Communication is a life skill that is crucial not only for improving learning but for social activities and later in family life and careers. And technology is motivating for most all students. Why not combine speech and language therapy with new technology to both motivate and educate?
I am a speech-language pathologist, working in six different schools in a rural county.
Three of these schools are elementary, one is first through eighth, and the others are Head Start centers. The children all come from different backgrounds, and have a wide variety of communication disabilities, from autism to cerebral palsy to apraxia, to name a few. Some are non-verbal while others are eligible for enrichment classes. Some have difficulty answering questions and expressing their ideas while others have phonological disorders.
My Project
Traveling with the variety of materials necessary to meet the individual needs of all my children has become a chore. I frequently find myself getting ready to work with a child and find I either forgot materials or left them in the car. And since we live in an area with lots of snow (think over 200 inches some years) it is not always possible to go back to my car and not miss too much time with the students. If I am more prepared for my therapy, my students will make better and more rapid improvement in their speech and language skills. I am looking at using software for both instruction and practice, in areas of both articulation and language. And with a laptop, I know I will always have an appropriate activity to use if I have forgotten what I meant to bring.
As a speech-language pathologist responsible for six different schools, I often find I do not have the materials with me to meet the individual goals of my students.
My home base school students have the advantage of my having easy access to materials. I would like to level the field for all my students by using software which can easily be transported to the different sites. Good communication skills are crucial to my students' success in life; good software will help them achieve this.
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