Augmentative and Alternative Communication—Class 9

This class, we completed an online activity consisting of a series of questions about augmentative and alternative communication.  The assignment is below:

 

 

This is how Dawn and I answered the questions:

1.      Communication is conveying information about needs, desires, knowledge, perceptions, or affective states.  Communication can be sending any type of message to another person (or your dog, cat, or cattle!), but for it to be effective, it must be understood and interpreted.  A website with a good definition of communication is the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.  http://www.asha.org/

 

2.      Twenty different ways we communicate include:

1) speaking

2) writing

3) typing

4) sign language

5) body language

6) eye contact

7) tone of voice

8) gestures

9) vocal sounds

10) music

11) braille

12) clothing

13) hairstyles

14) symbols

15) multimedia

16) acronyms

17) pictures

18) graphs

19) speech synthesis

20) touch

 

3.      AAC—augmentative and assistive communication—refers to the communication methods used to supplement or replace speech or writing, used when an individual has impairments with these skills.  AAC may be use permanently or temporarily to aid communication.

 

4.      There is no typical user of AAC.  The only certain commonality amongst users is impairments with speech or writing.  AAC is often used for individuals with diseases or disorders such as cerebral palsy, autism, ALS, or Parkinson’s.  It could also be used by accident victims or people born with speech and language impairments.  It might even be used by a student with anxiety issues.

 

5.      Three criteria for effective communication are:

1)      Complete, correct, and clear message (i.e. verbal and nonverbal signals must not conflict)

2)      Interaction between sender and recipient, with recipient able to receive the message (i.e. if someone cannot read, they must receive messages in forms other than text)

3)      Recipient attending in an effort to understand the message from the sender

 

 

In short, a communication partner, a common language, and joint attention are all required for effective communication.

 

6.      Ten different types of AAC available include:

1)      American Sign Language

2)      Vocalizations  and gestures

3)      Communication boards

4)      Boardmaker app

5)      Speech generating devices (use typing, pointers, or head tracking)

6)      iPads

7)      Proloquo2Go

8)      Dragon dictation app

9)      TapSpeak Choice app

10)  Voice cards app

 

7. For each of the ten types of AAC listed above, the primary user is described and a photo is provided:

1) The predominant sign language of deaf communities in the US and English-speaking Canada is ASL.  Both the sender and the recipient must be fluent in ASL for the communication to be effective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) Vocalizations and gestures are a low tech AAC that can be used by anyone who can generate sound and has enough motor control for basic movements.

 

 

 

 

3) Communication boards are a low tech AAC used if someone cannot use their voice and needs to share a specific message, often about wants and needs.

 

 

 

4)      The Boardmaker app would be used by anyone who might use a communication board to create a customized communication board in electronic form on their iPad.

 

5) Speech generating devices allow the user to type, point, or use head or eye-tracking features in order to direct a computer to speak for them.  The primary users are non-verbal and might also have motor impairments.  Often these individuals have cerebral palsy, ALS, or Parkinson’s, for example.

 

 
 

 

6) iPads offer AAC via apps, and there is no specific primary user.  Those who cannot speak or write at all might rely on these devices, as might students with mild learning disorders who use the iPads as a compensatory tool on rare occasions.

  

 

 
 

 

7) Proloquo2Go is an app that allows individuals who are unable to speak to tap symbols in order to make sentences that the technology will speak on their behalf.

 

 

8) Dragon dictation is a speech-to-text app.  From an ACC perspective, primary users would be anyone who is verbal but cannot write or type because they are lacking either cognitive or motor skills.

9) With a range of accessibility options, TapSpeak Choice allows either very simple communication boards or complete speech generation page sets to be generated.  Anyone with any type of speaking impairment might use this app.

 

 

 

 

 

 

10) The primary user for Voice Cards would be a student with writing challenges who is studying or keeping notes for classes.  However, any auditory learner might use this app as well.

9. Inspiring video of a user of AAC:

Maya Finds Her Voice

 

 

 



The writing process—Class 8

I enjoyed the discussion about our writing task analysis.  I never realized the diversity of skills required for writing—students must be motivated and attend, be capable of self-talk, formulate ideas from pictures to language, have hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, and more.  This was very awakening for me because I’ve never had difficulty writing and the process of putting pencil to paper isn’t discussed at a high school level, but maybe some of our students are experiencing challenges we’re unaware of related to writing.

 

We watched two videos.  One featured an occupational therapist discussing writing, and two ideas stood out to me.  First, some students lack an awareness of the location and movement of their hand in space, so writing is difficult for them.  As a coping mechanism, they grip the pencil tightly.  Second, some students don’t have adequate abdominal strength to maintain appropriate posture for writing, so they wrap their legs around the chair or lean against the table, but this doesn’t make writing easier.
 

The second video showed some simple AT tools that could help students grip a pencil or attach to the end of their finger so gripping a pencil is unnecessary.  All they need to do is move their hand in the shapes of the letters to write.  Based on what I learned this class, this would still be challenging for some students.
 

 

  

Finally, we saw some apps in action to support students with writing challenges.  I particularly liked the Clicker Sentences app.  When I teach Science 9 IPP students who have plans focusing on literacy, I do a low tech version of re-writing sentences from words provided.  However, on paper things are more difficult to change and students don’t get immediate feedback on their progress.  Further, they have to be able to read and comprehend the individual words to make a sentence.  On an iPad with digital text, they can manipulate it quickly and Siri or speak selection accessibility options could help.  They could even look up definitions or pictures for vocabulary.

 

The Cowriter Topic Dictionary and word prediction software was also very cool.

Technology for Reading Remediation and Compensation—Class 7

The focus for this class was websites, software, and apps for reading remediation and compensation.

Sidebar 1: We began with a video. I love beginning with videos! This video had nothing to do with reading remediation or compensation, but it was very cool. Check it out!

http://www.apple.com/ca/ipad/life-on-ipad/

Sidebar 2: We did a UDL PollEv, responding to the statement, “Share ways you as a teacher can REPRESENT information to students to reach ALL learners.”

 

 

 

Sidebar 3: This took us to “101 ways to show what you know”, a document that would be very useful to print and stick to the wall near where you plan instruction and assessment.

Now back to the main focus.

 

5 websites that offer reading remediation:

All the following websites have interactive tools to support early readers, free of charge!

 

1) STARFALL

 

www.starfall.com

This website focuses on phonics development, beginning with letters and sounds and advancing to simple words.  A variety of games and interactive books are available for learning.  The target

                                                      audience is pre-school, kindergarten, and first grade.

 

2) READING BEAR

 

www.readingbear.org

Videos and slideshows teach phonics rules using a variety of vocabulary. This is done in a progressive manner to help learners decode 1200 different words. Students aged 4 to 7 are the main users of this website.

 

 

3) LEARN TO READ FREE

 

 

 

http://www.learntoreadfree.com/

This website has interactive games using pictures and the first 55 words a student will learn to read, so is suited to the beginning reader. These games adhere to the Montessori approach to education.

 

 

 

4) SOFTSCHOOLS

 

http://www.softschools.com/language_arts/phonics/

This site offers phonics games, worksheets, and flashcards for learning to read. It also offers worksheets and projects for a variety of skills and subject areas for pre-kindergarten through middle school, many of which focus on the vocabulary aspect of reading.

 

 5) TEACHER YOUR MONSTER TO READ

 

http://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/

This site has a series of free games to practice the first stages of reading. It focuses on phonics to teach vocabulary.

 

 

5 softwares that offer reading remediation (by Amy Murnagan):
 

 1) LEXIA

Website: http://lexialearning.com/  

Description: Lexia provides reading skills for students of all abilities, and delivers performance data and analysis without interrupting the flow of instruction to administer a test. This technology-based approach accelerates reading skills development, predicts students' year-end performance and provides teachers data-driven action plans to help differentiate instruction. Click to see the Lexia Overview Video!

Benefits: Lexia benefits all students by providing a personalized reading experience. This software teaches students an abundance of reading skills: rhyming, word prediction, letter recognition, sounds, comprehension, etc. This software is extremely beneficial to educators, because it provides data related to students strengths and areas for improvement. Furthermore, this software offers strategies for improving a particular skill associated with a student's reading abilities. This software is a reflection of Universal Design for Learning because it addresses the needs of ALL learners. 

 

2) READING HORIZONS DISCOVERY

 Website: http://www.readinghorizons.com/

 

Description: Simply by teaching the core framework of the Reading Horizons methodology - the 42 Sounds of the Alphabet, 5 Phonetic Skills, and 2 Decoding Skills - students are empowered with skills that allow them to prove they are reading, spelling, and pronouncing the majority of the words in the English language with accuracy.

Benefits: Reading Horizons recognizes the necessary decoding skills involved in the reading process. Dyslexia is associated with deficits related to understanding the "code" associated with reading. Therefore, this software is designed for all readers but definitely supports students with Dyslexia.

3) THE SENTENCE MASTER

Website: http://www.laureatelearning.com/products/descriptions/sentdesc.html

Description: 

Benefits: The Sentence Master is designed for students who are struggling to learn to read or haven’t responded to a phonics-based approach. This software supports students with Autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities, language-learning disorders, and hearing impairments. Sentence Master is also tailored to meet the needs English Language Learners (K-6).

 

4) EAROBICA

Website: http://www.earobics.com/

Description: Aerobics is a multisensory reading intervention solution. This software incorporates interactive activities, guided instruction, students resources, teacher guides, correlations and assessments to enhance students reading abilities.

Benefits: This software is particularly valuable for at-risk readers and students who require support to enhance one of the five specific reading skills: phonics, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, comprehension, and fluency.

5) SCIENTIFIC LEARNING READING ASSISTANT

Website: http://www.scilearn.com/products/reading-assistant/

Description:

Benefits: Over-sized classrooms are prevalent in today's education system and educators are unable to provide the one to one reading support necessary to students. This software is beneficial to all beginning readers and aids in teaching reading strategies. 

 

5 reading remediation apps in iTunes:

 

 

Name of App	Targeted Reading Skill	Cost
Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read	phonics and decoding	Free
Cimo Spelling (sight words)	learning high frequency sight words	$2.99
Question Builder	reading comprehension—questioning and inference	$5.99
Super Reader	reading comprehension	$1.99
Grammar Jammers	grammar use	Free

 

 

 

For the rest of the class we heard a presentation about apps that provide compensatory reading supports.  Some of these were the same as the apps my group described in our “New Apps for Learning Disabilities” presentation.  My favourites:

 

 

Enhanced textbooks—take notes, write study cards, watch videos, check definitions, link to pictures, change font size, turn on closed captioning, and more! Best assistive tech ever! Everything you would ever want from a textbook on one screen.

 

 

 

 
 

 

ReadIris—take pictures of handouts, then edit them as needed. NaviDys, which changes font and spacing between letters and lines to help decoding, could be applied to this afterwards.

 

 

 

 

Symbol Support—this was interesting because I once had a student who carried a picture book with her for communication…Symbol Support is that book in high tech!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also liked Scribd, more for personal use than for anything I would use with students. Thanks for all the great ideas.

 

 

The Myth of Average—Class 6

We began class by watching a TED talk called “The Myth of Average” by Todd Rose.

 

Essentially, Rose suggests that an “average” student doesn’t exist. No student is like any other because there is a great diversity of aptitudes for the numerous factors that contribute to student success. Rose goes further to state that learning environments created for the average don’t meet needs: talent is a liability and areas of challenge prevent achievement. He advocates the use of iPads for flexible learning environments. Given all the great iPad features I’ve learned about since starting this class, I would absolutely agree!

We were asked to note our emotions when watching the video. I felt hopeful and excited and the PollEv we completed showed that many other students agreed with me.

I look forward to using this webpage (polleverywhere.com) with a class. It allows anonymous responses so students shouldn’t be nervous to answer—it could be used for emotional feedback or you could use it for a quiz. What I like most is that more common responses appear in larger font, which is similar to the wordle. The only thing I would do differently is to wait for all students to respond before projecting the results.

 

I appreciated our discussion about the Dracula reading and what must happen in order to read. Sometimes teachers might forget about important first steps like attending to the task because these things are second nature for us. Things like vision control and anxiety probably would not have been the first things to enter my mind if a student was experiencing difficulty reading, but now it seems so obvious to start there. And an iPad could help with all these issues.

 

To end the class, we watched part of a PBS video called “The Secret Life of the Brain” about the child’s brain.

It discussed reading, dyslexia, and brain plasticity. Really interesting! I’m planning on watching the teen brain section of this video.

Assistive Technology Assessment Models—Class 5

There are a number of models used to assess whether individuals with disabilities are using appropriate assistive technology.  I will describe five models in detail and note the similarities and differences amongst the models.

 

 

 

 

Human Activity Assistive Technology (HAAT) Model

 

 

The HAAT model offers a framework for understanding AT in the lives of those with disabilities.  Components include the human, the activity, the AT, and the context in which all three exist, all of which must be considered when matching AT to the user.  The activity could be daily life, work, or leisure, and is determined by the individual’s life roles.  Activities can be broken down into smaller steps so that the specific part an individual needs help with can be pinpointed.  The human has physical, cognitive, and affective dimensions, and various skills and abilities of the individual must be recognized when assessing appropriate AT.  The context consists of physical, social, cultural, and institutional components as outlined on the diagram.  When assessing the appropriateness of AT for a user, all these components must be considered.  This framework is not specific to students like SETT and ETP.  It is more general and could apply to anyone requiring AT for any part of life so is more similar to MPT in that regard.

 

 

 

Education Tech Points (ETP) Framework

This model focuses on planning and providing technology services to meet the special education needs of children with disabilities.  It is based on six tech points to ensure effective service delivery:

1.      Referral—identifying students who may need services

2.      Evaluation—considers if and when student needs AT

3.      Extended assessment—a trial period with one or more AT devices

4.      Plan development—considering when AT is required and how the student fared while using the AT during the extended assessment

5.      Implementation—student training, staff training, and equipment management are all important components of this tech point

6.      Periodic review—team reviews information from implementation and decides if changes are required

This framework is specific to the school setting and would be used by a program planning team.

 

 

 

Student, Environment, Task, and Tools (SETT) Framework

This model asserts that the student, environment, and task should be investigated before tools are selected, as the combination of these factors will impact an individual’s ability to effectively use tools.  The linked video describes details of the SETT framework.

This is a bit different from the HAAT model because it recognizes that one could consider any component as isolated from the context, but when performance is of interest, all the components overlap and student abilities and disabilities, the task to be performed, and the tools available must be considered in the particular environment the task is to be performed.  These factors parallel human, activity, AT, and context from the HAAT framework.  This framework is also designed specifically for students.

 

 

 

Matching Person and Technology (MPT) Framework

 

This framework is based on a series of worksheet/checklist instruments that assess the anticipated purpose for the technology, the environment in which the person will use the technology, the person’s preferences and needs, and the functions and features of the technology.  Each of these components can positively or negatively impact technology use, so the goal is to ensure positive influences that result in an appropriate technology match with the person, allowing the AT to be used successfully.  This framework requires input from both the user and the provider of the AT, whereas in HAAT and SETT frameworks, this requirement does not seem to be as explicit.  This framework is focused on adults, but there is an instrument specific for students.

 

 

 

Lifespace Access Profile (LAP) Framework

This framework is designed for individuals with severe disabilities.  Assessment for the LAP considers individual ability in five areas.  The physical resources section considers health and mobility, and the cognitive resources evaluate an individual’s ability to understand cause-and-effect as well as communication skills.  The emotional resources part identifies distractors, positive reinforces, and tolerance for change.  Support resources notes if caregivers have the time and skill to effectively use the AT.  The environmental analysis recognizes whether the individual can use the AT in multiple environments.  This framework would not apply to a great number of students.  The fact that this framework considers the individual in their environment as well as the human supports that are in place is good.

 

 

The Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative (WATI) might also be of interest to some readers of this blog.

A good overview of most of the models is offered here.

 

 



Matching AT to the User—Class 5

My group began the class with our presentation about apps for LD students, and then Barb gave her presentation about matching AT to the user.  It turns out that Angela inadvertently did a great job of linking the two topics by showing the interview with student-athlete who uses his iPad.  Because he is often away from school for sporting competitions, he uses the technology to help keep up with schoolwork.  That’s a good example of matching the student with the right device!

The discussion focused on the idea that “everything changes”, including the student, milieu, task, and technology, means we need to always be checking and ensuring that the technology is best serving our students.  Something that was effective in January might need to be changed to work best in April.  It also means we need to accept that the way of past should not necessarily be the way of the future.  For example, rather than outlawing mobile devices during class time, teachers should embrace them and teach students to use them appropriately as assistive devices for learning.  BYOD for a better education.  Alexander Graham Bell and Steve Jobs would be happy to see people looking forward to new possibilities rather than wishing to continue past practices.

 

 

Finally, I found the cost comparison of all the individual pieces of technology used to support students in the past with the iPad to be a great argument for making more use of the mobile device in schools!