ipad, ipod, iphone, " iWANTtoCOMMUNICATE "

This journey to understanding Universal Design for Learning and Assistive Technology took began with early intervention, so it seems fitting that this final (required) blog ends with how to use assistive technology in life after school.

The advances in technology since the inception of IDEA have been exponential; while a picture schedule is and can be an effective form of communication, the addition of APPs and programs that are readily available on mobile devices demands recognition as a low cost (after initial investment in device) avenue for authoring a person specific set of icons and phrases.

I have a family member who has been battling cancer for the past 18 months. The battle has included 2 brain surgeries, and now several months after the last successful surgery she is beginning to suffer the side effects that the surgery causes as trama to the brain - her speech is impaired. I used my understanding of assistive technology to help. I downloaded an APP onto her Kindle, even when she was not able to verbalize the correct words, or put them in the correct context she had a tool to communicate her basic needs. The relief in the expression on her face was palpable; this will serve as a constant memory and reminder to me to find the tool that meets the persons needs,  in their environment and based on the task.

Does your IEP Graduate with you from High School?

By their senior year in High School a child with an IEP that includes assistive technology should have a fine tuned document (especially if he or she has been part of the process since elementary school).

What should you do to take the fear out of your child transitioning to college - how do you make sure their special needs are still met when they walk on a college campus. The underlying  fact you must consider is a college, unlike a public K-12 school, does not have a legal obligation to provide your child an education; the laws become civil about discrimination.

While this is by no means and exhaustive list of what to consider, it is important to plan and consider these so help create a smooth transition.

• Relevant laws for college: Section 504 of Rehabilitation Act, and The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)
• Laws make colleges accountable for equal opportunity not identical results per student
• Colleges are required to provide auxiliary aides, but not required to provide the most sophisticated technology available
• In higher education the responsibility for documenting a disability falls on the student not the school
• An example of an accommodation change that students and parents of a college student with a disability could anticipate: student might be given extended time to take test, however college is not obligated to adjust content of exam to make accommodations

Assistive Technology In the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with Disabilities, Second Edition 2012 by Amy G. Dell, Deborah A. Newton, Jerry G. Petroff,  Pearson
   Chapter 14 pages 324-344

Part 2 - Design Augmentative Communication for Success in Home & Community

 Have you heard the quote of Benjamin Franklin "by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail"? The modernized version is "people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan".

That logic, or lack of it can apply to designing augmentative communication to met the needs of family and community. I have distinct memories of days that I did not adequately plan for my lessons, and anything that could go wrong did go wrong; and yet I probably still appeared shocked. When you take the time to plan it makes your job feel effortless. The goal of augmentative communication for a student with special needs is to make their communication feel effortless, and productive. Here are a few tips to make that a reality.

• Consider family functioning and cultural diversity in initial planning stages
• Parents, siblings, grandparents, extended family should all be considered in planning content.
• Parents need to be trained by school personnel; they will become trainers and "tech support" for all other family members on how to best use AC and have their child communicate successfully.
• To ease the process of communication in the community the device can be programmed to include statements that reflect the child's "voice". Examples "It is OK, to think I sound weird, I had to get use to it to". "Just ask me a questions like you would if this device wasn't here"; "please look at me when you talk to me, thanks"; "Feel free to finish my sentence if you think you understand where I am going - we will talk much faster that way". ; "don't worry, if you are wrong I will let you know!" 

Assistive Technology In the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with Disabilities, Second Edition 2012 by Amy G. Dell, Deborah A. Newton, Jerry G. Petroff,  Pearson

Part 1 - Importance of Use of Augmentative Communication at Home & In the Community

 

Communication is valued at home, school, & in the community

Important to Use Augmentative Communication in all 3
Part 1

For today's blog I want to consider hoe to insure that the augmentative communication a child uses at school also gets used at home and in their community. In school a child who is using an augmentative communication will receive direct instruction on how to use it; and with effective teacher planing will be given a multitude of environmental situations where it will be practiced daily.

Some points to keep in mind when planning for increased use at home and in the community:

• Consider the family's schedule, activities, culture and initial knowledge of augmentative communication device when initiating increase  in use of device.
• Family needs training to fully utilize tool - training should consider any unique family communication needs (family situations).
• Reinforce parents willingness and success with adding and increasing use of augmentative communication at home and in the community.
• To increase success with use in community (more challenging because do not have invested communication partners) teachers can program relevant questions and common responses .

Augmentative Communication Integration in the IEP

I've talked a lot about IEPs, goals, and Assistive Technology in this series of blogs. So much so, it is beginning to feel like a riddle:

What comes first, the Augmentative Technology or the IEP?

Well, it is the IEP! Assistive Technology is not in itself an IEP goal, but rather a means to for the child to achieve the goal.
It is imperative for the team to consider the use of assistive technology when writing the goals, and integrating it into the written goal so that it is utilized as an instructional communication tool, not just technology that is labeled and then sits on the shelf.

Goals should be established to use the augmentative communication in an effort to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and frequency of communication.

Assistive Technology Implementation Resources

During this journey to understanding Universal Design for Learning we have spent a significant amount of time investigating and reviewing assistive technology that will allow your student to access and engage with general curriculum. The purpose of today's blog is to provide you with resources to assist in the IMPLEMENTATION of the AT after it has been identified and selected.




University of Kentucky Assitive Technology Toolkit
What you will find at the above link, and how it will help:

• Introduction to Assistive Technology
• PDF downloads of checklists, steps in process, resources and links
• SAMPLE of a completed application of tool kit

SET - Effective Implementation of Assistive Technology
What you will find at the above link, and how it will help:

• PDF downloads of checklists, steps, resources and links
• "The Learning Centre" allow access to student accessible books, picture sets, curriculum set and websites.
• 7 step process in PDF format

Assistive Technology - Kindle Educational App

Kindle Fire HD - Math App - FREE app (my favorite kind)

If you are looking for an easy app for your students to build their math fact fluency or automaticity, this is a great way to start.

Application Name: Math Study Buddy
Publisher: MLK Apps
Available for Free via the Amazon App store
Goals: Math Fact Automaticity
Summary: Practice with multiple difficulties from simple to very hard. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and Division. Great for all ages. This is a great app to test out how to use a flash card based app, but it would be worth a few dollars of investment or further investigation to find an APP that would store and provide statistics on progress towards master.


Strengths: Multi Age level application
Ability to choose 3 settings:
math operation, range of numbers to use: 1-10, or 1-25, or 1-50, or 1-100; level of difficulty
verbal confirmation when correct response given, visual check mark given for correct answer, prompt given "try again" if incorrect response, visual red x shown if incorrect response, ability to continue for as long as desired

Weaknesses: no statistics kept on progress, not able to set limit on number or problems per set, when an incorrect response is given, incorrect answer still appears as a possible answer.