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AUGUST 26, 2020 | 5
Lowry Center to reopen Sept. 8 LAUREN REID Staff Reporter The Lowry Center for Early Childhood Education, located in Pawley Hall, is set to reopen on Sept. 8 with reduced class sizes and safety precautions in place, including daily health screenings, temperature checks and face coverings (recommended for children two and up). Access to the center will be limited to essential staff and children only. The center offers early childhood education programming to children 18 months to five years of age, utilizing innovative equipment, materials and practices in an effort to cultivate development. Lowry strives to provide an ideal early childhood education laboratory center for OU and its neighboring communities. The Lowry center was unable to reopen this summer and has since cut down classroom size from twenty students prepandemic to nine this fall. They shut down in-person instruction in March when COVID-19 cases were first confirmed in the state of Michigan. The center also employs students pursuing an undergraduate degree in early childhood education through Oakland University for their practicum placement (field experience), where they are able to gain classroom leadership experience. “We are getting as prepared as we can to keep everyone safe,” said Lowry Center Director Ramona Borowicz. “[Our] first goal is to provide child care for families who need it, [and] for children to thrive even through a pandemic.” Borowicz mentioned the classroom will be taken outdoors a lot, as Lowry teachers are coming up with creative ways to keep kids separated and do group activities involving music and movement. “[We are looking for ways to] support
the development of every child and do our normal routine,” Borowicz said. “Lowry teachers are very creative. We have a good team, it’s exciting to see.” When it comes to safety precautions amid COVID-19, the Lowry Center is continuing to follow guidelines and protocol from OU, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA). A Lowry reopening committee was formed with people invested in the program, as mentioned by Borowicz. In addition to the daily screening questions, temperature checks, masks, increased sanitation and outdoor activities. Lowry students will remain in one classroom to prevent student/staff cross-contimination. According to Theresa Lee, a teacher at Lowry, children have been participating in virtual activities such as sharing their favorite toys. Additionally, Lowry students and parents have had the opportunity for virtual, individualized meetings to hear about drop off and pick up procedures and meet teachers both with a mask on and off. As far as reduced class sizes, Lee believes this will allow for deeper connections between Lowry students and staff. Although, staff may miss building parent connections and relationships, as parents will not be allowed in the building. “[We want to] keep kids safe and make [the experience] as meaningful and positive as it usually is during the year,” Lee said. “This is just another little challenge we can all face together [that will] make us stronger.” In light of reduced classroom capacity and increased safety guidelines there are currently no open spots at the Lowry Center. However, those looking for more information can call the center at 248-3704100 or take a look at their website.
SOPHIE HUME | PHOTOGRAPHER The Lowry Center for Early Childhood education reopens Sept. 8 with safety precautions.
PHOTO | OU MAGAZINE Chaturi Edrisinha, OUCA director of research, noted the community demand for seminars
Webinar series aids families with autistic children DEAN VAGLIA Staff Reporter
Quarantine has been a difficult time for many people, but parents and siblings of children with autism face a unique situation. While their family members with autism are normally in programs designed to handle the challenges of growing up with autism, those services are no longer operating and families now have to handle these challenges themselves. In order to help families during this difficult time, The Oakland University Center for Autism (OUCA) has been hosting webinars to teach parents and siblings of children with autism how to help their family members during the pandemic. “When this pandemic began sometime in March, we had so many families reach out because they were in crisis,” OUCA Director of Research Chaturi Edrisinha said. Along with needing to manage changes in their children’s behavior, families had to manage working and studying from home while taking care of their autistic family members. Since the OUCA was getting so many requests for help, the decision was made to virtually host a seminar series. Seminars ran from June to August and were livestreamed around either noon or in the evening on the OUCA YouTube page. Viewers interacted with the speakers by using the text chat function. Topics ranged from how to set up routines, why routines are beneficial for children with autism, how to teach children with autism safe social media practices and how to use visuals as a behavioral support. One major subject in the early days of the seminar was how to handle trauma. “We had a number of folks in Detroit and
Greater Detroit, African American families, who were losing loved ones and it was so hard to explain to kids with autism that grandmother had died and you could not visit them,” Edrisinha said. “There was no closure and it was a very difficult situation.” While the seminars were mainly focused on parents and caregivers, the siblings of children with autism were not ignored. “We recognized that — in all times but especially in the era of COVID — that the family unit has an even more essential role to play in their child’s education,” Abbigail Sievers, a seminar presenter and high school special education teacher, said. Sievers’ own experiences growing up with siblings with special needs, along with her professional experience, helped shape her three sibling-focused seminars. “I think a lot of times siblings can be a forgotten member of the person with autism’s team,” Sievers said. “Making sure they feel like they have a community and that their voice is heard, but also that their role as a sibling is validated is something that I found fun and really enjoyable during this time.” Both parents and students provided the speakers with feedback, but siblings tended to be more willing to ask less sensitive questions. “[The questions siblings asked] were really good because that was something I did not anticipate,” Edrisinha said. “I did not expect those very candid and sincere questions, generally because with adults when you have questions they are a little bit more savvy and sophisticated. It was lovely and refreshing to be able to answer these genuine questions.” While the series has ended, all of the seminars can be found on the OUCA YouTube page.