Accessing Our Colleagues

Image from FlickrThere has been a frustrating situation at school for the past couple of weeks. I talked to my team (OT and SLP) and my boss about it and presented my data, but still didn't feel like I had a good grasp on what the data was telling me. Finally, following a teachers meeting I casually mentioned what was going on to a couple of other teachers and one of them had the answer in under a minute. It all seemed so obvious and so much more workable once I had that input.

I am wondering, how do other special educators, working in intensive special education classrooms, get input from their "job-alike" colleagues? One of the things I love about this field if the ability to work on my own according to my own timetable at whatever pace my students demand and at the same time on of the things I find most difficult is how isolating that can be at times. Please comment and share what works for you.

Wish Granting

Image via WikipediaChildren

• Dream Factory ages 3-18, critical or chronic illness documented by physician, referred by physician or parent, child must be able to somehow communicate dream, no vehicles or weapons, USA
• Children's Wish Foundation International ages 3-18, with a life threating disease, anyone can refer, for children under 3 or those who cannot communicate or comprehend a wish there is the Young Mind program, INT
  
• Kids Wish Network 3-18, with a life threatening disease, be able to communicate their own wish, no other wish through another agency, USA
  
• Make A Wish Foundation this is the one everyone has heard of, 2 and a half - 18 at time of referral, no other wishes, referred medical personnel, parent or self, express own wish somehow, INT
  
• Chef David Kid's Chef David has survived 5 kinds of cancer and focuses on granting small (compared to cruises and trips to Disney World) wishes to kids (and the occasional adult) with life threatening diseases or who have survived violence, INT
• Sunshine Foundation ages 3-18, seriously ill, physically, multiply or severely cognitively disabled, or abused children, income under $75,000, referred by parent or legal guardian, no other wishes, USA
• A Special Wish Foundation ages birth through age 20, diagnosed with a life threatening disorder

Adults

• Fairy Godmother Foundation terminally ill adult (18+, less than a year to live), must be able to communicate and comprehend wish that is their own desire, first wish granted through such an agency, must be safe, legal and not all travel expenses can be covered, USA
  
• Dream Foundation terminally ill adult (less than a year to live), 18+, limited financial resources, no cash, property, vehicles, home renovations, travel outside the USA, must communicate own wish (no mention of previous wishes)
• Her Hearts Wish women, age 18+, less than two years to live, no previous wish, must communicate own wish, no property, cash or vehicles
  

Other Programs

• Deliver the Dream offers retreats for families facing various acute or chronic diseases or disabilities in children or adults
• Give the Kids The World gives trips to central Florida/Disney World, ages 3-18, diagnosed with life threating illness, must work through cooperating wish granting agency
• Believe in Tomorrow offers retreats for families with sick children and adventures for children with life threatening illnesses (like skydiving and bull riding)

Funding Sources for AAC

First and foremost you probably need to know that when seeking funding AAC stops being called AAC and starts being called a SGD or Speech Generating Device.

Here are some funding sources for students with severe or multiple disabilities:

• medicaid/medicare and private health insurance (you usually need patient information form, SLP evaluation, prescription, letter of medical necessity)
  
• visit "An Overview of Health Based Funding of SGD" and
  
• "Medicare Funding of AAC" for more
  
• school system (mandated by IDEA)
• charitable organizations
  
• Muscular Dystrophy Association will fund AAC for student's who have a condition covered by MDA (such as muscular dystrophy or mitochondrial disease), an evaluation recommending a device from an SLP, a prescription from a doctor at an MDA clinic and have been denied coverage by health insurance or have no insurance), the amount changes annually - this year it is 2,000 dollars
• NOCK accepts applications from children who need AAC devices or wheelchairs and have exhausted all other means of funding
• The Disabled Children's Relief Fund accepts grant applications to provide goods and services need for children with disabilities who cannot otherwise afford them or attain them
• try local churches, synagogues, ELKs, Knights of Columbus, Shriners, Ladies Aid groups,
  
• depending on the state Easter Seals or ATA may have funding or a lending library
• local United Cerebral Palsy Chapters have access to the Bellows Fund for assistive technology which may be used for AAC

Here are some links for funding information:

• AAC Funding Help
  
• AAC Institute
  
• AAC RERC
  

Many of the top AAC companies have funding assistance and/or funding guides, such as Dynavox, just go to the website and look or call and ask

Finally parents or families may choose to take out a loan to purchase on their own (not recommended, if the student is in public school the school is legally required to purchase an AAC device if it is needed to make educational progress). Here is the RESNA listing of state AT loan programs.

Hear What it Sounds Like to Be Hearing Impaired

Image via WikipediaHear-it, a site about hearing loss from Europe has a set of audio files that demonstrate what it is like to hear with different types of hearing loss at different levels. These might be useful to share with parents who insist a student only needs his or her hearing aids at school or for general education teachers or teaching assistants to help them understand more about hearing loss.

Links on Del.i.cious

As part of the course I just finished teaching on free assistive technology I created a Del.icio.us page of links for the participants. We are all continuing to add to the links and it is quite a collection. I invite you all to use it as well it is here at Del.icio.us/tewksteaching.

Web Site of the Day: The Every Day Life Project

This link brought to you by reader Jeannie from Lesley College and Seem Collaborative in Massachusetts.

The Every Day Life Project is a free, membership required, website designed to teach learners how to do life skills tasks in a failure free environment. Other parts of the website have lessons on math and money, computers and online literacy classes. Though not intended for intesive special needs many of the materials are appropriate or adaptable. It is about life skills, literacy and success. Here is what their web site says:

What is the Everyday Life Project?

The Everyday Life project uses interactive, situation-based lessons to teach functional literacy skills. This new approach to learning allows learners to apply their basic literacy skills to real-world situations so they can gain the confidence and skills to be successful.

Why Teach Functional Literacy?

The lack of literacy in the United States is a very real problem. 22% of people tested in the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) scored at the Basic level in document literacy, representing 44 million Americans that do not know how to apply their basic literacy skills to everyday life.

Individuals at the Basic level can read the texts they encounter; however, they may struggle to integrate and synthesize information, and perform quantitative tasks with multiple steps.

Our goal is to help these 44 million people reach the Intermediate level and obtain the skills they need to succeed.

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Win Valuable A.T. Software from Learning Magic!

All You Have to Do is Start an Assistive Technology Blog (but it has to be your first blog ever.)

Deadline June 15th

Start a blog on your use of assistive technology in the classroom, at home, in your daily life or children's life, etc. We need more folks contributing their experiences and opinions on AT use and AT products. Be creative and start a blog here at Blogger .
Rules:
1. This must be your first time to start a blog
2. You must post at least 2 times a week
3. Your post content should be making a positive contribution.

Learning Magic is our sponsor for this contest. They have wonderful educational software for Intellitools, Clicker 5, My Own Bookshelf and more. The winner will receive any original program from the catalog! Their link is http://www.learningmagicinc.com/ Send your blog link to me at: lonthornburg@nolimits2learning.com Make sure to put "Blog Contest" in the title of your email. The winner will be selected randomly and announced June 16th.

I wish I qualified! Maybe the next contest will be for blog veterans?