Virtual Sensory Story Time: Look Up!

Before going over what I did in my virtual story time, I thought I would share a "behind-the-scenes" video of my set-up (thanks to a suggestion from my coworker, Ms. Liz!).

My theme for this story time is "Look Up!" This is a variation on a previous sensory story time done in person. Here's the plan:

1. Hello and talk about things we see when we look up (birds, trees, the clouds in the sky, balloons, etc.).

2. List supplies needed for story time and show contents of Sensory Story Time supply bags, which can be requested for curbside pickup or placed on our hold shelves to pick up when visiting the Library in person. Here are the sensory items provided in this kit: scarf, feather, pipe cleaner, plastic egg, and bubbles.

3. Welcome Song: "Story Time Ball Song" (I recorded this separately, on the floor with our large, plush Big Bird!) Viewers can do this with any ball they have at home (which is noted on the supply bag and at the beginning of story time. They can roll the ball back and forth with their grownup(s), siblings, or stuffed friend on the floor or over a table to each other.

tune: "Wheels on the Bus"

(Roll ball back and forth to each other)

The story time ball rolls back and forth,

back and forth, back and forth.

The story time ball rolls back and forth,

Let's see who it found. Hi ______!

Now roll it back to me.

(Keep rolling back and forth until each child has said their name.)

4. Mindfulness exercise: "Balloon breath" (This breathing exercise can be down while seated or lying down.)

5. Story with sensory experiences: Hooray for Birds! by Lucy Cousins

Before reading, I thanked Candlewick Press for allowing me to share this story with our community in an unlisted video that families could view at a time convenient for them. Please see the SLJ Covid-19 Publisher Information Directory to find out the latest on publishers' shared reading guidelines.

As I read the story, I prompted viewers to join me in these sensory experiences:

Page spread with rooster - say "Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Next page spread with two birds flying - flap your arm "wings" like the birds are flapping their wings

Page with bird hopping - stand up and hop or bounce up and down in your seat

Page with woodpecker - make pecking noise by knocking on seat or table

Page with duck (or swan?) - look up as you stretch your neck nice and tall

Page with parrot - say "hello darling."

Page spread with starlings - grab your scarf from the supply bag and swoop it up, down, and around, just like the starlings

Page with bird scratching its feet - use your fingers to scratch the ground or the air

Page with bird catching fly - open your mouth and try to catch the fly

Page with flamingo - stand up on one leg or lift one foot while seated

Page with hen - say "cluck, cluck" and pull out your plastic egg from the supply egg - how does the egg feel?

Page with bird and snake - pull out your pipe cleaner from the supply bag (which they were instructed beforehand to bend/curve like a snake), set it down on the floor or table, catch up the snake and stretch our your wings

Page spread with birds singing - repeating various bird songs and sounds

Page with penguins - let's waddle side to side in our seats

Page with ostrich running - let's pat our hands on our laps to make a running sound

Page spread with peacock - reach into supply bag and pull out your feather (how does it feel?). Hold it up as you puff out your chest like the peacock

Page with birds cuddling - cuddle up with your grownup or reach around to your back with both arms criss-crossing and give yourself a big cuddle hug!

And of course, don't forget to whoo along with the owl at the end!

6. Flannel rhyme: "Five Little Birds"

There was one little bird in the one little tree.

He was so alone and didn't want to be,

So he flew far away, over the sea

And brought back a friend to live in the tree.

Now there are two little birds in the one little tree...

Now there are three little birds...

Now there are four little birds...

Now there are five little birds in the one little tree.

They were not alone anymore, they were family!

(source unknown)

7. Sensory tool rhyme: "Bubbles" (using bubbles supplied in kit)

tune: "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Bubbles floating all around 

Bubbles fat and bubbles round (look at all those bubbles!)

Bubbles on my toes and nose

Blow a bubble, up it goes! (blow bubbles and look up!)

Bubbles floating all around

B..u..b..b..l..e..s f..a..l..l..i..n..g ... to....the....ground (follow bubbles as they slowly fall to the ground)

(source unknown)

8. Goodbye stretch: "Tickle the clouds"

Tickle the clouds.

Tickle your toes.

Turn around and tickle your nose.

Reach down low.

Reach up high.

Story time's over.

Wave goodbye!

9. Goodbye and supply suggestions to make discovery bin at home with bird seed, sticks and leaves from the backyard, and cutting up the pipe cleaner from the kit to make "worms" to find in the bin, pulling them out with large tweezers at home (or making these craft stick tweezers) like a bird might with its beak.

Adaptive Umbrella Workshop: Virtual Edition!

It's an honor to host our 6th Adaptive Umbrella accessibility workshop in the same year as the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. There is still so much work to be done in the accessibility field, and we must listen and amplify the voices of the disability community to set new goals. You cannot have a workshop or conference about accessibility without including self-advocates on your stage, whether it's in the building or a virtual platform. Originally scheduled for April, our workshop was put on hold until fall. The possibility of postponing until an in-person event could safely be held in 2022 was considered, but this is not the time to remove sources of support. During the months of quarantine and working from home, many of us have found ways to adapt our programs, classrooms, and services to a virtual format, going beyond ADA to engage people of all ages and abilities. In an effort to support this ongoing learning process, we are taking the Adaptive Umbrella workshop virtual on September 23rd! The day is geared to librarians, educators, and caregivers working with the disability community and features presentations/discussions with disability self-advocates and professionals in the field developing adaptive services.

This September, we look forward to virtually welcoming:

Keynote speaker:

Morénike Giwa Onaiwu

“Forged by Fire: The Intersection of Race, Disability, and Gender”

Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, Ed.D(c), M.A., is an Autistic woman of color, educator, public speaker,

a parent of Autistic children, and advocate. She is involved in various social justice activism

endeavors and is a contributing author/editor of several publications, abstracts, and books

focusing on community engagement, HIV, research, disability, diversity, self-advocacy, and

nontraditional leadership.

Morénike has spoken at the White House, the United Nations, the AIDS Clinical Trials Group Network plenary, and several national conferences. Her board membership includes Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, Autism in Adulthood Journal, Ethical Autism Research Expert Group, the National Disability Parenting Research Center and other entities. She has written for or been featured in Salon, Huffington Post, NPR, POZ, Atlantic, and Conde Nast (Iris).

Morénike, a full-time college faculty member, Co-Chair of the Women’s HIV Research Collaborative of the NIH, and Co-Director of the Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network, is (along with Lydia X. Z. Brown and E. Ashkenazy), an editor of the first anthology of Autistic people of color, All the Weight of Our Dreams: On Living Racialized Autism and co-coordinator of a grassroots microgrant program that supports people of color on the autism spectrum.

More information about Morénike can be found on her website: morenikego.com

Featured Speakers:

Ashley Grady

"Sensory-Friendly Programming & Services for Families" 

Ashley Grady is the Senior Program Specialist at the Smithsonian Institution in the Access Smithsonian office where she manages programs for families of children with disabilities, adults with dementia, and young adults with intellectual disabilities seeking employment. Prior to working at the Smithsonian, Ashley was a special education teacher in Washington, DC and Nashville, TN. 

Glenna Godinsky

"Dementia-Friendly Programming & Services" 

Glenna Godinsky is a Certified Dementia Practitioner and the Life Enrichment Liaison at the Gail Borden Public Library District (IL) where she and her team of 22 volunteers have previously traveled to locations across Elgin, IL, every month to bring programming to seniors and developmentally disabled youth and adults. She has recently converted the Elgin Memory Cafe into a monthly virtual cafe and is also running programs for people with dementia through pre-recorded videos.

Disability Advocacy Panel of Self-Advocates & Caregivers

Interactive discussion with disability self-advocates & caregivers

(Names withheld by request to protect anonymity)

• Teen with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and parent
• Young adult with schizophrenia and caregiver
• Adult with intellectual disability and caregiver - Update! Our previous panelist is unable to join us. We will now have a young adult with Down syndrome and his caregiver joining us.
  (Did you know -- Down syndrome is the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability?)

Adaptive Virtual Programs: An Interactive Discussion and Tips Share

Ed and I will be sharing how we are taking our adaptive, multisensory story times to a virtual platform.

Caroline Braden, Accessibility Specialist at The Henry Ford and Chair of the Michigan Alliance for Cultural Accessibility (MACA), will be sharing how they are converting their programs geared to disability groups to a virtual format. 

We will also invite attendees to share how they are creating or adapting programs with accessibility in mind during this interactive discussion.

Join us on September 23, 2020! You can register (free!) here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/adaptive-umbrella-tickets-75744857909 

Adaptive Literacy Resources Online

Updated from original post on 3/16/20

Looking for adaptive literacy resources online for youth and/or emerging readers with disabilities to engage with virtually? Families might not be able to attend an adaptive story time at the library right now, but here are some wonderful resources in the meantime.

American Society for Deaf Children's directory of Children's Stories in ASL is a very comprehensive list, organized by grade and also title.

Check out this ongoing compilation of ASL stories, eBooks, and other ASL educational resources for #OperationASLStorytime from the Deaf-Hearing Communication Centre.

DPAN.TV: The Sign Language Channel is offering Kids Stories in ASL!

The Center for Accessible Technology in Sign (CATS), a joint project between the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf and the Georgia Institute of Technology, has a video library of songs, rhymes, reference sources, poetry, stories and more in American Sign Language.

The Tar Heel Reader is a fantastic open source digital library of accessible, easy-to-read books online. These speech enabled stories geared to emerging readers are accessible on multiple interfaces and the site is available in 9 languages.

Unite for Literacy provides a free library of engaging digital picture books geared to emerging readers, complete with audio narration options in a variety of languages. 

Check to see if your library's OverDrive collection has any of the new ASL Signed Stories on eVideo, in addition to titles on eAudio for youth who are blind or have low vision. OverDrive also offers accessibility options, such as dyslexia font.

Bookshare offers the world’s largest collection of accessible titles. People with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers can customize their experience to suit their learning style and find virtually any book they need for school, work, or the joy of reading.

If your child is eligible, check out the many downloadable books in braille and audio from BARD. Be  sure to also check with your local/state Braille and Talking Book Library.

Check out some recent posts about virtual services and multisensory literacy activities for youth with multiple disabilities on the Paths to Literacy blog.



While this is a good start, it is by no means a complete list. Let me know if you have any free adaptive literacy resources online to add to the list.

Accessible Virtual Programming: Close-up on DIY Captioning Editors

     

As I write this post at the start of our fourth week in a stay-at-home order during the COVID-19 pandemic, I have become even more aware of the inequity of online content. For this particular post, I am focusing on the need for more captioned video content. Please take a moment to go to the the accessibility settings on your device and enable the Closed Captioning option, when available. On an iPhone, select Accessibility from the main Settings menu, choose Subtitles & Captioning, and select Closed Captions + SDH (when available). 

Now try going to social media. We'll use Facebook, as that is one of the most popular social media platforms for engagement with patrons. Go to the the video watchlist area or search your favorite organization and look at some of the videos. Before being in isolation, I admit to mostly just occasionally skimming through these videos without the sound. Unless the video had captioning, which would then pique my interest enough to stop and read... and maybe even choose to activate the sound to engage more, I kept skimming by. Upon doing a little research, it turns out I am not alone. According to research, 85 percent of Facebook video is viewed without sound. 

https://digiday.com/media/silent-world-facebook-video/ 

Now imagine what happens when we are also eliminating a portion of our community who are unable to select the option of turning up the sound on a video to engage with it. If over 5% of the world's population, or roughly 466 million people, have disabling hearing loss (World Heath Organization), we are excluding many members of our community. Additionally, we also know that captioning and subtitles can also benefit people who have cognitive disabilities and have difficulties with speech comprehension. People with sensory processing difficulties may also have difficulty with background noise or sounds, necessitating viewing without sound, in addition to better engagement with non-native speakers who may need the additional language support on the screen. 

As with other libraries during this time, our library also recognizes the need to create virtual programming such as story times, book discussions, and/or simple virtual connection activities to engage our families at home now and possibly into the coming months of uncertainty that covers Summer Reading and later fall programming. While we are looking to avoid public sharing sites that offer Closed Captioning support, such as YouTube, to honor the fair use guidelines by many publishers, we also want to ensure accuracy, therefore avoiding the use of Facebook automatic captioning that can certainly be amusing at best (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/04/19/facebooks-terrible-automatic-video-captions-are-no-laughing-matter/#2590dcca798f).  

I began my trial of caption/subtitle editors to add captioning to our virtual programming videos to ensure we are being inclusive of all abilities at a time when our disability community members are feeling even more isolated. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but a good start. This blog post takes a more comprehensive look at options to consider: https://tinachildress.wordpress.com/2020/03/22/how-to-caption-your-videos/. 

In an effort to connect with our weekly story time kiddos who are missing their time with their beloved librarians each week during this time, I asked our weekly story time staff members (if they were feeling up to it) to send me a quick video of a "hello" or a fun "singalong" to add captioning to and share with viewers on our social media and website for families not on social media. 

Video captioning resources:

Kapwing     https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles 

Pros:

• Free version
• Can use the auto-generate captions feature or add captions/subtitles manually
• Easy-to-use editor allows you to edit each segment

Cons of free version:

• Videos edited using free version go on Kapwing's public share space
• Workspace projects are deleted after 7 days
• Published videos can only be up to 10 minutes long

Kapwing Pro is $20/month

• allows stored content
• private assets option
• priority support
• faster processing time
• Publish videos up to 40 minutes long

I used Kapwing to edit Ms. Nicole's sing-along video:

Zubtitle     https://zubtitle.com

Pros:

• 1st video upload is free
• Very accurate auto-generated captions
• Can also edit caption style (font, colors) and caption position
• Optional headline addition
• Supports several languages for speech-text transcription
• Does not require .SRT file
• Easy-to-use editor allows editing of each segment

Cons: 

• Only allows 1 free upload and then you have to subscribe (See: Zubtitle pricing)

I used Zubtitle to edit Ms. Liz's video message:

Amara     https://amara.org/en/ 

Unfortunately, I did not try Amara, as videos have to be uploaded to a URL/video sharing site first (Vimeo, YouTube, WebM, etc.), which we were not using at the time. (We now use Vimeo. )

Of the three, I really liked Zubtitle the best for its versatility, ease of use, and options.

Note: We now also use Rev.com for videos longer than 5 minutes. (See Rev.com captioning pricing) 

Some other options and additional tips to consider:

• For Facebook Live users, you can also consider a split-screen option, during this time of social distancing, to share with a sign language interpreter. This may require a little more tech savvy on both parts, though. 
• Provide closed captioning in a private Zoom meeting/program: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/207279736-Getting-started-with-closed-captioning 
• Remember: try to keep your face visible at all times and try to be very expressive when talking/singing/reading.
• If doing a story time, also share sites with the same story read in sign language: https://deafchildren.org/knowledge-center/resources/sign-language-stories/ 
• More tips on accessibility in social media:            https://accessibility.umn.edu/tutorials/accessible-social-media

Lastly, remember to be kind to yourself and to your fellow staff during this time. Things to remember: 

• Not everyone is comfortable in front of a camera. 
• Staff might not have the resources needed at home to do a virtual program or have to focus on taking care of young children at home, making work from home very difficult.
• Some prefer busy work to work through the stress and anxiety of this time, and others are having a great deal of difficulty trying to focus on just the daily tasks right now. Both are okay.
• It's okay to just keep it simple for now: sing-alongs, recommendations, a simple craft activity demo, or a hello message to connect is a great start.

Wishing wellness and safety to all of you!

Book 'N Play: "In My Heart"

This month's Book 'N Play explored the many feelings we feel inside our heart. Here's the plan:

1. Hello!

2. Welcome Song (“The Story Time Ball”)

tune: "Wheels on the Bus"

(Roll ball back and forth to each child)
The story time ball rolls back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth.
The story time ball rolls back and forth,
Let's see who it found. Hi ______!
Now roll it back to me.
(Keep rolling back and forth until each child has said their name.)

3. Yoga poses: "The gifts of love"

We did a combination of 3 different poses here. 

1. "Gift" (child's pose)

2. "Heart" (butterfly pose)

3. "Flowers" (flower pose)

4. Sensory tool rhyme: "I Look in the Mirror"

I loved using our adorable story time set of mirrors for the first time so we could practice facial expressions and identifying those expressions.

I look in the mirror and what do I see?

I see a happy face smiling at me.

I look in the mirror and what do I see?

I see a surprised face looking at me.

Other faces: sad, mad, scared, silly

(source: preschoolexpress.com)

5. Multisensory experience story: In My Heart by Jo Witek

 

Our wonderful Clerical Assistant, Amy, made these flannel pieces for each child to add to the board as we read the story.

Place pink house on the board.

Hold out arms for big feelings and close arms on small feelings, LOUD feelings and quiet feelings.

Place big yellow star on board.

Hold up shining flashlight and smile wide while twirling around in place (or twirling arms if seated).

Place planet earth with clouds on board.

Reach up and stretch to the clouds (touching bowls with white cotton batting).

Place orange burst on board.

Make "Boom!" sound by clapping hands together.

Place green balloon on board.

Hold green balloons up and watch them gently fall "as quiet as snowfall."

Place bandage on board.

Each child is given a band-aid to help heal our stuffed friend's broken heart. Babar was feeling much better after!

Place elephant on board.

Place small weighted lap pad in the lap of each child so they can feel a "heavy heart."

Place plant on the board.

Reach toward the sky with our arms out like stems and branches.

Place scary beast on board.

Turn on small fan and face toward everyone so they can feel that scared feeling like a "chilly breeze has crawled up my neck."

Place magic hat on board.

Hop in place like a bouncy bunny.

Place small tree on board.

Give each child and caregiver a heart and ask them to tell us how their heart is feeling today as they place it on the board. This was so much fun! Many kids said their hearts were happy and a few mentioned hungry hearts and hearts that were feeling all of the feelings today!

6: Sensory play stations:

Discovery bin: "Rainbow of Feelings" bin filled with rainbow colored rice and plastic eggs with feelings visuals inside. (source: kiddiematters.com)

Light table play: colorful stackable shapes to build your "house of feelings"

Toy play: making heart shapes with cookie cutters and gluten-free play dough

Craft: make squishy hearts with ziplock bags (with a heart outline drawn in black sharpie), finger-paints, and duct tape to seal

     

Book 'N Play

We are trying something new! Attendance for our monthly sensory story times exclusively targeted to children with developmental disabilities was consistently low this past fall. Many factors are involved, including a wonderful abundance of new adaptive therapies and recreational opportunities in our community on Saturdays. I am truly so very excited to see all of these new opportunities available to children with disabilities and their families. Yeah! With these new opportunities in the community, though, comes the time for us to once again reevaluate our community's needs and how we can continue to meet and enrich those needs with our programming. Even though we might not be able to offer exclusive adaptive programs, all library events and programs can be made inclusive with adaptive tools (e.g. visuals, availability of sound cancelling headphones, inexpensive sunglasses to filter bright florescent lighting, alternative handouts in large font). Libraries can also have these accessibility services listed on their website to welcome people before their visit.

So what did we decide, you ask? We have moved the original adaptive Saturday morning story time (SENSEational Story Time) to Thursday afternoons after surveying some of our local special education directors to determine the best time (12:30 pm) and are opening this up to visiting school groups. Stay tuned for an update! These will be very similar to our multisensory outreach story times for the Wing Lake Developmental Center. We are also offering an adaptive and inclusive multisensory story exploration for children of all abilities, ages 3 - 7, once a month on a Saturday morning at 11 am. A much larger scale version of this program was welcomed by many of our young story explorers this past summer at our Book & Play: How to Catch a Star program.

Our first monthly Book 'N Play was held last month. Families explored the story We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. Here's a peek at some of the fun:

This month's story was LMNO Peas by Keith Baker.

Here's the plan:

1. Hello (Welcome families and talk about what Book 'N Play is)

2. Welcome Song (“The Story Time Ball”)

tune: "Wheels on the Bus"

(Roll ball back and forth to each child)
The story time ball rolls back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth.
The story time ball rolls back and forth,
Let's see who it found. Hi ______!
Now roll it back to me.
(Keep rolling back and forth until each child has said their name.)

3. Yoga pose: Alphabet letter poses (A, B, C) I really like this set ABC Yoga Cards for Kids by Christine Ristuccia, which is also in our Alphabet Discovery Skills Kit.

4. Action Rhyme:  “Alphabet Beat”

First clap your hands.

Then stomp your feet.

Everybody do the alphabet beat!

Apple, Apple, Apple - a- a- a.

Apple, Apple, Apple - a- a- a.

Wave your arms high.

Swing your arms low.

The alphabet beat is the way to go.

Blue, Blue, Blue - b- b- b.

Blue, Blue, Blue - b- b- b.

Move to the left.

Move to the right.

The alphabet beat is way out of sight.

Car, Car, Car - c- c- c.

Car, Car, Car - c- c- c.

Shout it out loud.

Whisper down low.

Now give a high five to a nearby friend.

This alphabet beat has come to an end.

source: Storytime Katie

5. Multisensory experience story: LMNO Peas

actions / sensory experiences

A: Astronauts – make arms in A-shape and “blast off”

B: Builders – each child add a block to the “building” (use large blocks)

C: Climbers – pretend to climb

D: Drivers – “drive" with circle bean bag steering wheels

E: Eaters – “pretend to chew”

F: Flaggers – wave ribbon “flags”

G: Gigglers – giggle and laugh

H: Hikers – walk or wheel around the room 

I: Investigators – look around holding up hand "binoculars"

J: Jugglers – "juggle" imaginary balls

K: Kickers – kick feet in place

L: Listeners – listen with hand over ear

M: Miners – “dig” with hands

N: Neighbors – wave to “neighbor” next to us

O: Officers – hold up star badge (star finger puppets)

P: Peas – touch dried peas in bowl

Q: Quilters – touch quilt square

R: Readers – Read the letter “R”

S: Swimmers – make swimming motions

T: Truckers – honk “horn”

U: Underwater Divers – hand "goggles"

V: Voters – board with yes box or no box – kids can place a check on the yes or no

W: Weavers – weave yarn or string through loop

X: X-ray Doctors – look at x-ray overlays on light table (I finally got to use our cool "X-ray" overlays from Lakeshore Learning on the light table, and the kids loved these!)

Y: Yogis (do “Y” pose)

Z: Zoologists - brush wild animal puppet

6. Sensory play stations: 

Discovery bin: find the foam letters in the dried peas (using strainers, large tweezers, and scoopers)

Light table play: colorful acrylic letters on light panels

Toy play: gluten-free playdough with letter stamps

Craft: make a tactile letter (first letter of name) – with large letter outline, foam shapes, pompoms, and googly eyes

(letter outline source: The Measured Mom)

And of course we had some of our alphabet puzzles, tactile braille letters, alphabet discovery skills kit, and toys from our Accessibility Support Collection available in the room to check out and continue the multisensory fun at home.