My students need access to communication. Currently, five of my students are non-verbal or minimally verbal. The ability to communicate is a right that all children should have.
I teach a self-contained, life skills based, special education class of middle school students. We have eight students of varying abilities. Students from outlying county schools are sent to our school in order to receive special education services tailored to their specific needs.
Many of my students are learning to speak (using a communication device) for the first time.
Communication is key to being able to request basic wants and needs as well as demonstrate knowledge in academic areas in school.
My Project
Five of my students are non-verbal or minimally verbal and rely on communication systems in order to communicate fully. We use an iPad app called LAMP. This app gives students who may not be able to speak for many different reasons (poor muscle control, autism, verbal processing issues, etc) the ability to express themselves. However, the app can only be used when open on the iPad. Although we have a classroom set of iPads, we use them regularly for differentiated leveled education using a wide variety of apps. When a student is using an app for education, they lose all access to the app for communication. As a result, my non-verbal students need an iPad that is dedicated to communication alone.
If AAC learners only see symbols modeled for communication twice weekly for 20-30 minutes, it will take 84 years to have the same exposure to aided language as an 19 month old has to spoken language.
This is what my students will accomplish if the only time they have speech (using a communication device) modeled to them is during their lesson with the speech language pathologist. As a result, 4 of the iPads will be used by classroom staff to model communication. We will have one extra iPad that will be available in case we get an additional non-verbal student in the classroom.
The locked charging case is to protect the iPads overnight and while the iPads are not in use, as the iPads will be new and different people have access to classrooms overnight.
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