Technology Tools for Elementary Special Education

1. Technology Tools for Elementary Special Education Stephanie A. Gahagan Website: http://stephgahagan.angelfire.com/ Click here for Introductory Video

2. Slide Contents • Introduction • Summary Findings • Detailed Findings • Conclusions • Additional Resources

3. Introduction • Assistive Technology (also known as AT) is “any item, piece of equipment or product system, whether acquired commercially, off the shelf, modified or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of children with disabilities.” (IDEA, 1997) • A national sample of service providers agreed that a significant number of young children (45 percent) who may need AT are not receiving it at present. • AT technologies make it easier for children with disabilities to communicate, participate and enjoy learning. • This presentation will explore the various technologies available to assist educators in helping elementary school children with learning disabilities, specifically those children with dyslexia and autism, become productive members of their classrooms. In addition, it will serve to provide several useful internet websites where educators can visit to view, research and learn how to effectively assimilate AT into their daily curriculum. • Click Here to Go Back to TOC

4. Summary Findings • Elementary school students suffering from dyslexia and autism face a unique set of challenges in the classroom. • These students often need additional help with even the most basic and mundane assignments and teachers will likely have to make adjustments in their curriculum to assist these children. • In order to assist elementary school teachers effectively assimilate AT into the classroom, I have researched and found several websites that I highly recommend. • Click Here to Go Back to TOC

5. Detailed Findings • The following five websites contain the most useful information on how to use and incorporate assistive technology into the special education elementary classroom. • Click Here to Go Back to TOC

6. Internet 4 Classrooms: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/k12links.htm • Some examples of AT available on the Internet are audio books, Braille alphabet cards, speech enabled and hands-free browsers, large print and picture cards. • The links on this site can help teachers to organize their classrooms, instruct students, create lesson plans, develop project ideas, learn how to operate and incorporate the Smartboard into everyday instruction. • The individual products available at some of the links will provide useful alternative means of teaching certain lessons to students with special needs. For example, the picture cards would be useful for autistic and dyslexic students because it teaches them simple, everyday activities and objects in a learning style that makes the most sense to them – via pictures.

7. Dyslexia Teacher: http://www.dyslexia-teacher.com/ • This site provides an informative background on the disorder, ways to recognize dyslexic students in your own classroom and discusses various teaching methods to use for teaching dyslexic students. • StarSpell - from Fisher Marriott has learning activities that are based on the well-tried Look-Cover-Write-Check approach to spelling, with the advantage that the words are spoken. They are set in a framework, which provides for the development of knowledge about sounds and letters. A major strength is the sets of spelling lists, which can be focused on current curriculum vocabulary. You can easily adapt, create and add your own word lists. You also have the ability to monitor your pupils' progress, ensuring that the word list and any context are relevant to their work. You also now have the ability to incorporate class names and groups.

9. Synthetic phonics are taught to children from the age of about five by showing them the sounds of the 40+ letters (not the letter names) and how these sounds can be blended to run together to make short words. Children learn to write each letter on the same day as the sound is introduced. This is important for autistic and dyslexic children because they both have difficulty spelling and reading. By using this simple yet innovative way to teach spelling, it makes it easier for these students to learn the basic building blocks of communication. Another way to improve children’s accuracy and fluency in reading and spelling is to use the Active Literacy Kit. This program is best used with children 7 years of age and older. It is suitable for all literacy difficulties, not only for dyslexic students. It can be used for individual and group teaching. Synthetic Phonics: http://www.synthetic-phonics.com/

10. This is a sample from my research report. • Synthetic phonics are taught to children from the age of about five by showing them the sounds of the 40+ letters • (not the letter names) and how these sounds can be blended to run together to make short words. Children learn to write each letter on the same day as the sound is introduced. This is important for autistic and dyslexic children because they both have difficulty spelling and reading. By using this simple yet innovative way to teach spelling, it makes it easier • for these students to learn the basic building blocks of communication. b. The wall chart to the right is an example of a tool that teachers can use in the classroom that will constantly reinforce • synthetic phonics. Another way to improve children’s accuracy and fluency in reading and spelling is to use the Active Literacy Kit. This program is best used with children 7 years of age and older. It is suitable for all literacy difficulties, not only for dyslexic students. It can be used for individual and group teaching. 4. Assistive Technology For Children with Autism: http://www.specialed.us/autism!assist/asstl 0.htm a. For children with developmental challenges, technology can provide them with opportunities to more fully participate in group activities, increase communication, and to be more independent in their daily lives. The benefits of using assistive technology in early childhood education include increased active participation in family, school, and community, successful play with peers and toys, increased ability to communicate needs and ideas, opportunities to make independent choices, and increased ability to move independently. There are many types of assistive technology devices available ranging from low technology to high technology. b. The two main purposes of assistive technology devices are to substitute or replace skills, behaviors, and areas in which the child may have weaknesses; and to enhance their existing skills, behaviors, and areas of development. AT can be used to help children with autism support their strengths. Some examples of low technology that can be used in the classroom are dry erase boards, clip boards and laminated photographs. Examples of mid technology are voice output communication aids (equipment that records voices and can be activated by touch) and tape recorders. High technology is usually the most expensive devices on the market and may not be within everyone’s budget, but if able to purchase such devices, they prove very useful. Some high technology devices are adaptive hardware for computers such as touch window and intellikeys, digital cameras and scanners. • 3. Synthetic Phonics: http ://www. synthetic-phonics. corn! • A5aFinalResRpt • Prepared 10/8/2007 • Page 9 of 9

11. Assistive Technology For Children with Autism: http://www.specialed.us/autism/assist/asst10.htm • The two main purposes of Assistive Technology devices are to substitute or replace skills, behaviors, and areas in which the child may have weaknesses; and to enhance their existing skills, behaviors, and areas of development. AT can be used to help children with autism support their strengths. • Some examples of low technology that can be used in the classroom are dry erase boards, clip boards and laminated photographs. • Examples of mid technology are voice output communication aids (equipment that records voices and can be activated by touch) and tape recorders. • High technology are usually the most expensive devices on the market and may not be within everyone’s budget, but if able to purchase such devices, they prove very useful. Some high technology devices are adaptive hardware for computers such as touch window and intellikeys, digital cameras and scanners. The purpose of the touch window is to allow the child to "navigate" and "interact" with the computer by touching the screen, rather than operating the mouse. Touch window/screen can be easily mounted on the computer monitor with the user simply touching the screen to replace mouse actions. The use of a touch screen can assist a student who experiences difficulty understanding the abstract relationship between the mouse actions and the resulting actions on the screen. With a touch screen, the concrete relationship between what the child sees and what the child directly activates is established.

12. Autism E-News: http://ttac.odu.edu/ENewsArchives/Autism/autism_e_April_2004_toc.htm • This website is a monthly on-line journal. It provides useful information and links on ways to help autistic children learn in the general classroom. • The various links provide educators with numerous ideas on how to incorporate AT into the daily curriculum and lesson plans. It helps show teachers ways they can use simple, inexpensive tools to engage the autistic children so that they can benefit from school just like the general education students. • AT will help give autistic children access to the general education curriculum by improving their communication and social skills, attention, organization and independent daily living skills. • The links provide access to various products that are available for free and for charge on the Internet.

13. Conclusions • Educators who are teaching special needs children, such as children with dyslexia and autism, do not learn the way the rest of the class will and therefore, they need extra help. • It is important to for all teachers, especially those teaches just entering the profession, to take advantage of all of the AT available. AT does not have to be expensive to be effective. • AT is the perfect way to provide an alternative means of educating special needs children. • Closing Remarks

14. Additional Resources • GahaganStephA5aFinalResRpt.doc- this link will direct you to my personal website. My website also contains links to the various documents that I have created as part of my assignments for this class. Some of those documents that may prove useful are my Internet Address Book and my Research Excerpts files. They are described more fully below. • http://www.holyfamily.edu/ - this link will direct you to Holy Family University’s website. This site contains an endless array of information including links to the school’s library and a description of all of the courses and programs that are available. • Internet Address Book - this link will direct you to a word document that was created as part of a course assignment. This document is a chart that illustrates the 20 websites that I have researched and found to be informative for teachers and parents of children with learning disabilities, especially dyslexia and autism. The chart gives a hyperlink to each website, briefly describes the contents and evaluates the website’s content. • Research Excerpts - this link will direct you to another document that was created as part of a course assignment. It was created in conjunction with the above Internet Address Book. This document takes specific excerpts from each website as a preview to the information that is available and that you will find on each website. • Click Here to Go Back to TOC