The Karlstad modell and the importance of network. Part one

I often hear parents wonder about the Karstadmodellen, Iréne Johansson's language training model that we in our family started working with when Doris was very young. When Doris went to second grade, I wrote a small essay about just this and Doris became my case study. I read the essay recently and I would like to share this and hope that someone might feel a little wiser and inspired. I have divided it into two parts and here is part one which is a description of the Karlstadmodellen and in part two I describe from my own experience.

Much pleasure!

A student with Down Syndrome in class - what do you do?

Purpose

I will describe the so-called Karlstad model based on my own experience. I also want to try to show that this model leads to an included school, ie get one step closer to an integrated collaboration where children with Down Syndrome are included as an obvious part.

Brief history

Once upon a time, children with disabilities were set aside in society to hide from the public. These children were in principle considered uneducable. In the 19th century, both children and adults with disabilities were placed in institutions of various kinds. The children who were considered "insane" but still somewhat educated were brought up in these institutions and given a basic education to be able to support themselves in the future.

At the end of the 19th century, the Eugenia Home was started, where people with developmental disabilities were not welcome. People who were deaf or blind were referred to special schools for the deaf and blind. In the 20th century, people began to look at disabilities as a chronic disease and the differences between different disabilities were mapped. As it was now classified as a disease, the staff would be medically knowledgeable, such as doctors and nurses. Other staff were called carers or caretakers. The number of institutions increased significantly in the early 20th century and when Henri Binet designed the first iq tests, the children's iq were also tested. Those over 40 iq were considered formable. Those with lower iq were allowed to go to special schools, so-called idiot schools. It was enacted in 1944 that those who were called "formally insane" would receive education and ten years later even those who were not considered imaginable would have the opportunity for education.

The situation today

Times have changed, but there are still both training schools and special schools, despite the fact that today people work for an integrated school. According to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, they must have access to the same education as everyone else. The Swedish government has long ago decided that we should have a school for everyone, which means that the special primary school that exists today is being phased out, at least as I know it from previous years. All children must therefore go to one and the same school and the teaching must be individually adapted, where each individual child's needs and conditions must be met. Fine!

What do the possibilities look like today for a child with, for example, DS? Well, this is when children are probably not expected to reach the goals of primary school and therefore the parents are recommended that the school conduct an investigation to be able to offer the best pedagogical, psychological, social and medical school environments. This investigation then makes it possible for the child to be admitted to a special school. (If, on the other hand, the parents make another choice, ie choose to actually let the child go to regular primary school according to the compulsory school curriculum, this is considered controversial, even though it is actually here that the prerequisite for everyone to have the same education lies.) According to website of the Swedish National Agency for Education, schools must take into account students' different needs and offset differences in their ability to meet the knowledge requirements. All students should receive guidance and stimulation. Some students need extra adjustments. Some also need special support. With that said, one thinks that special school should be a thing of the past.

Today, there is a plan for investigations made by special educators. This is fantastically positive with regard to taking into account each child's special conditions and needs. So we have a strategy for how our children should be placed. But how do you work teaching methodologically?

Teaching methodology - The Karlstad model

Methodologically, there are a number of alternatives to consider. Let's focus on one of these methods: the Karlstad model, a methodology that I think there is a lot for both teachers and parents to adopt.

This is a language training model that is made into a wholeness in which the whole environment is involved, a "step ahead" idea that is very appealing. There is also, of course, an overriding idea about everyone's right to be allowed to learn, develop and use languages.

The Karlstad model has been developed under the leadership of Professor Irene Johansson, most recently at Karlstad University. Irene Johansson has together with i.a. educators and parents worked out the model since the early 70s.

The Karlstad model is not static but on the contrary under constant development. I think the most common has been to use the model on people who have Down Syndrome and the reason is that it is common that there is a language disorder with just that chromosomal abnormality. The Karlstad model is not tied to a specific disability but is applicable at all ages and is aimed at people with language problems and then not least at people with a mother tongue other than Swedish.

Today we talk a lot about integration in school and society or rather about inclusion and there we have language as one of the most important factors for this to succeed. If communication between people does not work, it is difficult to feel involved in society. Being able to communicate means that many doors in life and society are opened and therefore it is of great importance for many of us to work with language development. It is nothing new that there are people who are isolated and excluded due to language difficulties.

If you look at the Karlstad model, it is largely a matter of incorporating language training into everyday life, which is why all your contacts then become a kind of language trainer. In addition to parents and siblings, a child may have grandparents, relatives, neighbors, acquaintances, the aunt in the store, the uncle with the dog, and so on. In the meeting with the child, all of these are a potential language trainer and automatically become a network around the child.

Let us now say that the child goes to school, well then we have the educators and the child's other adult contacts who are there as resources. These are not only language trainers but also language and communicative role models for all children. The idea in the Karlstad model is precisely to be one step ahead of the student and this means that if the child's network knows where the child is linguistically and what comes next in the school curriculum, then everyone can "direct" their communication and thereby give the child practice in their language. Through this language training, you will get the language in your ears, in your mouth, in your hands and you will also learn what the words look like. In the ears through listening, in the mouth by working with pronunciation, in the hands through signs and words through word pictures. This creates a whole and an understanding of the language. If you do not have the word in your mouth, you may have it in your hand or on paper. If the network is now informed and given the task of using simple characters in its communication with the child or when grandfather is hanging out with the grandchild, then perhaps they can add puzzles or memory with word pictures that are relevant at the moment. Maybe the lady in the store could learn the signs for the lowest numbers, a person sign (ie that each individual has their own sign as a symbol for their name) for the uncle and uncle's dog, and so on.

If you then look at the school. What is it about in the various subjects right now? Are you talking about world religions and different forms of water? The colors in English or subtraction? What comes next? How can we prepare the child to keep up with the school curriculum, be one step ahead and finally we have a child who sits in a classroom and knows what the lesson will be about because he has already had to take part in this in various forms. Hen is involved and succeeds, identity and independence are strengthened. Best of all, it creates a win-win situation. Everyone in the network contributes, makes an effort, learns something, develops (the list can be long) and feels that they are needed. Sign language, TAKK.

Today, they have come so far that in most municipalities, including my own, educators and preschool staff offer sign language as support, signs as alternatives and complementary communication, TAKK This is an important tool when you want to clarify communication. Many children need support and clarification, and if you bring TAKK from an early age, the child is given a different sense of security and is offered alternatives to the usual oral language, which is often not entirely without problems. Another aspect is that the staff avoids ungrateful attempts to overrule a group of children who are in full swing or if it is a matter of large distances to the one you are to communicate with.

Unfortunately, I have discovered that in the school world it is a bit difficult to use sign language as an aid. You take it if there are pronounced needs in the group of children, but why not make it a habit to have it in your body language when you work? If we are now talking about, for example, a group of children in a preschool, there is at least one thing you can be sure of, and that is that the group consists of different individuals who have different conditions for verbal communication. To occur, use TAKK and you have already offered the children fantastic opportunities.

It gives a security and a self-confidence to the child where he gets a solid foundation to stand on. We also have the clear planning. I believe that it is important for everyone and especially children to be prepared for what is to come. It is emphasized all the time in the so-called functional world, but I want to say that this is exactly what everyone needs, and especially children. If you have foresight, you become secure and the situation becomes clear instead of the opposite, ie that surprise and the feeling of not having control over the situation and what is to come creates uncertainty and poor self-confidence.

Another important thing is, for example, how to approach the reading and writing work. We are so quick to conclude that it is easiest to learn to read using capital letters. IF I WRITE IN CAPITALS, ALL WORDS HAVE THE SAME FORM, but if I use lowercase letters, ie lowercase letters, each word has its own form and I learn to read through “word pictures” (compare the LTG method). Even if I can not really read like my friends, it is a way if I can manage to read the word through the form of the words. If you also color-code the words according to the rules of grammar and let nouns be red and the verbs blue in respective shapes such as triangle, circle and square, the child gets the grammar and geometric shapes for free. All this can be prepared by being one step ahead of the preparation. Through a mindset, you can plan and prepare the child for what is to come long before, for example, grammar appears in school.
Today, there is a demand for cooperation between school and family, where it is expected that parents of the children take a greater part than before and get involved in schooling. When it comes to the Karlstad model, this is exactly where the biggest preparatory work lies. It is important that the educator plans well in advance what it will look like in the coming months so that the family and the rest of the network have a chance to prepare.

References

http://www.skolverket.se/regelverk/juridisk-vagledning/elever-har-ratt-till-stod-1.126409, s Sonja Svensson Höstfält: Specialpedagogik 1

https://www.spsm.se/stod/rattigheter-lagar-och-rattigheter/rattigheter-for-personer-med-funktionsnedsattning/,

http://www.karlstadmodellen.se/