Psychologist Dr. Jakob Freil

Focus in Action - Special Pedagogy with Light Training Stimulation and pedagogical training of peoples with educational needs - autism, ADHD, and cognitive disorders By Psychologist Dr. Jakob Freil

Focus in Action - Special Pedagogy with Light Training Stimulation and pedagogical training of people with educational needs - autism, ADHD, and cognitive impairments. Training with the light equipment FitLight of social interaction and the so- called executive functions. Visual stimulation of sensory perception, motor skills, coordination and thinking (cognition) By Psychologist Jakob Freil People with particular, special educational needs appear usually with different cognitive impairments, which are roughly centred on three, somewhat overlapping core areas: ADHD - problems with concentration, impulse control, and other governing functions such as planning, organization, and overall management and control Autism problems - pervasive developmental disorders - problems of social and communicative understanding and interaction. IQ - reduced intelligence (ID - intelligence disorder / dysfunction) Overall, across a range of special educational environments and diagnostic groups, the major and most common functional challenge are associated with Executive functions - the executive system. The executive system is crucial to the people's ability to act independently and appropriately. It includes the ability to remember, plan and organize, and generally, the ability to apprehend and maintain an idea and translate it into concrete actions. Also includes the ability to inhibit certain impulses from becoming actual action. Anxiety and lack of preparedness. Fear of not succeeding, and the resulting lack of motivation and social withdrawal. Anxiety and lack of preparedness is a highly debilitating and widespread suffering due to various dysfunctions. Working with a manageable framework that reduces anxiety and may increase motivation to participate, are considered critically important. Lack of preparedness, anxious withdrawal with loss of initiative. Alternatively, hectic assertiveness. Social reading and interaction. The so- called cognitive empathy disorders include various brain- related disabilities whereby one lacks or loses the conditions required to succeed socially and empathize in social contexts. In particular, as a result of flawed judgment or lack of attention

flexibility, one fails to understand others' needs and perspective and thus, exhibits an empathy deficiency. This is not to be confused with the more fundamental emotional empathy disorder, where compassion and emotional resonance are fundamentally flawed. The idea behind special educational training with light sources is to offer a practical, visual stimulation as a starting point to enhance motivation, performance and social interaction. This includes strengthening the executive (governing) functions and offering a new, dynamic and visual learning framework to dare to act and engage with others. Also, develop opportunities and stimulations that allow learners to engage in functional and social learning. Describe (to increase users' cognitive conditions, to engage and interact more empathetically? - Confusion of cognitive / vision related or linguistic / reflective skills with empathy disorder) Disability- functional disabilities - prevalence rates of various groups Educational goals with visual stimulation and training Education goals are to create a structure, view, and opinion prior to and in activities through a concrete, visual stimulation framework. To offer motivational, non- linguistic exercises for the expansion of mental capacity - perception, cognition and concentration, etc. To challenge and train mental and executive functions such as focus and concentration / attention - arousal ("mental ignition"), sustained attention, attention span, attention switching, split attention, and (visual ) working memory. To provide a concrete, visual framework for training joint attention and social interaction Autism - typical basic problems and challenges Social and functional limitations and challenges associated with autistic thinking: Concrete thinking o Benefit from clear, predictable environment - strengths around systems, rules and patterns - profiting from concrete, visual models and materials. Limited channel capacity (simultaneous capacity) - detail oriented, one thing at a time. Difficulties with sorting stimuli - "filter" - and prioritizing training. Social interaction - difficulties with joint attention and mutual, social- communicative reading and sharing - requires staging and framing through concrete, structured activities (fitlight) Difficulties with executive functions, concentration and impulse control - challenge focus, perseverance, attention switching, split attention through visual stimuli Coordination problems - coordination training, sensory integration Sensory disorders - sensory integration training

ADHD - specific difficulties with concentration, (u) attention, arousal, impulse control. Problems with planning, organizing. Intelligence- IQ. Cognitive impairments, general learning difficulties. Formula limit IQ <70Slow information processing, concrete thinking, difficulties with abstract thinking, e.g., imagining things, places and people you have not specifically seen or know, as well as future events (plans). Linguistic Non- linguistic In special education contexts, a considerable practical overlap between these three diagnostic groups and problems has been observed - whether diagnosed or not. Exercise areas 1. Sensory training and coordination (overlapping with physical education) Laterality, motor training, training in not having involuntary joint movements, independent use of separate body parts, tactile, sensory motor, different senses Peripheral vision - central vision neglect - covers the visual field? Balance, tactile sensory training Coordination Cross movement (brain bar) Presents overlap with sport / motor training 2. Physical education - Exercise / movement, motor training, coordination Motion o Exercises - using floor / large areas - repeat certain exercises from other areas and from wall to larger area - > movement Body senses (training) - and social training o Exercises: turn off lights placed next to certain body parts and name them o 2 people with lights on arms, legs, stomach and head - when a light turns on on person A, person B must turn it off and name the body part Bodily, motor coordination. (Overlap with working memory and impulse control) o Turn off the red light on the left, blue on the right. Change if necessary o Turn off blue with foot, red with hand o Turn off the light to the left with your right hand / foot and turn off light to the right with your left hand / foot o Spread the lights out on the floor - same exercise as before Endurance

o Exercises: run between lights, 1 push- up - > turn off next light as soon as possible. Blue light sit- ups, red light push- ups. Jump over lit lights, turn off with butt, etc. Tactile and social tolerance - touch / physical contact: o Exercises: Belt with lights on body. Turn off colleagues, e.g., John turns off blue light, Niels turns off green light. Social sports - games, systems that enable interaction and exercise (team sports) o Prisoners - all / both have belt with light. If the light lights up, the prisoner must shine light on stomach, must turn off others Balance o Exercises: Stand on one leg, turn off lights on the wall o Hop on one leg - turn off lights spread out on the floor Exercises - Using floor / large areas - repeat certain exercises from other areas and from wall to larger area - > movement 3. Social interaction - teamwork exercises Turn- taking. o Exercises - Shifting responsibility for turning off a different colour as it lights up - cooperation, creating common goals - set all lights off as soon as possible, as a common goal. o 2 people alternatively turn off one light at a time regardless of colour Cooperation. Competition - results or performance targets?(see below) o Exercises: Exercises described in other areas done as teamwork exercises, turn- taking or competition o Special exercises: 2 belts each - respectively leg / arm o One or all belts on stomach - turn those of others when lit Competition principle in all exercises o Results targets - competition with others o Performance targets - competition with oneself 4. Overall management and control - executive functions 4.1. Attention / concentration - 5 focus areas Arousal - "ignition" - is there even a flare on the light? Concerns intensity, level of attention. o Exercises - responding to lights that come on. Respond (differently) to different colours. Respond quickly to lights - timing (maybe introduce a competition aspect? Or would that be just stressful?) o Respond to lights after a certain delay o Keep the "ignition over time", i.e. lengthening exercises in time and number of lights

o E.g., turn blue lights on and off a few seconds in uniform monotone sequences must be ignored. Sometimes a red light must be turned off before it even goes out. Example: 3 blue, 1 red, 8 blue, 1 red, 12 blue, 2 red, 16 blue, 1 red, 4 blue, 1 red, 2 blue, 1 red, 25 blue, 1 red, 4 blue. Focused / selective attention, prioritization of information - be able to identify specific "information" and concentrate on it, i.e., basic ability to concentrate. (see prioritize, disturbance training). In practice, ability to select and filter essential information. We have basically millions of information pieces to focus on at a given moment. o Exercises: Respond only to certain colours, e.g., foot over the red o Select a colour, e.g., blue. Every time the blue light turns on, do not respond (also impulse control and working memory) o 2 lights to the left of the room in front of you - one red, one blue. Same on the right side. A blue light in front of your head is permanently lit and must be turned off when a blue light lights up on one of the sides. If a red light turns on on one of the sides, it must not be turned off o Focus on and learn a sequence - e.g., 6 lights that lit 5 seconds at a time in front of you, perhaps belatedly - e.g., red, red, green, red, and green, red. 2 disturbing side lights about a meter away, one on each side, switching randomly red and green in sequence and short on / off and should not be included but ignored. Sustained attention - maintain focus and concentration over time. In the sports world, e.g. the ability to maintain mental skills - right focus, attention span - by the end of a match or a training session.e.g., increase the total concentration length or interval length and amount of focused attention. Last but not east, raise awareness about saving mental energy - when should it be on and when off (and how). o Exercises: Turn off lights around you, one by one as they turn on. How long can you stay focused? o Many of the remaining training exercises can be used but extending their time or increasing the number of light ignitions - longer latency, longer sequences; extended exercises increase the risk of being boring - > concentration must be maintained under voluntary control. o In part, the same exercises as for arousal o E.g., blue lights come on and off a few seconds in uniform monotone sequences - they are ignored. Sometimes a red light must be turned off before it even goes out. Example 3 blue, 1 red, 8 blue, 1 red, 12 blue, 2 red, 16 blue, 1 red, 4 blue, 1 red, 2 blue, 1 red, 25 blue, 1 red, 4 blue. Possibly try a double round to test endurance. Split attention / put the attention focus / field on multiple elements simultaneously. Partly overlaps with the concepts of working memory, simultaneous capacity, and split vision. Being able to simultaneously think and act is a basic expression of this in sports.

o Exercises: Two rows of lights on the wall or standing with 4 in each vertical they hang in front of the person approx. out at arm s length to the left and right sides of the body. 2 lights - one in each row - lit simultaneously. Both must be turned off before the next light lights up - take time on overall series (if competition oriented?) or compete with themselves - increasing best time o 2 lights on the floor left and right + 2 at shoulder height on left and right sides. 2 lights come on at the same time (either both at hand height or on the floor, or one of each), both must be turned off before the next light comes on. Turn off with foot and hand at the same time (perhaps too hard) o 8 lights in a row in front of the person - e.g., horizontally or placed in a horseshoe formation. The person stands in the middle of the front row. Lights turn on and off from the centre out to the right and left, so the physical gap between the lights being turned on increases and becomes larger and larger. Example: 4 red lights towards the right side, 4 blue lights towards the left side in a row.h1 V1 H2 V2 H3 V3 H4 V4. Switch off the row soon as possible. o Variation with random or more unpredictable sequences H - V, ash1 V3 H4 V1 H3 V4 H2 V4. o Variation with more random sequences, e.g.,h3 H1- V3 H4 V1 V4 H2 V2 o Variation with same colour lights or random colour lights o Variation with vertical, diagonal or more "non- linear" settings in circular form, horseshoe formations (upright) or star formation, with the person at the centre. o Vary the physical space, keep it manageable, e.g., starting 3 meters behind the row, for a total width of 5 meters. Return to starting position each time a light is turned off. o Variation: introduce delay in turn on/off cycle so that the person will have more time to return (and thus must also anticipate and remember patterns and sequences - working memory?) o Variation B of physical space: 7 blue, 1 red - maybe better as a whole: start 3 meters behind the row of 7 blue lights that must be turned off. The row is 5 meters long. 1 red light represents the starting position and must be turned off in between. o The same variations as described for 8 lights o Variation - 2 blue lights in the row are lit at the same time and must be turned off before returning to the starting position and turning off the red one o Difficulty increases by expanding space, number of lights, and the number of lights simultaneously lit o Alternatively, you may reduce the time available although several lights or the entire row must be turned off.i.e., time pressure. E.g., time limit or competition (with self or others) on total time. o Alternatively, you may introduce a circle or star formation, where the person stands in the middle by the red light and physically have the blue lights around on the floor (vs. in front of him on the wall or standing)

Flexible / shifting attention Being able to fast and flexibly change back and forth between different, changing focus points - including maintaining whatever you're doing, if there are more elements (e.g., tactical and special technical focal points in a match). This involves a certain degree of attention span - "hard disk capacity" - and working memory, else you will forget where you came from when changing focus. = core point of what we pedagogically call diversion or distraction - to lose yourself and continue along the same track afterwards (so- called perseveration) o Exercises: 2 rows of 4 lights - one red and one blue. Colours light up alternately. Instruct then to alternately turn on a red and a blue light. They must be turned off as soon as possible o Stand in the middle of the circle of lights on the floor. These turn on one by one without delay at random and must be turned off as soon as possible o Variation - 8 lights in 1 or 2 rows in front of you on a table or on the floor - random o Variation - 4 lights at one end of the room - 4 at the other end of the room o 2 minutes: 7 blue lights illuminate alternately to the right of the focus person and must be turned off - reaching as many as possible. Each time the 8th light placed on the left lights up (with the same or different range), turn it off before you can turn off several blue lights. Maybe introduce a delay between the blue lights, so there is an upside to discovering the red light 4.2. Impulse control - is a cognitive concept of governing, executive functions that are closely related to concentration. Moreover, it is the second major axis of ADHD problems. o Exercises: Turn off all red lights and ignore all blue lights when illuminated o Turn off only red lights with red flyswatter, blue lights with blue flyswatter (including working memory). o Ignore blue lights and turn off (only) red lights as 2 red lights turn on simultaneously o Programs lights in order with many blues one after the other and sometimes a red or two red that lights simultaneously. Turn off all blue and red when lit in pairs Respond quickly 4.3 Working memory Being able to retain information, instructions, and goals - while doing something else - and come back to it. Linked to memory span. o Exercises: Turn off the red lights with red flyswatter, blue lights with blue flyswatter o Then reverse - red with blue, blue with red. o Turn off the red lights with blue flyswatter. Run over to the red wall after each turn off. o Turn off the red lights with blue flyswatter. Ignore blue lights. Run over to the red wall after each turn off.

o Turn off blue lights with red flyswatter and red lights with blue flyswatter. Run over to the red wall between turn offs o Then perform the reverse operation o The last is very complex and (too) hard 4.4 Memory span - also concerning. "Attention span" Number of items that can be remembered (memory span). Alternatively, number that can be perceived at the same time (attention span) o Exercises: o Remember sequences - repeat or reproduce orally the order (horse- visual) - how many? o Learn a number of sequences, e.g., 4 lights. Turn them off faster and faster. Expand sequence - > remember what they have learned, expand the series. Can vary in space from e.g. a table to a room - increase distance, involve body o Attention span: Let a number of lights lit up briefly at the same time (e.g., 1 second) - How many lit up? How many can you certainly guess? o Can be combined with split attention by distributing lights over larger area that must be controlled with split vision. How many can you manage (attention span) of the total area (split attention, "split vision") General Stensager School 27/08/12 - exercise testing and video recording: Test exercises in the different learning areas Can you record them - they seem to be fun - > fit light is motivating What concerns them and appears to be fun? Can the access to tasks in a specific, systematic and visual way using lights create a basis for safety, variability and development in different areas? General principle - challenge the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky)