Day 6: Assignment 3: AT Seekers and Inventors

Today's assignment was first, to seek off the shelf technology at the Dollar Store, second, to think enhancing performance while outside the box.

TASK A

Our first part of today's task was to identify a ready made item that could be utilized as an assistive technology to enhance the performance of an individual with a disability.









Scribble Writer with different colors: This is a large pen with built in hand grips and can be used by students with fine motor skill difficulties to record in different colors without having to change pens for each color. It also is battery operated and vibrates to allow the user to use a light touch of the pen to create squiggly lines. This AT tool would be beneficial to me during Art class with some of my grade 3 students who are experiencing writing difficulties and also have organizational concerns. The Scribble Writer would allow them the advantage of holding an easier to grip writing tool and decrease the amount of color tools needed thus enabling the student to better manage their organization difficulties.

PLAY BALL: In the classroom during whole class discussions many students will want to participate without waiting their turn. This 25 cm ball from the Dollar Store is a great AT which will allow only the holder permission to speak. (The bumpy design keeps it from rolling away!)The ball provides a visual reminder to other studentsthat they do not have permission to speak yet.





BEAD NECKLACES: These different colored bead necklaces from the Dollar Store would be ideal for my Fetal Alcohol Student in grade 3 who needs support and reminders to speak with appropriate volume for different settings throughout the day. She loves to wear jewellery and could wear different colors to signify the appropriate volume. For example, a red necklace could be worn when no talking is permitted, a gold one when low volume talking is appropriate and a green one when normal speaking volumes are allowed. To remind her of the different colors and their meanings I would include a visual on her desk that describes the three colors and their associations.


TASK B

Our second part of today's task was to invent and adapt for a student to improve his/her performance while achieving a specific task.


Student Profile: Sam is a grade 11 student who has a degenerative condition called Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) which causes muscle weakness. He has challenges with motor skills including strength and finds holding on to small handls and grips to be challenging. To meet his social outcomes and other challenges requiring physical output he needs modifications to his program or materials.



Modifications: Marlene and I have made modifications to the handle of a kite used for kite flying so that Sam will be able to participate more fully by flying his own kite. The modifications included changing the existing handle of the kite to a larger one (a 1 inch by 1 inch foot long piece of wood) and wrappping the ends in Dollar Store foam for comfort. Then we simply and easily tied the kite string onto the new modified handle!


10 ITEMS FROM THE DOLLAR STORE THAT COULD BE USED AS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY

1. Bingo Marker: could be used by student with writing disability to select multiple choice answers

2. Magnetic Drawing Board: used by nonverbal student to record short messages

3. Blanket: In my class I had a student with emotional concerns and by occassionaly wrapping himself in a blanket he was better able to control urges to blurt out unacceptable responses.



4. PLACEMENT MAT: used to keep a student's desk organized by using a black permanent marker to mark off appropriate sections for school supplies.

5. 3 Strings of bead necklaces, (one red, one blue, one green): worn by FAS student to indicate to her which speaking level is appropriate- red for no talking, blue for quiet talking and green for normal talking

6. Large Size Frisbee: inverted on desk to keep Math manipulatives from rolling off desk

7. Water Cannon Plastic Funnel: This funnel has handles at large ends and is designed to force water through it by pulling it through water. It could be used in the classroom by very low volume speakers to project their voice to the whole class during class discussions.


8. Plastic Nail Sticker Decorations: By placing one sticker on a student's index fingernail and another sticker on the left click side of a computer mouse, a student could easily remember to use the left click side of the mouse.

9. Foam Yoga Mat: This foam can easily be cut and wrapped around sharp table corners for students with spatial awareness difficulties.

10. Set of Large Foam Dominoes: This 28 piece set can be used by visually impaired students in Math instead of the smaller dice used in class to create sets of two numbers in which to apply one of the four operations (add, subtract, multiply, divide) visually impaired students