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Yes I agree there. Devices cost so much and when a child is granted AT from the Department there is often a shortfall between the grant and what is needed to run the software I.e. and 8gb computer. Most parents are willing to pay the difference but it can put some parents off applying for the AT.
AT can open a whole new world of confidence for children who really persistently struggle with written work and reading. To think of all the wonderful things they can create with it. Other children are amazed by what they can create!
As a parent of a children with SlD I think it really is incredible how it can open up the world for them. Also an adult family member is now using AT in their job to help them with reports and reading out long texts. Often in the workplace adults can be embarrassed and feel too self-conscious to ask for any aids. It’s something we have learned the hard way that needs to be fought for and recognised as adults in the workplace.
Thank you so much to Adrian and Fiona for a really wonderful course and to all the participants for sharing their ideas and hard work!The benefits of ICT in SEN are immense. When I first started SEN I was somewhat familiar with ICT but I’ve grown in my knowledge of it and this course has added so much more to it again. Personally I love to use IPads in the classroom for phonological awareness development and also phonics during literacy stations such as Literacy Lift Off. I’ve also found Khan academy excellent for maths stations. I regularly use khan academy kids, teach monster, jolly phonics and top marks for the mix of literacy and numeracy. This year I’ve used ICT for social story development with a child with limited vocabulary and it has worked a treat. I will use ICT more for assessment going forward and explore lots of the resources shared here for that. It’s something I haven’t been brave enough to use but some of the ideas were Fantastic like using book creator as a self assessment tool.
As regards challenges ICT can be dependant on so many factors within school. Having the equipment is something not every school has. We’ve been lucky enough to be able to invest in new iPads and chromebooks and a charging trolley of late. Up until recently we had but 1 iPad for the whole school. We are gradually replacing our old whiteboards with smart tvs and I often use my Apple TV to help present children’s work etc. one big issue with ICT which has persisted in our school is the lack of fast broadband. It really is a hurdle and we continue to work on it. With ICT I always feel the kids feel themselves that they are having fun without even knowing they are learning! It’s a win. It’s also great to be able to share these websites with the parents so they can see the children succeed in these fun ways too.The benefits of ICT in SEN are immense. When I first started SEN I was somewhat familiar with ICT but I’ve grown in my knowledge of it and this course has added so much more to it again. Personally I love to use IPads in the classroom for phonological awareness development and also phonics during literacy stations such as Literacy Lift Off. I’ve also found Khan academy excellent for maths stations. I regularly use khan academy kids, teach monster, jolly phonics and top marks for the mix of literacy and numeracy. This year I’ve used ICT for social story development with a child with limited vocabulary and it has worked a treat. I will use ICT more for assessment going forward and explore lots of the resources shared here for that. It’s something I haven’t been brave enough to use but some of the ideas were Fantastic like using book creator as a self assessment tool.
As regards challenges ICT can be dependant on so many factors within school. Having the equipment is something not every school has. We’ve been lucky enough to be able to invest in new iPads and chromebooks and a charging trolley of late. Up until recently we had but 1 iPad for the whole school. We are gradually replacing our old whiteboards with smart tvs and I often use my Apple TV to help present children’s work etc. one big issue with ICT which has persisted in our school is the lack of fast broadband. It really is a hurdle and we continue to work on it. With ICT I always feel the kids feel themselves that they are having fun without even knowing they are learning! It’s a win. It’s also great to be able to share these websites with the parents so they can see the children succeed in these fun ways too.That is brilliant AnnMarie. We also run what we call ‘Lego club’ and ‘Cookery Club’ in our school. Both target children with fine motor, language and mathematical difficulties from third class upwards. We include shopping and using money as part of the Cookery Club. For Lego we used to keep it to simple building of Lego sets but this year we upgraded to Lego Spike which now includes coding and STEM for them and they just love it. They really enjoy watching the pieces of Lego come to life. The other teachers doing the cookery got each child to record their favourite recipe in Cookery Club and at the end of the year the teachers made them into a book and had a little party! It was really inclusive. The only downside for me was making all the policies to go along with this! Next year we hope to expand to an ‘ICT’ club as we have invested heavily in Chromebooks. Two teachers would team teach typing and word processing skills to all children in 5th & 6th classes and to anyone from second up what has been approved for A.T. I would love to help with this and use some of the fantastic website we were shown today with them.
I have found the social stories app as a very useful also. The child is totally involved in the creation of the story which is a little like book creator actually.In particular I had a child who whispers and is unaware of their voice tone. When I got them to record their little sentences or one word tags onto the story and then we played it back, the child could her that they were only whispering. I encouraged them to speak louder the next time and we practiced it a few times. It really worked for them – hearing their own voice back.
Wondering has anyone had experience of the ALPACA assessment it was suggested for Juniors on free trial this year but we didn’t go with it in the end. It is an ipad based assessment I believe. Thanks
As I mainly work with the Junior end of the school I like to use teacher collaborative observations during September in coordination with the Junior Infant teacher. I am in there daily for Classroom support in Literacy and numeracy and in literacy we usually do stations which target phonological awareness activities through the use of the heggerty programme as a whole class and then using khan academy as part of phonological skill development. This works well and we have on the ground experience of the children.
When it comes to the stage later in the year of taking the children out in one to one or small groups I always start with ‘ My thoughts about school checklist’. It really gives you an insight into their own perceptions and its a good indicator of how they respond to language based self-reflective questions.
I always use the following to guide some language and communication based assessments: https://ncse.ie/sess-functional-language-and-communication-resource. Then I will do some sensory checklists as mentioned above if I feel it is something that they will need.
As regard phonics a brief classroom assessment by the class teacher is enough as I usually find children that need small group support are just starting phonics and have difficulties with fine motor and sound recognition.
In Juniors we use the BIAP and I find it good, although the class teacher this year mentioned it was very subjective on teacher opinion and she was a little nervous about this.I have used similar Gemma – sensory regulation assessment. I’m not sure where it originated in the school but it is excellent. Goes through over and under stimulation in lots of areas like olfactory, light, vestibular, oral etc. It’s really good to sit in on a class lesson for a while and just observe then fill it in. It hones you into what the child crave sensory wise and how they are regulating themselves in the classroom setting. Then you can be better equipped to address their needs when they get a break in a one to one setting.
