Strategies for Supporting Sensory and Motor Systems
The following strategies are for use with an instructional design for students with TBI. The effectiveness of each strategy should be evaluated for each student.
- Encourage participation in recreation and sports activities that develop motor coordination and use both sides of the body.
- Encourage and practice activities that use reciprocal movement patterns, including bike riding, swimming, running, kicking a ball, serving in volleyball, etc.
- Allow student to stand up and lean on a table when reading or to lie on the floor to do work. These positions allow for maximal alertness and relieve the balance/instability problems that students with TBI often have.
- Have the student use a word processor to complete assignments.
- Provide computer-access equipment adapted for the student’s dexterity and visual acuity as an alternative to writing.
- Identify the key component of any task and reduce the fine-motor demands when possible. (For example, is the goal of the task cutting out dinosaurs or grasping the attributes of meat eaters versus plant eaters? Cutting is not an essential component of the latter goal.)
- Allow the student more time to travel between classes, if necessary.
Adapted from:
Szekeres, S.F., & Meserve, N.F. (1997). Appendix 18–2: Modifying materials, instruction, and the learning environment to meet individual needs. In M. Ylvisaker (Ed.), Traumatic brain injury rehabilitation (pp. 411–414). Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Colorado Department of Education. (2001). Brain injury: A Manual for Educators.
Brain Injury Association of Virginia. (2005). Tips for inclusion of youth with TBI in regular classrooms (pp. C34)
Kentucky Department of Education. Technical Assistance Manual on Brain Injury.
