I think that assistive technology is great, especially when it comes to meeting the needs of every student. Because each student learns differently, you constantly need different tools to reinforce both behaviors and materials. I personally had a really unique experience to see a great assistive technology usage. When I was observing in a special education setting, there was a student that was completely nonverbal. The only words he did say were swear words that he learned from home. So, in an effort to help the child communicate, they gave him words (literally). On an iPad, they had a software installed in which the child could select words. For example, let's say this students name was Bob (For clarity, this is NOT the child's real name). There was a picture of Bob on the iPad and underneath his picture was his name. Then, there was another box that said "to go" with a stick figure running. There were more pictures too, but one I remember distinctly was a toilet with the word bathroom underneath. The child would select each button and the iPad would speak, " I go to the bathroom," which meant that Bob selected the corresponding boxes and needed to go to the bathroom. This helped the student control his emotions and because of the technology that was provided to him, he was allowed to communicate with his teachers and his peers which is something that was a major struggle for him! It was great to see technology be used in such a positive way and that the child was having such a positive emotional response to it as well.
Assistive technology is even great in a regular education setting, too. Through the UDL exchange site, I was able to see a lesson plan to help students with prepositions while using assistive technology. Using iPads, students will do a Where's Waldo/Elf on the Shelf activity. What they will do is they will have a figure (this can be anything from a stuffed animal to a drawing) and they can go around the school and take pictures of the figure, using the iPads, doing funny things to create a story made up of sentences using prepositions. This is a great assistive technology tool because the students are getting a concrete learning experience. Not only is it visual, but it is linguistic and kinesthet learning experiences as well.
http://udlexchange.cast.org/lesson/4468134
I agree with your blog post because it emphasizes behavior techniques to be used in classroom for each student. Each student reacts differently, therefore there should be different techniques used for them.
ReplyDeleteI have seen the same type of assistive technology uses, where it is literally the student's voice. I observed at a school called Giant Steps which is exclusively for autistic students and most of them are nonverbal or only use a few words. The program they used was awesome. The teachers were even able to add words for the students based on the child as an individual. For example, one student had "hot Cheetos" added to his words because he frequently asked for them.
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