Showing posts with label assistive technlogy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label assistive technlogy. Show all posts

Monday, August 15, 2011

Assistive Technology

Assistive technology helps students succeed in the classroom. There are many types of assistive technology to help students with different special needs. In the photo to the left, assistive technology called interactive switches allow Faith to drive her power chair and operate her computer at school. Read more by going to Assistive Technology Helps Students with Disabilities.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Yesterday was a big day for Faith - there were a little bit of lights, a few cameras and lots of ACTION!

At the beginning of the day about four people met with Faith so that she could FINALLY get the right part installed on her chair that would enable her to use the same buttons she uses to drive her chair to work with her computer. Technology is wonderful but it can require lots of patience!

Faith working on her computer with help from Ms. Hall
That afternoon, the KFYR TV crew came in to record Faith doing some of her daily activities at school. They recorded her doing some work on her computer with her buttons and also driving her power chair.

I haven't seen her drive her chair for a long time and I was very impressed by how well she's driving! She is even able to drive herself into the elevator and turn around because she doesn't like her back to the door. The cameraman got in there with her and I think he was a little nervous she was going to run him over!

The reporter asked Faith a few questions about GABR and then interviewed Faith's physical therapist at school and also her special education teacher. All three of them did a great job!

Faith being interviewed by KFYR reporter, Julie McDonald
And after all that, you would think Faith could have taken a break but she had to go to the gym to practice with all of the first-graders for their upcoming program. I was able to look in on her and see her singing along to the songs!

Seeing her doing all of these activities today reminds me of how far she has come since her first days at preschool. I am so proud of her and I know that she will continue to work hard and with the help of others she will be able to overcome her obstacles and meet all of her goals. What more could a parent ask for?

By the way, this week her TV interview on the KXMB noon show aired. To watch the video go here.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Some Progress

We recently received Faith's report card of sorts called, "Annual Goals, Short-Term Objectives, and Periodic Review of Services." Which basically lets us know how Faith is doing with her therapies and special education/academics at school. These are the goals that we set up for her at the beginning of the year when we did her Individual Education Plan (IEP).
 
Getting ready for school
 I was so happy to see that in each area, she is making "some progress." In Occupational Therapy, they have been working on self-feeding. This has been a challenge for her as it involves fine motor skills. She does have some high tone in her arms so she has to work through that in order to bring the spoon directly to her mouth. Her therapist in this ares says that Faith does fatigue during this exercise but that she is really motivated to work hard.

One of our goals is for Faith to begin to read. I am so proud of her that she knows all of her letter sounds and at school they are trying to get her to recognize her first set of sight words. Faith is more auditory than visual so one thing they are doing to help her learn to read is to mount a laptop computer to her chair. The computer has all of the reading materials that her class uses which enables her to not only see the text but to hear it as well. She is then able to push her buttons to turn the pages on her own.

Another area she is working on is physical therapy which involves walking in her gait trainer and also driving her power chair. Her goal is to drive from her classroom up to the gym in as fast as time as possible, with the least amount of stops. There are a few times she has gone the whole distance without any stops! Another improvement she has made is that she no longer just drives around in circles!

Besides all of these activities, she also has speech, time in her stander, computer lab, library, music, and time in her classroom. What a busy little girl she is! No wonder she doesn't want to do anything or go anywhere when she gets home!
I am so thankful for all of the help that Faith receives at school and that each person there is doing their best to help Faith reach her fullest potential. Both Rob and I are so proud of her!

Faith lying on the floor relaxing with her iPAD

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Tuesday Tidbits

We've been waking up to some beautiful scenery with the frosted trees

Because of the snow storms last week, we had a few rough days of getting Faith to school and back. Thankfully, my friend Tina was able to help out with her van and also one of our neighbors, who also has kids at Centennial, was able to push Faith up the hill one day. Rob and I both think that maybe it's time to get Faith on the bus. I thought it would be easy enough, since the bus goes right by here every day and that all I would have to do is make a phone call and it would happen just like that. Not so fast, I learned!

On Friday, I had a meeting with Faith's special education teacher and she explained that to get Faith on the bus, her IEP team would have to meet and decide that because Faith doesn't have the necessary transportation to get to school, she will have to be picked up by the bus. Even after all parties agree that Faith needs to take the bus, it is not guaranteed that the bus will come right to our door to get her. Which makes no sense to me, since it is often our parking lot and sidewalk that is the hardest to get Faith through.

Also on Friday, I attended a meeting where Faith's instructional aides were getting trained to help Faith use her buttons to operate a laptop computer which is eventually going to be mounted on her chair at school. All of the reading tools that Faith's class uses are going to be downloaded onto her computer, which will be another way of helping her learn to read. It was fun to see the excitement in Faith's face when getting to use her buttons to operate the computer!

Joining us in that training session were two University of Mary students as part of a mentor program for those wanting to work in some way with special needs children. One of them is an occupational therapy major and the other is studying social work. It is a wonderful program that allows students to get a first-hand look at some of the challenges and the joys that are involved in having a special needs child.

Also last Friday, despite the storm that dumped about six inches of snow on us, we had our CP Support Group Christmas dinner at China Star. Rob came in late as he had to drive from Selfridge, South Dakota in the crummy weather. At the restaurant, we got a nice surprise that our friend, Susan who works at China Star, has moved back to Bismarck from Indiana! Faith will be so happy to see her!

Over the weekend, Faith and I got out the Christmas decorations and started to decorate. While decorating, we played the CD I made a couple of years ago that Rob titled, Cari Jean's Essential Christmas Songs. Faith thought many of the songs on the CD were too sad and she wanted to listen to her favorites over and over again - Feliz Navidad and Jingle Bells.

The Jingle Bells on the CD is a swing version by Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. When Faith was smaller, I would have her in my arms and dance around the room with her while listening to that song. I even did some swing moves with her where I swung her to the left side of me, then to the right, than between my legs. There is no way I can do that now! But we were being silly and singing and "dancing" to the song and then she yelled, "You Rock Mommy!" And every once in a while throughout the song she would yell, "Break it down now!" and I would yell back, "Hit it Faith!" We had so much fun!

Another high note from the weekend was that the NDSU Bison Football Team beat Montana State and will be traveling to play Eastern Washington next weekend in the quarterfinals for the NCAA subdivision! The game is going to be aired on KFYR and a few other stations in North Dakota and also on ESPN. LET'S GO BISON!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Faith's iPAD

There's a blog I read called Caleigh's Corner about a little girl with CP. Her symptoms are similar to Faith's except that Caleigh is nonverbal. One of the posts discussed Caleigh having her own iPAD along with a special language app to enable her to "talk." I saw the photos of Caleigh with her iPAD and thought how awesome that would be for Faith to have her own.

Then, a couple of months ago, during a visit with friends, Faith discovered the Apple iPAD for herself. I saw her with an app called Pocket Pond and how she could press the screen to make a splashing noise and the water ripple. She loved it! She also checked out a piano app where there are the actual keys of the piano. After she was done looking at it, she looked at me and said in the sweetest voice, "mommy can we please take that little screen home with us?"

I discussed the prospect of Faith having her own iPAD with her speech and physical therapists and they both agreed it would a great tool for Faith, educationally and therapeutically. They both encouraged me to apply for Great American Bike Race (GABR) funds to get Faith her own iPAD.

The funds went through and we excitedly made the purchase for Faith. Before giving it to her, we wanted to find as many useful free apps as possible and also download some of her Sesame Street videos. Finally, the day came for us to give it to her. She was soooo excited! She laughed and screamed, "I have my very own little screen!"

Faith playing Pocket Pond on her iPAD with it sitting on her lap
Over the weekend we've been trying to help her maneuver around on the iPAD. She's great about pushing the bigger icons but it's going to take some practice for her to touch some of the smaller ones. I really believe she'll get it though and it's going to be great for her fine motor skills. She needs to have an open hand to operate the touch screen and also be able to put her pointer finger in the right position. I've seen her do that several times this weekend and I'm so excited!

There are tons of apps out there - and I can't wait to be able to purchase some of them. Right now we have some learning apps that help her with letters, sounds, numbers and sight words. Another app called Dragon Dictation allows her to speak into a microphone and it puts the words on the screen - perfect for our little storyteller!

Faith playing with her iPAD while laying on the floor
She's just like her mom and dad and loves the computer and I really believe having her iPAD will help motivate her with learning and with attaining new skills. An added bonus is that it is so light and ultra portable so we can take all of her apps with us wherever we go!

Faith sitting at the table, playing the piano on her iPAD
We are so thankful to GABR for making this a reality for our daughter. There are many parents of children with special needs in other states who do not have funds available to make such a purchase. We can't wait for Faith to bring it to therapy to show everyone!

Having fun with the alphabet on her iPAD