In this blog article, we want to share the most important points that Cristina discussed in her last Webinar, with the name: «How to serve our children with special educational needs in early childhood and preschool in the classroom: the VICON Method as a tool for integration"

For all those who did not see it, you can visit the Facebook profile, where you have it in its entirety. However, as we have said, we are going to share the most important points through this entry. We hope that it will serve as a help and reference to many professionals who are dedicated to education and special education.

To begin we have to clarify concepts, such as:

What is the VICON Method?

We have said it on many occasions but we remind you. It is an intensive structured learning program aimed at children with a visual and musical profile that addresses from early development, step by step all evolutionary stages to the most elaborate stages of language and learning. It is a therapeutic tool in video format, which is used as a complementary resource in the classroom with the aim of including those children with special educational needs in the class group acting on these two prisms.

Being a motivating and natural learning tool as a principle of change , use music as a learning vehicle and repetition as an integration of this process. Always under the watchful eye of emotion.

But why is emotion so important in learning? Well, because our brain is lazy… “Yes! it is! Have you seen the effort it takes now in this visual world to read a book for an hour without your brain diverting you to thoughts 50 times per page? And to defeat the laziness of our brains, in this case, the brains of our students, we must excite them, we must teach by getting excited.

We must as professionals awaken curiosity and we must surprise our students.

In this way, another of the fundamental elements of the method is music . Because the benefits of music as a therapeutic tool are already evidenced as a scientific discipline. You have to know that music is a means of expression and communication with a specific language that moves action and enjoyment at an individual and social level. Children with communication difficulties respond to musical stimuli more than to any other type of stimulus. One of the main problems of some children with special educational needs is the difficulty of expression and communication and music can be that means of communication to establish new channels of expression and socialization.

Listening to music is an action that involves practically all the cognitive functions involved in learning: attention, imitation, memory, concentration and learning.

How to implement the VICON Method within the Classroom?

As we have explained and as you can see on the Method's website , its methodology incorporates Videomodelling . In this way, we have to take into account that to implement the VICON Method within the classroom, we have to have that visual support.

In this way, the Videos are integrated into the dynamics of the classroom, finding three moments a day as widely spaced as possible to view the video with the entire class group . It is super important to have collaboration from home where the family can enhance these videos and even from professionals who work with the child, all sharing the same user to all follow the same program and the same sequence of Videos.

The time has come to give advice and/or tips to enhance the inclusion of these children with special educational needs with the VICON Method tool.

These tips are going to focus on five sections . These five parts respond to a natural process of inclusion from the first news when a child with SEN actually reaches us. We remind you which pathologies the VICON Method treats here .

The first thing we have to do when we receive a case of a child with special educational needs is to team up, we have a family and professionals who always come hand in hand with the child and who right now are going to be our shortcut for everything that entails. adapt to it.

Establish monthly team meetings at the beginning to be very connected with the objectives and interventions, then they can be spaced out when everything is more controlled but at the beginning have contact through a WhatsApp group for all the moments of difficulty, the moments of achievement to Sharing objective materials, ideas about activities will be strictly necessary.

Do not be afraid to bother all the professionals because in the end, they are the ones who are going to give us the best information, they are with the child one on one and this situation for us is going to be very difficult because we are always going to be with everything the class group.

We move on to the second point. The adaptation process is one of the most important moments for children, for the family and for us as professionals because we have to take care of those first impressions. Take care of a good entrance to the classroom, safely, with respect... The fact that the child arrives to the classroom with a reference person, who can get used to the space even without classmates, but give him enough time to recognize the entire environment, the materials , For example.

During the adaptation, that person will read a book, do a very boring activity so that the space and we as teachers can capture the attention of that child who addresses the adult but the adult does not refer but is present. It is very helpful to let them bring a personal object from home, a toy, a doll that accompanies them and gives them security in the event that we do not have that reference adult. It will also help a lot to have the space prepared in a different way for the first few days, a day with fabrics. During the adaptation period we do not have to do too many activities but they are very attractive. Because of my profile, I recommend musical ones because of the emotional component that they discharge at the level. Communication.

The adaptation period has two meanings, the child has to adapt to the group but the group also has to adapt to the child. It is also very important to assess daily aspects such as sleep and appetite, which will be indicators of how the adaptation is going. Also record everything we can to give to the family and then have feedback back showing them how we do the first feedback. As complete as possible.

On the third point. We are going to materialize this entire process that we have started. We already enter the child, now we are going to pass all that information filter through what we see, with our eyes and our environment, because with us it will be different and in our environment and with our class group it will generate a different child profile or alike. It is very important that we find time to be with him and bond in order to be his reference, his guide and his hook.

If we have the opportunity to have a shadow teacher we have to create an internal team within the classroom throughout the first months so that we do not miss anything, it is necessary to make an extra effort to get to know him, how are we going to present this new piece in our class group .

When we talk about what he likes, we have to write everything down, corroborate the themes that we have been told, the materials, the games, the music, we have to have a good musical battery prepared and everything that he likes to have all those motivators ready. . Assess whether those difficulties that have been pointed out to us in other environments are also transferred to the classroom or, on the contrary, do not occur.

On the other hand we have the group, which also has its process and we also have to respect it but it is very important to know how to define the profiles of children that we have, there will be profiles of child teachers, child friends... . Because they will be the network we have to play with integration. It is very important to know that in a classroom, we often have a sample of what society is like, and our work is immensely important for each one of them.

Fourth point. This exercise is the richest and with which you will find the most resources and you have done these phases well. Everything we do has to be focused on autonomy, we have to try to activate our children with special educational needs, make them responsible and participatory , with or without help, and to do so we have to try to introduce as much visual support as we can. Use as much visual support as you can, in the folders, the colors, the hangers, the chairs and depending on our child's abilities, try to give him as much help as possible in the first days so that he feels comfortable, welcomed and oriented. It is very important to sequence all the work and know where in the sequence our child has his function, and the entire group knows what his function is, including the child. But for that you have to do a lot of prior work with these sequential visual aids.

And as a fifth point , they are very important: group dynamics, all the games, all the spaces with music are very enriching and greatly reduce anxiety . Dedicate time to creating group cohesion dynamics, strengthening the feeling of belonging to a group, not only for our child but through the example of others. One of the most effective strategies in integration is to make directed and semi-directed patios . In the directed playgrounds we try to establish a small group, we try to teach social skills in a small group by integrating our special education children, these activities can have several objectives, integrating the other children in our child's play , generating healthy relationships in children that costs.

We know that the world of infant and preschool is a world of routines, and therefore it is very appropriate for our children with special educational needs where the anticipation and the process of knowing what is going to come gives them security, they like it, it makes them learn over and over again. Try to integrate your children into your routines, that will greatly influence the profile of the child you have and their preferences.

The child and more specifically his brain needs to repeat things in order to learn them. We can say that play is a form of expression of what is experienced without oral language, and it helps them develop concepts or resolve conflicts. All emotional and social capacities, creativity and imagination, physical abilities, and even the development of the senses. Today sight and hearing are mainly stimulated, leaving aside smell, touch and taste, and all kinetics.

So trying to enrich all classroom activities, even trying to integrate activities that do not require verbal language, children learn a lot from experiences without language, and communication is enhanced when the verbal part is removed and I am left only with the non-verbal part.

We hope we have helped you with these tips. However, you can always ask Cristina at the following email: cristina@metodovicon.com and I will tell you about everything we do with professionals.