We have just added a new range of resources to our materials to support learning by students in special ed settings – and the really cool thing is that all of the hard work is done for you! Pear Shaped Learning Aids from Tassie are a clever team of two (Kristin Mathiassen, mother of a young boy with Down Syndrome, and Duncan Norton). In addition to creating the ever-popular “finish bags” in a range of sizes, they use Boardmaker to create pre-assembled, laminated and Velcroed folders of resources ready-to-use as soon as you receive them – saving you HOURS of work! They pride themselves on the quality of these resources which can be used over and over to facilitate development of skills in the areas of:
- reading
- matching
- sorting
- identification
- sequencing
- sentence creation
In addition to the Boardmaker Kits, the team has also created the truly unique Social Safety Package which includes a kit of resources to facilitate discussion around social and sexual safety. It addresses what is appropriate and what is not appropriate behaviour by students in public and private places. It also addresses what is appropriate and what is not appropriate behaviour by the adults with whom they interact in their own community and personal settings.
Kristin’s craftsmanship as an artist is evident in the quality of construction of the dolls which can be used as puppets for role plays and be used clothed or unclothed, dependent on the level of need of each student. The dolls are designed complete with male and female genitalia to concretely address issues of social and sexual behaviours in private and public places, relationships, contraception, female hygiene, toileting in “non-abstract” ways. As such, they have recently been endorsed as a valuable resource by Family Planning Queensland.
