Augmentative and Alternative Communication

For class tonight we had the opportunity to research and examine AAC. I will be posting responses to various questions on the topic.
What is communication?
Communication:  The transfer of information or ideas from one individual or another using verbal communication (spoken face to face), non-verbal communication (gestures), written communication (letters), visualization (images).



20 different ways to communicate

1.non-verbal cues
2.verbally
3.sign language
4. braille
5.text message
6. instant messaging
7. tone      
8. actions       
9. touch
10. written communication
11. drawing
12. eye contact
13. pictures
14. graphs
15. video message
16. acting
17. e-mail
18. songs
19. gestures
20. morse code

                                         


What is AAC?

The term AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) covers a huge range of techniques which support or replace spoken communication. These include gesture, signing, symbols, word boards, communication boards and books, as well as Voice Output Communication Aids (VOCAs).

Who is the typical user of AAC?

At first I thought it would be people with severe communication disorders (either from birth or that have occured later in life due to injury or disease) or who cannot speak, however Barbara mentioned in class, that there is no typical user of AAC and that it can be very broad. Therefore, there is no typical user of AAC.

 

What are the 3 criteria for Effective Communication?

    1. You need to have a communication partner.
    2. There needs to be joint attention between the partners involved in communicating.
   3. In order for all partners to be able to comprehend the communication, a common language is
       essential.
 

 

10 different types of AAC available

The following are a list of various AAC devices available. They range from low to high tech.

 

 Vantage Lite

This is an ACC device that is used for those who have difficulty communicating. It is a high tech device.

 

 Communication Board

A communication board is another device used for those who have verbal communication issues and is a low tech device that allows them to use the photos to communicate their needs and wants.

 

Big and Little Mack

 The  Big and Little Mack are simple, easy to use devices that allow for voice output for those with communication issues. It is easy to record and change messages and can also be connected to a toy for a reinforcer.

 

 Personal Talker

The Personal Talker could be a great introduction to AAC as it records a single, 10 second message that is played back easily by hitting the large play button. It would be used for those with communication difficulties.

Proloquo2Go- as we discussed in class, this is a wonderful,  engaging, fairly inexpensive app high tech app that allows users with verbal communication problems to communicate with a basic word or can even form sentences for a conversation. It also has a text-to-speech feature.

Tech/Speak-this low tech device gives users a speech playback and is able to record several messages. This would be useful for individuals who are non-verbal or have difficulty communicating.

 
I Can Speak-this is a high tech device that allows users with verbal communication difficulties the opportunity to communicate by pressing the buttons on the device to communicate a word or phrase they wish to convey.


MACAW- this medium tech device allows those with functional speech difficulties or spelling difficulties to tap on the images and have a message or word relayed. It holds up to 32 messages and multiple images can be selected to form sentences.

 

 Talk Trac-is a portable communication device that resembles a wrist watch. It can hold up to 8 messages and has a lengthly recording time. It can aid Autistic students in social situations as well as aid those with speech difficulties.

Partner Plus-this low tech device is comprised of 4 sections with 8 messages. It is a basic device that can convey simple messages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

AT for Writing

This was another enjoyable class that allowed us to examine various Assistive Tech for writing as well as examine how difficult the writing process is for a student with LD.
The first exercise we were asked to do was to write down every step required when writing a letter to our school board asking for iPads. We needed to break it down to the very basic skills such as being able to find and use the required tools used to write, to actually being able to compose the piece.
This exercise gave me the opportunity to really examine the tremendous effort and skill required to even start writing, let alone complete a writing piece. It is such a complicated process that we take for granted and at times, don't realize how much attention and engagment is needed by our students in order to get started. It gave me more perspecitive and understanding when trying to understand why my LD students find writing to be such a difficult task. There are so many complex skills that are required and if students are missing even one of them, they find the process extremely difficult.


Next, we had to spend time writing about our summer with our non dominant hand, in my case my right hand. This was another learning opportunity that allowed me to reflect upon the need for AT for students and how much of a disadvantage they are in when it is not provided. I found it to be a challenge to do this activity for 10 minutes, so I couldn't imagine the frustration our students would feel when they are asked to do this day after day without the tools that are essential for their success.

The most impactful part of the evening for me came when we viewed samples of student work with and without the use of Assistive Technology. The differences were amazing and stressed the importance of these aids and the huge impact they make in the lives of our students. I think these samples need to be shown to every teacher or school board that doubts the power these tools can give a student with a writing difficulty.

I was pleased to learn about more apps that can be used in the classroom that will give my students the opportunity to write in a less stressful environment with the tools that are designed to allow them to reach their full potential.

Reading Remdiation and Compensatory Learning

This was a great class that allowed us to spend time researching and viewing websites,software information and apps that will further the reading process.

The following sites were found:

Software:
·         Success for All

Provides extensive school staff training and materials focused on cooperative learning, phonics, and a rapid pace of instruction. Also provides tutoring to struggling children, mostly first graders.

Website: www.successforall.org

At the Success for All Foundation, our goal is to help all students achieve at the highest levels—not just children who come to school well fed, well rested, and ready to learn, but everyone, at all levels, whatever it takes.

 We believe all students deserve an education that will challenge, inspire, and prepare them for a better future. Our top priority is the education of disadvantaged and at-risk students in pre-K through grade eight. We use research to design programs and services that help schools better meet the needs of all their students. Every child can learn. We help schools ensure that they do.

·         Direct Instruction/ Corrective Reading

A highly structured, phonetic approach to reading instruction that emphasizes phonics, a step-by-step instructional approach, and direct teaching of comprehension skills, as well as extensive professional development and follow-up.

Website: www.nifdi.org 
Welcome to the National Institute for Direct Instruction

 The National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI) is the world's foremost Direct Instruction (DI) support provider. This website provides information and resources for administrators, teachers and parents to help them maximize student achievement through DI

·         Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS)

A technique in which children work in pairs, taking turns as teacher and learner, to learn a structured sequence of literacy skills, such as phonemic awareness, phonics, sound blending, passage reading, and story retelling.

Website: kc.vanderbilt.edu/pals

PALS is a version of classwide peer tutoring. PALS combines proven instructional principles and practices and peer mediation so that research-based reading and math activities are effective, feasible, and enjoyable. Teachers identify which children require help on specific skills and who the most appropriate children are to help other children learn those skills. Using this information, teachers pair students in the class, so that partners work simultaneously and productively on different activities that address the problems they are experiencing. Pairs are changed regularly and all students have the opportunity to be "coaches" and "players" over a period of time as students work on a variety of skills.

·         Reading Recovery

Provides the lowest achieving readers (lowest 20%) in first grade with supplemental tutoring in addition to their regular reading classes.

Website: www.readingrecovery.org
Our Vision
We ensure that children who struggle in learning to read and write gain the skills for a literate and productive future.

Our Mission
We achieve reading and writing success for children through partnerships that foster:
Reading Recovery in English, Spanish, or French as an essential intervention within a comprehensive literacy system

Teaching of children that is expert and responsive
Professional development for teachers that is specialized and continuous
Ongoing development of knowledge and practice based on research, data, and the theoretical framework that has underpinned Reading Recovery since its founding

·         Targeted Reading Intervention

A one-to-one tutoring model in which classroom teachers work individually with struggling readers in kindergarten or first grade for 15 minutes a day. The 1-1 sessions focus on re-reading for fluency (2 min.), word work (6 min.), and guided oral reading (7 min.).
Website: www.targetedreadingintervention.org
The Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI) is a professional development intervention designed for elementary students who require additional reading instruction and their classroom teachers. Via remote webcam, trained coaches with reading expertise provide one-on-one, ongoing support to build capacity in reading instruction with teachers.

The TRI helps teachers build capacity by:

Learning and using efficient instructional strategies for early reading development
Developing skills in matching instruction to assessment
Applying their learning for the benefit of targeted readers


Websites:
Starfall
http://www.starfall.com/
This site is mainly a free site to use, but does have some additional activities that can be used with a subscription. However, the main and most important reading activities are free and very easy to use.  It is a phonics based reading website that is aimed at children from the preschool age to second grade. It can also be used for ESL students and students with learning disabilities.  There are 4 main sections to the site. It is highly interactive and starts with letter sounds and progresses through the reading process.

Raz Kids
http://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login
Is another highly interactive website that uses interactive ebooks in teaching students to read. This is a subscription website that allows both teachers and parents to see the progress the child is making. Students are placed by their teacher at a reading level when they are registered (aa, A) and as they read the books and answer quizzes about the books, they progress to the next reading level. The student can not move to the next reading level without reading all of the books and without passing the 5 question comprehension quiz. Students are engaged with animation and sound effects as they listen for the first time to the book being read to them. Then they read it on their own and also have the option to record their voice. Students earn stars for reading and quiz activity to spend equipping their own Raz Rocket. They also have access to collections of poetry books, song books, and nursery rhymes. New animated books and Spanish eBooks are added regularly to the site.

Studydog
 www.studydog.com

 This is an excellent website that offers a complete early reading program that is computer-based. There are three levels, you must first determine what level the student is at before downloading the program. Each level builds on the next one and has over 20 lessons per level covering the alphabet, consonant sounds, vowel sounds, rhyming words, sight words, contractions, consonant blends, complex words, spelling, word families and so much more.  Students will receive a prize at the end of each lesson.

Reading Bear
http://www.readingbear.org/

Is a free beginner reader website that starts students at the very beginning of the reading process with letters and sounds. It has quizzes with each of the activities. It is a phonics based website that covers many of the important phonics based skills that are needed for reading.

Ready to Learn Reading
http://pbskids.org/read
This site is a part of the PBS Kids Raising Readers program and is meant to beginning readers and is a free site.  It provides resources to teachers and parents.  It is game based and provides fun and engaging ways for students to learn reading skills.

We also had the opportunity to reserach reading apps that we thought may be useful in the classroom. I enjoyed this as I am always looking for new and exciting apps that my students will want to use and that offer engaging learning opportunities. 
I really enjoyed learning about the E textbooks and iBooks that are available. It takes learning to a whole new level when students are able to navigate their textbooks through this exciting format. The text and graphic features are so user friendly and would keep students who would be bored by a traditional textbook engaged and interested in the material. I absolutely LOVED that there were different reading levels available!
The Read Iris app was also of interest to me as it offers another way we can make reading accessible to our students.
I am so excited by the various supports that we have learned about and am anxious to try them in the classroom.
 

 

The Reading Process

I found our last class (May 7) to be very informative and eye opening. The video we watched The Myth of Average with the speaker Todd Rose really made me examine how classrooms can still largely be designed for the "average" student and the negative effects that produces. His comparison to the design of a pilot cockpit was effective and helped to drive home his message.

I am still shocked by the statistic he shared about 4% (approx. 50 000)of dropouts being gifted students. The fact that we continue to still have any dropouts is sad, but gifted students wouldn't be on my list for those who leave school early. Why are they dropping out? Due to the fact that we are still designing classrooms for the average student. This fact destroys the brilliant talent we see in our students and doesn't allow those students to be challenged. We all know that students can be gifted or talented in one subject area but do poorly in another area, however many classrooms are not flexible enough to create learning opportunities that will allow students to succeed with their particular learning style. This needs to be the focus if we want to nurture the talent and skills our students possess and allow them to show their true potential without being compared to the "average".

I also enjoyed learning the activity where we examined the reading process and all that is involved. When we discussed in class all of the complex tasks and features to reading a simple passage it really made me examine how our brain handles this complex task. It also made me have much more respect for students who face daily challenges in the classroom and the hurdles they need to overcome to learn the same way the "average" student does. It really is amazing that our brains can handle all of this input and allow us to make sense of it all. I started the task by thinking about things such as knowing letter, sound relationships and how we learn to chop and blend individual sounds, but my eyes were really opened when it was mentioned that our students with learning disabilities have so many more challenges to reading than just phonics. Also the fact that anxiety about reading also plays a huge role in even starting the task and staying focused enough to complete the task. When our students enter our classrooms in the mornings we don't know the events that happened before school that could have a drastic effect on how they will cope that day.

The last video we watched titled, The Reading Brain, was incredibly interesting and gave me more insight into the challenges faced by students with dyslexia. I enjoyed watching the techniques they were working on with the student and the changes that happened with him. I was amazed when they examined his brain activity 6 weeks later and saw differences in the right hemisphere and how his brain had changed in that amount of time. I plan on watching the remaining part of the video to learn more.

Assistive Technology Assessment Models

SETT

The SETT Framework is used by schools when gathering data surrounding decisions regarding the assistive technology needs of their students. Each letter stands for an aspect that needs to be examined (Student, Environment, Tasks, Tools). The needs and abilities of the student are first examined. With respect to environment, questions regarding the physical and instructional/classroom environment are asked to see what is needed to ensure success. Next, with regards to tasks, the activities that the student will be completing and any barriers that the student may face are examined. The fourth component is tools, which would examine the Assistive Technology available to the student .  Throughout the process, the goal is to ensure all areas are examined and that the needs of the student are being met with the suggestions that are given.

The Learning Team are a crucial component to ensuring the best decisions are made in the interest of the student and their needs. This team is comprised of the classroom teacher, educational assistants, special education teacher, clinicians, parents, and the student.

 

 

Education Tech Points

Education Tech Points (ETP) is “a tool to help school districts to determine and meet the assistive technology needs of individual students and to evaluate and improve their assistive technology services system wide” (Reed & Bowser, 1998, p. 1).  

There are six Tech Points that are the center of this framework. Within each point questions are asked to determine the need of Assistive Technology to the student.

Tech Point #1-Referral-this is the first step where the student in need of services is identified and how the AT will assist them.
 Tech Point #2, Evaluation- examines whether or not the student is in need of Assistive Tech during the evaluation process and if the AT is needed as part of curricular modifications. What types of AT will enhance the students performance or academics?
Tech Point #3 - Extended Assessment - involves a trial period with one or more AT devices to ensure it is meeting the needs to the student.
Tech Point #4 - Plan Development- consisting of documenting that AT has been considered in the development of the IEP/SEP. Will the student need the AT to meet the goals outlined in their IEP/SEP?
Tech Point #5- Implementation-Three critical areas are identified: student training, staff training, and equipment management. It is important that the AT is used effectively so therefore all members need to have training. Also, for the AT to be effective it will need to be serviced and fixed/updated when necessary.
Tech Point #6-Periodic Review- the team reviews the implementation data and determines whether changes are needed. This includes any transitioning that may need to be done in the future.

The ETP process has outcomes built in at each Tech Point. The ultimate outcome is that the student receives the AT devices and services needed to access the curriculum and meet their  IEP/SEP goals and objectives.

 

 

Wisconson Assistive Technology Initiative

With the use of the resource manual, the goal of WATI is to offer a thorough assessment of an individuals AT needs. This assessment targets school age children and includes 10 different sections. Each of the sections focus on a different area such as, environment, communication, writing, etc. The information generated from this assessment is then used to aid IEP students in attaining their curricular goals by assigning the appropriate AT.

 

Matching Person to Technology

This Model takes all aspects of an individual learning into consideration when applying the use or non-use of technology. The assessment/questionnaire examines three key areas; milieu, person, and technology. When used with school age children they will go into more detail and take into account learning objectives, past use of technology, and students characteristics. The goal of this process is to ensure that the person receives the technology which will best fit for their success.

Lifespan Access Profile with Severe or Multiple Disabilities

To assess student needs this model looks at and examines individuals and their behaviour within their environments. After the team based observations have been completed and collected, they set forth in completing a comprehensive plan to implement the appropriate technology. LAP which is implemented for individuals with severe disabilities. They examine several key areas which include: tolerance, distractibility, reinforcers, general health, and understanding cause and effect. Once all of these baselines have been established they are then compiled and analized by priority. Based on these findings AT is then assigned to the individual.

Comparison/Analysis

When examining these 5 assistive technology models there are some glaring similarities. Each of these processes are assessing individuals with the goal of getting them the proper AT to meet their needs. These evaluations also examine primarily similar aspects of each student(milieu, person, communication). That being said the assessments are not all the same. LAP for instance assess through the use of observation while at the other end of the spectrum you have WATI which uses an assessment with 10 different sections.  A final difference is that SETT and LAP can be used for both school age individuals as well as adults.