2. B.A.BAR SEMINAR – 11/12.06.2001 When Sophia was 18 months old,
she was not speakingPresented by Heather Zapata Liebold
Outline B.A.Bar-Project, S.L.
Child: Sophia Birthdate: 14.05.1998
Diagnosis: Down Syndrome
(Intro)
How we started:
When Sophia was 18 months old, she was not speaking. Sophia had two systems of communication
in our home- PECS and Signed Exact English. Sophia also had many other typically developing skills
for her age, such as being able to manipulate the VCR control’s Play button for her word videos,
and the ‘On/Off’ button on the TV control. She knew how to get the most out of her environment!
She also had many other electronic toys that gave her a lot of practice pressing buttons to control
various functions. As she had some manipulative skills together with expressive language
programs, it was my hope that both programs working together would give Sophia a way out of
being frustrated, as she wanted to talk but just couldn’t, and was resorting to yelling and screaming
for her every whim and need.
(WHY)
B.A. Bar introduced. Daniela suggested that we add BABARR to Sophia’s repertoire of learning aids.
Because there was no way of knowing when or how well Sophia would ever speak, I decided that
this could be a great learning facilitator for the learning of expressive language, both verbal and nonverbal.
Just two years old! Sophia has been subject to many different learning programs taught by her
mother. With my love, encouragement and understanding, she has been exposed to a lot of
classical music (Mozart), dance, colors, textures, tastes, noises, simple and non-complex
environments as well as environments that are complicated and busy and difficult to tolerate. It has
always been my hope that by coming to Sophia from different angles of stimulation, she could be
sensitized and somewhat desensitized to various stimulants as needed in her life. Adding B.A. Bar is
something that has been presented carefully and with utmost love and respect for Sophia’s
emotional stability, developmental level as she has grown, and her limitations.
Obstacles and Problems in Implementation: In the beginning, B.A. Bar was very interesting for
Sophia; it had an interesting red light, she could hold it up to look at the light and the buttons, etc.
But Sophia had a lot of obstacles against her at the start of the program in May 2000. Sophia had
just turned 2 years old. I realized that it wasn’t going to be as easy as I had predicted. The
obstacles below will present to you why it was important to reintroduce B.A. Bar at various
intervals. This meant stopping the program for 4-6 weeks and resuming where we left off before,
and sometimes it meant starting completely over.
E=emotional problem P=physical problem T=technical problem D=developmental problem
• (E) Red light was a huge distraction but was overcome. Stopped for 3 weeks.
• (E) Was not ready for the feelings of frustration and inadequacy when B.A. Bar didn’t
always work. Was overcome. Stopped for one month, started over again 3x.
• (P) The joints in all of Sophia’s fingers bend backwards a lot, and thus trying to press the
red “R” button to turn on B.A. Bar was unsuccessful every time. Fingers have become
stronger now.
• (P) Holding and twisting B.A. Bar correctly over the barcodes was very difficult, as was
turning or twisting anything such as keys or a spoon. Sophia wasn’t able to twist things
with her wrist until she was nearly 2 _ years old. Sophia wants to do everything perfectly,
and started throwing B.A. Bar when she didn’t get the results she wanted. Stopped for 1
month, resumed. Still wasn’t ready. Stopped for 1 more month, then resumed.
• (T) G ripping p roblem - We had no idea that Sophia would have a problem gripping B.A. Bar
well enough in order that she could become independent in it’s use. She couldn’t grip it well
enough to stabilize it on the barcodes at all.
She also had the problem of not being able to twist it in an upright position over the barcodes.
Stopped for 3-4 weeks, resumed.
• S olution : A double-handled grip was created exclusively for use with B.A. Bar, so she could
hold it with both hands. Later I added foam grips so the metal of the handles didn’t slide out
of her grip. This also helped Sophia with the problem of twisting and turning B.A. Bar in
order to more quickly read the bar codes, as she didn’t have to squeeze so hard. It did a lot
of the work for her. She was immediately more confident with B.A. Bar and let it move
around more in her hands and on the page, rather than keeping it stuck in one place- was
more flexible. And now developmentally, Sophia was interested in trying to make it work,
even when it didn’t want to! This was very exciting to see.
• (D) Was not yet developmentally able to see that the bar codes had to be in a vertical
position in order for the light to read the code, as opposed to the bar code being horizontal.
She was still having trouble stacking Lego’s- couldn’t tell which end fit where. At the time, it
was hard enough to get B.A. Bar on the bar code itself, let alone pay attention at the same
time to whether it was horizontal or the preferred vertical position. Too frustrated, stopped
all by herself for 3 weeks before picking it up again on her own. She wanted to be entirely
independent on it and of it. She wanted the freedom of going to it whenever she wanted, s o
I kept it charged at all times.
• (T) N ew p roblem: This was much better but I then discovered that she still couldn’t see the
bar codes well enough to accurately place B.A. Bar. We hadn’t realized this problem before.
• N ew S olution : A new grip is being made that will rotate like an elbow joint so that it is
adjustable to an angle that will enable Sophia to better see the bar code she is working with.
An A dded B onus o f B .A. B ar :
The younger or perhaps differently-abled child needs more motivation and encouragement to hold
the computer mouse, twist B.A. Bar, or learn a different way of sitting so that he can use an
apparatus. This is one of the biggest problems for Sophia. I know that she has fun sitting with
B.A. Bar and her books, shapes and colors. And although she learns a lot through repetition in
the time she spends with it, sometimes Sophia needs more encouragement.
For example, I know that one of the reasons Sophia will read one of her books using B.A.
Bar is because it is my voice retelling a story we have read hundreds of times together. It is
sentimental to her. Having mommy’s voice tell the story when mommy’s cooking or
shopping is very comforting to a small child like Sophia. My voice is all the encouragement
she needs to try again with B.A. Bar correctly on the barcodes so that she can hear my
voice one more time.
The P assive L earner
Sophia learns easier and faster when she is playing with B.A. Bar, because she doesn’t
know she’s learning! Sophia will therefore spend more time with B.A. Bar learning shapes,
colors, prepositions, the alphabet and memorizing stories and many ways of speaking
English, because no one tells her that she has to learn everything in the program. She does
it automatically because she’s having fun!
Independence
Sophia is very independent now with B.A. Bar. She goes to it whenever she wants and turns it on
at will, and places it 60% of the time correctly over the bar codes. We still have the problem where
she can sometimes not get it high enough over the bar code, (it’s too low down) before or even
after the first reading. I do everything I can not to intervene, but I know that letting Sophia get
frustrated means that she won’t pick it up again for maybe a month. That’s just the way Sophia is.
But there are also many times when she tries again once or twice to correct herself in the placement
of B.A. Bar over the barcodes. She then often makes the sign for ‘mommy’ as it is my voice that she
hears. She loves to use her books with B.A. Bar independently and prefers that I don’t help her at
all. B.A. Bar is something that is hers; it belongs to her. She is a very proud girl and loves making
even the smallest accomplishments.
One of B.A. Bar’s purposes for many people who use it is that it enables independence from having
to rely on others to communicate. I do not know if Sophia will ever speak very well, and maybe she
will have to rely on B.A. Bar or some apparatus like it in order to communicate in life. But, as she is
so young, I am grateful to having B.A. Bar, as I hope Sophia will never be dependent on it, but
rather, of it. The aim is for Sophia to use B.A. Bar as a stepping-stone, where she can use it to jump
over the hurdle of learning vocabulary; to use it to learn phrases and the phonetic pronunciation of
words. It is presently being used to break down the phonetics of words so she can better hear
each sound before it is said as a whole word in normal speech.
Here is an example:
She places BABARR on the barcode for ‘CAT’, and what she hears is, “C…..A…..T. CA…T.
CAT” Fortunately, Sophia has very few problems learning a word and what it means, according to
her level of development. It is therefore that B.A. Bar isn’t for the sole purpose of learning
vocabulary, but rather, in Sophia’s case, it’s for learning the alphabet, phonetics and sentence
structure. She is very interested in learning the alphabet and pays attention to site words in her
word videos from Love and Learning. Many times she’ll place B.A. Bar on a letter and then make
the Sign for a word that begins with that letter.
At this point in time, we are still keeping B.A. Bar down to use primarily in some of her picture books
and on some household objects and things that I have made myself. I have made ten shapes and
ten colors out of cardboard and have laminated them. They all have the corresponding barcode on
them, and Sophia enjoys using these as well. They are a bit more difficult than using the books,
however, because they do not stay stable or horizontal, and they move around when she places
B.A. Bar on them. So sometimes we will just use them to talk about other things in the room, such
as doing color matching or shape matching. But I believe, like the other obstacles Sophia has
encountered, that she will overcome this problem as well perhaps in the next few months.
One of the shape matching activities we do is with the three basic shapes; triangle, circle and
square. On the floor and table I have traced the shapes that she plays with. Onto the table or onto
the floor, she puts the circle on the circle, the square on the square and triangle on the triangle. It’s
a good matching game that she can write and walk on.
***** One of the most positive things I have noted since Sophia began using the shapes with B.A.
Bar and then matching them is with her V-Tech toy, Sort ’n Go Shapes car. This is a car where in
the windows there are shapes, and she has to put the correct shape in each of 5 windows. It then
either says the name of the shape or plays a certain song for each shape.
B.A. Bar helped Sophia to have many repetitions of the word that corresponds to the shape in order
that she could learn it faster.
She can now do the Sort ‘n Go Shapes Car on her own. I realize that many developmental stages
were needed to be able to do this, but having the shapes with their names on the barcodes at her
disposal made her feel more comfortable with approaching them. Against the advice of nearly
everyone I knew when Sophia was born, I began telling Sophia about shapes and colors since she
was 8 weeks old. I know parents who wouldn’t begin telling that to a normally developing child until
after 3 years old.
We also use the color cards with the B.A. Bar stickers to match with colors on our own clothing and
on things around the room. Often times Sophia will point to a color in one of her books and then
point to that same color on her shirt or something else in the room.
Having P atienc e with B.A. Bar as the facilitator, and for the learner who is using B.A. Bar is crucial
for many reasons. These are of equal importance and work together. I will speak of just a few. The
reason patience is crucial for the implementation of our program with B.A. Bar is because it allows
five important steps to be completed and evaluated.
• First, it was vital to realize that patience was going to be an emotional roller coaster for both
Sophia and me while presenting B.A. Bar. Coming to terms with my own feelings only
empowered me by helping to bring me to my most basic goals and objectives.
• Patience has allowed me to be/feel centered and free to think about how to best approach a
problem or task.
• When I can think clearly, patience will then allow me to plan this task and bring it into action.
• But many problems were observed and experienced along the way with the implementation
of this program, and those were solved with patience, too.
This is because I could step back and have a clear, objective view of the problem in order to
best correct it.
• Patience has been most valuable when Sophia hasn’t felt restricted or inadequate, as can
easily occur when the situation is strict and unforgiving. Sophia quite easily will literally turn
off and refuse to listen, acknowledge, or give any feedback whatsoever that I need in order
to properly evaluate the potential of both Sophia and the program being implemented with
B.A. Bar.
AGE-starting as young as possible WAS possible and the best road to success.
I use it in English, my mother tongue- why is this important (or is it) for Sophia?
Every minute working hard to make B.A. Bar a successful and meaningful part of Sophia’s daily life
was worth it.
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