Assistive Technology Tools

  

      Many students today continue to struggle in their studies, due to issues with learning disabilities, developmental delays, and overall struggles in the development of reading, writing, and mathematics skills.  Conventional teaching methods are not always enough to assist these students within the development of their education and cognitive function.  In response to these growing needs, there has been an explosion of Assistive Technology tools over the last few years, to help students within their studies, so they can better understand new ideas and concepts, and not fall behind their classmates within their own development.

        Assistive technology is any item, piece of equipment, or system that helps an individual bypass, work around or compensate for a specific learning problem.  Some technologies can be as simple as an audio tape or a basic downloadable application, to high tech computer devices and scientific implants for hearing disabilities.  Approaches used to address the difficulties faced by individuals with learning disabilities fall into two general categories remedial and compensatory. A remedial approach seeks to alleviate a specific deficit or improve an area of weakness. A compensatory approach tries to work-around or bypass a deficit.  Assistive technology is a compensatory approach.  Finding the most appropriate Assistive technology for someone with a learning disability is very tricky. There are four components to be considered:

1. the individual who needs the technology and their specific strengths, limitations, skill sets, knowledge and interests;
2. the specific tasks or functions the assistive technology is expected to perform (such as compensation for a reading, writing or memory problem);
3. the setting where the assistive technology will be used (school, home, workplace); and
4. the device itself considerations such as ease of operation, reliability, portability and cost.    ( "Choosing Assistive Technology" )

      Assistive technology tools are designed to accomplish 4 things:

• minimize the extent to which individuals with an LD need to ask for help, enabling them to be more independent learners
• improve the speed and accuracy of work
• reinforce effective classroom instruction and strengthen skill development
• help students to 'fit in' with classroom learning and routines
• motivate students with an LD to set high goals for themselves and to persevere

      The following are 3 Assistive Technology tools that students can utilize to assist in their education and maintain stronger academic work habits and routines within the classroom.

1.     Word Q is an application task bar that can work in conjunction with any word processing document, web browser, email client, notebook, or even Facebook.  It combines word prediction software, speech recognition, and proofreading feedback.  By highlighting text, a user can have the text read to them aloud for clearer understanding and comprehension.  While writing, Word Q provides a prediction feature that allows struggling writers to see the word as it is being spelled, so students don't have to worry about figuring out the spelling.  Finally, Word Q enables auditory proofreading of written text, so users can hear how they have written a sentence or passage.  All of these features will assist in improving the proofreading skills of a student, when completing a piece of writing.  It is a great means to develop grammar, spelling, and pronunciation skills for students.  It is also a great means for developing comprehension skills both when reading and writing text.

2.     Kurzwiel  has been around education for several years.  It is a program designed for individuals with visual impairments and the blind, or who have learning disabilities such as dylexia or attention deficit disorder. It is a text to speech software that allows its users to read and write with the assistance of an audio software platform.  A user can simply upload a reading by using the internet or scanning document, and the program will then be able to read the text for the student.  If a student is completing a piece of writing, the program will automatically read back a sentence once the user finishes typing.  A very useful proofreading tool.  For students with an LD, who struggle with writing and proofreading, or who struggle with reading comprehension, understanding, fluency, or phonics, Kurzweil is an excellent Assistive technology tool to help build a foundation for reading and writing awareness.

3.    Smart Ideas is another program that has been within education for several years.  It is a very basic mind mapping and organizational tool, that allows students to organize their ideas and learning into an interactive web diagram.  Users create idea topics and subtopics, in the form of bubbles and arrows that connect everything in a web.  Students can play around with the different bubble types, connectors, and they can even include images into the document.  Users can create sub folders within their bubbles, and drop in imported videos as well.  Smart Ideas can be used with other applications, include Word Q, Kurzweil, and many others.