T.K. Martin Center continues Telehealth services, preschool

While the faculty, staff and students of Mississippi State University are all adjusting to their new normal, a small group of teachers and teaching assistants are working hard to ensure that some of Mississippi’s youngest learners have everything they need to stay on track.

It’s business as usual for the staff at MSU’s T.K. Martin Center, just in a slightly different way. Since starting its telehealth services recently, the faculty and staff at the center have already accomplished so much. In just one week, the teachers and assistants have held circle time with all their students, they’ve met with them individually and have held IEP meetings as well. 

With the hope of keeping everything as similar as possible to a typical day at the center, the staff are sharing classroom schedules with every student’s family. The staff also have been providing brief online videos and short lessons to support learning during this period. The center has executed an online and alternative teaching plan to assist families as needed using Webex, MSU’s campus-wide solution for video conferencing, online meetings, screen sharing and webinars. MSU has a campus-wide Webex license that includes unlimited use by MSU students, faculty and staff.

“The kids are always very excited to meet on Webex,” teacher Christan Toney said. “I can’t decide if they are more excited to see me or their classmates! Either way, just seeing them is wonderful.”

Toney said she holds circle time twice a week for her students and all the children are getting lessons each week that their families can work on together. She went on to say that she enjoys seeing all the families participating in circle time.

Teacher Traci Campbell explained that while she misses all her students very much, she’s staying in touch with them through whatever means possible. To help combat this, she and her fellow teachers, Christan Toney and Madalyn Roach, are using FaceTime, texts, telephone and email to stay in touch with their students and students’ families.

 “It is so nice to be able to see and hear them as well as their families. We make sure that when a family doesn’t get to join our circle time, we are able to record it on Webex and send it to all families so that they may be able to view it at their convenience,” Campbell said.

Each week the three teachers and their assistants put together 12 activities that go along with the week’s unit, ensuring that the developmental areas of cognitive, language, adaptive, social-emotional, fine motor and gross motor skills are covered.

“It’s definitely been a team effort, and technology has really helped us to be able to stay as connected as we possibly can with our students and their families, which I think is very important for our center which is technology based,” said Campbell.

Parent Jenn Vollenweider says that the weekly activities are especially helpful for her and her daughter Jane. In addition to the activities, Jane also enjoys singing the songs they usually do in class throughout the day. She explains that the activities along with circle time really help reduce cabin fever. One of the things Campbell has enjoyed the most are the videos that parents have been sharing with her. She loves getting to see parents working with their children, and them having the chance to be a part of that special time in their child’s day. 

Vollenweider says the feeling is mutual for Jane, and that while she likes being at home, she’s so happy to see her teacher Mrs. Traci and touches the screen a lot any time Campbell is on the screen and blows at least a dozen kisses to her teacher while she teaches.

“We’ve kept in contact with several of them electronically and she has done circle time with Mrs. Traci and her classmates,” said Vollenweider. “Afterwards, she watches the videos over and over again and points at each friend.”

This past week, Campbell asked her students to bring something that represents spring for show and tell for circle time. She loved seeing the families participating in show and tell together. Campbell has also enjoyed seeing all the T.K. Martin staff come together to make sure that students are still being provided with as much instruction and encouragement possible.

“We really are a family,” Campbell said. “And even though it’s difficult for our family to get together right now, we hope we are still making a difference in our students’ lives, just in a slightly different format.”

In addition to the preschool continuing its services, occupational therapist Eric Knox and biomedical engineer Rebecca Mathis have been able to complete some seating and mobility assessments via tele-health. Dyslexia services will also begin in the coming weeks via tele-health.

The T.K. Martin Center is providing resources for families on social media, particularly Facebook (@tkmartincenter).

Learn more about MSU’s College of Education at www.educ.msstate.edu and T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability, www.tkmartin.msstate.edu.