Reflection on my Journey through EDG 519!!!!!

Well my friends, it has come that time. I have come so far on this journey through exploring Assistive Technology components. I have learned so much information and I hope you took something from it as well.

Back in September when I first started in this class and blogging, I was a rookie. I didn't know what a blog was nor did I really know what Assisitive Technology really meant. But together with your support, we made it on our way to explore many areas that were unknown to us. We became familiar with the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Computer Access, AT and The Writing Process as well as AT and Math. 

In exploring these many different areas of Assistive Technology, I learned how to incorporate UDL concepts into lessons that I currently was using to make sure all types of learners in my classroom could be accommodated. Even though I learned some tools that I can use, I was also surprised by how many concepts I was already including in my lessons. This makes me feel great about the knowledge that I apparently had coming into this class which I didn't give myself enough credit for. I learned about the crucial role the IEP plays into facilitating instruction with the use of the Assistive Technology. Learning about all the teachers and/or staff that's required to make up the IEP team was also very eye opening to myself. I did not know that so many bodies were there to assist and each could look at the IEP from a different perspective. It's nice to know that sooo much faculty is there to help out and assist in this process. As a future classroom teacher, knowing all of this information will help to strengthen my instruction positively. I will fully know the roles that myself and others play into the IEP process so that I can ensure myself, parents of my students, and others that I'm doing the best that I can to make sure they are successful in learning and moving forward academically. 

In looking back on some of my earlier posts, I became familiar with proper terminology right away. I used UDL wording in my very first post welcoming myself to the blogging world. Along the way, I continued to use this terminology so that my followers could get used to and become familiar with this language. At the very end of my blogs including this one, my very last one, I still maintain some of the lingo. 

Well, it has been real. Thank you again for following me on this amazing journey. Until we meet again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

iPhone, iPod touch, and other handheld devices to Provide Visual Supports

As we all know, our technology has come so very far in the past decade alone. Even though the very first apple product has been around for over 30 years, apple itself has taken on a new role alone with creating fun, innovative gadgets that can do so much for people, especially students with disabilities. Gadgets like the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, etc. can provide visual supports to those students who have cognitive disabilities, autism, or students who have difficulty with self management and personal organization. Their lack of these skills alone has been successfully addressed through the use of visual supports such as picture schedules and activity sequences, which are sequential, pictorial representations of events or tasks that cue a student to complete them. 

Programs on these devices such as iCommunicate, Boardmaker, Pogo Boards, and PowerPoint can be used to create social stories. These stories are teacher (or parent) authored that are written to help a student who has autism learn "the social information he may be lacking". 

Visual supports are key to helping students, especially those with severe disabilities learn and function properly. These products alone greatly support the use of these supports. 

Resources:

Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012).Assistive Technology in the Classroom:Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with DIsabiltiies. New Jersey: Pearson. (Original work published 2008)

Accommodating Students with Disabilities in College

While students in grade school Pre-K to 12 are legally bound to have support given to them if they require, this is not such the case once they move on to college. Colleges are not obligated to provide assistive technology and accommodations, however, most still do for those that would benefit from the use of it. 

Assisstive Technology can be used to help college students during classes and testing situations and in completing assignments. All of these assistive technology tools can be helpful to college students if they meet the following criteria:

• Easy to use and easy to customize
• age appropriate
• students own choice
• match the specific task and environment
• access easily
• Training and technical support are provided

Resources:

Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012).Assistive Technology in the Classroom:Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with DIsabiltiies. New Jersey: Pearson. (Original work published 2008)

Assistive Technology Model Operating Guidelines

After having the chance to look at and review a few websites in terms of Assistive Technology resources, I found this one on the Oregon Technology Access Program (OTAP) website. On this website, I found some very helpful and useful resources. The site provides a brief overview of what it's all about as well as providing important links and documents to supporting assistive technology within the IEP process (as we have mentioned in earlier blogs). 


Check out the website to see for yourself:

http://www.otap-oregon.org/Pages/Default.aspx

Meeting the Needs at Home and in the Community with the Augmentative Communication Device

As a continuation of my previous posts talking about AT & Math, we will continue our discussion. Just like meeting the needs of the child in the classroom are important, so are meeting the needs at home and in the community.  

To help transition this process from school to home, school personnel must provide direct instruction to the parents, who in turn can teach other family and community members to interact with their child. Due to the fact that some of these systems can be quite complicated to operate, consideration should be given to the current level of the family members' familiarity with computers and technology and their willingness to learn, prior to deciding on the most appropriate system. This will allow the school staff to plan the most appropriate home supports and expectations. It's very important for the family to feel comfortable with the system and to understand the impact that communication practice will have on future success. 

Teachers can also facilitate positive experiences with novel communication partners through school wide special activities or assemblies and through planned field trips in the community. In this case, the devices can be programmed to ask specific questions and guests can be directed toward the augmentative communication device user to answer a question. This will enable the student to practice interacting with unfamiliar partners.

Resources:

Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012).Assistive Technology in the Classroom:Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with DIsabiltiies. New Jersey: Pearson. (Original work published 2008)

Importance of Supporting Augmentative Communication System at Home and in Community

As a continuation to my previous posts from my blogs so far, we will be continuing the discussion of AT & Math. As any one would might think, supporting the use of the Augmentative Communication Device for students with disabilities is important. However, what they might not have known is that supporting this device outside of the classroom such as at home and in the community is just as important. 

When a child uses their system other places, it reinforces the communication skills learned in school and helps to generalize them to other settings. This can require the expanded consideration of family involvement, issues related to culture, and the identification of places or activities in which the student is active. 

The development of a working relationship between school and home is crucial to the success of augmentative communication. Both of these environments can reflect different and varied communication demands and coordinated efforts can significantly increase the likelihood of effective communication.

Resources:

Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012).Assistive Technology in the Classroom:Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with DIsabiltiies. New Jersey: Pearson. (Original work published 2008)

Augmentative Communication Incorporated into IEP

As everyone is well aware by reading my blogs over the past few months alone, IEP's are crucial to students with disabilities education. We will now switch our focus over to talking about Augmentative Communication and the role in plays into an  IEP. 

Once it has been determined that a student would greatly benefit from the use of the device, the components of the system should be outlined in the IEP. It also should include the use of the augmentative device into the IEP. This means, how the device will be used to facilitate instruction and learning for the student should be included and outlined in the IEP itself. The students goals and objectives should assume that his or her participation and evaluation will be achieved through the use of the augmentative communication system. 

When constructing an IEP for a student who uses augmentative communication, it is important that the student's use of the system is integrated within and across the school day, including both instructional and non instructional periods. The IEP must include clear statements reflecting the student's communication needs across the environments and descriptions of how the specific features of the system will be used by the student. 

When developing IEP goals, it is important for the team to remember that the augmentative communication device is not an IEP goal in itself but rather a means to accomplishing a goal. 

3 Goals to consider: Communication, Instruction/Academic, & Social Interactions.

Two additional components to consider:

• list of the augmentative communication services to be provided by related service personnel (speech/language pathologist, occupational therapist)
• identification of the party responsible for device maintenance and operations(general up keep)

Resources:

Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012).Assistive Technology in the Classroom:Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with DIsabiltiies. New Jersey: Pearson. (Original work published 2008)

Strategies used to Overcome "Learned Helplessness

In a classroom, many students may not realize it, but they are giving in to the term, "learned helplessness". This term means that the student is used to disappointment and failure at succeeding because to them they are not reaching success and as a result, they don't try anymore because they feel that its no use to them.

As a teacher, this is our worst nightmare. We never want a child to ever feel this way. We do everything in our power to let the child know that they are worthy of doing great things. However, sometimes its not what we say to a child, rather the techniques and methods we use that can help that child not feel so helpless anymore and overcome that learned aspect. 

Some tips for Overcoming Learned Helplessness:

• Build daily expectation of communication through specific activities such as choosing the activity during recess, picking a book to read, or identifying where to eat lunch
• Construct a brief daily report to parents that is communicated by the student
• Allow natural consequences to occur and provide avenues for repair. This includes setups that alter the environment to provide less support or sabotage
• Provide for choice making whenever possible that requires the student to use his or her augmentative communication system
• Provide powerful phrases on the device for students to reject or protest something

Resources:

Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012).Assistive Technology in the Classroom:Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with DIsabiltiies. New Jersey: Pearson. (Original work published 2008)

TECHMATRIX!!!!!!

Alright, just like I have viewed the manipulatives website, I also was directed to check out the TECHMATRIX website. Although this website may be a lot more boring from the last one (mainly because it doesn't offer cool manipulative games to play), it has a lot of important features for a teacher to reference to. On this website, you can select the grade level, subject, and disabilities your looking  for and create a search of all the math products that are available to purchase. If there are numerous products that catch your eye, you can select multiple and compare them by creating a TECHMATRIX to help break down which features the products has. That way, you can line them up and compare them to one another. Teachers often like to do this because since money is tight, they like to get the most bang for their buck. Seeing products aligned next to other products can let the teacher know which is the best option for them in terms of what they are looking for ultimately in a product. 

Please feel free to check out the website below. 

(TECHMATRIX  I constructed to view numerous Math products available)



http://techmatrix.org

Geometry Manipulatives for all Ages!!!!!!!!

As I have mentioned in my last few blogs, there are an abundance of applications out there to use to teach important math skills. In choosing some additional activities to research and explore, I chose the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives. On this website, the site provides 5 different categories relating to math including Numbers & Operations, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, and Data Analysis & Probability. For each of these categories, there are ages bands that provide manipulatives you can use as a teacher for each of those categories. The age bands include Pre-K to 2, 3 to 5, 6 to 8, and 9 to 12. 

I chose to focus on the topic of Geometry, mainly because I absolutely LOVED that subject as a student and still do. Finding resources and manipulatives to teach geometry concepts alone may not be easy but that's where this website comes into handy. This website provides many different tools to use in your class for one category alone. If a teacher chooses a specific subject manipulative and feels comfortable using and ultimately adopts it, one might ask what happens if or when he/she moves grade levels?????? Will the same manipulative work teaching geometry??? That's a very good and important question. The answer is YES. For most of these manipulatives, you'll find that they are used in numerous grade levels, including Ladybug Leaf. Ladybug Leaf, a manipulative used for teaching Geometry concepts, can be used across different age bands including Pre-K to 2, 3 to 5, and 6 to 8. Please feel free to check out the website to view other math manipulatives that just may work in your classroom. I promise you won't be disappointed. Just remember, you need Java plug-in to be able to view this website. 

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

Low-tech & Mid-tech Adaptations to Assist Students in Completing Assignments

As mentioned in my previous blogs, AT as it relates to Math and teaching it's concepts continues. Technology that we use so frequently today has come along way from what it used to be like many years ago for students learning math concepts. Although the advancement in technology can be great and offer endless opportunities to achieve an be successful in Math, there are, however, some Low-tech as well as Mid-tech tools that can do the trick without breaking the bank. 

Some examples include:

• Manipulatives
• Fraction rubber stamps
• Manipulative number line
• Laminated addition/multiplication tables
• Large calculators with over sized buttons
• Talking calculators

And these are to name just a few. Please check out the textbook, Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with Disabilities for additional tools.  

Resources:

Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012).Assistive Technology in the Classroom:Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with DIsabiltiies. New Jersey: Pearson. (Original work published 2008)

Educational Applications used to teach Math Concepts, Math Skills, & Problem Solving

As I have mentioned in my previous blogs, there are an abundance of educational applications available for teachers to use as resources to assist students in Math. This blog focuses on apps that can be used to help teach and support math concepts, math skills, and problem solving. Keep in mind, there are so many ones that I have only provided just a few. If you would like more information on all of the different types of tools out there for assisting with these skills alone, please feel free to check out the textbook, Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with Disabilities.  

Some apps include but aren't limited too:

1.) Internet 4 Classrooms (http://www.internet4classrooms.com)- a FREE web portal that is designed to assist anyone who wants to find high-quality, free internet resources to use during classroom instruction. They can reinforce specific subject matter areas at home. 

2.) Math Playground-provides a wealth of resources to support learning math concepts, skills, and problem solving. 

3.) Conceptual Math-focuses on fractions and offers a variety of tools for teachers to use to enhance their whole class instruction.

(A student's demonstration of how to set up and play the game "Triplets" on Math Playground)

Resources:

Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012).Assistive Technology in the Classroom:Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with DIsabiltiies. New Jersey: Pearson. (Original work published 2008)

Technology Tools used to Address Visual-Spatial and/or Motor Control Difficulties

As mentioned in my previous blogs, we are continuing the discussion with AT & Math. Just like there are many applications for assisting students with disabilities for Automaticity/Math Fact Fluency, there are also many applications that can assist students who have Visual/Spatial as well as Motor Control difficulties. 

There are an abundance of tools out there that can be downloaded to support this skill. I will, (for the sake of time and your eyes) just list a few that can help. 

*Feel free to check out the textbook Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experience of Students with Disabilities for additional applications. 

Some include but aren't limited to:

1.) MathPad(Cambium Learning), a talking math worksheet program that allows students to perform arithmetic computations with whole numbers on the computer in much of the same way they would use pencil and paper. Students with fine motor difficulties can demonstrate their skill by simply using the keyboard or clicking the mouse and students with severe disabilities can utilize MathPad's scanning features.

2.) Virtual Pencil Arithmetic is an educational application designed for students who are, as mentioned in the words of the publisher, "pencil impaired". Makes addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with whole numbers, fractions, and decimals accessible to students with disabilities. It allows students to solve problems much in the same way that they would using a paper pencil.

3.) Number Navigator doesn't have specialized features such as speech or scanning, but for those who need a simple "math processor" to enter and solve basic math fact problems on the computer, this FREE program can be a good solution. 


Remember…….Please take the time to check out the textbook for more applications. There are sooo many that can provide for and do so much for your students who have these types of disabilities and impairments. Boy has our technology gone soo far!!!!!!!!

   (Check out this cool video of a math application called MathPad to assist students)
Resources:

Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012).Assistive Technology in the Classroom:Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with DIsabiltiies. New Jersey: Pearson. (Original work published 2008)

Educational Applications to Address Automaticity/Math Fact Fluency

Just like I have mentioned in my previous blog, there are certain Key questions one must consider when selecting an purchasing an appropriate educational application for math. Knowing these questions is important. Now we'll begin to talk about what applications are out there for certain types of math skills that students with disabilities still must be able to perform.

Before I begin to list applications that address these skills, it's important to know what the terminology actually means. The textbook defines Automaticity as, "the fast, accurate, and effortless processing of content information" (Dell, Newton, & Petroff, 2012). 

*There are low-tech as well as mid-tech tools that can help and assist students with automaticity. For example, addition and multiplication charts as well as calculators compensate for a lack of automaticity. 

Applications for Automaticity/Math Fact Fluency:

1.) FASTT Math (Fluency and Automaticity through Systematic Teaching with Technology) is a math intervention program that helps students to acquire math fact fluency. It assesses students' command of basic facts by measuring response time and then generates customized activities based on the results. 

2.) Timez Attack (Big Brainz) focuses mainly on the multiplication facts, teaching the 2 to 12 times table. It engages students in a high-tech video game environment featuring high-quality graphics. 

3.) Arithm Attack is used to practice basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. 

4.) Arcademic Skill Builder math games are designed to help develop automaticity in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, integers, fractions, and ratios. 

           (FASTT Math video to help students achieve automaticity and fluency skills)

Resources:
Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012).Assistive Technology in the Classroom:Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with DIsabiltiies. New Jersey: Pearson. (Original work published 2008)

Key Questions that should be considered when Selecting Educational Applications

As I had mentioned in my previous blog, I will now be turning my focus to Assistive Technology and Math. Mathematics is a very important skill that ALL students need and should acquire at a very young age. Students with disabilities, however, have difficulty acquiring such a skill mainly due to its complexity. Thankfully, there are devices out there specifically designed to accommodate those students who would greatly benefit from the use of them. Although there are an abundance of devices to choose from, there are certain questions a teacher and/or school administrator must consider when selecting the appropriate one for the student(s) goals and objectives to be met. 

Certain Key questions to include are:

1.) What is the intended outcome of the use of the educational application? Meaning, asking yourself questions such as "Is it meant to strengthen math skills in problem solving or is it meant to build speed and accuracy with basic math facts?"

2.) Is the educational applications likely to fulfill its stated purpose? Meaning, if the stated purpose is to help build problem-solving skills, does it provide the explanatory feedback needed to do so or simply access whether or not problems are solved correctly?

3.) Can the educational applications be used as an alternative to traditional classroom activities to enhance student participation? Meaning, will students learn as effectively using online math manipulatives as they would using traditional manipulatives?

AT & Math

Hello Everyone again. I am back an sad to say that this will be my final module that I will be posting blogs on. I just want to thank each and everyone of you who have viewed my posts over the course of the semester. It means a lot to me for you to share your valuable input and comments regarding my topics. Together, we have learned so much that we will take with us into our classrooms if we haven't done so already!!!!!!!!! 

*We have covered some interesting topics so far including UDL (Universal Design for Learning), Communication and Computer Access, and AT & The Writing Process. We will be wrapping up the blogs by talking about AT & Math. 

Webinars (Part 2)

After viewing the first webinar on AT and Reading, I became interested in learning more about how AT can work in the classroom throughout different subjects so I watched the webinar involving Math (my favorite subject). 

My ultimate goal someday would be to teach middle school math. In viewing this webinar, I had a different perspective. I began listening more closely to the information presented so that I could get a more clear picture of how AT devices can be used in the classroom to facilitate learning with Math and some techniques and/or approaches. 

The number of ways to use manipulatives is addressed. Its mind boggling all the things I learned that I never knew I could have done with such a simple lesson. A few years back while student teaching Kindergarten in an urban classroom with over 28 students, trying to find neat and creative ways to address the lesson goal was my struggle. Had I read and understood all the ways to use manipulatives, I could have went into the classroom each and everyday with confidence knowing I was fully prepared to take on the math lesson and make it engaging as best I could for all students. 

For those teachers trying to accommodate their lesson for students with disabilities, the webinar discussed ways to provide choices and a means to communicate which can be as simple as eye gazing, touch, point, or selecting with sound. The communication board was also mentioned as an important device for a student to use tactile and visual symbols. 

Thank you everyone for listening to me blog about AT and the writing process over the course of the past few weeks. Its been a great journey. I look forward to you hearing about my next blog…..stay tuned……...

Webinars

As a closure to my past blogs in talking about AT and the writing process, I had the privilege of watching an online webinar about AT and their effectiveness for Reading. While viewing this hour long discussion, I found out very interesting information. 

I learned some approaches to use that can be beneficial including text readers, screen readers, and electronic texts that can be in power points, word documents, pdf files, booksharing, internet, etc.

In selecting a device, choosing ones that are of higher quality voice are essential, especially ones with acapella voices. 

Another key fact that I found to be very true is devices that are Initial text to speech do not summarize or stop at certain parts during speech to give the reader a heads up to pay attention to certain parts. So it is important to modify test accordingly as the device will not have the means to do. 


*I learned sooo much from this webinar including techniques and devices to use. 

Websites

As a continuation of my last post and previous blogs continuing the discussion of AT and its involvement in the writing process, I had the privilege to check out numerous websites of different AT devices along with their features. I chose to talk about the two I feel are very important as well as interesting to students with disabilities. 

The first one is Kidblog.          

Kidblog is a website created for teachers, by teachers, so students can get the most out of the writing process. Given the fact that our society has become so reliant on technology for our every day tasks anymore, this site allows students to fit into their heavily technology driven society while still learning and maintaing an important skill:writing. Writing can pose as a very difficult task to many people including adults, students, and those students with disabilities. 

Students in particular that would benefit from this safe, secure, classroom controlled writing blog website would be students with autism, students that have difficulty writing with a pencil, students with learning disabilities, and any other students that enjoy and would benefit from a writing program on a computer. 

As a classroom teacher, I would use it as a supplement to many of my writing lessons and tasks that I would have my students complete. The software per say is not downloaded, rather it is a website that a teacher or school subscribes to. It's entirely FREE and allows the classroom teacher to solely manage the accounts of each of the students. It's a secure website. The site itself that students post their writing assignments on is eye engaging so students are encouraged and highly motivated to learn. 

Check it out: http://kidblog.org/home/

The second website that I chose was Write:Outloud. 

Write:Outloud is a company created by Don Johnston to help students learn to read and write. He himself struggled as a reader and writer in his schooling an this alone was the motivator to create a successful company that creates different AT devices to use. There are many types of products that can be downloaded for different subjects including writing. Some products that are used to help students with their writing are First Keys 3, Write:Outloud, Co:Writer for Neo, Co:Writer 7, and Co:Writer for App. 

As a classroom teacher, depending on the assignments and the abilities of my students, I would choose (Most likely one) product that serves as the most beneficial. Students that would greatly benefit from products as mentioned above would be students with Autism, Dyslexia, students with hearing impairments, learning disabilities, and any other disability that allowing the computer to read back wording would be beneficial. 

The pricing of any of these products can range from $10 to $700 and even beyond. Thats's why as a teacher, it's very important to know the range of abilities an what your students are able to do. 

Check it out: http://donjohnston.com/writeoutloud/

Autism (& Expressive Communication)

Autism! Autistic! Do these few words that describe how children can be labeled in today's society ring a bell? If not, that's ok. If so, you're probably used to hearing these words define a certain percentage of children and students in our schools today. 

To those of you who are unaware of this disorder that our children are now being identified and labeled as, these disorders can be characterized as children with "difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors"(Autism Speaks, 2013). 

As mentioned in my previous blog, expressive communication plays a big role in students IEP's, especially those children with Autism. 

Expressive Communication involves sending a message to another person to make something happen or to STOP making something happen that is already happening. 

While most students are aware of how to effectively engage in expressive communication with their peers, children with Autism, however, are not. As future educators in classrooms, we need to quickly become aware of the challenges that students with Autism might face in regards to how they interact with someone and use expressive communication as a means to do that. 

Children that are Autistic can range in their personalities and dynamics Some may be non-verbal and have all kinds of challenges with many forms of expressive communication, while other students may be verbal but use language inappropriately or get confused by the language that their peers and others are using. Hence, conversation between a child with Autism and a child and/or adult without Autism can be quite awkward. 

Some challenges that students with Autism may face during expressive communication can include but not limited to the following:

• delayed processing of language-Students may take a long time to understand and fully act on an instruction
• echolalia-Student repeats another persons speech/command including anything that can be heard on TV, games, movies, etc.
• difficulty understanding the spoken language of others 
• different motivation to communicate. Children communicating about their wants and needs rather then about sharing information for social reasons

It may seem that due to all these communciation blocks that a teacher would have a hard time getting through to and reaching a student with Autism. That is not the case. Research has proven that there can be many effective teaching strategies to use in the classroom for students who display any of these symptoms and are labeled as such. 

Some great teaching strategies to implement in your own classroom:

• For those non-verbal children, some type of augmentative communication device should be in place. The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) has been proven to be very effective. 
• Voice output communication devices are also appropriate choices
• picture cards used for communication
• Using repair strategies-breaking down into steps to teach them persistence,, and then with "show me" cues
• Those students who do have verbal communication skills should have some backup augmentative communication device for when their expressive communication may fail. This can help to reduce aggressive behaviors that might occur. 
• Motivating materials such as activities, objects, etc. can serve as a starting point to teaching the child the functions of communication

There are different types of activities that students with autism respond well too. 

1. Break Cards-is a visual support which may be used by a child to communicate the message that they need some time away from an activity, task, or person. Typically used for children who are autistic that are non-verbal and have a hard time expressing themselves. In developing the break cards for students, a teacher must take into consideration the limits of their students as well as their goals and objectives. Here are a few examples of break cards that can be used:

2. Choice cards-allow the child a degree of independence by indicating a choice from a pre-determined set of possibilities. The child is less likely to act out because he is allowed to make a "choice" of what he wants to do. 

Here are some examples of what they make look like:

Resources:

Home | Autism Speaks. (n.d.). Autism Speaks. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://www.autismspeaks.org

IEP's (Part 5)

The fifth and final IEP I bring to you is:

*Andy

Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance: Andy uses a variety of sounds, gestures, signs, and picture/symbols to communicate with his family. He is very social and enjoys parallel play. Andy does not communicate vocally in the classroom, but does use some gestures. At school Andy will sign, but only with prompts.

Annual Goal: Andy will increase expressive language production by using a variety of communication methods in the classroom, including sign language, gestures, communication boards, pictures, and simple voice output devices during four out of five opportunities. 

(Sign Language Alphabet: one of the forms of communication Andy will use to meet his goal)

Andy will use various forms of communication to meet his goal including sign language, as pictured above. These forms will enable Andy to expressive himself and communicate effectively at home and at school. In having a variety of options to express himself as well as numerous opportunities, Andy can  meet his goal of increasing his expressive communication 4 out of 5 opportunities. 

Resources:

Reed, P., & Lahm, E. (2004, January 1). Chapter 9-Documenting Assistive Technology into the IEP. Assessing Student's Needs for Using Assistive Technology. Retrieved October 30, 2013, from http://dpi.wi.gov/files/sped/pdf/at-wati-asnat.pdf

IEP's (Part 4)

Our fourth IEP I bring to you is:

*Mary

Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance: Mary currently communicates with sounds that are not always understood by those around her. She often becomes upset when she is not understood. She likes people and likes to be around both adults and children. She is beginning to play simple games.

Annual Goal: Mary will communicate her interests and needs in three or more environments/situations using a single message voice output device.

Since Mary's communication is limited by the confusion of her sounds to other people which in turn make Mary frustrated, she can use a single message voice output device that enables Mary to simply communicate in one sound. Thus, allowing her to get her message across to others so they understand Mary's request. This device can allow Mary to effectively communicate her wants and needs in three or more environment/situations as her goal outlines.

Resources:

Reed, P., & Lahm, E. (2004, January 1). Chapter 9-Documenting Assistive Technology into the IEP. Assessing Student's Needs for Using Assistive Technology. Retrieved October 30, 2013, from http://dpi.wi.gov/files/sped/pdf/at-wati-asnat.pdf