Early Childhood Special Education and Assistive Technology Blog

By: Kimberly Chouinard,  EC-SEAT Scholar This week started with a bang! It’s hard to believe it still the same week, actually, it is a blend of 2 weeks. On Friday 3/13 the state of NH announced that all schools would be closed and move forward with a remote learning model during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Friday (3/13), my school district sent an email asking staff to work from home on Monday (3/16) and to review options and ideas for beginning a remote learning model for their grade level.  On Monday (3/16) we had the first of many, preschool team Zoom meetings. We collaborated, shared, planned, and came up with a plan to begin to move forward planning for remote learning. 1.     We agreed to create an activity calendar, with four developmental subheadings to work on for both the 3- and 4-year old programs. 2.     We planned how we wanted to explain to parents how to implement these suggested activities at home. 3.     We divided th...

By: Carrie Portrie , M.Ed I was recently introduced to the Joan Ganz Cooney Center website by a colleague. One recent post was titled -  "These Are The Digital Playgrounds Where Tomorrow’s Global Citizens Can Build Social Skills" by Jordan Shapiro Available on the Joan Ganz Cooney Center Website.  This blog outlines and provides a downloadable PDF of  Digital Play for Global Citizens .  Jordan Shapiro leads educators, youth development leaders, and parents through a vast landscape of digital resources – some of which may already be familiar tools – and suggests some innovative ways to nurture our young learners into macro-minded citizens. With the guidance of the adults around them,  Digital Play for Global Citizens  highlights some ways that children can use digital tools to engage more deeply with the ideas that will help prepare them to thrive in a world of unforeseen challenges. We live in a society filled with technology and resources th...

By: Carrie Portrie , EC-SEAT project coordinator Mark reads at a 5 th grade level and often sits alone in a corner, avoiding morning meeting. He misses his father who has recently left to fulfill military service in Iraq. Eve loves music, she has complex communication and wears thick glasses. She is removed from the classroom for hitting a peer while trying to get their attention. Matty loves insects, dinosaurs and his new sister Sadie. He uses thick pencils and crayons to write. They help him to see the lines. He pushes another boy out of his seat for making fun of him and is reprimanded. Max just moved to the United States from China. He is a game leader at recess. He works in the main office alone using a white board and markers most mornings because he is rambunctious during morning meeting.  The observations above describe pre-kindergarten (four-year olds) and kindergarten children learning in public and private classrooms in the United States. The children are wonderfull...

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: Sarah Pappo , Graduate Student Intern in Early Childhood Education (ECE) During this year I have interned in a half-day kindergarten program. It is difficult to get everything done in a 2 ½ hour day. There are days where we don’t even have enough time for writer or reader’s workshop. So how do we incorporate technology into the classroom?  Technology is a necessary component for students to learn and explore new things. Technology is integrated into our curriculum in many different ways. One of the ways is providing students with an opportunity to use the iPads or the Chromebooks during centers. In the classroom I have been incorporating technology more and more through my instruction.   For example when we are learning about upper case letters, the app Wet Dry Try (Handwriting Without Tears) allows students to practice these letters before they do them in their workbooks. I think that technology should be used, and it can be used to support students. Read...

by Laura Kazmierczak , EC-SEAT Scholar Tiggly chef is a free app that combines fun cooking creations and early addition math concepts through cause and effect. The app allows for flexibility with numbers and reinforces the addition process with verbal narration as the items chef identifies are chosen by the student. The app can be used for all children learning early addition math concepts and would be especially beneficial to a child who loves to pretend to cook. The app also provides customization capabilities with the options to create your own recipes, ingredients, and addition problems. With its variations in recipe problems the app eliminates the possibility of simply memorizing problems to get them right and aims for learning through purposeful or meaningful ways. The app requires finger isolation and the ability to drag items into a bowl. You can also drag more than one item at a time to make varying math problems with the ingredients. Once the recipe's math probl...