The Oakwood Academy Difference Magazine - March/April 2023

OAKWOOD ACADEMY

HEAD OF SCHOOL: Trillian Taylor

PRESIDENT: Aaron Sawatsky

SENIOR EDITOR & PRODUCTION: Ann Harvey Send Your Comments, Questions & Address Updates to aharvey@stjudesacademy.com

EDITORIAL REVIEW COMMITTEE: Ann Harvey, Melissa Filion, Cassandra Flurey, Melanie Mendes, Hope McSwain

CONTRIBUTORS/CONTENT REVIEW: Melanie Mendes, Academic Program Director Hope McSwain, Cassandra Flurey, Kayleigh Gallant, Merna Tawfik, Stevie Millet

DATES TO REMEMBER

May 3, 10, 17, 24, 31

Swimming

May 11

Social Club

May 15

Apraxia Awareness Day (Wear Blue)

May 18

Spring Concert @ 6 pm

May 19

PD Day (No School)

May 22

Victoria Day (No School)

May 25

Community Club

May 26

Parent Coffee –Reflection of the Year

May 29

Therapy Dog Visit

May 30

Fun with Flavours

The Oakwood Academy News is a monthly communication created and distributed Electronically to members of the Oakwood Academy community during the academic year. ©Oakwood Academy 2023

2023 International DIR® Conference

In March, members of our Oakwood Academy leadership team attended the Annual International Council on Development and Learning (ICDL) Conference in Manhattan, New York.

While there, they attended sessions to further their knowledge in the field and build connections with various professionals in the DIR community from around the world. Some of the sessions attended covered topics such as, Gestalt Learning, emotions and movement, DIR in the classroom and the power of play and its effects on regulation.

Daria Brown, a member of our Oakwood community, gave a very insightful presentation alongside ICDL’s CEO, Jeff Guenzel and ICDL’s new Board President and Autistic Self Advocate, Emile Gouws.

We encourage you to continue your own DIR journey by accessing our parent support

coordinators, speaking with your child’s team and by visiting icdl.com and Daria’s website affectautism.com

The International Council on Development and Learning (ICDL)

The International Council on Development and Learning (ICDL) is a not-forprofit organization dedicated to promoting each person's development to its fullest potential. Through the genius and leadership of Dr. Stanley Greenspan, ICDL was formed 32 years ago and became the official home of DIR® and DIRFloortime®. DIRFloortime® is used to help children, young adults, and even adults with a wide range of emotional, sensory, regulatory, motor, learning, and developmental challenges. DIRFloortime® is recognized as a leading evidence-based approach to helping individuals on the autism spectrum and others with neurodevelopmental differences flourish. ICDL provides training courses for parents and professionals through the DIRFloortime® Training Program (icdl.com).

ICDL offers free drop-in parent support groups run by Oakwood Academy’s very own Daria Brown, founder of Affect Autism. If you would like to join one of these groups, please find more information here https://www.icdl.com/parents .

Pretzel Day

Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness Month. To show our support and continue to be an ally to the autistic community, Oakwood Academy and St. Jude’s Academy participated in Red Instead and held a Silent Dance.

Red Instead

We continued to wear Red Instead this year to show support and solidarity with the Autistic Community. Autistic individuals* are advocating for an inclusive world where all autistic people have equal rights, access and opportunities.

*We use identity-first language, as many autistic adults have indicated a preference for identity-first vs. personfirst language. This language describes autism as a part of who they are as people and not something that is separate.

Silent Dance

This year, Oakwood hosted our second Silent Dance to promote Autism Acceptance Month. This inclusive event was a party for both Oakwood Academy and St. Jude’s Academy to, "Come Shine Bright Together". The Silent Dance was a great way for students with various sensory needs to gather and have a fun dance party without the anxiety of loud music. Students from both schools converged together with food, drinks and glow sticks to dance under the stars. By providing the students with a choice in how they could participate, this

allowed them the opportunity to enjoy the experience and connect with other students.

We raised $1,875. These funds will go towards new sensory equipment, toys and tools to support our students in having an optimal learning environment. We thank our DJ – Just Boj, for volunteering his time to play music for the dance. We thank Cass, Janique, Hope and our amazing placement students who put together the dance, created the décor and planned an amazing day. We look forward to doing this again next year!

There are many great resources out there for you to learn more about Autism. Please feel free to explore some of the websites below to continue your education and knowledge about how to support the autistic community.

• ASAN (Autistic Self Advocacy Group) - https://autisticadvocacy.org

• Learn From Autistics - www.learnfromautistics.com

• Autistikids - http://www.autistikids.com

• Autism Acceptance - https://autismacceptance.com https://autismacceptance.com/resources/

• https://autisticadvocacy.org

Community Club

March’s Community Club used the MiWay public transit system to go to Streetsville Bowl! While boarding the bus, students were responsible for giving their bus ticket to the driver and collecting their bus transfer. While on the bus, the students were encouraged to listen and look for our stop and pull the string when it was time to get off. Students had the opportunity to look for traffic, press the buttons to cross the street, and some of our older students led the way to the bowling alley! While at

Streetsville Bowl, the students had to communicate with staff working there to let them know their shoe size, as well as their name to keep track of the score.

Bowling was a great activity to support students’ gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination, visual spatial awareness, and especially their relationships with the peers in our Community Club. When the students were not bowling, they were encouraged to cheer each other on.

It was a great time and we look forward to next month’s Community Club!

Community Club

April’s Community Club, we took public transit to Peel Paramedic Station! The students had to navigate taking two busses this month! Room 16 planned the bus route, found which busses to take, printed out maps and lead the way. On the way there we did run into a challenge where we missed our connecting bus. The students persevered and worked together to quickly get on and off the bus on the way back so that we made our connecting bus!

While at the paramedic station, the students had an opportunity to look at different medical supplies they use, practice bandaging a head wound and how to take someone’s blood pressure. The students were then invited to tour the ambulance bay. They were able to go through the trucks, look at the different materials and supplies and ask many questions. The visit ended with our students receiving a plush stuffed animal, “James the Moose”.

We would like to extend our sincerest appreciation to the Peel Paramedic Station at Thomas and Erin Mills for their amazing care, experience and going above and beyond to make this a successful and educational trip!

Social Crew Club

March Social Crew Club

The Oakwood Social Club gathered in March to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with a few lucky leprechaun games! Students gathered in their groups and participated in a three-legged race, where each student tied their leg to their partner’s, practicing their communication and balancing skills while hopping to the finish line together! Each group was then given a large piece of paper where they were asked to discuss and decide with their peers which student would have their body traced to use as the outline of their leprechaun. As a group, they then had to choose how to dress up their leprechaun! In another game, students had fun practicing their hand-eye coordination while trying to toss coins to fill their group’s lucky bucket! To finish off the lucky leprechaun games, the groups were given a coloured die. Each peer was encouraged to take turns between rolls, trying to be the quickest to finish filling in their group’s rainbow!

These fun, lucky leprechaun games focused on peer engagement and shared attention, and were an opportunity for peer referencing and relationship-building while the students worked together to finish their list of games!

Social Crew Club

With spring in bloom all around us, the April social crew students came together to learn about plants and how they grow. While communicating and sharing their ideas with each other, they agreed on the proper steps to give each plant the best chance to flourish. As a group, the students then found all the materials they would need, decorated their pots, and planted their very own flower to care for and watch grow! We encouraged the groups to engage with each other through helping each other pot their plants, requesting materials, and sharing what they were doing. The students were all able to bring their plants home and tell their families all about how to care for them!

Fun with Flavours!

In April, the students all made ‘Ants on a Log’! There are different variations of this easy recipe, but for Fun with Flavours we used three ingredients: cheese whiz, raisins and celery. Since these ingredients differ in terms of taste and textures, therapists encouraged students to explore each of them using sight, smell, touch and finally, taste. After the exploration stage, if tolerated, the therapist encouraged students to follow the step-by-step instructions to build the ‘Ants on a Log’.

Some of our young chefs were encouraged to build a scene using the available materials to illustrate where ‘Ants on a Log’ would be.

Fun with Flavours

In March, for Fun with Flavours, groups got in the Easter spirit by dying Easter Eggs and making Bunny Pudding Cups! The goal of Fun with Flavours is to have all students with various sensory profiles explore food and have fun with it.

We encourage students to act as 'food scientists' by using their senses (sight, smell, touch and taste) when working with the food. While some students may use all four senses when working with food, others may just tolerate using one or two senses.

Encouraging (not forcing) students to use their senses, one at a time, is a helpful tool in identifying which senses the child does well with (or struggles with). This teaches us as therapists, teachers and parents which foods to go back to and further explore.

Next time when you are at home eating with your child, go through the four senses in this order:

1. SIGHT

2. SMELL

3. TOUCH

4. TASTE

Ask your child if they are ready to move to the next sense. If not, stop it there and try next time.

March Break Camp Fun!

Our Oakwood Academy campers had a blast during our visit to Air Riderz Trampoline Park during our 2023 March Break Camp field trip! Campers were able to participate in a variety of different gross motor activities, such as jumping along the long trampolines, climbing the rock-climbing wall, jumping between the jump towers, as well as the Wipe Out and Ninja Warrior courses. This fun field trip provided our campers with the opportunity to work on social communication, build body awareness and motor planning skills, and connect with the community. Oakwood Academy will offer a Summer Camp Program from July 4 to August 11. This year’s summer camp themes are Discovery Week, Oakwood’s Time Machine, and Summer Games. Summer Camp will also include additional opportunities for fun weekly field trips in the community! Packages were emailed out to families and enrolment is now open. Spaces are limited! Don’t miss out on the opportunity for a summer filled with fun and learning!