Using AT to Assist Students with Autism, Cognitive Disabilities, or Multiple Disabilties Achieve Independence

 

In the previous post we discussed using AT to assist students with disabilities who are moving onto higher education. As with any student entering college, there is a need for independence. Assistive technology can help students with disabilities in reaching independence.  It is of course important that the correct device or system is chosen to allow the independence to occur. Factors such as usability and mobility should be considered to ensure that the use of the AT is successful. Making sure that the student is involved when choosing the device is also important.This will provide ownership and start off that feeling of independence for the student.  There are many types of software and applications available such as My House: Language Activities of Daily Living can be used to teach functional skills and can be accessed by students with a wide range of physical and cognitive disabilities. Assistive technology can also be used to provide visual supports to these students since they often have difficulty with self-managing and personal organization. Boardmaker and Pogo Boards can assist educators in creating picture schedules and other visuals to support their students. As discussed before, the iPad is also a useful tool when meeting the needs of students with a variety of disabilities. An iPad can be loaded with many differents apps to assist students in acheiving and maintaing independence.

Using Assistive Technology to Serve as a Reasonable Accommodation for Students with Disabilities in College

Throughout this blog we have primarily focused on using assistive technology to remove learning barriers for students with disabilities. Most of my posts have focused on school aged children, but I think it is important that we take some time to think about these students when they move onto higher education. “Under 504 and the ADA, colleges must provide-at no cost to the student-reasonable accommodations to make their programs more accessible to students with disabilities” (Dell, Newton, & Petroff, 2012). This is very important as there are no IEPs in higher education. Assistive technology can help college students in the same ways I have talked about in previous posts: completing writing assignments, reading text, removing learning barriers, increasing their ability to communicate, as well as maximizing their independence. In the text, “Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experience of Students with Disabilities, it was stressed that AT may be helpful to college students if the tools meet the following criteria:

·         Easy to use and easy to customize

·         Age appropriate

·         AT must be the student’s choice

·         Matches the task (note taking) and the environment (is there power source available, can it be done quickly enough while professor is speaking during a lecture?)

·         Easily accessed by the student

·         Training and technical support must be provided to the student and staff

After reading that the employment rate is significantly higher for students with disabilities who go onto higher education, I think it is very important that they are provided with AT to make learning as accessible as possible while attending college. This will ensure that they can learn to the best of their ability in the most least restrictive environment.

REFERENCE

Dell, A. G., Newton, D. A., & Petroff, J. G. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom: Enhancing the school experiences of students with disabilities. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

Making it Work: Implementation of Assistive Technology Recommendations

There are often complaints that when is it recommended that a student uses assistive technology in the classroom, it fails to get implemented. There must be many details addressed in order to the assistive technology implementation to be effective. In this post we will look at two resources provided in the text, “Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experience of Students with Disabilities” to assist you in developing implementation plans.

Resource 1: Effective Implementation of AssistiveTechnology Guide as provided by Special Education Technology of BritishColumbia

This guide is a seven part file that was designed to provide educators with a guide for successfully implementing a wide variety of assistive technologies with students with special needs.  A comprehensive implementation plan and samples of specific tools are included in this resource. I liked how the guide began at the gathering information part of the process and brought you all the way to planning transition for the student. This is a great resource to refer to or keep in your “assistive technology” binder or file folder.

After viewing the guide I explored this website a little further and actually found great links to accessible books and boardmaker resources. This website contained so much useful information!

Resource 2: TexasAssistive Technology Network: Assistive Technology Implementation Module

This resource is a module which was created for people who are or will be involved in assistive technology decision making or implementation. As outlined on the website the objectives of the module were as follows:

Participants will learn:

·         The purposes and results of assistive technology

·         The big ideas in assistive technology implementation

·         How to plan for assistive technology implementation

·         Evaluating the effectiveness of assistive technology implementation

This module was very thorough and reviewed quite a few of topics I have touched on in my previous posts such as the SETT framework and QIAT (Quality Indicators of Assistive Technology). I found the PowerPoint presentation and the TIPS blank template to be the most useful resources provided in this module. The PowerPoint would easily inform or remind the viewer of the many processes of implementing AT for a student. The TIPS template was a great resource for me to keep on hand to make sure that implementation of AT is successful and that monitoring of the effectiveness of the AT continues.

Another Resource: Math Wire

When thinking about teaching math to students with disabilities, or any student, it is important to have a good amount of resources and ideas. Math Wire is a great site that I came across a few years ago when I first began teaching. The entire site is devoted to standards-based math activities. You can search for activities by topic, alphabetically, or by standard. This website has always provided me with great holiday math activities. My students absolutely love every activity that I  have ever used
from Math Wire. "Grab the Candy" has been a favorite over the years in my class to practice the concept of coordinate grids.

Looking Closer at Virtual Manipulatives

In an earlier post I provided you with the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives as a resource to use when teaching math to students with disabilties. After exploring this site more thoroughly, I felt it necessary to share some more information about it.

This site is easy to understand and well-organized. It is divided into the five major strands of mathematics (Numbers & Operations, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, and Data Analysis & Probability) and then furthur broken down by grade level. You are able to download a free trial as well! I thought that the manipulatives were very colorful and would certainly engage any student especially if they could get hands-on with them on a Smart Board. This site not only includes manipulatives, but also games and puzzles. This is certainly a resource that teachers should consider to enrich their math curriculum while meeting the needs of all students!

Low-Tech and Mid-Tech Adaptations to Assist Students with Disabilities in Completing Math Assignments

You might be wondering what types of adaptations you can provide your students with disabilities that do not require a computer. There are many products and resources available to assist teachers in the teaching of mathematic concepts. Some of these products include:

Low-Tech

·         Manipulatives (post pics) Most math programs today inlcude manipulatives. However, one could also use household objects such as beans and straws to accomplish similar tasks.

·         Rubber stamps (fractions, clocks, coins)

·         Number lines

·         Addition and multiplication tables

Mid-Tech

·         Talking calculators (great for students with visual impairments)

·         Large calculators with oversized buttons (fine motor difficulty)

·         See n’ Solve Calculators (allow students to see all parts of the problem as they are solving it.

Using manipulatives is a great way to incorporate UDL into your instruction. They not only engage students, but make learning more hands-on and provides a concrete representation of mathematic concepts for your students!

I frequently use manipulatives such as these in my classroom. Students love the hands-on approach to math and it really gets them thinking about the concepts they are learning! One suggestion is to let your students "play" with the manipulatives a few minutes prior to starting the lesson. This way they are less focused on touching them and more focused on you and the lesson!

 

Technology Tools to Address Visual-Spatial or Motor Control Difficulties

In previous blogs I have discussed and examined various devices and tools to help to remove barriers for students with disabilities in reading and writing. Because “students with disabilities may experience difficulty in writing numbers, aligning digits in computation problems, and creating visual representation (e.g., shapes or angles) for a number of reasons” (Dell, Newton, & Petroff, 2012) it is important to remove these barriers so that students many demonstrate their understanding of mathematical concepts. In this post I have outlined various tools as found in, “Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with Disabilities”: to assist students with visual-spatial or motor control difficulties in math.

MathPad- “is a talking math worksheet program that enables students to perform arithmetic computations with whole numbers on the computer in much the same way they would use a pencil and paper” (Dell, Newton, & Petroff, 2012). This program provides immediate feedback to students and has customizable speech output that prompts regrouping for struggling readers or students who are visually impaired. 

MathPad Plus- utilizes the same features of MathPad, but extends the skills to fractions and decimals.

Virtual PencilArithmetic- is designed for students who are, in the words of the publisher, “pencil impaired”. “VP Arithmetic makes addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with whole numbers, fractions, and decimals accessible to students with disabilities” (Dell, Newton, & Petroff, 2012). Virtual Pencil also features speech feedback and a tutor that guides students along the way.

Virtual PencilAlgebra- contains the same features of VP Arithmetic, but allows students with disabilities to easily access and solve algebraic equations.   

Number Navigator- allows students to solve basic math problems on the computer, but does not have speech output.

 

Microsoft Word- commonly used for word processing, this program can also be used by students who have difficulty writing to show their work.

Scientific Notebook- designed for solving equations. “This program provides students who have disabilities the opportunity to participate in advanced math classes. Students can work with calculus, vector calculus, transformations, and matrices, among other topics” (Dell, Newton, & Petroff, 2012).

REFERENCE

Dell, A. G., Newton, D. A., & Petroff, J. G. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom: Enhancing the school experiences of students with disabilities. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.