This summer, NECC’s ITT students had the opportunity to explore more of their community — including taking a hike at Chestnut Hill Farm, blueberry picking at Cordelia Farm, and an ice cream trip to Uhlman’s — thanks to an initiative developed by the team to increase student opportunities for academic and social enrichment.
“Sometimes when students engage in severe behavior, it is natural and easy for the priority to become treatment of that behavior,” shared Kaitlin Walker, MS, MSEd, BCBA, LABA, education director of the ITT. “At NECC, we have worked to ensure there is a balance between a focus on treatment of severe behavior AND a focus on enrichment. We want to make sure our students experience various community locations and expand their interests. We also want to provide them with lots of ways to learn important skills and also knowledge in areas they may not typically access.”
Walker worked with her fellow teachers and education coordinators to develop multi-faceted experiences for the students. “We were brainstorming different summer activities to do with the students and one of the teachers suggested blueberry picking,” she shared. “From there, we worked together to develop lessons surrounding the activity including making parfaits.”
Walker explained that many of her students have goals on their IEP targeting discrimination (matching, sorting) and simple math skills (following a recipe, using measuring cups). And because their students learn best when participating in an activity that is hands-on and engaging, the team created a lesson where they could discriminate between blueberries that are ripe or still growing to prepare for the trip, while the parfait was a fun (and delicious!) way to practice simple math skills and use the blueberries they picked. As a bonus, Walker stated that it was another way to encourage making healthy, nutritional snack choices.
“Blueberries grow in big, open spaces, so there is the opportunity to be out in nature and a low stakes exposure to a healthy food,” Walker explained. “We also have a lot of local blueberry farms and wanted to bring our students into the community to visit the farms.”
Similar to the blueberry lesson, the ITT team also created lessons on nature and ice cream, which were followed by a hike at Chestnut Hill Farm and a sweet trip to Uhlman’s for ice cream. Walker shared that there were several things the team hoped to accomplish with this trio of lessons, including practicing their IEP goals in the community as opposed to tabletop in a classroom.
“We also hoped that the students would be exposed to the community in a new way and maybe enjoy coming back to pick different fruits or visit the farm for a hike in the future,” said Walker. “We don’t necessarily know what we like until we try it – and that’s the same for our students!”
Walker shared that she thinks the students enjoyed the lessons and the trips. “It definitely accomplished what we were hoping for, and we are looking forward to continuing our trips in the future!”
This article originally appeared in the Fall 2024 edition of Insight.