Early Childhood Special Education and Assistive Technology Blog

Head Start and Early Head Start of Strafford County are among our partners in the EC-SEAT project. This article provides a systems perspective on how grant funding is used in early childhood... Article Link How Head Start Grantees Set and Use School Readiness Goals

The two videos below illustrate some of the work scholars are doing with Therese Willkomm in her class: Using iPads to Support Children with Disabilities, an online class during J-Term at the University of New Hampshire. This class is open to a diverse group of learners and teaches students to: Build knowledge and skills to maximize children’s learning potential using the iPad Learn how to Integrate and modify the iPad for young children with disability Learn creative uses of built in features on the iPad Select quality apps by features mapping Employ Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Erin s a first year EC-SEAT scholar who also works as a full-time paraprofessional, and these are her videos. The first adaptation is a stylus using a pen, a cotton ball, tin foil, and duct tape. I placed the cotton ball over the tip of the pen and wrapped tin foil around both the pen and the cotton ball. This secured the cotton ball to the pen but to more tightly secure it I duct...

Children using communication devices rely on these supports to access and participate in their world. They often find their voice. This TEDWomen 2013 speech by Dr. Patel  invites us all to think about technology and the unique importance of individuals' voices.

Lauren Pasquazzi , EC-SEAT Scholar and Assistant Preschool Teacher The first adaptation I created is a pen for the iPad. This pen is specifically designed for young children because one of the materials that was used was a child's utensil. This helps a child to have a better grip when using it. I also used conductive foam and ez fuse tape.  The second adaptation I created is a glove with the finger cut off. This can help children who may have a difficult time using a touch screen and end up putting all of their hand on the screen. The screen won't detect the glove only the skin which is where the fingers will be. Meg Foehl , EC-SEAT Scholar and Preschool Teacher The first adaptation is used to help a child isolate the use of his or her pointer finger. It is made from a child's cotton winter glove with the tip of the pointer finger cut off. The second adaptation is a low cost simple to make diy stylus. It is made out of an old pen, a q-tip, ...

Websites reviewed by: Meg Foehl, EC-SEAT scholar The first site that I reviewed was the Autismspeaks App List . This site has a comprehensive list of apps work well for individuals with ASD. The website itself is very well organized, user friendly, and easy to navigate. I really liked that you are able to search by a variety of factors: what the app does, what device it can be used on, what age is it appropriate for, or keyword. I also liked that each app has a research rating to  show whether or not there is evidence that supports that it. The next app site that I reviewed was  http://techinspecialed.com/ . I like this site even though the site set-up is not my favorite. I wish that there was a drop down search, but I really like that you can look up apps by IEP goals/skills. I also like that most of the apps included are free. I wish, however, that there was a bigger selection of apps in each category. momswithapps.com  -  This my favorite app s...

Websites reviewed by:  Sophia Fowler , EC-SEAT Scholar inov8 educational consulting  -  inov8 is not a flashy web site thus did not have some of the appeal as the others I explored; however I was amazed at the resource once I started clicking and looking around. I really liked how each section was set up into chapters. At the end of each chapter there were responses and feedback/questions, such as similar apps to the ones described or recommendations of ways to use the apps listed. What I didn't like was this is not a web site to g o to for quick references. It's in depth, time consuming and slightly confusing to navigate. Appadvice.com  -  Is a great techie web site. I liked how they rated paid and free apps for both the cell phone and iPad, but no android contribution. This is definitely a drawback if you are trying to get a parent interested in an app for their child and they have an android while the consultant/therapist is using an iOS device. The ot...

Website reviewed by: Erin Phillips , EC-SEAT Scholar 1. "Apps in Education"  http://appsineducation.blogspot.com/…/managing-individual-e… This website provided an organized space for individuals to go to to search for apps that are related to education. I found it very u ser friendly and it was not overwhelming with adds and other distracting items. It was simple and organized. Those who choose to visit the website can either search for apps through using the tabs at the top and find apps based upon which topic they need an app for (science, math, etc), or they can search for the apps through scrolling through the blogposts, which can also be individually selected on the left side of the page. Users of this site can easily access what they need to find and are provided with a brief overview of the apps and a link to purchase/download the app. One thing I thought was cool about this website was how it had a section regarding IEP management. This sectioned allowed...

Reviewed by: Maggierose Smith , EC-SEAT scholar 1. I reviewed the Complete Guide to Educational and Special Needs Apps ( oneplaceforspecialneeds.com ). Upon first glance, I enjoyed the site because of the coloration and white space it offers. Many times sites with vast amounts of information can be overwhelming, but the organization with the titles in blue and the information in black helps me better process the information. I also enjoy that it is organized by disability, type of activity and alphabetically, making it easy   to find apps that particular students may find beneficial. The search tool was extremely beneficial as it weeded through the apps for me, leaving a more succinct list to go through before choosing one. These aspects make the site very user friendly. I thought it was really cool how the search tool narrowed down apps based on a variety of criteria, making it easy to match student’s capabilities to the appropriate app. I do think it would be useful to have ...

Reviews by:  Janet Skillin , EC-SEAT Scholar One Place for Special Needs, AAC Tech Connect, Switch Accessible Apps, and Text Based Apps. http://www.oneplaceforspecialneeds.com This site is a guide to over 300,000 app choices and has been created by a special needs parent. I really like that it is by someone who has experienced first hand as a parent the need for "Quick" resources for our children as we spend so much time researching, and advocating for our children. It would be nice to update this page by assessing the sites and asigning maybe a "star" rating from people who use the different apps. I could very easily spend "days" looking at all of these. It is nice to have a "guide" to begin my search. http://www.aactechconnect.com/ I personally didn't really care for this site. It is not very user-friendly. I didn't like that you cant just navigate it without doing a free trial. I prefer to be able to search around a...

Posted by: Carrie Portrie, M.Ed I am taking a wonderful class with Therese Willkomm this January teaching practitioners and students how to use the iPad to support children with disability. One of our assignments was to develop two adaptions for the iPad to support children with disability. Here is my video for the assignment.  I found watching Therese's videos (see link below) and by visiting hardware stores and Walmart I was able to see how everyday objects and simple building materials can be used to create assistive technology.  Visit Therese's YouTube site for AT in NH   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1pTvtAQjUU