Low-Tech Approaches to Teaching Early Communication and Emergent Literacy Group 3

Factors that Promote Communication an Language Development Child’s environment Behavior of people around Child’s abilities (sight, sound, touch, movement, problem solving) Choice making Initiation of communication exchanges

Problems Can not independently interact with people and objects in the environment Do not present the cognitive abilities to become fully symbolic communicators independently Are not provided with multiple opportunities to engage in communicative rich environments

Technology Tools Switches enable students who have limited motor control to activate battery operated toys and other equipment with a single movement Cause and effect Choice making Simple augmentative communication devices Single message communication Multi-step communication

Types of Switches Generic push Squeeze/pinch Muscle/twitch

Use of the Switch Optimal position that the child will be placed in Specific motor behavior that will be used for switch activation Type of switch Instructional procedures that will be used to teach the student how to use the switch (like modeling)

Sample Class Activity For both of these students, they could use the generic push switch to demonstrate what they have learned. They can answer multiple choice questions by choosing A, B, C, or D.

Delicious Tags Tangible and Tactile Symbols Emergent Literacy www.designtolearn.com/pages/ts.html Emergent Literacy www.med.unc.edu/ahs/clds Early Language Development www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/language_development.shtml Low-Tech Communication Devices www.adamlab.com/