Communication Station for Children with Disabilities
My students need materials, including Educational Insights Smart Talk cards and the Literature-Based Positional Words Center, to help with their basic communication skills including using functional vocabulary, following directions, and answering questions.
$617 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
Have you ever thought what it might be like to not be able to communicate effectively with others? That is the challenge facing my students who have a variety of special needs including autism, intellectual disabilities, and other health impairments. I have few materials to address their needs.
I work as a speech/language pathologist in an upper elementary school in Oregon.
The children I am requesting materials for are severely disabled due to a variety of disorders such as autism, intellectual disabilities and a variety of other health impairments including cerebral palsy, neurological disorders, and vision impairments. These children have a wide range of communication issues. Some of the children are nonverbal and need help learning basic communication skills. For other children in our high needs program, they may be able to speak but may have limited expressive and receptive language skills. These children would benefit from materials addressing answering questions, following directions, and improving their understanding of basic concepts. Since we are the only upper elementary school in our school district, every child who is high needs in our district passes through our doors. So, this project will help improve a large number of children's lives for years.
My Project
If I receive funding for my project, I will be able to create a "Communication Station" for my students in their classroom. The children will be able to rotate through this station with their instructional assistants so that their communication skills can be addressed on a daily basis and individual goals can be carried over into their daily school activities. Although I work directly with most of these children each week, I am not able to provide the amount of instruction I believe would benefit them. Currently, I have few materials for this population and often rely on materials I find on-line or buy myself. The materials I am requesting will help children who aren't able to verbally communicate but might be able to use a voice output device. For others, it will help me build basic vocabulary and functional language skills (IE. following directions, answering questions) which is necessary for integration into the community program in our middle school.
This funding will not only help my current students but it will also help future students who enter our special education program from our elementary schools and impacting every high needs student in our district.
By funding materials, it will allow our instructional assistants to work on communication skills daily which will promote better carryover for my students. Better communication skills mean these children will have better opportunities to live more productive lives in our community.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. DiCarlo and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
