Download - Spnd 456 first weekend writingreading tec
Assistive Technology and
Learning Disabilities
Karen Janowski
Simmons College
3/08
Assistive Technology Consideration Brief Someone knowledgeable on IEP team
Four Possibilities
Current Interventions Working – no need for AT
AT already in place Consider New AT Team needs additional information to make
a decision
How do we learn?
Inspiration
What does it mean to learn?
Active Process (What do students do on own time?
Summer Break!) Acquire knowledge Retain knowledge Apply it to life situations Use strategies
Where is the Breakdown?
http://flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/276131991/
Task Analysis
What skills are needed for this task? What is the point of this academic task?
copying
Guiding Principles
Nothing a child does requires more energy than sitting still.
Denckla as reported by Mel Levine at a Conference, 1999
Guiding Principles
Free, appropriate education Mistake Tolerant vs. Mistake Tolerant Teach strategies Accommodation vs. Remediation/Instruction Independence vs. dependence
(upon adults) Universal design
Written Expression
Written Output
What skills are required?
To achieve competency as a writer:
Sustained Mental Effort Selective Attention Graphomotor Function
Visual recall Motor Automaticity Regulation
To achieve competency as a writer:
Ideation – IDEAS!! Brainstorming/Topic Selection Research Elaboration
To achieve competency as a writer:
Memory Motor Memory Active Working Memory
To achieve competency as a writer:
Expressive Language Vocabulary Word Retrieval
To achieve competency as a writer:
Organization Narrative Generation Planfulness/Previewing Step approach Revision
Mel Levine’s Work
To achieve competency as a writer:
Spelling Skills Richard Wanderman says “Spelling is the spoiler
of thought.”
Research Findings
Elementary school children spend 31% to 60% of their school day on fine motor tasks including handwriting.
McHale & Cermak, 1992
Research Findings
Studies show teachers grade papers with better handwriting higher.
Only difference was quality of writing.
Research Findings
Students are less hesitant to reevaluate and edit their written work produced on a computer.
(Graham and MacArthur, 1988, Jones, 1996
Productivity increases (Mayer-Nichols, 1996)
Quality increases (Jones, 1996)
Difficulties with writing
Writing Mechanics – physical, spelling and grammar
Writing Process – generating & organizing text, planning and editing.
Inspiration
Kurzweil
Solo
Writing with Symbols
Read and Write Gold
WordQ
Fable Vision – Essay Express
Clicker 5
Classroom Suite (you will explore this more in the next class)
Written Expression continued
Voice recognition software
What does it feel like to struggle at school?
(Google – PBS Misunderstood Minds)
Speech Recognition
Why?
What does the research
say?
LD 4th – 6th graders produced essays significantly faster than typing or handwriting. (De La Paz 1999)
Stories written with SR were longer, more complex, and contained fewer grammatical errors compared to other methods.
(Graham,1999)
Research shows marked improvement.
(Graham, 1999)
Motivation to write increases
(Graham & al, 1998)
Significant improvement writing
(Lewis, 1998, MacArthur, 1998)
Has remedial effects
Significant improvements in reading comprehension, spelling and word recognition over a control group
Improvements with working memory with continuous speech programs.
(Higgins & Raskind, 2000)
Identified characteristics of “Ideal” VR candidate
Ability to use computer
Limited traditional writing skills
High need
Ability to tolerate frustration
Motivated
Perception – that they can benefit and they have time to learn it
Disadvantages
Training
Hardware Requirements
Different cognitive Demands
Skilled personnel aren’t available to provide support
Dedicated space or computer
Written expression software
Text to Speech
Word prediction
Speech recognition
Writing strategies software (Essay Express, Stationery Studio)
Writing Support Software (Clicker 5, Write Online, ICS,Kurzweil, Inspiration, Draft:Builder)
Reading
Brain Rules by John Medina
The Power of Reading by Stephen Krashen
Readicide: How Schools are Killing Readingand What You Can do About It by Kelly Gallagher
Tools help us become Architects for Change
‘We’re not reading and writing across and down the page anymore.We’re reading and writing in three dimensions – across, down and out, the out being hyperlinks.
It’s a whole different kind of literacy; it's a whole different kind of writing; it’s a whole different kind of reading.
It’s a type of literacy that can’t be done anywhere else but on the web.
James Yap Director of instructional technology
Ramapo Central School District, Hillburn, NYT.H.E Jounal, april 2009 p. 24
It’s a different world for our students
What does the research say?
National Reading Panel
The Big Five
Intact phonemic awareness and not intelligence is the best predictor of reading skills.
Shaywitz, 2003
Successful intervention
Identifies the weakness in getting to the sounds of words
Successful intervention
Identifies the strengths in thinking and reasoning
Successful intervention
Then provides early help for the weakness (remediation)
Successful intervention
Finally, provides accommodation to help access the strengths
(“Sea of Strengths Model,” Shaywitz, 2003)
Summary Table for the FCRR Reports
What WorksClearinghouse
Tools for Developing
Reading Skills
Why should we provide it?
Allows individualized instruction
Customizable
Allows for repetition
Computer is forgiving (are adults?)
Provides record keeping
Focuses on:
Phonological awareness
Sight words
Vocabulary
Soliloquoy Reading Assistant Read Naturally Simons Sounds it Out Lexia Edmark Earobics Reading A-Z
Technology for Reading Support
Start-to-Finish Books
Thinking Reader
Solo: ReadOutloud
Technology for Reading Accommodation
Interactive
Accessible
TechMatrix.Org
UDL Tech Toolkit
http://UDLTechToolkit.wikispaces.com
It’s a different world for our students