Only in Special Education: Ah Ah Ants on Me!

As a teacher of neurodiverse students I have had much exposure to unique situations.  As I downshift for a summer break rest I find myself reflecting on the year.  This situation was one of my favorite chuckles.

Most, well really all to the unfamiliar listener, of my students have extreme difficulty communicating.  So much so that functional communication activities must be intentionally incorporated throughout the day.  Well, one of my students (who I readily admit is one of my favorites) began the year with his only vocalizations as 'meep meep'.  I found myself mentally envisioning Beaker as this boy meeped his responses and requests with facial animation made extra adorable due to his huge light brown eyes.    

Although this boy often preferred to hide out or be in the break area as much as possible he would often come out for Jolly Phonics whole group online activity.  He appeared to enjoy the visuals such as the the A motion 'ah ah ants on me'  section where a boy has to brush ants off of himself from his picnic area.

One extra busy morning (read: late arrivals, multiple spilled breakfasts, all sincerely accidents except for the one where the ninja student had purposely dumped the chocolate milk on the floor because we were already busy with student retrieval or other mess) we had more ants than usual.  Yes, we had ants as many elementary buildings do.  The kind of colonies that are sustained by the serving of sugary cereal within their proximity.  Their force was strong because we could have a spill and several minutes later you would see their trail.  

Late in this morning as we prepared for lunch I hear 'ah ah' I recognize the voice.  It is my Meep Meep boy whom I have trained my ears on (as with all my language learners) so I could catch new phrases (like the time he verbally requested 'come here' and sent my heart to happy to hear the well articulated functional phrase spontaneously selected).  I look over to the direction of my chirpiest student and see that he is indeed in a moment of 'ah ah' as he is literally trying to wipe ants off of his sleeves.  

Although he was redirected several times to leave the ants alone and the ants were once swept away, he was now enthralled in his experience of Jolly Phonics Live.  My paras and I didn't even have to pay for that ticket, which was priceless.