her needs. The IEP must include detail information on the degree to which Elizabeth is influenced by the condition as well as her diagnosis.

How to Develop an Individualized Education Plan (IEP)

The IEP ought to likewise incorporate a rundown of administrations and the housing the school setting will give. Teaching youngsters with cerebral paralysis is frequently a new situation for a normal training educator, yet with the help from remedial projects and access to alterations in the classroom, understudies with CP can flourish in a general setting nearby their non-crippled associates. It is critical for the understudies with CP to expect an assortment of positions all through the school day to counteract the fixing of muscles. Hardware needs are also critical as legitimate situating can encourage eye-hand coordination and enhanced control. In particular, educators ought to keep up open correspondence with the tyke’s family to extend support with regard to home projects and proposals. It is essential for a student with CP to have an instructive program that is favourable for learning. When setting up a learning program, educators ought to think about Elizabeth abilities and restrictions, and remember that implausible desires can be disappointing for the tyke and additionally the guardians. Tolerance is a key factor when working with student with CP, as studies have demonstrated that these understudies take more time to react than their neurotypical peers. The adjusted lesson plan accomplishes this by first addressing Elizabeth mental well-being. Mental well-being has significant aspect of educational settings. During the lesson, the condition of students results in muscular weakness and stiffness as well. In this disease, people will suffer from the entire disorder and coordination problems in muscles. Muscles disorder leads to entire dis-balance of the body. There are some activities by which Elizabeth can improve to the best and which the teacher can implement in classroom to creates some benefits (Clarke & Pittaway, 2014). Like, hand play is the best way to come up from cerebral palsy as in this disease a student is t able to grasp objects and move his or her fingers.

A hand play activity is beneficial for Elizabeth (Miller and Bachrach, 2017). This activity would help Elizabeth to improve in her pincer grasp which includes using the index and thumb finger to pick up little physical object. By implementing this activity, the student will enjoy a lot by throwing ball in the classrooms, picking balls from bucket or cartoon, crumble up pieces of paper, rolling the small balls in between the fingers. Additionally, by doing this activity, the student’s muscle will be open and work to some extent.

Teaching Strategies for Students with Cerebral Palsy

Another activity which can be implemented to improve and resolve the student’s problem of muscles is Music activities which will give her additional advantages. Teacher can make use of sound or music or song in order to improve her social skills. This can be done by allowing her to participate in groups. In this activity, language development also takes place because the student will be able to sing. Along with language development, vocabulary development will also take place through singing as well as knowledge of words and sentences. In order to improve Elizabeth’s mobility, the teacher can also dance with her.

Additionally, physical activity will also be fruitful activity for her. By doing physical activity, the student can increase the strength of the muscles, agility and her entire health (Wyn et al., 2000). It is not easy for a student suffering from cerebral palsy do physical activity but there are some equipment available which can help them to move. Elizabeth can play with soft and coloured ball to help her get attracted towards colour (National Centre on Universal Design for Learning, 2014). The Teacher can also make balls with paper and play catch with her. Lighting of bright toys can also be used to enable her play. It is important to note that through doing these activities her muscles will somewhat become flexible and she will able to move as well (Rabaa, 2010). Notably, to overcome or get rid of cerebral palsy it is very important for teachers or parents to embrace a happy environment as lots of pain is reduced by happiness. Elizabeth who is suffering from cerebral palsy is associated with many symptoms like not being able to speak, move or walk making her entire body to get dependent on others.

There are some common approaches of treating of cerebral palsy including special training, development of proper education system, physical therapy and stretching muscles, and use of walker and braces. These approaches can make Elizabeth to do some work. Stretching of muscle is very necessary because if there is no movement in muscles then there will no movement. Therefore, according to Stribling and Christy (2017), it is very important to do activities rather than crying.

Allowing students to choose learning styles can be an effective method for Elizabeth to show her learning, yet, there are times when the purpose of the assignment is to challenge the student to go on the far side of his or her comfort zone and try something new or innovative in order to grow his or her skills and abilities (Gorter and et.al, 2017).

Colour key:

Multiple means of expression

Multiple means of representation

Multiple means of engagement

References

Auld, M.L. and Johnston, L.M., 2018. Getting inTOUCH: outcomes of a knowledge translation intervention for tactile assessment knowledge, barriers, and practice in paediatric therapists working with children with cerebral palsy. Disability and rehabilitation, pp.1-9.

Cerebral palsy, 2018. [online]. Acessed through

Clarke, M. & Pittaway, S. (2014). Marsh’s Becoming a Teacher (6^th ed.). French’s Forest, Australia: Pearson Australia.

Gorter, J.W, and et.al, 2017. Consensus planning toward a community-based approach to promote physical activity in youth with cerebral palsy. Physical & occupational therapy in pediatrics. 37(1). pp.35-50.

Hord, C. & Xin, Y. P. (2015). Teaching area and volume to students with mild intellectual disability. The Journal of Special Education, 49(2), 118-128. doi: 10.1177/0022466914527826

Kirton, A., 2017. Non-invasive neuromodulation trials in children: Lessons from perinatal stroke. Brain Stimulation: Basic, Translational, and Clinical Research in Neuromodulation. 10(2). p.348.

Kurtts, S.A. and Gavigan, K.W., 2017. Understanding (dis) abilities through children’s literature. Education Libraries. 31(1). pp.23-31.

Miller, F. and Bachrach, S.J., 2017. Cerebral palsy: A complete guide for caregiving. JHU Press.

Miller, F., 2018. Crouch Gait in Cerebral Palsy. In Cerebral Palsy (pp. 1-16). Springer, Cham.

National Centre on Universal Design for Learning. (2014). Three principles of UDL. Retrieved from

Rabaa, C. (2010). Towards improving the social and emotional wellbeing of Indigenous children: Mental Health education in a far North Queensland school. Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal, 34(2), 21-24.

Stribling, K. and Christy, J., 2017. Creative Dance Practice Improves Postural Control in a Child With Cerebral Palsy. Pediatric Physical Therapy. 29(4). pp.365-369.

Vitelli, E. M. (2015). Universal Design for Learning: Are we teaching it to preservice general education teachers? Journal of Special Education Technology, 30(3), 166-178. doi: 10.1177/0162643415618931

Wyn, J., Cahill, H., Holdsworth, R., Rowling, L. & Carson, S. (2000). MindMatters, a whole-school approach promoting mental health and wellbeing. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 34(4), 594-601. doi: 10.1046/j.1440-1614.2000.00748.x

Xiang, P., Gao, Z. & McBride, R. E. (2011). Student teachers’ use of instructional choice in physical education. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 82(3), 482-490. doi: 10.1080/02701367.2011.10599781

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