Good practices seen in Heemschool in Brussels, Belgium. From 8-13 November 2011, we visited 'De Heemschool', a pedagogical institute of the Flemish Community in Brussels, Belgium. We observed a non-verbal multi-sensory activity the 'Hocus Pocus magic box'. We assisted to a presentation and examples of 'AAC' Alternative augmentative communication and SMOG, a simplified sign language used in Belgium. Teaching sessions such us Social Reading were observed.

1. Brussel·les 8-13 Novembre

3. Internal Structure of the MPI
A. HEEMSCHOOL 1
Special infant education and primary education for children with mental
and motor disabilities as well as children with Autism-Spectrum-Disorder.
B:HEEMSCHOOL 2
Special secondary education for mentally and motorically disabled boys
and girls as well as children with Autism-spectrum-Disorder.

7. C-BOARDING-SCHOOL
For boys and girls of Heemschool 1&2
D. SEMI-BOARDING-SCHOOL
On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays reception from 8h. Until 17:30h
On Fridays reception from 8h. Until 16:30h
E. RECEPTION CENTRE
Open during weekends and holidays. The reception centre provides
qualitative reception for pupils of Heemschool 1&2 as well as for
pupils from other schools for special education, 365 days a year.

9. GOOD PRACTICES
• SOCIAL READING
• AUGMENTATIVE COMMUNICATION
• MAGIC BOX
• FORERUNNERS IN COMMUNICATION

10. MAGIC BOX
- The ‘Hocus Pocus Magic Box’ is an activity designed to increase basic
communication skills for children with complex and multiple learning
difficulties.
- The aim of he ‘Hocus Magic Box’ is is to stimulate different senses in a very
systematic and coordinated way.
- Different objects and materials are offered to the children and every one
gets enough time to explore the objects with their different senses: taste,
vision, smell, hearing and tactile senses. No spoken language is used during
the activity, only music and sound effects.
- In every session we use the same structure. We always start and end the
activity with waving a heavy coloured table sheet on a same song. This sheet
acts as an object of reference.
Then we put the materials one by one on the table and offer them to the
children.

12. MAGIC BOX
OBJECTIVES:
•
To share sensory experiences with other children, to develop peer awareness.
•
To develop facial expressions
•
Improve listening skills and widen attention span.
•
Promote sensory exploration of materials.
•
To create visual clues and to invite students to track them (VI)
•
To help learners to communicate emotions through facial expressions.
•
To invite the learners to make choices of preference.
•
To react to verbal prompting.
•
To invite students to ask for more and to work on cause and effect exercises.
•
Sharing attention
•
Sharing pleasure

14. SOCIAL READING
Reading is linking speech sounds to characters (sound-symbol), which
are synthesized from left to right until a word is formed (c-a-t makes
cat).
Reading includes not only a technical aspect, but also a
comprehensive aspect (reading comprehension). It requires a double
decoding:
• Graphical code that must be converted into a sound code (c-a-t is
pronounced /k/¨/ae/ /t/).
• A meaning that must be given to that soundcode.
Social Reading = signal-reading: an object, photo, image, icon or
whole-word can be ‘read’
This requires a single decoding: giving meaning to a certain image.
The learning process that is used to teach this method is associative
learning.

15. COMENIUS PROJECT
“Hear my Voice”
SOCIAL READING

16. SOCIAL READING
OBJECTIVES
•
pupils can actively participate in the life of their school and the wider
community.
•
pupils are encouraged to make choices in meaningful contexts in their
daily lives.
•
making written communication more clear to our pupils.
•
their personal initiative as well as their social and civic participation
and inclusion: shopping, using public transport...
Applications in daily use: shopping lists, recipes, step-by-step
instructions, school diary, student newspaper ...

20. FORERUNNERS IN COMMUNICATION
Is an instrument to explore underlying competence for augmentative
communication, it measures perception and sense-making of non-
transient forms of communication at the levels of presentation and
representation.
The target group consists primarily of individuals with autism and
intellectual disability (ID) without or with only limited verbal
communication.
The ComFor is suitable for children and adults with a developmental
level between 12 and 60 months. Determination of the level of sense-
making is crucial for individualized interventions.

21. COMENIUS PROJECT
“Hear my Voice”
FORERUNNERS IN COMMUNICATION

22. FORERUNNERS IN COMMUNICATION
First level: sensation
In this level children can smell, feel and see. And have a comfortable
feeling of objects, smells, views and feelings they are used to.
Ex: these children will splash their hands in a glass of water.
Second level: presentation
In this level children recognize things when they are in front of them.
Ex. these children will know that they can drink from a glass filled with
water.

23. FORERUNNERS IN COMMUNICATION
Third level: level of representation
The child can recognize objects and/or pictures and understand that
they are related to places or activities.
Ex. The child knows that a picture of a glass of water will refer to
drinking.
Fourth level: meta-representation
The child sees different meanings of a picture/object
In this level the child can see the glass also as something to put a
flower in.
The level of communication determines the ability of a person to
understand AAC.
The level of communication can be tested with the COMFOR (Noens
e.a.)

24. COMENIUS PROJECT
“Hear my Voice”