Early Childhood Special Education and Assistive Technology Blog

By: Carrie Portrie , EC-SEAT Project Coordinator As we continue our conversations on special education, families and young children, we can acknowledge that technology floods public consciousness and daily life. Many may imagine that the majority of children and families use technology daily, have Smartphones, and spend most nights using their tablets to watch shows or movies, read and play games. Commercials and media depict our world in this way. However, between July 17th - 22nd, 2013, 2,242 individuals completed the HarrisPoll . Bloomberg reported 38% of individuals surveyed owned tablets and 54% owned Smartphones. Although this sample is small in comparison to the population of the United States, it does illustrate that a large majority of people live and play without smart technology and tablets at home in the United States. These statistics make me wonder: Who has access to technology? And how is it being used? Adults stare at screens for hours a day as a prerequisite for mak...

By: Katie McKay , EC-SEAT scholar Button Sorter  Vocabulary Concepts: Shapes Colors Same/Different Put in/take out Activity Ideas: Match the buttons’ shape to the slots Take turns drawing buttons out of a hidden bag and see if they match Match the buttons’ color to the slots Pebble Jar Vocabulary Concepts: Put in/take out Colors Numbers Adjectives (shiny, rough, cold, smooth etc) Activity Ideas: Turn the jar upside down and shake the pebbles out Put pebbles in one by one Put a piece of cardboard on the underside of lid and use as music shaker Large Grip Stamper  Vocabulary Concepts: Animals Shapes Colors Positional words (up, down, next to, etc) Activity Ideas: Cut out foam stickers and affix to bottom for endless homemade stamps Art projects Use bathtub paint for water play -->

By: Teresa Loos , EC-SEAT Scholar Part of teaching children with special needs includes providing them with a least restrictive environment in which they have access to the curriculum, opportunities to participate, and can be supported and accommodated in their education. As an educator, I live by  Universal Design for Learning  and the  National Association of Education for Young Children and the Division for Early Childhood’s Position Statement on Inclusion , which ensures that children with special needs have access, participation, and support. When people think of assistive technology, the assumption is some sort of device they can use. However, according the Assistive Technology: principles and practices, assistive technology is a broad range of devices, services, strategies, or practices that can be implemented to eliminate or alleviate problems of an individual with special needs (Cook & Hussey, 2002). Assistive technology can also be low-tech and does n...

By: Laura Kazmierczak , EC-SEAT scholar As part of my ongoing professional development, I provided the teachers, faculty, and staff of a public preschool program serving children with and without disabilities with a workshop on how to evaluate educational apps and websites for use with students in the classroom. Each attendee was given the evaluation rubric I had created based on chosen criteria. The criteria was chosen and compiled based on my research, reading, and online webinar attendance—each applicable to the success of student learning and positive outcomes. The evaluation rubric provides a comprehensive set of criteria to be used when considering apps and websites for education. During my workshop I was able to walk through the rubric and demonstrate how to utilize the tool for evaluating apps usefulness or scaffolding required etc. The listed criteria and prompting questions allow users to quickly use and evaluate apps. The documents transferability enables me to share my tool...