My 9 year old daughter Lindy kept asking me to apply online for her to receive a Bluebee Pal after hearing of a former student who he and his brother received Bluebee Pals through the Bluebee Pals Project. My daughter had been having a very rough year and she was convinced that a Bluebee Pal would be just what she needed to help her calm down when she was having a meltdown. She pestered me for weeks but I kept putting it off. Finally I suggested she write an email herself and tell her own story. Lindy wrote a sweet email about her and her two brothers and the struggles they have had this year. She wrote how a Bluebee Pal would help each one of them in their own way through difficult times. She ended the email telling about my Special Education classroom, me, and my students. As a result of my daughter’s persistence and tender heart, the Bluebee Pals Project sent my classroom 15 Bluebee Pals. That was enough for us to be able to use one Bluebee Pal with each of the students.
Since Lindy was the reason we received the Bluebee Pals, I decided to let her be the one to introduce them. The first time the students met the Bluebee Pal Leo the Lion was during a Story Time where Lindy was holding Leo and introducing the book. As soon as Leo began reading, the students were silent. They did not take their eyes off of him. They sat quiet during the entire reading of the book. That has never happened before. One of the students ‘Sarah’ who has a very difficult time remaining at Circle Time, was totally captivated by Leo the Lion as he read the story and then sang some of the students favorite songs with them. ‘Sarah’ was calm as she got closer and closer to Leo and rocked back and forth as he read the story. She smiled and laughed during a time when she was usually screaming and crying. If the Bluebee Pals did nothing more than help ‘Sarah’ remain calm and happy during Circle Time, then they were a success.
After initially introducing Leo the Lion during Story Time, the students wanted to have the Bluebee Pals with them all the time. The Bluebee Pals have proven to be strong reinforcers in the classroom. For some students they are rewards to work for after completing their academic work, for other students, the Bluebee Pals aid in transitions between classrooms, and for many of the students the Bluebee Pals have been strong calming tools. The mixture of the soft cuddly animal mixed with the Bluebee Pal singing the students preferred music, has been amazingly effective. Students that do not normally snuggle stuffed animals will hold the Bluebee Pal as it sings, put their fingers in the Bluebee Pals mouth as it moves, and be still. Students who never sat during Circle Time, were sitting through circle. Students that were hard to calm, were calming down quicker. Students that had frequent meltdowns through out the day, were choosing the Bluebee Pal as a calming choice before they had a meltdown. They almost seemed magical.
When working on the iPads, the students have been able to remain more engaged when the Bluebee Pal is accompanying them, and narrating their work for them. The students will watch the Bluebee Pal and continue to work for longer periods of time, then without the Bluebee Pal.
We have also found the Bluebee Pals to be helpful when working with our students with Autism on Social Stories. When reading a social story to ‘John’, often the response to everything we read was, “No.” If the social story was about walking down the hall and having safe hands his response would be “No walking down the hall, no having safe hands.” Because ‘John’ had responded so well to the the Bluebee Pal Riley the Zebra during other activities, we decided to have Riley read a social story to ‘John.’ At first, Riley the Zebra was met with the same opposition as we did, except ‘John’ was accepting what Riley said after a few repetitions. Even if he didn’t like what Riley said, he was complying with Riley’s requests. It was absolutely amazing. It may seem like something small, but in a classroom like ours, small steps are the big steps.
As I have watched videos from other schools on how they are using the Bluebee Pals in their classrooms, I have gained some new ideas of how to implement activities using the Bluebee Pals in our classroom. I am excited to integrate the Bluebee Pals into our day more often and continue to improve the quality of education that our students are receiving through additional implementation of assistive technology.
Thank you so much Bluebee Pals!
Sonya Hostetter
Special Education Teacher with a Master’s in Special Education.
District Level Basic Skills Elementary Program for the Lebanon Community School District.
