Activity Vest

The school discussed on the NYC Classroom page was chronically under staffed. The majority of the time I had 1 Teacher Assistant (TA) and there wasn’t a consistently assigned TA. The staff to student ratio was supposed to be a 1:2, due to the level of support my students required. However, often the ratio was 1:4. It became a challenge ensuring that all students were engaged in an activity. I had to think of creative solutions to allow for independent exploration and learning. This meant finding activities and adaptations that would allow students to work/play independently, allowing me to work with one or two students at a time. One solution was putting activities on their trays for them to explore independently. However, this proved difficult for a number of reasons and required a different method for each student. For some students I solved the problem by attaching a peg board with toys on it for them to play with or creating a slant board to bring items closer to them. More details on these modifications coming soon.

For one student, these solutions were not an option. His muscles were very tight and contracted, his hands were bent at the elbow in a way that positioned them by his shoulders. He had a very small range of movement in his hands. As a solution, I tried creating a vest where I could attach items to the vest for him to engage with.

After trying it on him, I realized I needed to add 2 small pieces of fabric slightly higher based on his hand position. I have one image of the final product, but most of the pictures shown below are from before I added the extra pieces.

Note: Since the items on this vest are only being secured with velcro, I recommend using it for students who do not have a very powerful grip, otherwise they may just pull the items off.

 

How Did I Make it?

  1. Gathering my materials: I started by looking around the class room to see what there was. I found:

    • Brand new plastic art smocks. I used these since they were available, but I recommend finding a vest or smock that works best for your student.

    • Velcro

    • Black fabric which I later learn was called Vertex, which is a velcro compatible fabric.

  2. Assembling the vest: I had to find someone who knew how to sew since sewing is not my specialty. I enlisted the help of the school social worker. She explained that she added a piece of fabric to the inside of the vest so the Veltex is attached to more than just the plastic, reducing the risk of it ripping. She also used the “heavy duty” setting on her machine…I’m still not sure what that means.

  3. Attaching Toys: I attached velcro to the backs of different toys, including:

    • Bells

    • Shaking Egg

    • Finger Castanet

    • Ball in a Net

    • Squishy Lion Toy

    • Jelly Bean Switch

      • I had trouble determining an effective access point and mounting solution for a switch for this particular student. This vest allowed me to mount a switch were he could easily access it, without an adult holding it for him.

Below are some pictures of the vest.

Front of the Vest

Inside of the vest.