We started a thankfully cooler day 2 with a video on Tyler. Despite having watched this video last course, I still really enjoyed seeing the progress that he made over the years.
3 Takeaways from Tyler’s video:
- Tyler used switch access technology & a switch scanning software to communicate, participate in classroom activities & play games!
- Tyler advocated for himself to get an ill-functioning elevator fixed; it wasn’t working properly & his education was suffering because of it
- He formed a band & was able to participate using an ipad, along with a friend who has aspergers
It really shows that it does ‘take a village’...you had collaboration between OT, school community, circle of friends, teachers, AT specialist, TA, SLP, teachers, administration and parents, just to name some of the people involved in Tyler's education!
It's always very important to remember the overall goal of AT. It's about enhancing performance of individuals to provide independent access to a task. Without AT, some students would not be able to function; they need to be able to have independent access. One of the key thing to remember is that it is not cheating! It’s enhancing student performance. Handheld devices (particularly Apple devices) are extremely helpful. I really like the picture below that Barb showed us, that shows SOME of the many things that Apple devices can do.
Why do we communicate? We communicate to receive information from another about that person's needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge or affective states. Communication is so important, and yet it's something that we rarely think about or discuss aloud. How we communicate, particularly in the classroom, must change on a case-by-case, class-by-class setting.
We also discussed things that were required for effective communication. We came up with three common parts of effective communication:
1- You need a communication partner
2- Communication has to be done in a common language
3- You require joint attention
We also chatted about different ways to communicate, and had to take the time to think about 15 different ways to communicate. Some of the examples that I found can be found below in my Inspiration.
We also chatted about different ways to communicate, and had to take the time to think about 15 different ways to communicate. Some of the examples that I found can be found below in my Inspiration.
After this, we began Assignment 1, which is using Proloquo2Go. This is a new program for me, but I've heard lots about it so I'm excited to finally get to use it. I'm looking forward to getting moving with the project tomorrow! In the past, I've seen non-verbal students working with laminated picture cards in order to convey information. While effective, imagine how time consuming it would be for the teacher or EPA to be continuously making these? A program like Proloquo is a life saver. It takes communication for non-verbal/disabled students and makes it accessible again. Amazing! I've included a quick intro video to Proloquo below, as well as a picture of one of the boards I looked at today. If you feel like diving deeper into how to use Proloquo, please click on the additional links to the right in the video.
Great comment about not cheating, i loved the analogy to wearing glasses. Outside of school it is illegal for a glasses user to drive without her glasses yet we often have people complain about assistive technology that simply allows a student to interact with curriculum.
ReplyDeleteHA! good point John! Chris I love your use of Inspiration to generate 20 different ways we communicate!
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