So today I finally got to learn about switches. Even though I have been in the special education field for about 5 years now, I have never seen or learned about switches until now. At the Delaware Autism Program, I have never seen a student (from afar) use one of these devices for anything.
It was very helpful to see how each switch was used on different software programs. I think the easiest program to use switches for were the Creature and Edmark programs (Millies math house etc). For the Creature programs - students can push the switch for something to happen to teach them cause and effect. For the Edmark programs - students can watch the computer scan each item and when it touched an item that they wanted to click - they could just press the switch.
The joystick roller was fun and very easy to use to use. I liked the fact that the teacher can change the object on the stick to meet the needs of different students. For students lacking sharp fine motor skills, there is a big yellow ball that can be placed on the stick, which would make grabbing and moving the stick easier.
The little version of Big Red was cute. I called that one "Little Red".
The intellikeys - well I feel the same way as others did in the class. I thought if a student can use the pad that was on the demo - then why couldn't they use a regular keyboard??? I understand that these pads can be customized and simplified. But the intellikeys pad on the demo looked as complicated as a regular keyboard. Maybe when we go to leach, I will be able to see how and who uses this type of assistive technology.
The switch that can be used as a chin tap (I did not get the name of this one) was very cool. And the ribbon switch was sensitive to the touch but flexible enough to withstand a hard whack by a student.
I have such a better understanding of what switches are now and how they work.
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