This episode covers four simple, but effective, ways to help children of all abilities learn. My guest, Jacquie Johnson, shares her recipe for success both in the classroom and at home. Plus she shares how SLP’s can collaborate effectively with classroom teachers. You don’t want to miss  Jacquie’s insights!

— Useful Links —

Episode 11: Tracking Phonological Awareness 
Episode 10: Under the Umbrella of Phonological Awareness
Episode 4: Developmental Sequence of Phonemic Awareness

Music: Simple Gifts performed by Ted Yoder, used with permission

Transcript

Denise: SLPs, in your workplace, do you collaborate with both regular and special education teachers? Do you wonder what the special education and regular education teacher wants most from you for support. Guest today is Jackie Johnson. She’s an experienced teacher. She has worked as both a special education and a regular education teacher, and she’s worked with an autism class. Today, we’re going to get her perspective on teaching children with learning challenges, collaboration with SLPs. And since we’re both passionate about phonological awareness, we’re going to touch on that too. 

[00:00:31] Introduction

Denise: Hello, this is your host, Denise Stratton. If you’re a regular listener, you may have been surprised to hear Speech Umbrella, not The Mindful SLP, But you’re in the right place. I rebranded to have my website and podcast under the same name. Moving on to today’s topic, we’re so fortunate to have Jackie here with us today. 

Now there are some people who you only need to spend a minute with, and you know, this person is wise. They have that rare gift of wisdom. And that is Jacquie. She’s one of those people. And I know we’re going to go away with something we learned from her today. So Jacquie, give us some background on you. Why did you choose teaching? How did you get into it? 

Jacquie: I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. Denise, since I was a young girl. And I especially wanted to go into special education.

I had a great love for children with special needs as a teenager. When I had started at university, I began immediately in the education program and I did get a combined degree of special education and elementary education, but my particular love was special education. And in those days in the seventies, You know, you had to cover every single area.

So you were with autistic children, Down syndrome and back then, of course, autism was not really well-known, you know, we just sort of catch 22 everything, but as I got into the profession, I understood the differences, and I particularly loved working with these children. My first year of teaching was in 1979 and I had a classroom, a small classroom, of Down syndrome children.

 I loved it, but I was worn out and then I started having my family and I took a few years off. I went back into teaching and then taught for 35 years straight, but jumped back and forth a few times with special education and then regular education. 

Denise: That’s a little bit about your professional beginnings, but Jackie, we have all noticed your wonderful accent. My listeners are going to say, where is she from? So Jackie, tell us about your childhood, where you’re from. 

Jacquie: I, well, actually I was born in England, in Harrogate, Yorkshire. And then when I was just a baby, my dad got a job in the middle of Africa, in a country called Northern Rhodesia that is now Zambia.

And so in the fifties, he went out and started working out there. And my mum was a nurse in England and she carted me over as a baby. We went on the six week ship to Africa. No neighbors. We were in the bush. It was actually wonderful. So I was raised in central Africa. It will never leave my heart. It’s a very beautiful place, but because I was an only child for nine years, books were my whole life. You know, I had imaginary friends. I played by myself. I had African children that I played with, but my books were my life. In fact to the point, where my mum would get cross with me at the dinner table, because I always had a book in my hand, but they were my friends and so that was important. And then that’s where my love of teaching came from. I just recently found this out. As a young nurse in London, she would work with the handicapped children and she loved it. And she would tell me, you know, when you meet a child, depending on what the disability was in a wheelchair, if there’s no language.

 Get to their level, their eye level and talk to them. Whether they speak or not, they are understanding what you’re saying. And I remember doing that and I went home and I said, you know, mum, I would, I’d like to teach handicapped children. That’s what I want to do. I was probably nine years old when I said that.

And so I’d always wanted to be a teacher. So then, during the early seventies, there was a civil war in our country and all the white people had to leave the country and we were moving to Botswana. Most of our family and friends moved to Western Australia. So I was in high school and I had gone to boarding school in between that time in England as well.

So at nine years old, you go to boarding schools. So I had flown to England and back again, but , we moved to Western Australia. I finished my high school years in Western Australia. That was a whole different culture, but so I graduated from there, but all along through that, I had always, “I’m going to be a teacher. I’m going to be a teacher.” And so that was my love of children. I always loved children as well. So that was my beginnings. 

And during those first few years, I actually taught preschool and I loved preschool. And with preschool comes a lot of these young children with speech problems. So that was another interesting area that I had. 

 As I went back into regular ed, I started working with learning disabled children, but in those classes, come along all aspects of special needs. And I loved it back then, too, but there were not very many resources available for these children. So we were pulling from every angle. And of course, as a teacher and those who’ve taught school know, you dive straight in after university.

You have no skills except all the methods. And you know, you have to learn as you go. I taught special education for about three years, then a first grade opening came and I did have a special love for reading. That was where my heart was. So I took on a first grade class. And most of those first 10 years were first grade.

Then I went back to special ed again for a few years. It’s very important that this classroom teacher and the special education teacher and the speech therapist worked very closely together. And I have a lot of friends who were speech therapists to this day that I feel very closely to. 

[00:06:07] Teaming up with Speech Therapists

Denise: So you really were all over the board. How did The speech therapist help you. How were you able to collaborate with the speech therapist to help you in the classroom? 

Jacquie: Well, it’s very important that you, you know, we all work together as a team. And of course, as an early teacher, young teacher, we don’t know what we’re looking for necessarily. So we have to lean on each other for help. Before it happens, a classroom teacher needs to begin by using different strategies in the classroom with the child to narrow down his or her specific needs before making the referral to the SLP.

For instance, is it an auditory or visual processing difficulty or concerned with articulation or phonology, or is it a basic social language or pragmatics? You have to narrow those things down before actually approaching the speech therapist. 

Denise: Well, wait. I’m just really impressed that you figured that out because, as a speech therapist, I’ve been on the intake special education team. Sometimes teachers would come to us with out any of that narrowing down, just, “I don’t know what to do with this kid.” 

Jacquie: Yes, yeah. 

Denise: Help me. And we’re like, well, “what are you seeing?” So you already knew how did you know how to narrow it down? How did you know if it was visual processing or auditory processing?

Jacquie: Well, mostly what I would find was something going on. Okay. This little person has an issue with something, what is it? And I really studied a lot on what auditory processing and visual processing was because that’s where young children, particularly in first graders show the signs of struggling academically.

And so, you know, you have all these little speech issues and of course, with early childhood, you have the Rs, particularly, and most teachers pick that up pretty quickly, but I used to just eat books alive and read and study and try to figure out what was going on. I’d say, you know, to the speech therapist, could you help me with this?

I’m seeing this and this and this. And then from there, we just would build an IEP together. It’s hard for young teachers for new teachers just coming out of school. You don’t get a lot of training in that. So, you know, you really do need to jump on it in the early grades before they get further along in their education.

[00:08:22] How SLPs Can Help Teachers

Denise: Jacquie, do you have a story or an example of how an SLP was able to help you?

Jacquie: Oh, yes. Um, quite a lot, but I, and I’ve, you know, once again, I turned to my books because I love to, I just love studying all this kind of thing, but. Uh, young, new teachers don’t know how to do social stories. They don’t know how to do. Um, the writing is very important for children anyway, when they’re learning to read throughout their education. But sometimes they’re not sure? “Is this correct?” So another thing to do, I ask my SLPs to, you know, do I need to use picture instructions, you know, where you’ve got your, um, what do they call it?

Denise: Picture schedule? 

Jacquie: Picture schedule, will you help me put that picture schedule together? And so that’s where the SLPs come in very handy, because they see things the child probably needs more than the classroom teacher does. So I’ve asked for help on that. Social stories, you know, I’ll make my own up. And then, I’ll go to the speech therapist and say, “Do you think this will work? I need your expertise in this.” And you work together, so you’re collaborating the whole time.

Denise: Yes, there is a particular formula for social stories. 

Jacquie: Yes. And I think that’s really important. And I do think the visual prompts are really important for children you know, who have, those. 

Denise: Well, it can bring their anxiety down, if they know what to expect. 

Jacquie: What’s coming next. Um, 

Denise: It just helps so much. Like we all have our planners and where would we be without our planners? We would be in a state of anxiety, some of us. Some of us maybe not so much, but if the child doesn’t have the picture schedule and they don’t have the ability to anticipate what’s going to happen. 

Jacquie: And then we go back to those special – I say special ed, that covers everything – but that little person is sitting there worrying so much about what’s coming next, that they can’t concentrate on what’s happening at that moment.

And so, you know, they’ve got their little schedule and they know at this time we’re doing this and this time we’re doing this. And I think that’s, that’s very important. And I think that the SLPs are very helpful with supporting the children, the teacher, in that. 

Denise: Teacher and children. 

Jacquie: The teacher and the children.

Yes. 

 Back when I first began teaching, you know, cause I went back, I was teaching

in 1979. I went back in the, in the eighties. But, so many things have changed since then.

[00:10:35] Brain Balancing / Motor Skills

Jacquie: And with special ed has changed completely. And so I used to study a lot on brain balancing. In my special ed classroom, I would do a lot of cross crawling and balance beams because I, I really felt strongly that this was helpful. And I only had a few classes in this and I still believe that is the very most important thing we should be doing with these young children, these special ed children who struggle, whether it’s speech, reading, whatever communication, whatever it is. And so I still did those exercises with those children every day and try to implement them in my regular classroom, too. 

Denise: I absolutely am in agreement with you there that the process or the sequence of development starts with motor.

Jacquie: Yes. Yes. 

Denise: Auditory and then verbal. So if they’re missing something motor-wise, you’re just going to get the best results. If you can address that first, instead of trying to have goals for everything. It works better if you follow the sequence of development. So yes, I do motor things too. And I know other SLPs, who work with preschoolers and kindergartners. We’ve got to look at the motor. We’ve got to involve the OTs. 

Jacquie: And I think that, you know, the books that I used to love to read, so many things have improved. So I believe there’s a lot more great materials out there that people need to be aware of. And I can’t really pull any out of the, out of the hat.

Denise: That’s okay. You’re talking about treating the whole child, which is what is important because they don’t have this little motor piece and there’s a partition, or a wall, in their brain between that and the auditory piece. And there’s another partition or wall in their brain between that and verbal. No, it’s, it’s all one It’s the whole child. 

So it sounds like that might’ve been one of your number one strategies for helping children who had learning challenges was to address the motor concerns and the cross dominance. with the brain and things like that. 

Jacquie: That’s very, very important. 

Denise: So what did you see, how did you see that that helped? 

Jacquie: I wish I could remember this, the studies I’ve looked them up and haven’t been able to find anything because I used them for so many years, but, the cross crawling, it’s an interesting thing, but, as a child, I struggled greatly in math. And so, you know, I’m a reading specialist. When I was doing all that studying, and I was doing the cross crawling actions with the children, I asked my mom, “When I was a child, mum, did I ever crawl for very long?” And she said, “No, you never did. You just actually stood up one day and started walking.” And I realized from that, that is why I have a problem with math because I wasn’t getting that balancing, that brain balancing. And so I became passionate about that. And loved teaching math and reading to children. And I understood from that experience of my own, this is why children struggle.

It’s not just a matter of sitting in front of a, a piece of paper or a book. It’s a matter of the tactile. You know, everything comes together as a whole. And I realized I had a problem with my math. Back in the, you know, in the sixties and seventies, we would look to as, oh, she’s really stupid. She can’t do her math properly. And I have parents who were engineers and mathematicians and why was I struggling? But that was the reason. I really believe that. So I’m very big on. 

you know, you’ve got to have your babies crawling in order for them to get that brain balancing and it needs to be done correctly. And so part of the exercises were for my purpose as well, but, 

Denise: are you better at math now? 

Jacquie: I am, but I also love teaching math. And I think it’s because I realize why children’s struggle and so I can reach them. And I do. I think I’m a good math teacher. Isn’t that funny? But it all ties together. All the academics, the articulation, everything ties together because of that, I believe. 

Denise: Funny story here, I did not learn about this cross balance stuff when I was in college and our oldest son is a little bit dyslexic. He’s mostly overcome it now, but he stood up and walked. He didn’t crawl. He just, he stood up and walked. And someone told me, in fact, this wasn’t a grocery store and someone told me, I don’t know how we got into this conversation. She found out that he never crawled. And she was like, oh, he’s going to have learning challenges if you don’t teach him to crawl. And I was like, “What are you talking about?” I totally dismissed it. Well, come kindergarten, first grade, learning challenges. It wasn’t until years later, I would… Thankfully his were mild, and he’s mostly overcome as I said, but “Whoa!” 

Jacquie: Isn’t that interesting and not, and not everyone knows 

Denise: I just, I just toss it off. I’m like, you’re crazy.

He Look, how advanced he is He didn’t even need to crawl? He just walked. 

Jacquie: Well, you know, with my grandchildren, I’ll tell my own children all the time, “Don’t push them into walking. They need to be crawling.” I have seen that difference in them and it’s very important. And we tend to forget that because we think, oh, they’re walking and they’re one years old and it’s so wonderful, but that is very…

You know, that’s one of my big priorities, but I did it in a, in a special ed class. It was smaller. I could do that, but in my regular classroom, I had so many students, but I would take them out and we’d do activities, throwing balls and you know, the whole coordination thing. But I have never been well coordinated.

So I thought that it’s interesting.

[00:15:43] Phonological Awareness

Denise: A passion for addressing the motor, the brain balance. How about your passion for phonological awareness, which we both share? How did you address that in the classroom? 

Jacquie: Okay. That is one of the most important things with those, especially the early childhood, the preschool kindergarten and first grade.

I see over the years and I was going to address this at the end, but I see such changes in children from when I first began teaching to now. I have strong feelings about why. They have to have songs rhymes, nursery rhymes. They’re so important for early readers and for language, for speech development.

Whereas nowadays we don’t have that. Children aren’t aware of the nursery rhymes that we as, as children would have. And that is to me is imperative. And I would speak to the parents a lot and say, you know, this is something really basic, but really important. They need to be able to understand those sounds and the differences between the sounds. 

Now, I’m English. Obviously I pronounce things differently, so I had to retrain myself. But, if that child isn’t hearing that sound correctly, they’re not going to say it correctly and they’re not going to be able to read it correctly.

Denise: And they need to know where sounds are in words, which is why the rhyming and the nursery rhymes are so important because they’re hearing the same sound at the end of the word. Oh, that’s the same sound at the end of this word, that’s very important to reading, to know the location of sounds Otherwise they just, the muddle it. 

Jacquie: And those simple things, you know, the consonant vowel consonants, you just /p/ /a/ /t/, so /p/ /a/ /t/ and they have to be able to blend those and separate them. And that’s something that today, with all the technology we have, I don’t believe is being addressed as well as it used to be years ago. 

Denise: And being able to commit like a rhyme to memory. I’m surprised how many children struggle with that memory piece. So that auditory memory is very important. But because they’re not participating verbally in those rhymes, they might hear them. They might hear them on TV or on an iPad, but they’re not saying them themselves as much. They’re not building out that auditory memory.

Jacquie: Yeah. And they’re not understanding, you know, all those sounds are different and why, you know, they come together. That’s a big deal. To me, that is the most important and basic fundamentals of reading and speech development. I feel like that you’re the expert in speech. 

Denise: Well, We agree here. And you were telling me some things you did in the classroom songs and such tell us about that. 

Jacquie: All right. It’s kind of funny really, but I often will sing an instruction. Now I’m not planning to do that, but I tend to do that and it’s just rhyming and the children will pick up the rhyme really fast. It just became so effective because I didn’t necessarily plan to do that, but I’d make up a little song about walking up to the rug for reading time or walking to the door and the children would chant it with me and then they’d ended up the rhyming word at the end.

And I think that’s really important. I did do a lot of singing and I’m sad to, and I’m only thinking of, you know, my last school, but sadly songs and singing in classrooms are not as consistent as they used to be. And I do believe that older children need that. The oldest students need that as well. You know, they need to be listening to rhyming or poetry, and it’s becoming a little bit obsolete now more than ever.

Denise: And that is sad because the rhythm of language, the music of language is very important for reading and just for storytelling. The academic language that people are so concerned about. That our children not just learn conversation, but learn academic language. Well, the basis of that is the poetry and the nursery rhymes, and all of this. That’s your foundation for academic language. 

Jacquie: It really is. And I, I think in my generation, we used a lot of nursery rhymes. Nowadays, they don’t as much the little basic ones that we did. And we need to get that back into these children’s lives again. 

[00:19:41] Behavior

Denise: Let’s talk about one more thing and that’s behavior. Because we all are faced with some pretty significant behavior challenges and none of us… well, I shouldn’t say none of us, maybe they’re better now in college, but you really don’t learn how to address behavior. You just think this child’s going to be in front of you and you’re going to be able to do your method and it’s all going to sail along. 

Jacquie: Oh, it doesn’t. In fact, all the training that we get in college, they have a classroom with maybe five or six children. And, unfortunately, because the classrooms now in regular education are being so much bigger, you know. I’ve always had a large classroom, but there’s so much larger that these poor little children with special needs are being lost.

From day one, when I meet that child, I can usually pick up what’s going on with them, you know. Whether mom and dad have even been aware of it. Often it’s the oldest child. So you, have your first child. And you, you know, of course you love them to pieces and you think they’re so wonderful.

And, and immediately I could pick up something. And so I would focus on that and start making goals, and try to change some of the behaviors. Now, as far as behavior. You know, autism covers, so many different areas. I’ve had probably everyone that there is to have over the years and more and more children we get now that have some area of what we would say, you know, autism. Parents need to be their advocate and fight for them. You know, I’m all about a mum who’s fighting for that child’s success. I think that’s very, very important, but along the way, they need guidance from all of us, you know, the regular teacher, special ed teacher or the speech therapist. And so, you know, we need to set those goals together for that child.

Denise: What kind of behaviors were you able to address in the classroom and be effective? What did you do to effectively manage behavior? Whether it was a child and regular ed who was having some behavioral issues or a child who had autism, who had some behavior issues. 

Jacquie: When I first began teaching, you know, you learn all these methods and then you realize that one doesn’t work. Some work, some don’t work. I, many, many, many years ago gave up on all the little prizes, et cetera. And my way of literally changing behavior was, I was praising that child, giving them positive feedback instead of the negative. And I could change. Yes. Once in a while you have very difficult children who you can’t control at all, but that’s rare, you know, usually it’s a child I can, I can work with them and it mostly comes from praise, you know? Oh. And noticing the good things they do and not mentioning the negative things. I’d say, “Oh, Jimmy. I really liked the way you picked up your papers today and put them in your desk.” And you know, if you do that with these children, it doesn’t matter how old they are, their behaviors will change.

And so I used to have a lot of my student teachers come in and, and they said, you know, “Mrs. Johnson, how do I? What do I do to give them the incentives to behave correctly and change their behaviors?” And I said, simply be positive with them and they will do anything for you. And yes, I’ve had children with severe disabilities who’ve come in and they may start screaming. And, you know, I have 30 other children in the classroom, but you know, you need to refocus. And interestingly enough, the class, the rest of the children do that. They’ll go out and praise that child for something. It’s really amazing. And I’m thinking first grade, of course, but I do believe it, it goes throughout. If they’re getting that positive feedback all the time, they work really hard to change. And then, you know, if there’s a situation where they’re really out of control, then we remove them for a while, give them a little talking to. Whatever it be and then bring them back in.

 One little boy I remember, he was, you know, the ADHD thing. Of course, that’s, we’ve all had that throughout history to deal with, but I would have a little goal where he’d have to walk up and down the hallway with me and we’d go on a little walk and we’d have a walk and talk time, the class we’re working on a project and I’d go for a little walk, may come back, have a little exercise out in the hallway together, and then back in the room again, you know, and that sort of thing.

Denise: That, that is a wonderful. That is so wonderful. My tagline is “Simple Tools, Optimal Outcomes”, meaning that simple things work. So, the prizes, that’s not simple. You have to have a prize box. You spend money. You’re keeping track of who you give what. Praise, on the other hand, so much more effective and so simple. 

Jacquie: And it’s easy. It really is. I never gave candy. There was no candy in my classroom. And I remember a child coming back saying, “I remember, Mrs. Johnson, you were always telling me what a good boy I was, and I love that so much, but we never got candy in your classroom.” And I thought, no, we don’t have candy in my classroom because there was no need for it, except on maybe a special party time.

Denise: And would he come back and remember, “You gave me candy, Mrs. Johnson?” 

Jacquie: He wouldn’t remember that. 

Denise: Remember. He remembered the praise. 

Jacquie: And the hugs. 

Denise: Yes. 

Jacquie: Yes.

Denise: Feed the soul, not the stomach. 

Jacquie: That’s right. I really do believe that. 

[00:24:44] Helicopter Parents, and What To Do?

Denise: Now you talked about how important it is for parents to be there and to support their children, but at what point does it cross over into helicopter parenting, and what do you do about it? 

Jacquie: This is, of course, a problem. I try to let the parents know that, yes, they can come in the classroom when they want to and observe anytime they want. And actually they don’t do it as much as you sometimes would like them to. 

There are more helicopter parents nowadays than there used to be. And I think the parent, yes, you’ve got to be the advocate for that child, but please allow the teacher to use their expertise, as much as possible. If you’re questioning what’s happening in the classroom, come in, observe, spend a day in the classroom, watch what’s happening and, and go from there. And then if the teacher has some kind of strategy or many strategies for the parent. Take it, and you can question and certainly query as to, “Oh, do I like this? Or I don’t like this.” Whatever it be. But, that is a real problem for teachers because so often the parents can not accept the fact that their child is misbehaving or isn’t really believing what the teacher’s telling them. 

Now I say this, you’ve got wonderful, wonderful teachers, but then you do have the odd teacher that is not so great. So, be aware of what’s going on in the classroom. You kind of need to be aware, so that, if there is a problem or an issue to address, you can do that. And the parents certainly has that right to do that. 

Denise: And it’s okay to have expectations for children. I think some parents don’t quite understand and maybe some teachers don’t understand how much you should expect, but there always should be some kind of expectation for a child to do something. 

Jacquie: Oh, yes. And now you’re saying that from the parent or from the teacher side? 

Denise: Well, from a speech therapist point of view, some children with learning challenges put up the defensive wall. They’re scared of expectations. And you need to get past that and help them realize they can do hard things. And some parents are a little bit leery of that. 

Jacquie: Yes. And it’s interesting. I’m thinking first grade again, but Parents need to let go enough to let their child blossom. Like you say, I look at those little people as grownups. I mean, they are very, very capable. And I’ll say to the parents, “You know, they’re capable, they’re able to do this and this and this.” “You’re kidding! There’s no way that they can do that.” No, you observe and watch this. It’s fascinating.

I’ve worked behind the glass as a reading recovery teacher, over the years, and the parents can come in and watch that child during that lesson from the other side of the glass. So the parents can’t be seen. And they are blown away by the success of that child, what they’re able to do as far as learning to read correctly. And I think that goes for speech as well. You know, they they’re surprised, “Oh my goodness. I never realized my child could do this.” 

I think teachers need to be sensitive to the parents’ feelings, too, whether we agree or not, we need to support them how they feel and then, and then move them into a different way of thinking if necessary.

Denise: Now there’s one more thing you told me just as we were talking earlier about how important it is to get down and talk to the child and look them in the eye, which is all about my mindfulness thing. So talk a little bit about that. 

Jacquie: That, to me, is so important as well. And I, with student teachers over the years, you know, I really tried to impress on them that. It’s really important that you focus right on that child.

And yes, teachers will say, oh, well I have 35 other children in the room, but you can still do that. I think I’ve always been one, and that’s why, as I got older, it was a lot harder, cause I would always be at their level. Physically, I couldn’t do it anymore. But, we need to look directly in their eyes.

 This also transfers to parents. It’s so important that parents give their children full attention. And I know you have a house full of children running around, et cetera, et cetera, but they’re not going to listen to you unless you’re talking directly to them, looking at them, making sure that you’re articulating correctly instead of shouting or raising your voice. Using expression,

in the way that they can understand the message that you’re trying to get to them. I’ve found that the children that have the most misbehaviors, if you wanted to say that, with our children, that I say to them, “Now, what’s your favorite thing to do? What do you like to do best?” “Oh, video games.” 

It’s very rare you get those, “I like to read books.” But the ones that have the most problems with behaviors are usually the ones that are just in front of a video game or a noisy, you know, will the sound coming from every direction and they can’t separate those sounds or messages that are coming through.

So they’re not going to do it in class, you know? 

Denise: It reminds me of an analogy many of you may have heard of, of a person who has a window open and the paper’s blow off this person’s desk all over the room. And they run around trying to collect the papers, but the window is still open and it’s just a hopeless task.

 You close the window and you can collect the papers. So, you might have 35 children, right? You might do all you can to try and get their attention. But, if you sort of triage, and take a child and get down on their level, look them in the eye and really get their attention and talk to them. Then do that to the next child. And the next child. You can eventually get what you need done. You can eventually make a connection with each child. And that’s how you get a well-run smooth classroom, I think. I’m not, I’m not a classroom teacher. 

Jacquie: No, absolutely. And I think, too, the teacher should be well aware of every individual child in that classroom and their needs.

And I I’ve always thought, you know, this is not hard, but you have to really think about what you’re doing. I was always aware. If a child came in one day and was particularly quiet or unhappy or acting out, I’d pull them aside quietly. So no one was really watching and just say, “You know, you’re having a bad day today. Do you need to, can you tell me what’s happening? Are you feeling okay?” And “Ooh,” or they’ll say something. But, they need to be number one amongst that great group of children. Just like at home with six or seven siblings, they still need to feel number one. And unless they do that, they’re not going to change. And they’re not going to learn either. 

That was my goal from the moment I meet them to make them feel like they are the most important person in my classroom. And I do believe most of them felt that way. I I’ve had positive experiences, most of the years.

Denise: That’s a great success to really believe that you could make every child feel like they were number one. 

[00:31:16] Advice to Parents From A Teacher 

Denise: Jacquie, you’ve covered so many excellent strategies, but let’s dial in on parents. What advice do you have for parents to support their child in learning? 

Jacquie: I could talk about this for a long time.

Just going back to something that always was hard for me to accept from the beginning of my teaching to the very end was so different than parenting. We didn’t have cell phones, we didn’t have TVs in the car and we didn’t have the technology that we have nowadays. Now we have all those things. As I’d watch my children climbing in the car from my window each day, so often the parents, mum, or dad, mostly the moms were picking them up, were on their phones, on their phones, talking or texting. And that little person was so excited. You know. Mum’s here and get in the car and they wouldn’t even look at them. And it always upset me. It really bothered me and I know that that’s not every parent, but it is probably 95% of the time.

 And it’s so important that you put aside all those things and concentrate on that child, or those three children that just jumped in the car. It’s very, very important. 

Read to them. Another thing that happens is, as soon as a little person starts to read independently, the parents no longer read with them or listen to them. So, spend as much time as possible. Now, I raised a large family and I had a routine. I’d come home from work, we’d have dinner, you know, they do their homework. We’d have this particular routine. And one of the biggest things we did, and never miss, was reading stories.

I had little tiny preschoolers and then teenagers, and we’d read together. I’d read with my little preschoolers, the young books. And then have them read back to me, whatever the situation, but we’d read chapter books together and I’d have my teenagers lying all over the floor. After a while, you’d see some more climbing the stair and lying there, listening.

So we were all reading together and we love these books together, but parents read to them. They need to hear your voice. They need to hear how you enunciate your words. They need to hear good expression, the fluency and all these things tied together. So important. Don’t put them in front of the television or iPad or cell phone or on a game.

That to me is really a big thing. And I’ve asked my friends who are speech therapists and I’ve said to them, you know, what, what do you think our problem is? This is how I feel as a teacher. Technology is almost ruining children and they’ve felt the same way.

They’re not speaking correctly. They’re not enunciating correctly. They’re not able to read using expression anymore because they have no model to follow. They have the television or the games or whatever it is, but they need that contact with their parents, mum and dad. It’s so important. 

Denise: It’s so important. 

Jacquie: It’s Simple! I’ll hear moms while I’m working. And I said, you know, I’m a working mom, full-time. I have a very big family. I didn’t mean to say you’re not a good parent because I didn’t mean that in any way. But I understand, I work. I have lots of children, but I read to my children every single day. 

One of my children does this. And I think it’s wonderful. They live out of town, so they make a lot of journeys into town. It’s like an hour and a half, two hour drive. They have a family book that they read and while dad’s driving, mum will sit and read it to the children, the whole car full of teenagers and little.

And I think that’s wonderful. So they’re all involved. They’re all not watching a television program or a movie or something, and then listening to her and they all love to read. And that example in itself is, is so important. 

Denise: One other thing that does is the attention, 

Jacquie: the attention, 

Denise: their attention is better, when they have these experiences, when they are too much in front of the iPad, the TV, the video games, their attention becomes very short. 

Jacquie: And their attention span is minute, you know, and that of course creates the behaviors again, the misbehaviors. I could talk for hours on that. 

Denise: Thank you so much, Jacquie. As I said, we will all come away from this wiser and better, and I think, we are. 

Jacquie: Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me, Denise. 

Denise: Thank you, Jacquie. 

[00:35:28] Summary

Denise: I really want to think Jackie, for spending time with us, sharing her experiences and her wisdom. In summary, I’m calling this Jackie’s recipe. This is what we talked about. 

Brain balance. A lot of problems start with deficits in this area, so pay attention to brain balance. 

Read to your children. Sing with them. Say nursery rhymes. 

 Jacquie’s number one behavior strategy, praise them. Let them know what they did so well and make them feel like they are number one. 

And finally, get down on their level, put down your technology and look them in the eye. That’s Jacquie’s recipe for a well-run classroom, for parents interacting with children, for grandparents interacting with children. Let’s take that recipe and see if we can make it happen in 2022. Thanks for listening.