Voice Output Communication Devices- Everyone Deserves a Voice!
My students need low tech voice output communication aids to help them learn foundational communication skills needed for functional living and education.
$1,003 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.
My team and I work with a joyful bunch of energetic preschoolers ages 3-5 in a number of special education classes within our district. Our students have a variety of moderate to severe disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorders, Down Syndrome, and intellectual disabilities. Our students require extensive special education and have complex communication and sensory needs. Our students range from nonverbal to limited verbal communicators, and all require help to communicate their basic wants and needs throughout the day.
Everyone deserves a voice, and low tech communication devices such as voice output communication aids are a means of teaching a variety of communication skills to individuals who have complex communication needs.
The South County Consortium was established to transfer programs from the Sonoma County Office of Education, to our local Petaluma schools, with the purpose of getting our students back into their own community. This grant will help us successfully integrate special education students, adapt curriculum and teach them lasting skills that will help them feel that they are an important part of our local Petaluma community.
My Project
This project will strive to provide an alternate means necessary for our students to communicate effectively. Not having an effective method of communicating can be extremely frustrating for our students and often leads to negative behaviors. Imagine if you were hungry, or a part of your body hurt but you did not have the means to tell anyone. There are many ways you can communicate that go beyond speaking. This can include no/low tech means such as picture communication, voice output devices, and sign language, or can include more high tech communication devices on iPads.
From this grant we are looking to gain two basic sets of voice output communication aids that will be used to teach a variety of communication lessons.
Voice output communication aids are speech generating devices that can be used to record messages and are activated by pushing a button. They are beneficial to teaching a number of communication concepts such as initiating communication, greetings,requesting and negating, choice making, turn taking, and a number of other communication concepts. These devices can also be used as switches and can activate toys that have movement, sound, and light which are great motivators for our children. These devices would provide our students a new means of communication that could in turn aid the development of a variety of communication concepts that are essential to functional living and education.
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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 Ms. Foreman and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.