COMMUNICATION
Augmentative and
Alternative Communication is all forms of communication excluding oral
through which students express thoughts, wants, desires, and needs. This is expressed through facial expression,
gestures, writing, or using symbols.
When speech is not functional or fully functional students use AAC to
replace or support communication.
No tech tool- Communication boards.
Communication boards can be created, used, and stored easily
in the classroom without use of a power source.
Create- Buy a foam board that can be cut to desired size and
used to mount symbols or pictures to be used to communicate.
Use- Use these boards in the classroom with students who are
unable to communicate their ideas or feeling thoroughly. Pictures can be generated on a computer that
represents leisure and literacy activities that students can communicate. Students can simply point to symbols or
pictures to share what activities they completed that way. These boards can be used for literacy by
having a student complete a sentence started on another board using a different
board. Numbers can be used to solve math
problems.
Storage- These boards can be made flat and of any size
ranging from a single symbol to a piece of paper and can easily be stored in
the classroom.
High tech tool-DeltaTalker
Can be used by beginner or skilled communicators.
This device is used to vocalize words for students who have difficulty
speaking. The students use this device to input two or more activations
and the device with "say" the word that it recognizes from those
activations.
This device can hold over 4,000 words and can be hooked up
to a PC so that students can type words and the device can communicate the
words through a voice system as well as communicate songs, noises, and words in
other languages. Common words only need
two activations while other words need just a few more.
ACCESSIBILITY
An Input Device for
students with special needs is a piece of computer equipment used to provide
control signals for an information processing system. For students with special needs such as motor
or visual disabilities, alternate input devices can be necessary and useful.
Hardware option- A head mouse is a device that goes around a
student’s head which tracks head movement in order to control and activate the
computer. This can be especially good
for students with fine motor skill disabilities that keep them from performing
tasks on the computer because they cannot properly use the hand mouse.
Great research! I am amazed by how far technology has arrived. The head mouse is a great piece of hardware input for students with fine motor skill disabilities. It would be a benefit to have one of these pieces in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely interesting tools for this assignment. I like how both of your accessibility items use the head. I find the head mouse to be very cool. It reminds me of the targeting system I read about many years ago that the government was developing for fighter planes. Glad to see the same tech can be used in civilian lives to benefit the impaired.
ReplyDeleteI really like the communication board that you have featured here. I think the appealing aspect of it is that it's more of a DIY project, so it can be customized to each individual in need of it. This tool would also be neat for young children who are just beginning to use language and associate words with emotions and meaning.
ReplyDeleteOh! Also, I featured your blog on my post. Hope that's okay!
DeleteI have never seen or heard of a head mouse and I enjoyed learning about it. When I was researching for mine I found many different devices that allow a person to use their voice as a mouse and think that this technology has made such an impression that even apple uses it in their phones (Siri).
ReplyDelete