Blog posting for class May 5

     The first day of class was very informative as it covered quite a bit of information involving Assistive Technology and its practical use in the classroom and beyond. The Past, Present and Future of AT Power Point demonstrated that the use of AT has been growing and progressing in the classrooms of today’s schools. For example, in the area of writing, there is a changing focus from the actual physical task of writing to a focus on giving students an access to information.  It is being realized by some educators that the  effort spent on reading remediation for students with dysgraphia is  better spent on assistive technology tools and training. Yesterday’s paper, pencils and graphic organizers have progressed to AT such as Kurzweil, PRISMO, scanning software, and iPads. The straightforward definition below sums up the role of AT for persons with a disability:

     Assistive Technology defined: providing access to a task and improving performance of an individual with a disability.

The videos shown of students in the ppt. showed how AT improved their access and performance. Of the students who were benefiting from the use of AT, I was most affected by the cerebral palsy boy who was able to join in with a music class through using his iPad and tongue to keep beat with his classmates. When I was his age in school, he would not have been part of my school; he would have been placed elsewhere in some sort of ‘handicapped facility’ away from the general population. He would also be thought of as intellectually inferior, probably in a major way. The iPad has given this boy a life he would not have had otherwise. This Assistive Technology provides a great benefit to nonverbal persons as it allows the nonverbal to demonstrate their intelligence – an intelligence that would be overlooked or undervalued without such AT.

     The future of AT is exciting, especially when software is constantly being improved and written for assistive devices such as the iPad. In class, I enjoyed using the iPad and the apps that were installed on the device. In class we spent some time on the app, Proloque2 Go which is a pretty amazing app that is especially useful for nonverbal students such as some autistic students. The company’s website describes this AT:

Proloquo2Go™ is an award-winning Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) solution for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch for people who have difficulty speaking or cannot speak at all.

This app was very user friendly and we spent some time navigating the setup and functionality while composing ideas to communicate to another person. The exposure to this app certainly emphasizes that it’s a huge improvement over the older method of physically creating icons, images and pictures by hand and physically moving them around to communicate an idea.

The video from YouTube below shows Nick. His situation, as described on the AssistiveWare website, is as follows: Nick is ten years old and was diagnosed with autism. His progress in speech has been extremely slow. Picture symbols, picture exchange communication techniques and photos were tried but did not work out for him, as Nick was not really interested. When Nick started using an iPad, he immediately understood how it worked and really wanted to use it. The device was reinforcing and he sensed it was a powerful tool for him. Now that Nick is using an iPad with Proloquo2Go he no longer has to try to be what other people want him to be, because he can now initiate communication and say what he wants and needs. Nick lives in New Jersey, USA

The term AAC devices (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) was used in class when describing the iPad and its AT qualities. This term was not one that I was especially familiar with so I want to make note of it on this blog. I like Wikipedia’s definition best which is: “AAC is an umbrella term that encompasses the communication methods used to supplement or replace speech or writing for those with impairments in the production or comprehension of spoken or written language. AAC is used by those with a wide range of speech and language impairments, including congenital impairments such as cerebral palsy, intellectual impairment and autism, and acquired conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. AAC can be a permanent addition to a person's communication or a temporary aid.”

I look forward in the coming classes to learning more about AAC devices and other AT modifications.