The first few weeks of school give an opportunity to observe students. It gives insight to where students may need extra supports for their learning. In addition to academic learning, students may need to learn access skills. Access skills refer to skills a student needs to access the curriculum but are not explicitly represented by the academic standards. Access skills include communication, gross and fine motor skills and skills referred to as executive functions (Beninghoff, 2022 pp.99-100). What are executive function skills? Check out this TTAC E-Newsletter article: Executive Functioning Skills: Task Initiation and Autism (Part I)
Assistive Technology provides the devices and strategies that will allow students to keep up with academic learning tasks while continuing to learn access and/or foundational skills. For example, a middle or high school student may struggle to read and still need instruction in reading. But to keep up with his grade level peers and assignments, he could use a text-to-speech option to allow him to listen to the required readings. Immersive Reader and Natural Reader provide text-to-speech options on the computer or tablet that any student could use.
Reader Pens such as the C-Pen or Scanmarker Reader are portable options appropriate for students with special needs. Both are available to borrow from the TTAC ODU AT Library.
To keep up with the Assistive Technology (AT) your student uses, try this AT School Year Checklist from Westminster Technologies.
References:
Beninghof, A. M. (2022). Specially designed instruction: Increasing success for students with disabilities. Routledge