Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Autism and Related Disabilities

Here are just a few of the many links available about Autism and related disabilities, such as Rett Syndrome and Fragile X. (Updated June, 6 2009.)

All in One Cell Phone includes TTS

Our wonderful classroom SLP came in talking about this story from NPR yesterday and informed me that I should blog about it. She couldn't remember the name of the device, its designer or anything other than the fact that it was on NPR and that the text-to-speech was used on a bag of coffee (which it was).

(Luckily she didn't hear my comment wondering when they would come out with an instant replay cellphone for older folks with memory troubles, but since she reads this blog I am sure I will pay for that comment later.)

Turns out Kurzweil and NFB have created the worlds smallest text to speech device and installed it onto a Nokia cell phone. Tres cool! Also tres expensive. See the NPR story below:

January 29, 2008

Technology - Cell Phone Reads to the Blind
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18504117

A new cell phone offers the smallest text-to-speech reading device ever
built, a device especially useful for people with impaired vision. The
phone and software come with a $2,000 price tag.

If you have normal vision and can read, there are thousands of things
you do every day without even thinking even about it, little problems
you solve with just a glance * like knowing which coffee bag in a
hotel is caffeinated or decaf.

James Gashel is blind, but he can get his caffeine fix with help from
his cell phone.

"All you have to do is snap a picture of the bag, and it tells you," he
says.

Gashel is showing off his new phone in a hotel ballroom filled with
people who have come to check it out. Many are holding white canes, and
there's a guide dog resting by the wall. Everyone listens to the small
silver phone as Gashel holds it a few inches above a green rectangle.

"Taking picture ... detecting orientation," a digitized voice from the
phone says. "Processing U.S. currency image, please wait * $20."

The phone is loaded up with software developed by the company Gashel
works for * K-NFB Reading Technology, a joint venture between Kurzweil
Technologies and the National Federation of the Blind.

Besides reading labels and telling a $20 from a $10, the phone can read
pages of printed text.

Reading machines have been around for decades * this company already
makes a hand-held device. But this reader is the smallest yet * just 4
ounces and a few inches long. And it's in a high-end Nokia phone with
features like an MP3 player, high-speed data connection and a GPS
navigation system.

That's appealing to people like Mike Hanson, from Minnesota. He uses a
desktop reading machine for all kinds of things, including books, mail
and bills.

"I'm a lawyer, so I'll use it to read material related to cases I'm
working on," Hanson says.

But he never wanted a handheld reader before; he saw it as just one
more gadget to lug around. This multifunctional cell phone, though, is a
different story.

"It's next on my list of technology items to seriously consider," he says.

Behavior Supports

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

My Mojo's Back...

As many of you said in the comments (an e-mail replies) to my missing mojo post, teacher mojo appears to creep back in after going on hiatus via small gifts of appreciation, trust and humor from your students.

Here are some of the events in my classroom that helped bring it back:

a student answering the question "How are you?" (while standing in the supine stander with me sitting in my teacher chair and resting the Dynavox on top of my head so it could be reached... maybe you had to be there, it was funny. Anyways, the answer was,) "It doesn't get any better than this!"
a student new to AAC using a static display device for the first time ever and replying to the question "How are you?" with, "I feel silly!" and verbally adding, "Clown!"
a student who frequently says "again" (meaning "more") leaving us confused as to what is wanted, answering "Again what?" with "Sprite. Cup." Oh, yeah, that's the stuff communication is made of! Now to use shaping and make that into a sentence...
a student in our job training program returning from his third day at a new job site bursting with pride over working with one hundred percent independence on his task - quite the coup
another student who carried a chocolate chip cookie all the way back from his job training site in his hand, in his wheelchair driving hand, so he could drive over to me, get my attention and stuff the cookie in my mouth and then laugh hysterically... because chocolate chip cookies are my favorite.
seeing a student break into the biggest grin I have ever seen in my life when the classroom nurse and I when to her house and devised a plan to get her back to school after a month at home due to some equipment issues in her home
celebrating the 20th birthday of one of my students today and realizing that two years from now, upon graduation, we will have been together for eight years and the student will have gone from a non-verbal, non-device using, communicative only through behavior, dependent for mobility teenager to a dynamic device using, capable of communication through multiple modes, power chair driving, employable with moderate support from a job coach young man with a great out look on life

Welcome back mojo and thanks kids.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Mayer-Johnson is Cool!

Some time ago, maybe November, I used the request a symbol feature on the Mayer-Johnson website and suggested a number of oral motor and sensory integration related picture communication symbols. (Just yesterday I suggested each step in the task analysis on donning a winter coat.) Today I received an e-mail thanking me for my suggestions with an attachment of a whole lot of PCS symbols including:

oral motor
chewy tube
grabber
chew hand
don't chew hand
chew shirt
don't chew shirt
keep tongue in mouth
mesh feeder
night guard
massage brush
pressure brush
sensory integration
sour candy
sour spray candy
TMJ pain

Now that I think about it I created that list by typing in all of the items I received from my first Donors Choose grant and the reasons why I wanted those items (i.e. shirt chewing). I am assuming these symbols will all be in the next Boardmaker addendum. I am also assuming some one from Mayer-Johnson will comment if I am wrong.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Touch Screens

Touch Screens are all the rage in computers, cellphones and MP3 players right now, but we have been using them in our field for more than a decade. In fact for many of us, our problem is usually getting our old ornery touch screens to work when we upgrade our hard drive or software. This link explains how touch screen work. Often times the reason why the touch screen will not work is a conflict with the driver or software that connects the touch screen to the operating system. Here are links to the most popular touch screen makers for computers (both add-on and integrated) where you can download a driver (special software) that will most likely make your touch screen work again (uninstall the old driver first and be sure you are down loading the correct driver).

The most common is probably Magic Touch/Keytec:

Magic Touch/KeyTec

Other brands include:

Or you can go to Touchscreens.Com or Vartech which have compiled all of the drivers on one site.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Boardmaker Monthly Symbol Download

Don't forget to go to Mayer-Johnson every month and download your free additional symbols for your copy of Boardmaker. February of '08 includes Black History Month, Frederick Douglas, Rosa Parks and Primary Election.