Early Childhood Special Education and Assistive Technology Blog

By: Kimberly Chouinard, ECSEAT Scholar Over the past few years I have taken a few courses in Assistive Technology though my program here at the University of New Hampshire. I have learned to “use what you have” for support or to make things accessible for learners. This semester I had a great experience with a student in my class that I would like to share. A student in my class who experiences motor delays started to grow.  That’s great!  We love growth!  But, this growth caused seating issues and it takes time to fit, order and receive new equipment. He seemed to be growing out of his supportive chair and tray. His legs had grown and his feet where not well positioned on the foot support any longer. This growth caused his feet to slide off the foot support, kick out and limit accessibility to table activities with peers. I took my concerns to our team. His nurse, Physical Therapist and I were able to identify the problem (i.e., the foot plate was now too short for his g...

By:  Caitlyn Pagnottaro, ECSEAT Scholar There’s a lot of things that children tell us every day and a lot of messages that they send us, even if we don’t receive those messages verbally in a way that we can understand. That’s why as educators it’s important for us to have the ability to recognize whether a child can’t do something simply because it’s too difficult, or because we haven’t provided them an environment where they’re comfortable and capable of doing the work. That’s the whole idea behind flexible seating. More and more educators in grades K – 3 are adding this into their practice where children get to choose their own workspaces. Traditionally, children would be introduced to their desk space labeled with their name, but instead teachers are introducing them to spaces that they can choose to work from such as crate chairs, exercise balls, kneeling tables and much more. It’s up to the student to choose where they think they’re going to do their best work. For a lot of ch...

By:  Caitlyn Pagnottaro, ECSEAT Scholar So much has changed since I was a young child starting school. Looking back I can see what we valued then compared to what we value today. I remember that I played a lot. If we had circle time and other structured parts of the day I don’t remember it. I remember playing. I remember playing with my friends at the time inside and outside of the classroom. The preschool/kindergarten that I attended was private and the play area that we had behind our building was amazing. At least from what I recall as a small child it was because everything around me seemed so much bigger. There was a huge climbing structure that I used to hang off of, or climb to the highest point as if I were on the top of the world. We had this playhouse that you could climb up to which my girlfriends and I would all go up to together and hangout and giggle. I can’t remember anything academic that we ever did in preschool unless it involved a book and that was a...