Manual and Occupational Experiences CHILDREN learn by “doing.” In no area is this truism more applicable than in manual and occupational experiences. Mentally retarded children enjoy working with concrete materials. From the early years of gross manipulation and exploration of objects in their environment without definite purpose, there is growth toward more and more purposeful activity. The special education program has a role to play in guiding this development and aiding the individual child toward skillful use of his motor capacities. From childish satisfaction in manipulation and play with tools and materials he grows to enjoy and take pride in constructive efforts which serve a definite end. Many of these experiences are directly related to life activities in his immediate environment, such as food, clothing, and shelter. As pupils approach adolescence, manual activities often center in laboratories and shops, as in household mechanics, foods, clothing, shoe repair, woodwork, metal work, general repair work, electrical work, and modifications of these. Place in the Curriculum Mental Health Values Manual activities serve as a means of expression. The child often interprets and clarifies, through the medium of materials, his concepts and ideas of family, neighborhood, transportation, work, sports, and so on. What he cannot put into words, he draws or models or paints. Even emotional conflicts which he will not admit or of which he may not even be conscious, find relief through manipulative therapy and manual expression. We all find release from mental tension through digging in the garden or sawing wood or working at the carpenter's bench. While not always put first in the scale of values, such therapeutic effects of manual activities. rank high with mentally retarded children. The sheer delight they experi ence in doing something, in creating something, and in thus giving vent to their emotions and longings is a real advantage in their educational progress. Occupational Values Along with the satisfaction that comes from the sheer joy of making things, there are very practical values growing out of manual skills. By far the greatest number of seriously retarded children will earn their living in adult life through the use of their hands. Familiarity with a variety of material and equipment related to mechanical processes, together with a certain amount of skill in their use, will give preparation for the new employment situation ahead. Some experiences have definite occupational implications, as, for example, household science, cafeteria training, clothing, shoe repairing, tailoring, and gardening. Many jobs have been found in factories, hotel kitchens, cafeterias, parks, and else where, for boys and girls who have been industrious and conscientious in their school work. Numerous employers have emphasized the importance of securing the services of boys and girls who know how to use their hands and who have been taught at school to get along with others, to be punctual and regular on the job, and to be steadfast in work habits. When specific job training is added to these qualifications, successful occupational adjustment becomes probable. The State vocational rehabilitation agencies are increasingly finding it possible to help mentally retarded young men and women of employable age to achieve such adjustment.1 Coordination with Other Activities The teacher should constantly be conscious of the principle of unity running through the whole school program. All too often children have made only a sample of a wooden box, a woven mat, or they have pared potatoes, without getting any real experience from the relationship of these things to the rest of their activities. What the child does with his hands in the shop or the kitchen should be a living part of the total experience to which each specific activity makes its contribution. 1 See: "Employment of the Mentally Retarded," by Salvatore G. DiMichael, and "Subnormal Minds Are Abler Than You Think," by Lloyd N. Yepsen, in Journal of Rehabilitation, 15: 3-7 and 8-12, April 1949. In other words, the teacher must be a teacher of children first, last, and always, with full consciousness of their total lives, and not a cook or a cabinet maker, or a worker in arts and crafts, or even a teacher of subjects. If the departmentalized plan is followed in the school program and a specially prepared teacher works with the pupils in manual activities, the need for integration is great. All teachers dealing with the group can plan together to make the program a unified one, centered on a common theme of interest. Using What Is at Hand The lack of proper equipment is a frequent source of irritation to teachers who are eager to plan manual and occupational experiences with their pupils. It is, of course, necessary to have the cooperation of school administrative authorities if adequate supplies and equipment are to be on hand. No amount of inventive genius can compensate for serious lacks in this direction. But every teacher can find ways and means of capitalizing upon the resources available. Lunchrooms and cafeterias are all too common in the schools today to disregard the opportunities they offer for various types of occupational service on the part of intermediate and advanced groups. Many a waiter or waitress, bus boy or bus girl, checker, and general clean-up man has had his first experience in the school lunchroom. Children's shoes and clothing repeatedly need mending. Scraps of dress materials, even flour sacks and sugar sacks, have their values. The young children in a school can become the charges of a class in child care. Within the community and the school, the resourceful teacher and principal, even without elaborate equipment, will find abundant opportunity to translate principles into action. Fortunate was the teacher who found on the school grounds a long unused greenhouse. The board of education was contemplating its demolishment, but the city supervisor of special classes pleaded for its retention. and rehabilitation on the basis that it could serve an excellent instructional and prevocational purpose for the special classes which had recently been assigned to the school building. The request was granted, and the greenhouse soon became the center of interest in developing a fascinating experience with flowers in which all pupils of the special classes participated. The youngest children watched plants grow and learned to recognize and to love them. The older ones learned the secrets of soil preparation, of planting, of watering, and of fertilizing. A commercial element in the project appeared when flowers and plants were ready for the market and were sold to patrons of the school. The entire curriculum of the classroom drew its theme from the activities in the greenhouse. The children read stories, learned poems, wrote letters, drew pictures, and sang songs of the flowers. They visited attractive flower gardens in the neighborhood. They kept accounts of costs and receipts in connection with the greenhouse activity. The vocational value of the experience appeared when several of the boys who had been most interested in the work later secured jobs in a local commercial greenhouse. Thus an enriching and a practical experience was realized for those retarded boys and girls because someone saw the possibilities of salvaging a dilapidated piece of equipment that was about to be destroyed. Need of Careful Grading Manual activities need to be planned so as to progress from the easy to the difficult, from the simple to the complex, as do other subjects of the curriculum. Careful guidance is the secret of the good results produced by mentally retarded and even feeble-minded children, and, contrariwise, poor results sometimes are caused by a lack of careful planning or grading of the activities. The wise teacher sees to it that the pupils have opportunities for manual activities growing out of their experiences and interest, that these activities are within the capacities of the children, and that they furnish a basic experience for the activities which are to follow. It is impossible to discuss in detail the scope of manual skills in which mentally retarded children may find employment. Two of the most common ones are considered. Others should be handled with the same general principles in mind for careful planning of work and integration of program. The content of experiences in horticulture or auto repairing or any other specific field must be determined in the light of pupil abilities and the technical aspects of the subject. For convenience and clarity the two areas discussed in the following pages are divided into primary, intermediate, and advanced divisions. In general, the work of the primary division is planned for pre-adolescent children with mental ages from 3 to 6 years, inclusive; the work of the intermediate division is planned for pre-adolescent or adolescent children mentally 7 or 8 years old; and the work of the advanced division is for adolescents mentally 9 years old or older. There is necessarily much overlapping, since mentally retarded children even of the same mental ages differ in abilities, as do other children. Their personal and social characteristics aid or deter them, as the case may be, in using all of their native capacities. Previous training should always be taken into account. More children than one would think, however, need to begin at the beginning, or near it, and proceed regularly through the various. steps. If these steps are carefully planned and are based upon children's interests, the children themselves will enthusiastically choose them and eagerly look forward to reaching the next higher step as a goal of achievement. Foods and Household Science Primary Division Schematically the program for children who are young mentally might be as follows: 1. Household duties: (a) Care of classroom. (b) Attention to the appearance of the room. (c) Sweeping. (d) Dusting furniture. (e) Keeping equipment in order. (g) Caring for sink in classroom. (h) Cleaning classroom tables. (i) Washing dishes. (j) Caring for milk bottles. 2. Laundry: (a) Simple washing of such things as dusters and towels. (b) Plain ironing. (c) Care of rough-dried clothes. (d) Sprinkling. (e) Bluing. (f) Shaking and hanging clothes. 3. Cooking: (a) Preparing cheese and vegetables. 2 This classification is in general accord with the principles of differentiation set forth in chapter 4. |