Tech for Young Children With Visual Impairments

by Holly Cooper

• General Discussion: why use tech, what's available?
• Switch Activated Toys and Devices
• Switch Accessible Software
• Alternative Computer Input
• Low Tech Augmentative Communication
• Computer Based Communication
• High Tech Augmentative Communication

Why?

Why Use Technology for preschoolers?

For students with visual impairments we typically use assistive tech to:

• Modify presentation of learning media to compensate for sensory and motor deficits (such as screen magnification, voice output, and braille translation, switch activated software)
• Facilitate interaction with peers and others
• Provide opportunities for recreation and leisure activities
• Practice and enhance performance of cognitive concepts
• Assist children in participating in activities of daily living and self care

What's Out There?

Switch Activated devices:

• These teach cause-effect
• Can teach specific fine motor skills such as finger isolation, pulling, pushing, etc
• These can give kids with motor impairments or very young or developmentally delayed kids can have access to using appliances for skills of daily living, art, music, cooking and other skills

Computer programs:

• Cause effect games for very young or kids with more severe disabilities
• Educational games that teach colors, letters, numbers, counting
• Accessible technology for kids with blindness or visual impairments

Alternative Communication Modes:

Gives kids access to expressive communication

• Can be low tech such as object symbols, tactile symbols, sign language or simple gestures
• Can be medium tech such as talking communication boards or other devices which are not computer based
• Can be high tech such as augmentative communication devices such as Dynavox, Enkidu, Prenke-Romick
• Can be computer based such as Enkidu

Usually higher tech is used with older kids or kids who are not intellectually disabled when used with kids of preschool age. In my opinion, it takes a child who has almost the intellectual ability of someone who is functioning at a pre-reading level to use an augmentative communication device if they must rely on auditory scanning to select a choice. (this is a very general statement, don't take it as prescriptive)

Switch Activated Toys and Devices

Hardware

Let's take a look at some switches, interfaces and other products you might be interested in. Sources for purchasing these items are in your handout.

• Ablenet: switches, powerlink
• Battery operated toys and devices
• Electric appliances

Switch Accessible Software

Now I'll show you some switch accessible software. These are games and learning programs that can be activated either with a keyboard or remote switch. To use a switch with a computer, you must have a switch interface, and the software you use must be switch accessible. I have listed some makers of switch accessible software in your resources list. If you intend to use software in this manner, be sure the literature describing the program indicates it is switch accessible. Also, find out what switch interfaces make it accessible. You may have to call or email the maker to find this information.

Switch Interfaces

There are a lot of switch interfaces. The one I will show is the Don Johnston Switch Interface Pro. It is sold by a lot of different vendors, and it is able to access a wide variety of software. At this time and in this state, I would guess it is the one used the most.

• Don Johnston: Switch Interface

Software

I have listed software sources in your web resources list. If you look at the resources page that is called Informational Websites, you will find some resources for free software.

Free Software:

• SENSwitcher
• Spell the Fruit/Vegetables
• Toddler Toy

Commercial Software:

• RJ Cooper: Rad Sounds, others
• Judy Lynne Software: Cause Effect Cinema, Match It (not accessible with DJ switch interface!!)
• Attainment Company: Grooming for Life
• Laureate Learning: Nouns & Sounds

Talking Books

It's pretty easy to make switch accessible talking books Using Power Point or Clicker 4. I'll demonstrate one with Powerpoint.

• PowerPoint
• Clicker 4

The tutorials for making your own talking books are listed in your Resources Informational Websites list. A print copy of the tutorial for using Power Point is included in your handouts for the MIVI workshop.

Clicker 4

I'll show you some examples of what Clicker 4 does. It's got a great built in tutorial that will walk you through the steps of creating communication and choice grids. You can make simple choice making grids, communication grids, grids to write sentences and stories, and of course, talking books.

Alternative Computer Input

• Switch Interfaces: discussed above
• Touch Window
• Big Keys Keyboard

Intellitools

Lots of you have access to Intellitools kits. The Intellitools keyboard comes with pre-made overlays, you can customize your own overlays and do a variety of activities appropriate to students of different age and ability levels. Here's some purchased packages. The presentation tomorrow on tech for MIVI students will cover Intellitools. See your handouts for the MIVI workshop for additional information.

Low Tech Communication Devices

See your resources list.

• Talking switches, talking communication boards: not computers.
• Ablenet
• Big Mack (single message)
• Step by step communicator
• Adaptavation
• Chipper (single message)
• Sequencer (sequenced messages)
• VoicePal communication device
• Enabling Devices
• Cheap talk (4 messages or more depending on device you purchase)
• Communicator series
• Communication builder series
• Take n' talk series
• Hip Talk series
• Compartmentalized communicator series
• Lots more!
• Crestwood
• Talk Back series

Computer Based Communication

There are more and more programs available that allow you to design and use a communication board that lives in a computer. These programs feature voice output, auditory and visual scanning of choices, and accessibility by touch screen, or switch. Our current favorites for kids with MIVI are Clicker 4 and Writing With Symbols. Both programs have all the above features, and have other capabilities as well. Both have good built in tutorials that guide the new user through a variety of activities. For an in-depth description of what Clicker 4 can do for our kids, see the handout in the MIVI section.

High Tech Augmentative Communication

These are actually small portable computers loaded with communication overlays and custom overlay software, and synthesized speech. You really need a speech pathologist who is a specialist in augmentative communication to advise if the child is ready for such a device, and what the best item is for the individual child involved. Usually pre-school aged kids are not developmentally ready, but not always. These devices take a lot of planning to use in the classroom, they take a lot of preparation time to build custom overlays appropriate for the user, and they take time for the adults to learn to use. They are what we aspire to, for some of our students. They are wonderful, complicated and expensive. Usually about $5000. Some are accessible for blind users, but those accessibility features add another level of skill the student who is the user has to attain. I have seen the use of these devices fail again and again. Most often the failure is due to the adults in the environment not believing in the device enough to learn to use it, plan activities around it and structure the environment so it is needed, functional and accessible. Sometimes the failure of the device is due to the child not yet having attained the skill level needed to access it. Sometimes devices are purchased for students for whom they are not appropriate because the adults believe technology can make anything possible. The user must have a good foundation of receptive and expressive language using no tech and lower tech devices before a high tech augmentative communication device is appropriate.

Technology Connections

Early Connections provides resources and information on the appropriate and effective use of technology with young children.

Why Early Connections? Early Connections provides a basic understanding of young children’s learning development, then connects technology to those essential learning skills. The primary focus is on how and when technology best fits into the learning of young children.

Children learn through social interaction with adults and other children. Their learning reflects a recurring cycle that begins in awareness and moves to exploration, inquiry, and finally utilization. Children learn through play. Children's interests and "need to know" motivate learning.

Human development and learning are characterized by individual variation. Each child has a unique range of abilities and needs, and the variety of developmental stages in any group of children is likely to be broad. When considering what is appropriate in a particular situation, keep in mind this range and use the children themselves as guides to what will be successful and effective.

The Early Connections site is organized according to the settings where educators and care providers work with young children. Parents are invited to explore areas of interest to their families.

Child care—is a unique mixture of ages, developmental stages, schedules, and settings

Preschool—offers children a variety of learning experiences to choose from

Kindergarten—deals with the whole child in the first year of "real school"

Primary grades—children in grades 1 - 3 are moving toward independence

Before/after-school program—includes children of many ages with a wide range of skill levels

Within each of the above areas, subtopics provide information relevant to that group:

Learning & Technology connects technology with the learning needs of children at this stage

Technology & Curriculum ties effective uses of technology to the curriculum

Classroom Arrangement defines elements for successful placement of computers and other technology in the classroom

Software Selection provides guidance on how to select and evaluate software, as well as links to evaluation and review resources

Health & Safety offers ergonomic and Internet guidelines for physical and online safety

Hardware contains information on many different types of technology that can be used with young children, and things to consider when planning for technology

Resources provides links to useful sources of information and research on technology use with young children

http://www.netc.org/earlyconnections/techconnections.html

Technology and young children: What Parents Should Know

It is not unusual to see a young child today slip a CD into a stereo system, set a digital alarm clock, or even program a VCR. Children quickly learn to use technology that is part of their daily lives, often with greater ease than their parents or other adults. But does their ability to do these complex tasks really enhance children’s development? Does using technology really teach children new skills? What should parents know about the role of technology in children’s learning?

According to NAEYC’s Young Children: Active Learners in a Technological Age, computers can be active or passive agents for learning. Parents who recognize the difference will choose appropriate computer programs for their children.

As passive users, children utilize tools with no understanding of the concepts represented on the screen. The computer becomes an electronic worksheet that asks children to memorize without comprehending. As active agents for learning, computers extend children’s abilities, helping them to accomplish goals and objectives. In active use, children understand the relationship between real ideas and what is being represented on the screen. Constructing relationships between pictures and concrete objects helps children establish meaning.

In order to promote effective computer learning, parents should monitor the quality of the software children use, the amount of time children work with it, and the way in which they use it.

What should you teach your preschool children about technology?

Here are some suggestions:

• People control technology, and technology can be used for activities that are meaningful to people.
  
  
• Technology can take different forms, as in calculators, telephones, and tape recorders. It provides different, useful things in a variety of ways.
  
  
• Technology has rules that control how it works. Objects must have a source of power -- they have plugs or batteries; computers must have instructions -- either built-in or provided by the user.
  
  
• Computer programs require different ways of organizing thinking. Some will ask you to match and rhyme, others will give you the freedom to draw or paint whatever you wish.
  
  

Some parents express concerns about the role of technology in children’s lives, such as how it will affect children’s attention to social relationships and other activities. Appropriate computer programs promote dialog between children, as well as group problem-solving. They also offer opportunities for shared experiences between parents and children. As partners in our children’s learning, we may not only monitor their educational environments, but we may experience their progress first-hand.

Checking out good software for children:

1. Software uses pictures and spoken instructions rather than written ones so that children will not need to ask for help.
   
   
2. Children control the level of difficulty, the pace and direction of the program.
   
   
3. Software offers variety: children can explore a number of topics on different levels.
   
   
4. Children receive quick feedback, so they stay interested.
   
   
5. Program utilizes the capacities of today’s computers by appealing to children through interesting sights and sounds.
   
   
6. To determine a product’s appropriateness for a child’s current level of development, parents have evaluated the skill list and activities as described on the package, and previewed the product through store demonstration or a friend’s computer.
   
   
7. Software engages children’s interest by encouraging children to laugh and use their imagination in exploring.
   
   
8. The program allows children to experience success and feel empowered through learning.

http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content4/technology.young.p.k12.2.html

Technology Connections

Why Early Connections? Early Connections provides a basic understanding of young children’s learning development, then connects technology to those essential learning skills. The primary focus is on how and when technology best fits into the learning of young children......

http://www.netc.org/earlyconnections/techconnections.html

Assistive Technology for Young Children in Special Education: It Makes a Difference

Technology has opened many educational doors to children, particularly to children with disabilities. Alternative solutions from the world of technology are accommodating physical, sensory, or cognitive impairments in many ways.

Much of the technology we see daily was developed initially to assist persons with disabilities. Curb cuts at streetcorners and curb slopes, originally designed to accommodate people with orthopedic disabilities, are used more frequently by families with strollers or individuals with grocery carts than by persons with wheelchairs or walkers. The optical character reader, developed to assist individuals unable to read written text, has been adapted in the workplace to scan printed documents into computer-based editable material, saving enormous amounts of data entry labor.

http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-young-children-special-education

Dialogue on Early Childhood Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education

http://www.project2061.org/publications/earlychild/online/experience/clements.htm