1) Based on the childs IEP, write a description of childs background, strengths and abilities, needs and challenges.

Include communication goals and childs progress toward these goals. The child I chose to do for this assignment was a girl in my cognitive severe class named Faith. She is a child in the elementary school and is diagnosed with the classification of multiple disabilities. Her two most prominent disabilities are that she has a severe intellectual disability and a hearing impairment. She cannot swallow and therefore has a tube in her trachea that allows her to breathe. Faith is fed through a feeling tube in her stomach which gives her the necessary nutrients to survive. This requires Faith to have a nurse at her side during most of the school day. She lives at home with her family and attends the Mercer County Special Services School District during the day. When I spoke to her teacher, she gave me a good insight about Faith. Recently, some of her strengths have been to use assistive technology such as the Quicktalker 23 to explain to her teachers what she desires. She also uses a little bit of sign language to try and communicate. Some of her abilities include walking on her own, sequencing the letters of her own first name, being able to but objects in their proper place according to shape, using the iPad, and taking care of simple hygiene. However, her teachers have been working on helping Faith with sequencing in regards to her last name and other words, categorizing, matching and sorting by both color and size, cause and effect of her actions, spatial awareness so she does not trip or run into the wall, and also simple bathroom etiquette. To fulfill all of these goals, Faith requires the aid of assistive technology. There are many different communication goals her teachers are looking to reach such as using full sentences, being able to express what she wants to someone, and talking instead of crying or throwing a tantrum. None of these goals would be possible without the help of technology. She has been greatly progressing to accomplish these goals but it is not always consistent. I witnessed first-hand an attempt to get Faith to communicate. During lunch, the nurse asked her what she wanted to play with. Faith looked at her board filled with pictures but refused to point to anything. This went on for about five or ten minutes and eventually the nurse picked a simple activity out for Faith. In return, she cried. Her teachers knew that she wanted to play with the iPad, but would not communicate that preference. Eventually, once she calmed down, she touched the I want button and then the picture of the iPad. Her teachers praised her with lots of social reinforcement and handed her the iPad to play with. This example illustrates how the teachers are working with Faith and demonstrates her progress towards fulfilling some of her communication goals. 2) Describe the context of the childs current placement. Faith is currently placed in a cognitive sever multiple disabilities classroom. There is one head teacher, two permanent aids in the class, two permanent nurses, and many other nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and others who constantly come in and out of the room on a daily basis. She is one of eight students placed in this classroom. There are no typical desks in the room for the students besides Faiths. Many of the other students are in wheelchairs or need to be in a chair that is bolted to the ground and has a seatbelt attached to it. There is one small round table in the back of the room, a bathroom, a sink, and the teachers desk. For the most part, it looks like a typical classroom; the walls have the childrens artwork on them, they have a computer, and they have posters around the room. A typical day consists of two lessons in a subject area such as math, language arts, social studies, or science; motor group; gym; lunch; recess; and some type of special activity such as music or art. Throughout the day, the children are taken out of class to go to their physical or occupational therapy session or receive the therapy right inside the class. There is almost always one adult per student. While the class may

seem busy or hectic, each child receives the individual service they need. All of these children, like Faith, are learning very basic skills such as cause and effect, spatial recognition, matching/ categorizing, and sorting. Everything done in the classroom is meant to be stimulating in one way or another 3) Describe the augmentative, alternative, and assistive technologies currently used to support the communication of this child. Faith uses many different types of augmentative, alternative, and assistive technology in the classroom to support her communication. She accomplishes augmentative and alternative communication through the use of assistive technology. For example, every day the class has something they call morning meeting. During this time, children use their Step-by Steps to communicate with the other students as well as the teachers in discussing what they did the night before. Their parents record the events that took place that night and during the day, the students press the button to explain how their evening went. Faith uses this device to not only communicate with the class, but also to understand the cause and effect of pushing the button. She also uses a device called a Quicktalker 23. This is a plastic board with different pictures on it. The teacher programs each picture to mean the word it symbolizes and allows it to be unique for each individual student. Faiths board has generic words on it such as I want, toys, bathroom, food, etc. However, because Faith is the only student using this form of technology, it is personalized to her personal preferences of thing she likes such as iPad or Curious George. She is able to effectively communicate to her teachers exactly what she needs or want. If the Quicktalker 23 is not available, Faith has a Go Talk and pictures cut out on her desk. If she needs to communicate or wants the Quicktalker 23 so expand her communication, she can ask for it by pressing the Go Talk which says I want and then pointing to these few symbols available. These same actions can be done by using the iPad to communicate, but is also used as a way to stimulate her. Faith is allowed to play certain games on the iPad that use cause and effect. They are very bright, colorful, and have lots of pictures as stimulation and when she touches an object, it moves and makes noise. She also uses the device to spell her name and is currently working on spelling her last name. 4) How does the device/devices enhance the language development and communication skills of the child? All of these devices enhance Faiths language development and communication skills tremendously. She has slowly improved her development of language by learning all of the words on her boards so that she has a variety of things she can ask for if she needs them. Devices such as the Quicktalker 23, the iPad, and the Step-by-Step have greatly enhanced her communication skills. She is able to tell people what exactly she wants or needs and when she wants or needs it. She no longer has to resort to temper tantrums because of frustration or confusion. Without this assistance, it was very difficult to understand what Faith was actually trying to say. She can use some sign, but that is not very helpful because many of the teachers do not know sign themselves. These devices have provided very clear methods to get her point across to whoever she needs to talk to. These technological advances have allowed for in depth assessment of her development in both language and communication, helped the teacher create specific instructional plans for Faith depending on her current levels, and have allowed her to receive individualized instruction regarding her strengths and weaknesses in these two areas of development.

5) How might the device/devices be used to develop literacy and numeracy for the child? These devices that Faith uses on a daily basis also help develop her literacy and numeracy skills. The Quicktalker 23 is a perfect example of how assistive technology enhances literacy skill. Just like any other person, Faith progressed in her literacy skills beginning one word at a time. Like a child when they begin to speak, when Faith first began trying to communicate, she would use only one word. If she wanted the iPad, she would only press the button iPad. If she wanted to play with a specific toy, she would simply hit the button toy. Through positive reinforcement, she soon learned that she needed to push specific buttons to get what she wanted. Then the objective was to get Faith to create full sentence. She would no longer get what she wanted by pressing just one button; she had to put the I want in front of it. She slowly learned how to develop a full sentence which greatly improved her literacy skills. These forms of technology have not only improved her literacy, but also her numeracy. One activity the teacher gave Faith was to watch her fellow classmate drop beanbags into a basket. As each one was dropped, she had to press the Step-by Step which would could for her. Each time she pressed the button, it would increase by one number. The required a great deal of her attention which was challenging, but it helped her understand the concept of counting. She could watch how many beanbags were going into the basket and would press the button that many times. She would also orally hear the number which the teacher repeated constantly. While these may be only two examples, I think they clearly demonstrate how the assistive technology is used to enhance literacy and numeracy skills. 6) Evaluate the effectiveness of the assistive technologies currently used by this child. Recommend modifications to communication goals, strategies and assistive technology support. Provide detailed support for your response. I feel that the assistive technologies used by Faith are extremely effective. They have greatly enhanced her ability to communicate, have furthered her literacy skills, have broadened and helped with her language development, and have also increased her numeracy skills. I like how they have more advanced assistive technology, but also simple assistive device. As many people know, technology does not always work. Sometimes batteries run out, devices shut off, or there is some reason it does not what to work. If this happens, Faith has the board of pictures on her desk as a backup plan. Those pictures allow her to communicate no matter what is going on so that she can always get her basic needs met. I do not really see many modifications that would need to be made to Faiths communication goals and strategies with the support of the assistive technology. I think the teachers are doing an amazing job as adapting the technology to fit Faiths personal needs that will help her succeed. She uses the iPad to help her grasp the concept of sequencing, categorizing, matching, sorting, and for cause and effect. She also uses the Stepby-Step to work on cause and effect and develop her language skills. The Quicktalker 23 really helps her to communicate and provides social reinforcement. These are most of her goals that the teachers are trying to accomplish and I believe they could not be done without the assistive technological support. The only I would try to modify if I could would be to somehow use the assistive technology to help her with spatial awareness. I am not sure how exactly this would be executed, but she really likes the technology and I think it would somehow be useful in achieving that goal. Overall, I believe Faith has been very successful. With the help of her technology, she has progressed much further than some people thought possible. The teacher told me that they are thinking about moving her into a higher level class and I think that would be

great for Faith! With her assistive technology by her side, she can tackle many of the obstacles thrown her way.