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Assistant teacher Lanette Westbrook, from left, and teachers Cat Hardy and Sharon Warren assist students in the multi-handicapped special education class, including Duncan Harper, left, and Hunter Johnson with Halloween costumes for their wheelchairs at Verona Elementary School on Thursday. (C. Todd Sherman)
The wheelchair-bound students in the multi-handicapped special education classes are getting specially made costumes to decorate their wheelchairs. The students have chosen their designs, and teachers in the program are helping create them.
Costumes include a tank, pirate ship, horse and fire truck, among others. The idea developed from teachers Sharon Warren and Cat Hardy.
"We are working on communication, and the most important part is being a participant in something that gives you a reason to communicate," Hardy said. "These costumes make it easier for kids and even adults to come up and approach them and communicate with them."
The class is for students in the Tupelo and Lee County school districts who are both non-verbal and non-mobile. There are 10 students enrolled, and they learn from a curriculum that is determined by their individual grade-level. Different devices help the students to communicate.
"They can understand," Hardy said. "We just need to add manipulatives so they can communicate back."
A & A Home Health helped with the materials for the costumes.
chris.kieffer@journalinc.com