6. Modifying Activities to Support Active Engagement Part 1

Have you ever used Siri, Alexa, or another virtual assistant to send a text message, drank coffee from a spill-proof tumbler, or used a ramp while pushing a stroller, shopping cart, or a rolling suitcase? If you have, then you’ve used a modification. Modifications are small changes to activities, materials, and environments that help children participate as easily and independently as possible. While modifications are helpful for all of us (like the ramp example we just talked about), they’re especially important in inclusive settings where students with and without disabilities play and learn together. Modifications are one simple way to make sure that everyone can participate in all activities.

This video is about how to use modifications in any program or setting to help all learners participate. We’ll discuss four different types of modifications and see how one high school art class uses these to support Elaine. Let’s get started.

Modifications can have a big impact on a learner’s participation, sense of belonging, and overall learning. They don’t involve altering the content or the goal of an activity. Instead, they’re a minor change that helps a certain learner participate. We often describe modifications as a small change that has a big impact. When modifications are in place, learners can join in the same activities as their peers and work toward the same goals.

There are many ways we can modify activities, routines, and the environment to help increase engagement and participation. Let’s talk about four different modifications: changing the environment, changing the materials, including a learner’s preferences, and simplifying activities.

Elaine is a high schooler with a disability. In class, Elaine and a few other students have a hard time staying seated for long stretches of time. The teacher, Ms. Miller, notices this and adds a few standing tables in the classroom so students like Elaine have the option to sit or stand when they work on projects.

It’s also been difficult for Elaine to focus during the last 10 to 15 minutes of class. She often wants to know how much longer class will be until it’s over. So Ms. Miller introduces a visual timer that counts down, set up at the front of the room where it can easily be seen. With this simple addition, Elaine and a few other students can independently see how much time is remaining before the end of class.

Finally, Elaine often wanders away from painting—her all-time favorite art medium—to other art activities or to the end-of-class showcase. Ms. Miller reflects that when given time to prepare for an upcoming transition, Elaine is much more successful and seems less stressed. So she plans to give Elaine verbal warnings when there are 5 minutes and 1 minute left with any painting activity, so she can prepare and be ready to move on. She also uses the visual timer along with the verbal reminder, so Elaine has two ways to engage with this information. This gives Elaine enough warning and time to prepare for the upcoming transition and finish any painting she needs to do.

Now let’s talk about modifying materials. Fine motor skills, like grasping small charcoal pieces or tiny oil pastels, are challenging and sometimes frustrating for Elaine. She has a hard time holding onto these small pieces and using them to draw or sketch. Ms. Miller thought about how to make pieces easier for her to use and decided to put a tight-fitting rubber band around each charcoal and ordered some larger oil pastels. Larger things are easier to manipulate than smaller things. With this simple change, Elaine can concentrate on her art rather than focusing time and energy on gripping the art material.

Putting materials away in their intended container or space is another tricky skill for Elaine. Ms. Miller can see that there are other students who also have difficulty with this task, and she realizes the art studio lacks clear labels for everything. It’s possible students don’t know where things should be put away. So she enlists the help of students, and together the class creates labels with photos of where everything should go, and even makes labels and photos for each cabinet too. With this new system, every student is much more efficient in cleaning things up, and Elaine confidently puts away her materials instead of wandering around the room like she did before.

Another easy way to modify activities is to include the learner’s preferences. This could be their favorite shows, characters, musicians, video games, or other areas of interest. While Elaine loves to paint, she isn’t as excited about the metals unit and has spent the last few metals classes wandering around the room rather than working on a project. Ms. Miller wonders how to help Elaine explore this art medium and asks about her interests outside of school. She learns that Elaine loves books about magic (such as Harry Potter) and cats. She suggests that Elaine make her cat a metal name tag as her final project. Elaine is thrilled with this idea and gets to work right away. She had no idea that making her cat a new name tag was an option.

Lastly, simplifying activities is another way to create modifications. Let’s consider Elaine again. She has a difficult time participating in the art studio cleanup routine at the end of class. The studio is often very messy, and Ms. Miller suspects that Elaine is overwhelmed with everything that needs to get done, even with the labels and pictures that show her where things go. So she makes a card that outlines the cleanup steps for the week:
1) Wash paint brushes
2) Clean out paint cups
3) Put away all materials
4) Put unfinished projects in your art locker
5) Wipe down the tables

By breaking down the overwhelming routine into smaller steps, Elaine immediately knows what to do and works with the rest of class to clean the studio. She also notices that when this checklist is on the whiteboard where everyone can see it, the studio is cleaned so much faster. It really helps everyone stay organized and on task.

During the next unit on collage, Elaine becomes frustrated cutting up the small pieces of paper that are necessary for her collage. Ms. Miller wants Elaine to focus on her art process, not the cutting aspect, so she pre-cuts a range of small paper pieces in different colors. By simplifying this part of the collage process, Elaine can independently and happily participate in the project without becoming frustrated with a tricky fine motor task.

Making small changes to the environment and materials, including her interests, and simplifying activities has helped Elaine participate in art class in a more meaningful way. These modifications have also helped her be more actively engaged, less frustrated, and increased her opportunities to explore different types of art.

Modifications are small changes that have a big impact on how learners participate in inclusive settings. These are simple, relatively easy to implement, and usually work right away.

Now think of a learner in your program who needs some help to participate or engage in certain routines or activities. How could you make changes to the physical space or materials, embed their preferences, or make the activity a bit simpler? In inclusive settings, everyone gets the help they need to participate, and in most cases, modifications are an easy way to provide the support.