Communicating with Families: Utilizing Interactive Technology at Home and in School

Written by: Maggierose Smith, EC-SEAT scholar and interning graduate student          

Working in the classroom environment, I often do not see the families of the children as a majority of the students ride the bus in and out of school. To update the families on what their child was working on and experiencing in school, I wrote general newsletters to families. 

When beginning to work one-on-one with a student, I wanted the skills to be practiced at home as well as in school. The child often spoke of his iPad at home including the apps he enjoyed using. I incorporated the iPad into his work at school, and found the child was extremely engaged during our time together and enjoyed many of the apps. Knowing the child had an iPad at home, I sent home a letter to parents featuring the Free apps we had been using in hopes they would add these to their iPad for the child to use in the home. 

After receiving the letter, the parents did add several of the apps to the iPad and I saw a noticeable difference in the child’s phonemic awareness and sight word knowledge. To avoid the child growing bored of particular apps, I asked him which one he had played at home and often chose a different app to work with or let him pick which one he would like to use. This helped keep the child engaged and the app novel. 

Incorporating the families into the child’s educational experience helps create a more cohesive experience for the child and allows them with extra practice on skills they may be struggling with. This family was easily able to incorporate these apps into their daily lives, making it easy for the child to practice the skills he was working on at school within the home. 

About the author: I am in my 5th year at UNH completing a Master’s of Early Childhood Special Education with an option in Assistive Technology. I earned my Birth-3rd NH Teaching Certification last year through the Family Studies P-3 Program here at UNH and am excited to graduate from the EC-SEAT program this upcoming May. I was interested in being an EC-SEAT scholar in order to reach all students who enter my future classroom and help them learn in a way that is accessible to each individual. Currently, I am interning this year both in an elementary school and in early supports and services. When not in school I work at YMCA Camp Nokomis, a program I have been involved with for the past 15 years. My goals for the future are to help children access the knowledge in their own environment as well as guide them through new and exciting opportunities they may encounter. In my free time, I enjoy attending UNH sporting events as well as playing with my German Shepard.