Communication Project

This week I turned in my communication project for class, so I wanted to share with everyone some of my experiences. I was given the assignment to not talk for one hour. I was to use a communication board I created to communicate for this hour. No signs, no gestures, no sounds. I picked a family dinner to try my communication board out.

At first, I figured this was going to be easy. I have programmed Dynavoxes (is that the plural of Dynavox?), I have used communication boards and am very experienced with boardmaker. So, I thought, can this be any easier? Well getting into and thinking about it a little more, I realized that this was going to be a communication nightmare. I had to find a way to communicate with Beata, my wife, Davin, my 7-year-old son, Simone, my 3-year-old daughter, and Nadine, my daughter who is only 10 months. Right away I knew that Nadine and I were not communicating for this hour. She claps, waves and approximates some words, all of which are against the rules. That still leaves me to plan for communicating with an adult and 2 small children. If I was just with Beata, I could easily have created multiple boards and with smaller symbols and words in order to communicate. This would not work with the younger ones. Davin is a reader and can read the symbols and understand some of the more complex symbols. Simone does not read and would need to rely on larger simpler pictures. Therefore, I created a simpler board that was 5 x 6 and utilized 1 ½ inch squares. I was hoping to use the least amount of symbols to clearly communicate my wants and needs.

Needless to say, dinner did not go as planned. I went over my board with Davin and Simone beforehand. We started my hour at dinner prep. I had Davin and Simone wash their hands. I was happy to be able to communicate this seemingly simple message effectively. I did not, however, tell Simone to not strip while washing her hands. I totally did not plan for that. Fail #1. I had absolutely no way of telling Simone to get her clothes back on. Not a huge issue so we moved on. Next, I had Simone and Davin sit in their chairs. Well, again in true Simone fashion, this became a game. Every time I had her sit, she would, I would turn my attention to dinner and would hear her giggling as she stood up, wanting me to ask her to sit again. We went through this several times before dinner was finished. Thankfully, the rest of dinner went along uneventfully.

At the end of my hour, I reflected on dinner. A few things really got me thinking about my teaching and how I have my students communicate. First, I was able to clearly communicate my wants and needs but was missing out on some of the spontaneous conversations that normally occur during any family meal. I had to sit back and listen while Beata steered conversation. My personality really was not able to come out and I mostly became a passive participant in dinner. Next, in creating our boards we were told to make a symbol that said, "No symbol" to indicate that we understood what is being said but can not communicate a response. I really never thought of this before. It is unfair of us as teachers, parents, and other professionals to assume we know everything that a child could and would want to communicate. It is our responsibility to say, we can not plan for everything. In this case, we need to give the child the way to communicate that instead of forcing a response from them.

I suggest everyone try this. It does not have to be for a full hour, but just try and find alternative ways to communicate and see how effective or ineffective you are. However, learn from me and if you have small children make a plan to communicate to them to put their clothes back on.

The iPad and UDL

This week's topic was Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This is a system for curriculum development that focuses on making learning accessible for all students. This week I will review an app rather the give strategies for finding appropriate apps as I have done in the past. 

I downloaded UDLinks, designed by the Maryland Department of Education. This app was downloaded for free and is available on iOS and Android devices. I could not see many differences when trying this app on my iPod touch and my son's nexus 7.  The main page allows you to create a classroom profile, look up resources, visit favorite pages you have marked, and learn more about UDL principles. When you use the classroom profile nor the resources page you can search for online activities based on which UDL principle you are focusing on. Once you select a resource, the app will take you to a page that provides more information on the site. You will get a description of the site, subject, and grade level of the site. Furthermore, you will get which principles the site is good for. I also liked the features where you can send the link to email or share on Facebook or Twitter, save the resource as a favorite, and view the link from the app. I especially liked the fact that some site descriptions added if the site has flash media, which is not supported by iOS.

I really liked this app. There were however a few downsides. First, this app has not been updated since December 2011! That is along time and the internet is vast. It is very likely that many high quality websites have come up since the last upstate and are not included in the database. Luckily, I did not find any sites that were no longer up. Next, there is no user option so that every time you open the app you have to go through the classroom profile if that is how you search for sites. Favorites are also saved locally on each device so if you find a site you want a certain student working on you have to search for it every time or make sure the get the same device each time.

I would certainly recommend this app. It is free, has a ton of great resources in its database, and it is a great resource of information on UDL.

The iPad and Physical Disabilities

This week’s topic was physical disabilities. It is difficult to talk about which apps are best without discussing how to make the iPad accessible in the first place. I did a lot of research for this topic and found a terrific resource, RJ Cooper & Associates.  I’ve broken the solution into the 4 S’s, Speakers, Stands, Styluses, and Switches.

The first thing to consider is the speaker of the iPad. I wish I would have thought about this a little more in the week I did communication (click here to read that blog). If you have ever used an iPad you know that the speaker quality is not the greatest. Yes, alone in your living room it is functional, but trying to use it as a voice output device in a crowded space and you are going to have some major difficulties being heard. There are several options for additional speakers that can easily be attached to the case of your iPad so that it can be a more effective voice output device.

Next, you will need to consider stands. The iPad is a great resource for many students but it needs to be accessible for students to use it properly. Again, there are numerous stands out there that will allow users to adjust the exact location of the iPad. There are stands that attach to wheelchairs and ones that will attach right to a table top. I liked how RJ used Super Velcro to attach his stands to surfaces. I have never heard of Super Velcro but it sounds pretty strong, you have to use a credit card or old cd to pry the two sides apart. 

Next, you may have to consider the usage of a stylus to access the iPad. Some individuals with physical disabilities may have difficulty with the fine motor skills necessary to navigate the iPad. There are several styles of styluses to assist in the fine motor gestures needed to navigate the iPad. There are ones that attach to the head, are inserted in the mouth, or attach to hands/wrists with velcro. 

Finally there are switches to make selections on the iPad. The iPad will scroll through a series of choices and the user will press a button (switch) to make that selection. The major drawback with this is that very few apps are switch accessible. There is a way to use the iPad’s voice over control, built into the accessibility features, and switch made specifically for this function to navigate apps. I was impressed with the ingenuity of this piece of equipment and amazed at the lengths that people will go in order to make the iPad accessible to everyone. 

Again with this blog is the disclaimer that you have to make the decision of which adaptations are going to be best for your needs. You may find that a simple stand is going to work for you instead of the high-priced one. Please, go out and shop around and see what is out there.

Apps for Early Childhood

This week the topic was using technology with early childhood students. There are many resources talking about the proper use of technology with children this young. If this is your field I strongly suggest looking into the research for this age group. However, my topic is looking at the apps that are out there. You can find the site we used HERE.

There are many apps out there but you have to know where and how to look. I went to the app store on iTunes. One of the main topics was apps for preschool and kindergarten. I was thrilled thinking my job this week was going to be easy. I clicked on the link and was taken to a page where I had to pick an academic area to narrow my search. I selected math and went to the number and quantity section. I was surprised at what I found.  19 apps!!! Guess what else. Go on, guess. There was only 1 free app! Now I know that this could not be right. How on Earth could there be only 19 apps for number and quantity in the hundreds of thousands of apps out there and that only 1 of those 19 apps is free? Well I decided to take a different approach; I typed “numbers” in the search and came up with a far more robust list of apps. Yes, some of them were not appropriate for this age level. I’m pretty sure that there are not too many 3-5 year olds out there ready to tackle Sudoku problems. This just shows why it is important to take the time to look for the best apps for your student and taking the easy way to find an app is not always the best. 

For many schools and classrooms cost is going to be a factor in deciding if an app is purchased. Many schools are enrolled in Apple’s volume purchasing program; this is where you can get a discount if you purchase 20 or more licenses of an app. However, not all apps allow a discount. Let’s take one of the apps I found in that list of 19, Team Umizoomi Math. I honestly have no idea what an Umizoomi is but this app is developed by Nickelodeon. I went on Apple’s volume purchasing site and found this app is priced at $4.99. Multiply that cost by 20 and it is going to cost $99.80! Say you have 50 iPads; that will cost $249.50. For larger districts with 100 iPads the cost will be $499! Or you could take an extra couple of minutes and find qCat- Toddler’s Count game. Yes the “q” is intentional. This app is FREE! So downloading this app 20 times will cost you $0, 50 times $0, even 100 times it is still $0. Hopefully you see my point. Taking the extra couple of minutes is well worth the effort in the end. It is important to evaluate each app for their strengths and weaknesses and look at exactly what you are trying to accomplish with the use of the app and then make an informed decision on which app to buy. You still may decide the Umizoomi app is best for you in your situation. If you do, please email me or leave a comment and let me know what an Umizoomi is. 

Apps for English Language Learners

There are many educational tools for English Language Learners (ELL). The tools focus on reading, writing, and articulation. The iPad offers many of these tools to assist students improve their ability to learn English in a non-threatening manner.Furthermore, for easy of use the iPad App Store offers a separate section dedicated specifically to this area with categories for reading, vocabulary and grammar, speaking and listening, and dictionaries. Some of these apps are useful to all emergent learners. For example, one of the apps for reading is Bob Books. This app is great for all children learning to reading.The voice memo function is another great way to get students to hear something and then record themselves to hear how they sound speaking English.

However, I really like the dictionary apps. Of course these apps rely on the students ability to speak well in their native language. They offer a more compact way of looking up and translating sayings. I remember learning Spanish and having to carry around a large “pocket” dictionary I had to use to translate single words from English to Spanish and Spanish to English. Honestly, I have no clue whose pockets those fit into and their ridiculously small writing was frustrating. These apps offer so much more. I downloaded iTranslate for free. You can type in a phrase in one language and it will produce the translation and it will also speak the translation. I had fun playing around with it while visiting my mother-in-law. My wife and her mother both moved to the United States over 25 years ago from Poland. My mother-in-law does still speak Polish to her relatives and it was fun to use this app to say some things in Polish. My wife learned through immersion in the language. She was thrown to the wolves and expected to learn the language with no support. It was quite traumatizing and difficult for her. She was able to overcome this obstacle but would have benefited greatly from additional support like an app that could translate for her. She was given the strategy to look up unknown words in the dictionary only to be frustrated by words in the definition she did no know. An app like iTranslate would have been very useful for her to ease into learning English, rather than the sink or swim mentality she experienced. Furthermore, while it is useful to hear the phrase spoken I do question the ability of these apps to translate different dialects into English.

Again with all apps and all learners it is best to know your students specific needs and strengths and go from there to choose an app. The same app may not work for 2 different students working on the same skill. You are the best judge of apps and should be deciding which apps work best for the outcome you are looking for.

Apps for Students With Emotional Behavioral Disorders

This week’s topic was Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders (EBD). This umbrella category of disorders covers a wide range of disorders such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Anxiety, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Biploar Disorder, etc. This is an area where I have some experience as many of the students I have had over the years have been diagnosed as having EBD. There are a range of effective apps used to assist students with EBD. There are all of the “academic” apps that allow users to navigate through a variety of subjects at their own pace. Again these should be selected on an individual basis in order to meet the student’s needs. There are also suggestions for social stories, similar to ones for students with Autism. However, in our readings this week and in my additional research I found the overarching theme of motivation being a key use of technology for students with EBD, which has been different than the previous weeks. A lot has been said about creating a system of reinforcement for students where they can earn time on the iPad. The iPad is a highly motivating item for which students can use to keep them focused during work time in order to enjoy this reinforcement. That got me thinking about the iPad and its use in during leisure activities. 

The iPad also offers students with limited social skills or desire for social interaction an option for leisure activities. I have a student in my current classroom that has difficulty finding productive things to do with his down time. He does not engage in activities with his peers and reluctantly participates in a game of Uno only when asked to by staff. He often does not make it through an entire game before getting bored and quitting. He does at times like listening to music but again that is often short lived. This student has an IEP goal to select and remain engaged in a leisure activity for a certain amount of time.  I have been thinking even before this assignment that our newly purchased iPads would be an interesting way to see if can remain engaged in an activity. The iPad offers several different leisure type activities such as angry birds and other games. The iPad also allows him to listen to music. He can switch between activities on his own but remain engaged in the overall leisure activity of time on the iPad, ultimately allowing him to meet an IEP objective that has been difficult for him thus far this year. The key is to find those apps that he will find engaging and entertaining. They may have to be rotated in and out so that he does not become saturated with the same choices and loose interest quickly. I am excited to start this little project and hope that we can make progress in helping this student achieve his IEP goals.  

Funding

This week’s topic was funding. One of the hottest issues right now is funding for the iPad as an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device. Medicare will cover the cost of an AAC device in order for the individual to communicate their needs such as hunger, thirst, pain, or medical emergencies. Medicare will not cover the purchase of iPads as AAC devices, since it is not a dedicated AAC device. Medicare covers the cost of Dynavox’s products such as the Maestro which is designed as an AAC device. At first glance this seems to make a lot of sense, iPads were not designed to be AAC devices and while there are many AAC apps out there, there are a lot of other apps out there which have nothing to do with communication which is what Medicare is designed to fund. Dynavox’s products were designed to provide voice output for individuals. They offer large speakers to be heard in loud settings, such as a classroom, and they are durable, both features the iPad cannot claim. The Maestro also has Wifi which allows the user to connect to the internet. However, theses dedicated AAC devices come with hefty price tags. The Maestro is over $7,000 compared to $500 for the iPad. The iPad is still considerably cheaper after you add the price of a good AAC app or two and a durable case such as the Otterbox Defender Series Case. This is where the argument takes a completely different turn. It is hard to say that there is no case where the iPad is a better option than the Maestro.

I have had very limited experiences with AAC devices with my own students. I had a student whose speech was almost completely unintelligible to unfamiliar listeners and at times difficult to familiar listeners. He became frustrated when he was misunderstood and led to aggressive/destructive behaviors. We had the opportunity to trial a Dynavox V. I say trial because that is as far as it went. He had it for 4 weeks and really did not work out well. He would have been a student I would have tried the iPad with, he was always into the cool tech gadgets. He had mp3 players and video games and would have loved the iPad. I am not certain that he would have been able to communicate more effectively with the iPad but it would have been worth a try to see.

Again, I am going to be noncommittal here and say that this is something that should be determined on an individual basis. The iPad, while not a dedicated AAC device, does have a lot to offer and is worth giving a fair chance compared to Dynavox’s product line. Considering the price of the options is also fiscally responsible. However, at the end of the day the decision to fund should be based on which device will allow the individual to communicate effectively with others regardless of manufacturer and price.

Apps for Sensory Impairments

This week’s readings looked at accessibility for students with sensory impairments. Sensory impairments refer to a broad spectrum of disorders that include impairments of vision, touch, and/or hearing. As technology has advanced so too have the apps designed to assist those with sensory impairments in successfully using mobile technology. For example if you are using a 2^nd generation iPod touch you do not have any built in accessibility features. However, fast forward 2 years to the 4^th generation of the iPod touch and you begin to see some accessibility functions to help those with sensory impairments.

Our school just purchased 20 iPad 2s so I will briefly talk about those. If you are using the iPad, the first thing you are going to want to look into are the accessibility settings found right in the general settings menu. They are a bit hidden but well worth it once you find them. You can zoom in and make things bigger. For students with visual impairments you can change the screen to high contrast. There are not options for high contrast so you will have to test and see what works best for your student’s. There are also multitasking gestures.

There are also a number of apps out there but I will say the same thing I said in my post about apps with students with autism, know your student and their needs. I found a list of apps from Eric Sailers called iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch apps for (Special) Education. Some of these apps are great in theory. For example Dragon Dictation will allow a user to speak and it will create text which can then be copied to the clipboard and pasted in other apps, such as email or web browsers. However, for students with multiple disabilities who also have speech difficulties this might not be the best app to assist them in successfully navigating their mobile device. If your student is able to, allow them to be a part of the process in selecting an app by asking for their input of what they liked and did not like in the app. If not it is best to do some extensive research and trial and error. Unfortunately this could become expensive as some apps do not have a “free” or “lite” version to trial.

I am not going to provide any answers for your app questions but I will point out some things to look for when assessing apps. For apps that provide high contrast it is best to know if a particular color scheme works best for your student (there is not just one). Try some of the high contrast settings on your computer to get an idea of which one is best for you student. This provides a larger screen for the student to practice with, and windows also gives a number of color schemes to help those with a variety of visual impairments. For voice recognition apps see if it is something that you can “train” to recognize the speech of your student. A lot of apps for students with visual impairments will speak what button is being pressed again it is important to look at what you can customized in these apps/settings. It is beneficial to be able to control the rate of speech, volume, pitch and tone of the speaker. Apps that allow the user to input speech might be helpful too.

This is the life of a special educator, sifting and sorting through the enormous mass of apps to find the perfect fit to enable your student to succeed and what works for one student might not work for another and it is back to the drawing board.