Assistive Technology for Students with Learning Disabilities - Report Example

Assistive technology for students with learning disabilities Name Professor Course Date Assistive technology for students with learning disabilities Learning is one of the needs that a person should get so that he or she can fit into the society. However, the learning procedure that physically fit people usually go through is not the same as the learning process that people with disability usually go through. It is somehow an involving task to use technology in teaching people with disability. In this case, the people with disability include those who cannot see, and those who do not have hands. It is their right to be taught, thus, viable strategies that ensure their success warrants implementation. This essay will demonstrate how students, parents, teachers, and everyone can make use of the apple technology in improving the life of students with learning disability (Bakken, 2013). There exists a science of learning, which seeks to comprehend the relationship between developments of brain, machine learning, and social interaction all by drawing on the fields of neuroscience, education, machine learning, and lastly psychology. Currently, in the world of technology, there are universal design features that have been into Apple’s software and hardware, all in the aim of supporting the diverse learning needs, at home and in classroom (Batshaw, & Roizen, 2007). According to research, technology regularly undergoes integration to fit into educational practice and programs with the aim of facilitating learning for those students who have been born with disabilities. Special features are being delivered at mainstream products. Therefore, students with learning disability are able to interact with classroom’s technology and at the same time, teachers can comfortably customize content for the increasingly varying students needs. The following are some of the things that can ascertain a student’s disability, which will later authorize him or her to be incorporated in the special education services. The features are; deaf-blindness, Autism, emotional disturbances, multiple disabilities, hearing impairment, orthopedic impairment, mental retardation, traumatic brain injury just to mention but a few. Before a student is put under category of students with special needs, the individualized education program teams are expected to approve the point of need. The required accommodation for such students are; special technology for candidates with sensory or learning disability that will enable them to produce or access printed materials, perfect their communication with their teachers, or lastly interact well with classroom contents (Brinckerhoff, McGuire & Shaw, 2002). Efficacy of assistive Over the past years, a research has been done, that explains the efficacy of assistive technology on students with learning disability. One thing to note here is that assistive technology does not cure disability. Thus, it helps a student discover his/ her potential. This is because technology is designed in such a way that it helps or permits a student to capitalize on his strength hence bypassing the areas of difficulty. For instance, students who have reading disability but have good or better listening skills can comfortably benefit from listening to books or radio. In addition, those students who have good sight, and have listening disability can benefit from visualization. The above statement stipulates that what assistive technology does is that it compensates for the deficits of the students’ skills. Further, as much as a student who has learning disability is subjected to assistive technology that does not mean that the student should be denied from remedial instruction (Newton & Petroff, 2008). The remedial instruction supports or alleviates deficits. Therefore, students with learning disabilities are encouraged to use both the remedial audio books and software, all in the struggle of getting into the societal circle perfectly. With assistive technology students will always improves certain deficit skills such as spelling and reading (Bryant, 2008). Students who have learning disability in most cases will face a decreased sense of independence and self-reliance. Moreover, because of this factor, they struggle a lot and schools, which cause them to be over dependant to their parents, friends and siblings and even teachers for aid in assignments. The only thing that makes students to perform better both in class and in the society is learning on how to be self independent. For those students who have learning disability and have been subjected to assistive technology, research evaluates that these students will always experience a success in working independently. Therefore, assistive technology also helps students to learn working independent and not under the guidance of someone else Day (Edwards, 2006). Problems that assistive technology address A student who cannot write well, but can speak, when subjected to assistive technology, that student can comfortably compose a report through dictation, and at the same time, command a software to convert the voice to writings. A strident that is poor in mathematics, can as well use a calculator to maintain score while engaging in a game by a friend. Conversely, a teenager who is affected by dyslexia can perfectly benefit from the assistive technology that has the capability of reading aloud his employer’s online training manual. Therefore, students who are currently struggling with; listening, memory and organization, writing, reading and math, can now enjoy the existence of assistive technology (Lindberg, Ziegler & Barczyk, 2009). Assistive technology tools The term assistive technology is related to computers’ software and hardware as well as electronics devices. However, the following assistive technology tools can be found on the internet and learning institutions, alternative keyboards, graphic out linings and organizers, optical character recognition, abbreviation expanders, word prediction programs, electronic dictionaries, and talking spell checkers and much more. All that is required of the students is that, they only have to get into the internet, and consider a device that will make him or her be independent when it comes to learning issues. Technology use both at home and at the school According to statistics, almost four to six students in the United States have been identified with learning disability. In 2007, the statistic gave out an estimation of almost 2.7 million children, being under humiliation of learning disability. Further, the statistic demonstrates that more than a half of those students usually spend much time in general educational classrooms. This alarming rate of students with disability has caused the emergence of several bodies, all with a passion of helping teachers and students cope with this situation. One of the bodies that help parents, teachers, and schools to cope with this situation is the National Assistive Technology and Research Institute (NATRI). This body is responsible in offering both information and resources that will literally help school personnel to improve both practices and policies that will govern students will learning disability, and for their benefit. The quality of the technology if further measured with a body like the quality indicator for assistive technology. It is through these bodies that the assistive technology is integrated into individual student’s educational plan at every stage. The stages are as follows, assessment, consideration, implementation, documentation, transitional plan, and lastly evaluation, listed randomly. Apart from offering guidance, the above-mentioned body also offers training requirement, professional development, as well as administrative support. Therefore, those who teach using assistive technology should be answerable to such bodies, so that the needs of the students are fully met. Prior to advancement of technology, it is noted that technology resources that primarily helps students with learning disability are available. The only thing that lags behind is the classroom. According to estimations made, it is noted that only 25 to 35 percent of people or rather students who are affected with learning disabilities are provided with assistive technology. It is a step to note that at least a certain number of students are supported with their learning and instruction; this is according to Candace Cortiella. All that is need to make the a hundred percent achievement of supplying the assistive technology to students with learning disability is special knowledge of the same subject matter. This special knowledge is required so that students with motor or sensory disabilities could be catered for. As much as this one should be implemented, it is noted that these cases are also lacking behind. Students with learning disability should be supported fully; this is because there is a need for them to be independent. For instance, as students grow older and older, it reaches a point where they will be impatient with the guardian-assisted strategies, and that they will want to do things on their own. They will want to have independent method for accessing to production of and interaction with schoolwork. Just as the daily students’ routines grows complex, this independent urge will automatically occur. By routine growing complex it means that their interactions will automatically expand with multiple pears and teachers, and also the escalation of homework demands. In other words, there is no any way that will make those students who have learning disability to cease from wanting to be independent. Therefore, the only route out from this dilemma is by the use of assistive technology. Assistive technology According to National center for learning disability, learning disability is a neurological dysfunction that usually affects the brains’ ability to process after receiving, to store and ultimately respond to information. From this disorder, an individual can get affect and hence his or her listening, reading and speaking, writing or mathematic abilities will become impaired. Apart from form the above, also both the interpersonal and cognitive capabilities can be affected through nonverbal and organizational disorders. Ultimately, those students who suffer from sensory disability have vision or hearing loss, and so they can bear related or even unrelated organizational abilities. The best technological to be applied here are those technology that can help students here to engage their learning is the technology that address both time and physical constraints. For instance, the students who try to comprehend auditory, visual, and print inputs find it hard to engage fully while learning new information. This is because; the process of decoding will always take much of the disproportionate share of the primary working memory. On the other hand, those students who usually struggle with expressive language disorders will also have less capability to show their learning through text and speech. Further, those students who have attention disorders will always try very hard to arrange or rather organize their materials, ideas, as well as time. Therefore, they will always find it hard to sustain, begin, and lastly complete learning activities within a given reasonable period. Lastly, those students with sensory disability are supposed to spend considerably more time, just accessing information as compared to their nondisabled peers. These are some the categories of people who have learning disability. Having elaborated on the above, for an assistive technology to take place effectively, it is necessary for the caregivers to recognize the type of disability a child is suffering from, and then go for a perfect technology that will boost the student’s potential. Psychologist, researchers and teachers ascertains that it is imperative for students to recognize their disability so that they can direct the caregivers to get the necessary assistive technology so that they can be helped. Experts argue that, a person who can understand better the type of disability in subject is the sufferer. Moreover, if he can talk, then it will be an added advantage since the assistance will be initiated immediately. Apple is a savior Apple is a technology, which currently has been made to be assistive to the people or students with learning disability. Technology offers a ready access to alternative method of both the output and input, and to the organizational and compensatory tools, that have proved to support learning. This feature is made to help students with disability to succeed in planning, managing, general classroom work and completion of homework. Therefore, if it is properly put in use, it can perfectly help those students who face it rough when it comes to learning. Students with mathematics disability and Apple After illustrating the importance of assistive technology, it is better to take a consideration of an example of assistive technology that currently exist. Apple is one of the known assistive technologies. There are several technologies build into Apple products that can benefit students who are dys-calculative. Students who struggle in math,- or who have learning disability in math- can comfortably use iPod or iPhone to record both instruction and classroom lessons for later review. These two technologies have visual and audio features that accompany a calculator, together with a graphic application. These applications can help students with math disability in remembering and understanding equations. All students can benefit from theses application that is from middle to elementary students. Not only are the students with mathematic disability are the ones who benefit with this application, however also students with writing and reading disabilities. At times, technology aids teachers in fostering understanding to students who are unable read prints or those who have difficulties writing or taking notes. The above students are also categorized in students with learning disability. However, the ads on iTunes as a spoken button on the iMac, usually converts automatically texts regardless of the application into audio files, after which it copies it into iTunes. Therefore, those students with visual impairment can now comfortably get what they need, and hence they can also build up their academic potential perfectly well. Apart from the above, also an elementary student with dys-graphia can also make use of iMacs to complete most of class work. This will give humble time to both the student and the teacher, making the two’s relationship a success one. iMac has a pages application that helps students to type and present their work neatly. Apart from that, the speech recognition devices embedded on the Mac OS is very essential to students who have vision impairment in navigating the screen. Prior to quantity of work, iMac helps a student to make good notes and at the same time, give his or her teacher a nice time in going through the work. Therefore, an iMac is another technology, which has been proved helpful to the students who have learning disability. It is better for the learning institution to consider this fact, and be using a lot of such technologies in promoting learning to a student who has learning disability. It should be noted that teachers who teach students with learning disabilities also get their work done easily with the use of this technology. For instance, for teachers who have students with high writing and attention ability; can also use videos to demonstrate what he or she is passing across in a class. The teacher can comfortably use an iPod nano to take his video as he demonstrates. After which, she can use iMovies to edit and then export on the very same video on the iWeb and then update her class with the video. This helps students to revisit and revisit the demonstration, hence gaining a better understanding of what the teacher was passing across in class. This video is powerful enough to capture all the process of hypothesizing, reflecting, observing hence giving out a better result on the different hypothesis that the student had. Further, apart from the demonstration, this application makes students to participate in class comfortably, without taking notes, hence heightening the level of comprehension and retention power which will always put students at the top of their learning (Scherer, 2004). It follows also that, students with processing and organizational disability can be made to get a better learning potential by the use of an Apple phone. Apple will help them stay focused, get organized as well as participate in class challenges properly. Generally, students who have organizing and process disability should get Laptops, desktops and hand held Apples since this devices have inbuilt tools and features that help ease the many challenges that they are encountering on a daily basis. Students who have the above mentioned skills will always drag behind in class work, and at times it can be very difficult for their teachers to give them proper materials. Thanks to the technology since with the assistive technology, they find it easy to grasp what their teachers are teaching them. Hence climbing on the ladder of education despite that fact that they possess a certain impairment. Customized iMacs have the capability of allowing students to set up their account on. After which, they can use those accounts in manipulating their school work. This iMac when customized and an account is made, applications such as safari, text editing and calculator will always show up in the same place every time, whenever the person logs in. the device also gives room so tat each application ca open automatically, with an assigned keyboard. This allows a student with autism to quickly switch between applications and without many efforts. One advantage with this device is that, it is available for any student from elementary to collage. It is encouraging to note that every student here is taken care of, and so every person who is termed as the one with learning disability can still learn with the use of this device to his or her highest educational level of his or her choice (Prater, 2007). Lastly students with sensory disability also can make use of an Apple, in learning. The deaf students can use the video iChat in communicating with sign languages. Just in the same way as other visual learners, they can as well benefit from the multimedia tools. The computers that have inbuilt Braille output and screen readings can also be a very good educational motivator to students. Therefore, even students with sensory disability can feel valued in using technology just like those who are not disabled. Conclusion All students who have learning disability have been accounted for in terms of assistive technology. Technology has made learning easier, and at the same time, it makes students to open up onto the whole world. All students who have learning disability, from mathematics, visual and auditory impairment to students with sensory disability can now comfortably benefit from assistive technology all in the name of boosting their potential. In addition, since they have right to be taught, they will always get to the level of education they aspire with the use of assisted technology. References Bakken, J. P. (2013). Learning disabilities: practice concerns and students with LD. Bingley, UK: Emerald. Batshaw, M. L., Pellegrino, L., & Roizen, N. J. (2007). Children with disabilities (6th ed.). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Pub.. Brinckerhoff, L. C., McGuire, J., & Shaw, S. F. (2002). Postsecondary education and transition for students with learning disabilities (2nd ed.). Austin, Tex.: Pro-Ed. Bryant, D. P., & Bryant, B. R. (2008). Using Assistive Technology Adaptations To Include Students With Learning Disabilities In Cooperative Learning Activities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 31(1), 41-54. Day, S. L., & Edwards, B. J. (2006). Assistive Technology For Postsecondary Students With Learning Disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29(5), 486-492. Day, S. L., & Edwards, B. J. (2007). Assistive Technology For Postsecondary Students With Learning Disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29(5), 486-492. Dell, A. G., Newton, D. A., & Petroff, J. G. (2008). Assistive technology in the classroom: enhancing the school experiences of students with disabilities. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall. Forgrave, K. E. (2002). Assistive Technology: Empowering Students with Learning Disabilities. The Clearing House, 75(3), 122-126. Johnston, L., Beard, L. A., & Carpenter, L. B. (2007). Assistive technology: access for all students. Upper Saddle River, NJ.: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall. Lindberg, J. A., Ziegler, M. F., & Barczyk, L. (2009). Common-sense classroom management: techniques for working with students with significant disabilities. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press. Prater, M. A. (2007). Teaching strategies for students with mild to moderate disabilities. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. Scherer, M. J. (2004). Connecting to learn: educational and assistive technology for people with disabilities. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Read More