At Shawn's end-of-year IEP review, as the team went over which learning accommodations should be kept in the next school year, his kindergarten teacher noted, "Shawn doesn't take his movement breaks.”

Shawn’s mom cocked her head, genuinely puzzled and surprised. If any child needed a movement break, it was him. Diagnosed with ADHD, Shawn was wiggly and impulsive.

Directly after the meeting, Mom went home and asked Shawn why he didn’t take his movement breaks.

“Mommmmm,” he groaned in the exasperated tone usually reserved for pre-teen characters on the Disney channel, “They pull me out of the room by myself. It’s SOOO embarrassing.”

Shawn had been needing his movement breaks for the last six months of school, but had -instead- been squirming during morning meeting and wriggling during writing.

There are hundreds of ways to provide Shawn with a movement break that doesn’t shame him. If we had just asked him sooner, we could have spared him and his teachers months of frustration.

With TurnSignal, Shawn's first grade teacher has him tap a few buttons on a class iPad. This information lets her know how Shawn is responding to his accommodations. His feedback is reported in easy-to-read graphs and charts. A dip in scores could tell her that he's having a tough couple of days, or that a particularly strategy is working in math but not reading, or that some accommodations work better in the mornings than in the afternoons. With this information at her fingertips, Shawn's teacher can ask more questions and make quick adjustments.

Over the long-term, Shawn's feedback provides quantitative and qualitative data for annual review meetings. Cumulative data tracked over years help Shawn's team target which accommodations work and gradually decrease supports over time so he can become more independent.

Shawn likes being asked about his learning. He knows his feedback matters, and he is starting to ask for what he needs to learn best. He is more engaged during reading and math, and his specials teachers have reported better direction-following and less impulsivity.

There’s a lot to manage in a teacher’s daily travels. It can feel overwhelming to juggle the needs of many students at once and try out multiple strategies for each learner. Our students constantly change direction, and -let’s face it- they don’t always signal when they change lanes.

TurnSignal helps kids function as our GPS systems, giving voice and agency to students of all ages. Together, we can figure out how they learn best and how they can self-advocate to meet their needs.

Every child’s learning road has slightly different twists and turns. If kids help us create their roadmaps, we can navigate together, and we can get them ready to one day take the driver’s seat.

TurnSignal

Ask. Listen. Adjust.

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