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Assistive technology applications for students with reading difficulties: special education teachers’ experiences and perceptions

NORDSTRÖM, Thomas
NILSSON, Staffan
GUSTAFSON, Stefan
SVENSSON, Idor
2018

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Purpose: Reading and writing applications (with text-to-speech, TTS and speech-to-text, STT functions), used as assistive technology (AT) for students with reading difficulties are increasingly used in education, however, research has not sufficiently enough evaluated its potential. The purpose of this study was to explore how assistive reading and writing applications were perceived to function with regard to students’ possibilities to assimilate (i.e., “read”) and communicate (i.e., “write”) text.

 

Methods: Following a six-week app intervention, this follow-up survey contained 54 special education teachers’ perceptions of how the use of apps impacted student motivation, learning, and its usability in special education. A total of 59 students with reading difficulties from Grade 4, Grade 8 and from high school, were assessed. Analyses included quantitative and qualitative analyses of teachers’ responses and written material.

 

Results: The results showed individual differences in how teachers perceived app usage for text-interaction purposes, including how app usage affected student motivation and autonomy for text-based learning. Eighty-two per cent of the younger and forty-seven per cent of older students continued to use the technology after the intervention, but in various degrees.

 

Conclusions: Based on these findings, students with reading difficulties seem to be able to use AT in order to assimilate text (i.e., to read) and to communicate text (i.e., to write), and, thus, AT has the potential to promote participation in regular education. Future research should focus on how to customize assistive technology support in order to better utilize the potential.

Speech and language pathologists’ perceptions and practises of communication partner training to support children’s communication with high-tech speech generating devices

TEGLER, Helena
PLESS, Mia
JOHANSSON, Monica Blom
SONNANDER, Karin
2018

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Purpose: 

This study examined speech and language pathologists’ (SLPs’) perceptions and practices of communication partner training with high-tech speech generating devices (SGDs).

 

Method: 

Fifteen SLPs were recruited throughout Sweden. The SLPs answered a study-specific questionnaire on communication partner training in relation to communication partners to children with severe cerebral palsy and intellectual disability. The results were analysed with descriptive statistics (closed-ended questions, responses on Likert scales) and content analysis (open-ended question) using ICF-CY.

 

Results:

Twelve SLPs completed the survey. Half had no or one training session with communication partners in the last year. One-third never used documents for goal-setting. Half seldom or never taught communication partner strategies. Three quarters only used verbal instructions. The main obstacles were environmental factors.

 

Conclusions

This study contributes valuable knowledge about high-tech SGD interventions targeting communication partners. The high-tech SGD intervention may benefit from goal-setting, extended number of training sessions and a range of instructional approaches.

Including alternative stories in the mainstream. How transcultural young people in Norway perform creative cultural resistance in and outside of school

DEWILDE, Joke
SKREFSRUD, Thor-André
2016

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The development of an inclusive pedagogy takes on new urgency in Norwegian schools as the student body has become increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse. Traditionally, the Norwegian school has been dominated by homogenising and assimilating discourses, whereas alternative voices have been situated at the margins. In response to this tendency, we present two transcultural students’ autoethnographic stories produced in alternative spaces to the Norwegian mainstream, that is, in a transition class for newly arrived students and on Facebook. Both spaces are perceived as contact zones in the sense that they are culturally and linguistically complex. This article illustrates how the students perform cultural and linguistic resistance towards dominant homogenising discourses as the transition class and Facebook seem to offer opportunities for constructing alternative stories. Moreover, we contend that these alternative stories offer important knowledge for conventional education contexts since they represent stories of competence in contrast to the assumed limitations of these students.

Signs for a good education

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
October 2013

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This video highlights some of the challenges faced by deaf children and young people, and the opportunities sign language education offers them

Zimbabwe sexual and reproductive health sign language dictionary

THE HIV AND AIDS MANAGEMENT AND SUPPORT ORGANIZATION (THAMASO-ZIMBABWE)
DISABILITY AND HIV AND AIDS TRUST(DHAT)
2012

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"The Dictionary includes an illustrated guide to signing and signing for individual letters, along with illustrations and descriptions for common words and for those new HIV/SRHR signs that have been developed, making it an invaluable reference for both those with hearing impairments and those without hearing challenges. The dictionary is suitable for use in educational institutions (schools, colleges and universities) as well as in health institutions such as hospitals, clinics and VCT centres. Counsellors and all staff working directly and indirectly in the HIV and SRHR sectors will find the dictionary most useful"

The deaf peers' education manual : a training manual, developed by the Kenyan Peer Education Network, with interactive-based activities for basic understanding of sexual health, HIV and AIDS

June 2007

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The purpose of this manual is to provide deaf youth and adults, teachers, parents and guardians with a tool for addressing basic health awareness within an independent framework utilising optimal communication. The activities are participatory and interactive, and are designed with and by deaf Kenyans fluent in Sign Language (SL), and acknowledge the use of other SL variations within the various deaf groups. The three main issues addressed cover sexual education, relationships and hygiene. The manual is designed to blend with the school curriculums/co-curriculum activities, plus other issues that affect students while in school. It also befits other settings such as seminars and workshops, and can be used to tackle a specific subject. It is appropriate for varied ages, communities, cultures, religions, and literacy levels

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