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Dan Coulter,
Coulter Video, March 21, 2008
Have you ever had a great idea that turned
out not so great? Or one that worked out, but only after you
substantially tweaked it? Innovation is important, but often it
needs to be tempered by collaboration to make sure it
accomplishes its goal -- without unwanted side effects.
Let me give you an example. A while back, someone got the idea
to use a traffic light and alarm system in school cafeterias to
help kids keep the noise level down. I learned about this
product recently. I’m not sure when it was introduced, but I
found a story about it in USA Today’s Life section on October
12, 2004, titled: “Noise travels fast, but cafeteria ladies put
a stop to it.” A friend of our daughter who is in her 20’s said
she remembers having such a system in her elementary school
cafeteria. So this system has been around for a while.
I found sites selling different versions of the product online,
but it basically works like this: You put a traffic light,
sensor, and alarm in your cafeteria. The traffic light glows
green when things are relatively quiet. When student-generated
noise builds to a preset level, the light changes to yellow and
an alarm sounds. When the noise reaches a higher preset level,
the light changes to red and a louder alarm sounds. Depending on
the system, this louder alarm might be a buzzer, tone or siren.
School officials can institute rules such as a five minute “no
talking” ban after a red-light alarm.
Now, reducing cafeteria noise is a great goal. Our son, Drew,
who has Asperger Syndrome, had real difficulty dealing with the
noise levels in the cafeteria and at pep rallies while he was in
middle school and high school. Loud noise levels overwhelm him
and sudden loud noises startle him dramatically. Imagine someone
unexpectedly shooting off a pistol next to your ear and you’ll
get an idea how loud noises (that wouldn’t phase a person with
average hearing) sound to Drew.
Of course, enforcing silence with alarms and sirens is more than
a bit ironic. Especially when you consider the effect on
children who are hypersensitive to loud noises. Not only can the
alarm be painful, but anticipating the system going off can send
these kids’ anxiety levels through the roof. While school staff
might install this system with the best of intentions, they may
wind up with some children holding their ears in fear waiting
for the audible assault -- or trying to escape when a siren goes
off and hurts their ears. It’s happened.
This is just one “innovation” example. There are lots of ideas
that may work well for most of a school population that can
cause challenges for children with special needs; especially
children with hypersensitivities or those who find changes in
their routines threatening.
How can we help ensure that well-intended innovations work?
First, parents need to keep in close touch with school staff,
make them aware of a child’s sensitivities, and ask to be
alerted to any changes in policies or practices that will affect
students. It helps to recruit an
advocate for your child who’s on the staff. This could be a
counselor, social worker or favorite teacher who knows your
child’s sensitivities. An advocate who is in a position to see
potential problems can help find ways to avoid them, and, of
course, keep parents in the loop so they can offer input. It
helps if parents have frequent contact with this person or other
school staff. Who knows what well-intentioned innovator in the
school right now is planning something that could affect your
son or daughter?
Second, schools need to carefully assess the impact of new
policies and practices on individual students. Leaders need to
share planned changes with staff and parents and ask for input
on pros and cons. Networking can be invaluable for teachers
planning significant changes in their classrooms that involve
areas outside their experience. It’s a rare policy, practice or
system that covers all students’ needs without some
modifications or exceptions. Some children with special needs
require extra preparation to deal with change. Some may need to
be accommodated with an alternative activity. And, if an
innovation that seemed like a great idea doesn’t work, we all
respect staff who are confident and flexible enough to either
modify it or rescind it and move on to something else. Some of
the best innovations involve an element of trial and error.
For Drew, the solution to his cafeteria sound sensitivities had
some added benefits. Drew’s middle school set up a social skills
class for Drew and some other children over lunch once a week in
a counselor’s office. Then one of Drew’s teachers volunteered to
each lunch with him on her break in her classroom on the other
four days. So, Drew was able to eat his lunch in relative quiet,
and he gained some weekly experience interacting with
classmates. This alternative solved a significant problem caused
by cafeteria noise. Eating away from the lunchroom would have
been even more important if Drew’s cafeteria had been equipped
with a siren.
In high school, the staff allowed Drew to go to the library
during pep rallies to avoid the loud noise.
Some of the best solutions are those you find by anticipating
problems and avoiding them. If you’re a parent, only you can
determine how often you need to be in touch with school staff to
accomplish this. However, if you have a child with special
needs, I’d recommend having at least weekly contact. Daily
contact is not too often in some cases. And beware of depending
on your child to keep you up to speed. He or she may not know
about planned changes, and some kids don’t tell parents about
difficulties even long after they’ve started.
Collaboration has historically been a friend to innovation.
A while back, former BCC science reporter James Burke produced a
series on innovation called, “Connections.” He made the point
that the idea of the lone inventor toiling away and having a
solitary “Eureka!” moment was often a myth. Many of the people
we consider mankind’s greatest inventors built
on the work of others or collaborated with others or consulted
with others to refine their ideas.
Collaboration helps us identify both the possibilities and
pitfalls of our brainstorms and adjust accordingly to boost
benefits and avoid mistakes we’d regret. Collaboration also
helps parents and school staff develop consistent approaches so
guidance and discipline at home and school reinforce each other.
We need innovation in our schools. Frequent parent-staff contact
and lots of input on new ideas can help ensure we find and
institute changes that work for students, staff and parents. And
isn’t that what we’re all looking for?
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dan Coulter is the producer of the Intricate
Minds series of videos that help students understand and accept
classmates with Asperger Syndrome, autism and related
conditions. You can find more articles on his website at:
www.coultervideo.com.
© Dan Coulter 2008 All Rights Reserved Used With Permission
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