July 10th Tuesday

Ok, so I placed a picture of myself up on-line instead.

So I thought the video today was pretty informative. I know I complained about the lack of hi-tech stuff in my school on my previous blog but the WATI video helped me see things a little bit differently. This video said that evaluations should start out with low-tech products before hi-tech ones and that low-tech products are a part of the least restrictive environment. I guess I never thought of it that way but it makes sense. If a child can communicate with pictures and a little bit of vocal sound then why should we take away his attempted speech and give him a voice out-put device? - I feel we should encourage natural speech, as long as the speech is somewhat understandable and if we just gave the student a machine with a voice - that would more than likely discourage natural voice use.

Which leads me into my next topic, I feel that PECS are pushed to frequent at my school. I would like to see more sessions done by the speech pathologists to work with vocal students on sounds and mouth movements. Many times, speech sessions are done as a class group or done at a relaxed pace. I feel that the ones who suffer are the students because those who may have once had verbal skills can easily loose them if no one encourages them to practice their vocal skills. In actuality, teachers, paras, and family members should assist with the learning process and insist that the student practices speech as often as possible.

The SETT article was a good article to read and the author had very strong and valid viewpoints. I loved the part in the "Tasks" component that explained how to modify musical chairs to make it possible for a person with a hearing or mobility impairment to be able to play. This adaptation showed that it takes only some thought and creativity to be able to include all people and that being flexible goes a long way.