Assistive Technology

Assistive Technology 

• Assistive technology can help a child to participate more actively in family, school and community activities. play successfully with toys and other children. communicate his or her needs and ideas.
  
  
• Assistive devices and services can be of great value in providing infants and young children with disabilities opportunities to learn and interact with their environment in ways that might not otherwise be possible.
  
  

Assistive technology can help a child to:

• participate more actively in family, school and community activities
  
  
• play successfully with toys and other children
  
  
• communicate his or her needs and ideas
  
  
• make choices
  
  
• move independently
  
  

Sensory

• Sensory tools can help increase or decrease stimulation to help a child feel more comfortable and secure in their environment. Common examples include:
  
  

• Noise-blocking headphones to mute sounds in noisy or over-stimulating environments
  
  
• Fidgets, small items that a child can hold, provide extra stimulation needed to help children focus
  
  
• Weighted blankets or toys that provide slight pressure on the body and help some children feel more calm and focused
  
  
  

Communication

• Between birth and age 5, a child’s vocabulary (both words they understand and words they can use) grows at a rapid rate. For children who struggle to communicate verbally, there are many different types of technology that can provide them with their own voice. Common examples include:
  
  

• Apps for tablets, such as an iPad, that “speak” words a child selects on the screen
  
  

• A laminated collection of words and corresponding symbols a child can point to and indicate their feelings, wants, and needs
  
  
• A single message device, consisting of a simple button with a built-in speaker. It records a message (e.g., “I’m hungry”) and a child can press the button to activate the message for a parent or caregiver
  
  

Culturally Responsive

• The user must always be the main focus.  Aspects of his or her native culture, language, beliefs, and customs as they relate to the person directly, and to the family or larger community in general, must be taken into account. We need to examine the users own philosophy and beliefs about inclusion and participation. To force individuals to acquire and try to use technology that they do not believe in or cannot accept will not work. Matching even the best, most complex, and most expensive high-tech AT with users who are culturally unprepared or unwilling to accept and use such devices will still result in AT failure. 
  
  

Reference

PACER Center - Champions for Children with Disabilities. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pacer.org/