Early Childhood Special Education and Assistive Technology Blog

By: Carrie Portrie , EC-SEAT Project Coordinator Each semester, students in Assistive Technology courses at the University of New Hampshire with Therese Willkomm are required to go into the field, find someone who may benefit from AT, and develop a solution for them. For one of my projects I found an AT solution for a 6-year old boy (J.) with Angelman Syndrome who is just beginning to walk independently. His mother wants him out of his wheelchair. His individual education plan (IEP) team and I talked about multiple solutions to potentially increase his inclusion in school (from the art room to outdoors). Ultimately, we decided on a floor seating solution. J. can sit independently, but he likes to move, touch, and mouth materials with interesting textures. He struggles to sit among his peers without positioning supports. He needs a floor seat that secures his body in a seated position but also allows him some movement and textural interaction. The goals for the solution inclu...

By: Katie McKay , EC-SEAT Project Scholar In early education, literacy is one of the main goals with significant school instruction time spent on reading skills. Within reading instruction there are five domains: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. All areas work together to create a strong reader according to a study done by the National Reading Panel, which means all of these areas need to be practiced (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborne, 2006). Below you will find an explanation of each area. Using PBS Kids online games to support early literacy Parents and teachers alike who are looking for an easy way to engage their students in learning about reading often look to apps and websites. Not all literacy and reading apps or online games are created equally however. One source that is renowned for quality children's programming and resources is PBS Kids. The University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication releas...

Below you see - "Introduction to Assistive Technology for Young Learners: Video 1" created by the Pacer Center in Minneapolis, MN. It is the first of four video in a series introducing assistive technology for children with disabilities birth to 5. These videos were created as part of the Technology to Improve Kids' Educational Success or TIKES, a project of PACER Center funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The TIKES website opens with: "Assistive technology, whether something as simple as a pencil grip or as complicated as a communication device, has the power to change lives and opens doors of opportunity for people with disabilities. The TIKES Project helps to open these doors for parents and providers by educating them on and promoting the use of assistive technology with children and students with disabilities ages birth to 5. Assistive technology can support young children in building skills, increasing participation in activities, promoting d...

AT Glider By: Katherine McKay, EC-SEAT Scholar This project was created for a 6 year-old boy needing to work on gross motor skills and balance. He loved push-toys like shopping carts and strollers but they weren’t the appropriate height for him. To maintain a better posture for his balance, I wanted to create something that allowed him to push while standing straight up. The idea of this glider came from collaboration with Dr. Therese Willkomm . The idea is that the glider has vinyl flashing on the underside to allow it to be used indoors or outdoors in the grass. The glider can be used with or without weight to accommodate the child’s abilities and needs. What do you need to build a glider? Materials: PVC pipe: straight pieces, T pieces, right angle pieces PVC pipe cutter LocLine base and connecting balls LocLine tool Cementing glue Corrugated plastic Coro-Cutter (tool for cutting corrugated plastic) Vinyl flashing 25lbs. circular free weight (or other amoun...