Web Site of the Day - The Learning Centre of SET BC

The website of the day is the Learning Centre of SET BC. The site contains resources in six areas: Vision, Access, Communication, General Topics, Main Library, and the Conference Center. The first fours areas are divided into two sections: the classroom with web broadcasts (audio and video), lectures/presentations, demonstrations and texts and the library with AT Guides and tutorials, best practice information and student lesson ideas. This website is a great resource for information about assessment, software, instruction and best practice.

Device of the Day - iZ The Music Maker

I'll admit that I haven't tried this out yet, but the moment I saw it in the new Enabling Devices catalog I wanted one... um... for the students.

iZ is described by Enabling Devices as the "First ever animatronic DJ! We have adapted the ultimate fusion of music and toy with a personality that you have never seen before. iZ can make music come to life. He has hundreds of music combinations. His big eyes dance wildly to the music while his nose pulses in rainbow colors to the beat. Play your iPod or other music player thru iZ. Cable is included. We have not begun to describe all of the possibilities. You will love it."

My understanding of iZ is that without an iPod or MP3 Player he makes music and dances by pressing the buttons on the base of the device, but if you do plug in your iPod he puts the iDog to shame!

Maybe Someday

Mitsubishi industries has invented a little, yellow, different robot to be a companion and assistant to the elderly and those with disabilities. Perhaps it is only a matter of time before our students come to school with their own assistive robots! Oh, her name is Wakamaru.

If Wakamaru is not available your student may still get to play with a robot at school. Cosmobot is a specially designed play therapy robot for children with disabilities. Cosmobot was designed by AT KidSystems and AnthroTronix for use with children ages 5-12 with a variety of disabilities. Cosmobot does not appear on the AT KidSystems website, but he does appear on the AnthroTronix site.

All of this seems to be part of a new field called Telerehabilitation.

Free Software for Learners with Intensive Special Needs

So you're a teacher on a budget. You serve learners with diverse needs and you wish you had more time to search out free software or to design your own. Here are some leads to free downloads for students with severe, multiple, complex or profound needs.

Pvoice is a free augmentative and alternative communication program. Designed by the father of a little girl with multiple needs it is free to download and run. It is considered open source software and those who know how to program in Perl are welcome to contribute to it.

A couple of places have free downloads for use with switches. The RJCooper company has two switch accessible arcade style game available for free download. Inclusive Technology in the UK also has some switch programs for free download. Another free switch program is The Great Fish Race which allows two switch users to compete. One Switch in the UK has more than 70 games for download for single switch use. Many are quite difficult so try them before you let your students at 'em.

Some touchscreen activities can be found online or for download as well. The Jackson Pollack painting site is made to emulate action painting and works beautifully with a touchscreen. Magic Touch has links to dozens of free or free demo games that work with touchscreens. I haven't tried this one yet, but e-home games has a download of classic arcade games for touchscreens.

Sarah Greenland has three games for download: a kaleidescope for switches, a mouse trainer and a touchscreen maze. SEN Teacher (SEN=Special Education Needs) has two dozen programs free for download. (Plus printables and more.) Many of the programs on SEN Teacher are switch, touchscreen or even camera accessible. Of particular interest may be SEN Switcher, free cause and effect, switch or touchwindow accessible programs available on line or for download.

Two British schools have some of the most amazing resources I've ever seen. Priory Woods has switch activated flash videos, talking story books and learning software. I use this website constantly. I would love to go spend a year at Priory Woods and learn all they have to offer. You should also check out their Kids Only Portal. The other school is Kingsbury School, much of the software there is available for use online.

Another unbelievable freebie is Click'n'Type, an onscreen keyboard that works via touchscreen, mouse and even single switch! This program even has word prediction. Considering what you pay for other programs like this Click'n'Type is a good way to do before you ask your school or agency to spend money on a similar program.

Another utility that is available is Philip's Large Colored Cursors.

If you are feeling motivated you can peruse the OATS Repository of open source assistive technology for more downloads.

The Holidays are Upon Us!

One of the things that I try to do every year in my classroom around this time is prepare and send home a holiday gift giving guide for my students. For years parents told me how tired they were of their sons and daughters receiving gifts that were not appropriate. Sometimes the problem was the gifts could not be used by the child, other times it was that the toys was not age appropriate and still other times it was just that the child received all clothes and nothing "fun".

So I peruse the special needs catalogs and create a guide parents can share with friends and relatives. I copy and paste images of items and include websites and prices. Sometimes I divide up the ideas by age other times by types of abilities/disabilities and still other times by IEP goal areas. It all depends on the make up of my class that year.

I always include basic switches, talking watches and alarm clocks and medical identification jewelry. Many years I include adapted clothing, computer programs, adapted toys and games and recommended literature.

The parents seem to appreciate the effort and the students come back in January with fun things to show off.

Alternate Format Books and Stories

Here is a collection of links to adapted and alternative format books. Most are free, some have a fee. The type of format varies. For pay interactive books like Tumblebooks and Bookflix and professionally read audio book downloads check your local libraries web site; free access may be available with your library card. (This perma post updated March 4, 2010.) Another excellent list of online alternate format books is here.

Symbol Books

• Accessible Book Collection
• Adapted Learning search for "story"
  
• Askability Jokes and Stories
• Unity Adapted Book Downloads
• Learning Tools
• NYC School Adapted Books
• SET Symbol and PPT Books
• Slater Software Stories
• Symbol World Stories

AudioBooks

• Audible
• Audible Kids
  
• Audiobooks for Free
• Book Box
  
• Candle Light Stories
  
• Kiddie Records
• Light Up Your Brain
• Loud Lit
• Literal Systems Youth
• Short Story Radio
• Storynory
• Teaching Books
• Zen Cast Classic Tales (New!!!)
  

E-books (you can use various text-to-speech programs to have e-books read aloud)

• Book Box PDF
  
• E-books for Young Readers
• ESSPC Children's E-Books
• Free Classics
• Hyper Tech Media E-Books (new)
  
• ICDL
• Librivox Children
• Lit 2 Go
• The Rosetta Project
• Tonight's Bedtime Stories
  

Interactive or Animated Books

• 3 Smart Monkeys - Indian Tales (New!!!)
• Aboriginal Tales (New!!!)
• Aesop Fables
• Animated Stories (New!!!)
• Book Box
• Croatation Tales of Long Ago (New!!!)
  
• Bookflix
• Fablevision
• Grimm's Fairytales (New!!!)
• Jatakkatha Buddist Tales (New!!!)
• Kid Thing
• KizClub Stories (New!!!)
• L'il Fingers Storybooks
• Reading is Fundamental Interactive Stories 
• Robert Munsch
• Tumblebooks
• Sebastian Swan Online Books
• Silly Books
• Speakaboos
  
• Stories Online
• The Amazing Adventure Series
• Ziggity Zoom
  

Create Books

• CAST Bookbuilder
• Create Talking Books with Clicker
• Creating Talking Books in Power Point
• UDL Book Builder

Other Formats

• Beantown Stories
  
• Big Books
• BookPals
• Browser Books
• Candle Light Stories
  
• Genie Books in Powerpoint
• Lookybook
• MisCositas
• Pete's Power Point
• Signed Stories NEW!!!!
  
• Tar Heel Reader

Multiple Formats (some combination of animated, e-text, audio or video)

• Merpy Stories (New!!!)

Reminder - for pay sites like Tumblebooks, Bookflix and other check the public library as many offer free access!

Symbol Based Websites

So many of our students use picture symbols for communication that I thought I would highlight some of the websites that provide us with free or low cost ready made picture symbol activities.

Symbol World is a British site that contains four site areas ELive, Learning, Stories and My World. The Elive section is avaliable as PDFs or online and contains news, community, films, features, games, recipes and fun areas. The Learning section contains online symbol stories in eight curriculum areas. The stories section has stories for pre-school primary and young adult students that are picture or symbol based. Finally the My World section has stories about children and adults with low incidence disabilities. The site uses Widget symbols and is run by the Widgit Company.

Also run by the Widgit Company is the Rainforest Symbol Site. I am linking to the ASE Center site that links to this resource because when I link directly it does not work. You have to scroll down to "Lauch Rainforest Pages" and once you be sure to chose "Click for Symbols". This site is well designed for use in a Rainforest Thematic Unit.

Askability is another Bristish site which has symbol based news, events and fun sections. The fun section may be of particular interest, it contains jokes, riddles, brain teasers and stories. This site also uses Widget symbols.

New-2-You is an American company that publishes weekly newsletter for printing to use in your classroom. At a cost of $82.00 for one user for a year you get the symbol based newsletters that are on three ability levels, related communication boards and access to Joey's Locker. The Joey's Locker section contains stories, cartoons and games. Teachers also get information correlating News-2-You to curriculum guidelines and data collection sheets to download to assist in alternative assessment. Additionally for a small extra expense you can get Spanish editions of the materials.