Educators in today's society must adapt their teaching for the wide range of learners in their classrooms. Many teachers are finding the need to accommodate students who have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These students are known to need lots of support, and at times a one-on-one aid. In, Producing Speech Use in Nonverbal Autistic Children by Reinforcing Attempts, Koegel, Odell, and Dunlap (1988) explained how difficult it can be to support non verbal ASD students. I have chosen to focus on communication in the classroom with students who are nonverbal and autistic because both teachers and students can feel frustrated when there is miscommunication. Tobii Dynavox is a tool that gives these children opportunities to express themselves, expand their vocabulary, and enhance communication. The student chooses words or phrases that they would like to say or string together and the device speaks for them. It aligns with the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) model because it allows students to enhance content knowledge (literacy skills, vocabulary, sight words), monitors and supports pedagogy, and the technology is appropriate for my ill-structured problem. #sweetspot A benefit of this tool is that it gives these nonverbal students a platform to fall on when they cannot express themselves, ask for something, or communicate to their classmates and teacher. As the child's skills grow, the device options and choices do as well. A constraint is that a child may have little motor function and physically choosing an option on the device could be an issue. Also, students may become too dependent on letting the device speak for them. With that said, I am excited to experience this tool personally. Below I have included a video of Tobii Dynavox and how I plan to utilize it! References:
Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054. Koegel, R. L., Odell, M., & Dunlap, G. (1988). Producing speech use in nonverbal autistic children by reinforcing attempts. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 18(4), 525-538. doi:10.1007/bf02211871
3 Comments
Nice job finding a solution for a very difficult problem. I can't imagine the frustration these kids must feel when they want to communicate but are not able to do so. This tool looks like it might be helpful to both the child and the teacher. Is this something that he or she will be able to access all the time in class?
Reply
Songyu Wei
7/9/2019 01:46:02 pm
Hi Sarah,
Reply
MIchelle
7/9/2019 11:32:04 pm
Thank you for sharing about a tool that I had never heard of! I would be interested to learn more about the adaptability Tobii Dynavox has as you stated that as the students skills grow, so does the options/choices within the technology. That sounds amazing for students with Autism.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
|