Small Miracles: The Most Severely Disabled students show they can

Objective: To increase opportunities for engagement with the learning process for students with profound special needs by using assistive technology and appropriate software. Students who have profound mental disabilities coupled with severe physical disabilities are all but shut out of connecting with and controlling their surroundings. Their lack of movement represents years of ineffectual interaction with their environment-the key factor in the development of typical children. A lesson such as this one represents a world of opportunity to children who have because of their limitations become quite passive.
Our school district has embraced the newest of educational technology by installing SMARTBoards in every classroom. The most obvious and immediate benefit for my students with special needs has been its giant 4x5’ screen. Imagine a giant visual field that surrounds the peripheral vision of my students. But that is not enough. Without a way to interact they are still passive. Matt’s only controlled movement is head turning. Imagine taking that small movement and positioning an adapted switch, a pressure sensitive disk next to it. We are able to harness this initiative and apply an innovative combination of assistive technology, (a special computer interface, wireless transmitter and adapted switch) to convert it to interaction. With a few pieces of software I have demonstrated that even my most severe students, who test out a 4 month level and are in wheelchairs, make accelerated, demonstrable progress. Evan my students with cognitive blindness have benefitted from using carefully chosen software that accesses both familiar and novel sounds.
Whereas a typical child develops by manipulating objects over and over, my students need to practice using their adapted switch over and over. My present collection of software lacks sufficient variety at the lower end of the continuum where we have found the most unexpected and amazing results. Funding for Small Miracles would provide additional researched based software. In software such as Switch-It Series, children create scenes by subsequent engagements and then activate the animation and sounds that represent tools, vehicles, animals all which can increase their familiarity with environments they might not otherwise experience. As their response time decreases and their attention increases they learn to select preferred cartoon characters in the Laureate Creature Series. This leads to being able to use software such as the Laureate First Words that is individualized and optimizes learning receptive language associated with objects and living things.
This increase in receptive language and ability to interact via assistive technology holds the potential for higher levels communication skills.
It is anticipated by giving each student daily sessions at the SMARTBoard using software appropriate to their level with adapted switch making their movements functional with assistive technology, my students can increase their learning heretofore unimaginable levels.