Today Terry and I decided to become partners in our quest to adapt a dollar store item/s for a life skills/leisure activity for one of our students who has limited mobility ( fine motor difficulties).
We hit Dollarama in New Minas, and surprize, surprize, half of our class was there doing the same thing! I got a little carried away with a fly swatter that verbalized " gotcha!" everytime you connected with something!! We perused the aisles thinking of several ideas- one involving cooking/baking, another involving an adaptation for an itouch during outdoor water play, and a final invention involving outdoor water play and a student in a wheelchair.
Stay tuned for our progress- Terry and I are meeting after tomorrow's class to create and test out some of our baking/cooking ideas!! I will be bringing a playdough recipe.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Assignment # 2- APP Detectives for IPod Touch
For my report on APPS detectives for the IPod touch, I had a lot of fun searching the ITunes APPS store for activities that would benefit a student of mine this past school year in Grade 1. He was diagnosed with Autism, ADHD, as well as Turettes ( recently). He was very bright, and loved Star Wars, ( could hum the theme song in its entirety, and often did this in class as a tic to help him stay focused!) He was also obsessed with the human body, and his favorite books for free time reading were invariably related to the human body or space. He also loved his Nintendo DS and was saving up his money to buy a Nintendo DSI. He has great keyboarding skills, was doing advanced math in Grade 1, as well as advanced reading materials.
My student was on a behavioral and social IPP. He had been having great difficulty socially ( initiating, and sustaining appropriate conversations with peers and especially had trouble with attending to people’s feelings. He loved games, but wanted to be first, and subconsciously often put people down about their abilities during games.
He had sensory issues, and his parents had decided to take him off meds. The meds. had been working great at school, but not so well at home. There was a lot of impulsivity and inappropriate responses. I had been doing a wonderful program I had found called Yogarilla- in which different exercises were performed by a gorilla, and the 2 of us had to reproduce them. He also loved the wiggle cushion I borrowed from the Autism library, and had recently started swimming at the community pool.
I chose 3 APPS for my student:
1. Model Me Going Places- this is a visual teaching tool for helping children navigate challenging locations in the community. This would be a good tool for my student as he is used to social stories as part of his programming, but he would benefit from the slide shows of children modeling appropriate behavior. This has been an area of difficulty for him, and as his mom and dad enjoy going out in the community with their 2 children, but are very hesitant going to the playground, restaurant, movie theatre, and grocery store, this could be of benefit for the whole family.
2. Human Body 3D Anatomy- because my student LOVES anything to do with the human body, I KNOW he would absolutely love this app. It involves the major systems of the human body, including lots of graphics in 2D. His favourite would be the rotating 3D organs with 360 degree rotational capability!
3. Traffic Rush game- this game involves stopping and accelerating vehicles through an intersection without crashing. It has been called, “ one of the best games on the iphone”, as well as one of the top 100 games of 2009.
The reasons I chose these particular apps for my student are probably quite obvious. As he is on a social and behavioral IPP, interactive social programming, especially ones where we could include classroom peers in the process (he loves to show people how things work or are done properly), would be fantastic. His engaged parents would also purchase and use the ipod touch at home, I am sure!
Also part of his programming, had been a behavior plan where he earned points for timed free time choices. This was often with a peer, and as he was very proficient with hand held games, the traffic game, and human body 3D anatomy would be huge motivators for him. It could also be a social teaching activity for him, as he navigates appropriate conversation and turn taking on topic.
My student was on a behavioral and social IPP. He had been having great difficulty socially ( initiating, and sustaining appropriate conversations with peers and especially had trouble with attending to people’s feelings. He loved games, but wanted to be first, and subconsciously often put people down about their abilities during games.
He had sensory issues, and his parents had decided to take him off meds. The meds. had been working great at school, but not so well at home. There was a lot of impulsivity and inappropriate responses. I had been doing a wonderful program I had found called Yogarilla- in which different exercises were performed by a gorilla, and the 2 of us had to reproduce them. He also loved the wiggle cushion I borrowed from the Autism library, and had recently started swimming at the community pool.
I chose 3 APPS for my student:
1. Model Me Going Places- this is a visual teaching tool for helping children navigate challenging locations in the community. This would be a good tool for my student as he is used to social stories as part of his programming, but he would benefit from the slide shows of children modeling appropriate behavior. This has been an area of difficulty for him, and as his mom and dad enjoy going out in the community with their 2 children, but are very hesitant going to the playground, restaurant, movie theatre, and grocery store, this could be of benefit for the whole family.
2. Human Body 3D Anatomy- because my student LOVES anything to do with the human body, I KNOW he would absolutely love this app. It involves the major systems of the human body, including lots of graphics in 2D. His favourite would be the rotating 3D organs with 360 degree rotational capability!
3. Traffic Rush game- this game involves stopping and accelerating vehicles through an intersection without crashing. It has been called, “ one of the best games on the iphone”, as well as one of the top 100 games of 2009.
The reasons I chose these particular apps for my student are probably quite obvious. As he is on a social and behavioral IPP, interactive social programming, especially ones where we could include classroom peers in the process (he loves to show people how things work or are done properly), would be fantastic. His engaged parents would also purchase and use the ipod touch at home, I am sure!
Also part of his programming, had been a behavior plan where he earned points for timed free time choices. This was often with a peer, and as he was very proficient with hand held games, the traffic game, and human body 3D anatomy would be huge motivators for him. It could also be a social teaching activity for him, as he navigates appropriate conversation and turn taking on topic.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Thursday, July 8 Proloquo to Go I Pad
Today in class we were given our case studies to plan for fitting an ipod touch into an IPP for a student.
Our group started off fine, picking the name and the initial categories, but then we got hung up on listing strengths, challenges and interests. Once we got our 4 categories , we again got hung up on trying to make our 4 subgroups have the same cells. Once we picked our common voice and backgrounds, we were then off to the races within our own group.
IT WAS THEN 11:10 and panic snuck in... we only have 50 mns. to get our section: Fun- horseback riding completed!
Another little problem, when we realized we needed to make sure that Sally had the same icon and level of voice for all 4 groups... ok we're all good and off to the races!!
I volunteered to type up the main group's procedure tonight... looking forward to seeing if the other group had the same growing pains our LARGE group had!
Our group started off fine, picking the name and the initial categories, but then we got hung up on listing strengths, challenges and interests. Once we got our 4 categories , we again got hung up on trying to make our 4 subgroups have the same cells. Once we picked our common voice and backgrounds, we were then off to the races within our own group.
IT WAS THEN 11:10 and panic snuck in... we only have 50 mns. to get our section: Fun- horseback riding completed!
Another little problem, when we realized we needed to make sure that Sally had the same icon and level of voice for all 4 groups... ok we're all good and off to the races!!
I volunteered to type up the main group's procedure tonight... looking forward to seeing if the other group had the same growing pains our LARGE group had!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Assessments July 7
Today we viewed 4 main assessment tools:
1. MPTT- Dr. Marcia Scherer created a main assessment involving 4 components: milieu, personality, task ( time), and technology. Time is a major factor, and the main question to ask is: What are we asking the student to do?
2. WATI- This is a comprehensive assessment used bt schools with a checklist for assessing technological needs.
3. SETT - Joy Zabala created a question and answer starting point involving student, task, environment and tools. 4 steps break down into task analysis.
4. HAAT- is a brain interface technology design that includes: human, activity and assisstive technology. Contexts include: social, setting and physical .
I feel that you need a variety of assessments to get a clear picture of the student you are assessing. Highest needs use a variety of multiple technologies. You must also take into account a student's specific learning style (ie: visual or auditory ) when properly assessing a student. Remember my saying of the day: start with the simple and move to the more complex as needed!
1. MPTT- Dr. Marcia Scherer created a main assessment involving 4 components: milieu, personality, task ( time), and technology. Time is a major factor, and the main question to ask is: What are we asking the student to do?
2. WATI- This is a comprehensive assessment used bt schools with a checklist for assessing technological needs.
3. SETT - Joy Zabala created a question and answer starting point involving student, task, environment and tools. 4 steps break down into task analysis.
4. HAAT- is a brain interface technology design that includes: human, activity and assisstive technology. Contexts include: social, setting and physical .
I feel that you need a variety of assessments to get a clear picture of the student you are assessing. Highest needs use a variety of multiple technologies. You must also take into account a student's specific learning style (ie: visual or auditory ) when properly assessing a student. Remember my saying of the day: start with the simple and move to the more complex as needed!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
July 6, 2010 5173 Communication Reflection
Today's presentation was about communication, and how much we take it for granted. In order to communicate we all need 3 things:
1. communicator
2. partner- plan joint attention
3. common language
These are all very important, and you really do need all 3 to be an effective communicator; as my group found out when we thought about being non- verbal and ordering coffee and a donut from the Tim Horton's drive thru window!
We decided to get our partner to record our usual order into my blackberry, and then play it back- text to speech when we got up to the Tim Horton's window. Our back up plan- yes we felt you needed a back up plan- was to go to apps on my blackberry, then write the order on memo pad to be passed to the drive thru window attendant.
The difficulty with communicating effectively is when your main mode of communicating has problems, and you need to find an alternate mode quickly. For example, imagine Susan, from " Autism is a World", without her hand held communication system. Not only do you need back- up, but many people become too dependent on one device, and need exposure and experience with an alternative. ( esp. children on the spectrum who are very routine driven)
Please see my gadget attempts for alternate augmentative means of communication.
1. communicator
2. partner- plan joint attention
3. common language
These are all very important, and you really do need all 3 to be an effective communicator; as my group found out when we thought about being non- verbal and ordering coffee and a donut from the Tim Horton's drive thru window!
We decided to get our partner to record our usual order into my blackberry, and then play it back- text to speech when we got up to the Tim Horton's window. Our back up plan- yes we felt you needed a back up plan- was to go to apps on my blackberry, then write the order on memo pad to be passed to the drive thru window attendant.
The difficulty with communicating effectively is when your main mode of communicating has problems, and you need to find an alternate mode quickly. For example, imagine Susan, from " Autism is a World", without her hand held communication system. Not only do you need back- up, but many people become too dependent on one device, and need exposure and experience with an alternative. ( esp. children on the spectrum who are very routine driven)
Please see my gadget attempts for alternate augmentative means of communication.
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