Apple Products Provide Some Visual Supports for Students with Severe Disabilities

There are apps for touch screen technology they can be used to easily create visual supports such as picture schedules, activity schedules and social stories.

•  iPrompts runs on Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices, gives picture based prompts that are configured by teachers and parents to help the student stay on task and transition between activities. There are hundreds of stock photos available or you can ass your own from the built-in camera in the device. 

• iCommunicate adds a voice to the picture schedules. You can record the messege attach it to the picture. 

• Picture Planner allows the student to construct a personalized picture schedule on a computer and then use the schedules either in a printed version or on mobile devices. The program also provides line drawing symbols and text-to-speech feedback. You can also make activity sequences from video clips on the iPod Touch. 

References

Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.

Assistive Technology and College

Assistive technology can serve as a reasonable accommodation for students with disabilities in college. With more than 9.3% of students in college with some sort of disability, assistive technology is needed in the classroom during classes and testing situations. 

• The assistive technology must be easy to use and easy to customize
• The tool must be age appropriate
• The assistive technology selected must be the student's own choice. 
• The technology tool must carefully match the specific task that needs to be accomplished and the environment in which it will take place.
• The assistive technology tool must be installed in a place that the student can access easily. 
• Training and ongoing technical support must be provided to students and staff. 

Enabling college with these several accommodations will make a world of difference to them. They should be able to receive the same education like everyone else. 

References

Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.

Assistive Technology Implementation Resources

Here are two great resources to help implement assistive technology.

Oregon Technology Access Program: http://www.otap-oregon.org/Pages/Default.aspx

• I was not very impressed with this website in general. They only really offered options for people in Oregon. There were a few documents available through the site to help with assistive technology. 
• If you are in Oregon, this website provides you with loaner programs, training with the devices, conferences, grants and program activities. 
• The one thing I did love about this link was the Pinterest site included in the home page. http://www.pinterest.com/otap4at/
• There are over 200 different resources included in the 22 different boards ranging from iPad apps to homemade assistive technology

Making It Work: http://www.setbc.org/setbc/topics/effective_implementation_of_assistive_technology.html

• This website is more universally online friendly. It provides you with seven different sections
• Section One: Gather Relevant Information
• Section Two: Establish IEP Goals 
• Section Three: Conduct Assistive Technology Trials 
• Section Four: Identify Assistive Technology Solutions 
• Section Five: Develop Assistive Technology Implementation Plan 
• Section Six: Adapt Lessons for Technology Integration 
• Section Seven: Follow Up and Plan Transition
• The PDF files above are each very lenthy but gives you plenty of valuable information. They also provide sample graphs to document information and sample lesson plans. 

How a Student's Augmentative Communication System can be Designed

There are different ways to design the augmentative communication system to meet the needs of the home and community.

• Identify vocabulary that is relevant to the home and community
• teach family members to provide opportunities for communication and to wait
• provide simple data and evaluation sheets for home and community use
• give parents permission to expand the child's communication 
• provide parents with a clear, simple description of their child's device
• program the device with specific questions so guests in the community can be directed towards the device to answer the questions.

My next post will talk about how to implement assistive technology.

References

Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.

Supporting the Use of Augmentative Communication Systems at Home and the Community

Students should not stop using their augmentative communication devices after they are finished with the school day. They need to practice while at home and in the community. This reinforces skills learned in school and helps generalize them to other settings. 

Requires expanded consideration of

• family involvement
• issues related to culture
• identification of places or activities in which the student is active. 

Teachers must make sure that the transition between school and home with the device is appropriate. All of the family should be included in the evaluation and implementation processes. Schools must provide direct instruction on how to operate the device. 

References

Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.

Augmentative Communication Integrated Into the IEP

There are more and more students using augmentative communication each day. Here is how this device is integrated into the IEP.  

• The students use of the system must be integrated within and across the school day, including both instructional and non instructional periods.
• The IEP team must collaborate to ensure that the plan is aligned to all of the student's instructional program components and expected outcomes
• The IEP must include clear statements stating the student's communication needs across the environments and an explanation how the features will be sued by the student

Goal Development

• The augmentative device is a means to accomplishing a goal. It is not a goal in itself. 
• Consider these three goal areas:
• communication
• instruction/academic
• social interaction

Additional Components to be Added

• a list of the augmentative communication services to be provided by related service personnel
• identification of the party responsible for device maintenance and operations

References

Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.

Strategies Teachers Can Use to Overcome "Learned Helplessness"

We will now take a break before we go over augmentative communication systems in the classroom, to talk about something that is very important to teach the students in your classes. I have personally seen this in classrooms but never knew the name for it. Let's talk about "Learned Helplessness," (a condition in which a person suffers from a sense of powerlessness, arising from a traumatic event or persistent failure to succeed.) Some students have developed a pattern of "learned helplessness" through years of disempowerment. As a teacher, you have to provide the students with a voice.

Below are some helpful tips to teach the student to overcome learned helplessness. 

• Build a daily expectation through specific activities by having the student
• choose the activity during recess
• pick a book to read
• identify where to eat lunch
• Construct a brief daily report to parents that is communicated by the student
• Allow natural consequences to occur and provide avenues for repair
• includes setups that alter the environment to provide less support or sabotage
• Provide for choice making whenever possible that requires the student to use his or her augmentative communication system
• Provide powerful phrases on the devise for the student to reject or protest something

References

Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.