Assistive Technology in Early Childhood Education

 Assistive Technology in Early Childhood Education has the ability to assist students that need extra resources to become successful in the classroom and beyond. Students with cognitive, physical, and/or emotional deficits have the ability to utilize extra supports to be seamlessly integrated into generalized curriculum without being isolated or ostracized. 

Assistive Technology has the ability to look differently depending on student needs, financial resources, and severity of student deficits. Some students would benefit from subtitles and audio devices while others would benefit from flexible seating options while others benefit from "quiet corners" that regulates emotional instability. These assistive technologies are introduced inside the classroom to be enhancements to student's everyday learning environment to make content internalization easier and more fluid.

Two assistive technologies that are appropriate for Early-Childhood Education and can be adapted to reflect culture are: quiet corners and audiobooks/ audio devices. 

1) Quiet corners are spaces that are placed in Early-Childhood Classrooms with soft toys, pillows, and neutral tones that are strategically placed to settle problematic emotions students may experience throughout the day. These corners often have pictures that are in a easily digestible language and presentation that help students recognize emotions and learn tools to better recognize negative ones and make correction (Jiang, Jones, 2016). 

2) Audiobooks/ Audio Devices are to be used by students with difficulty reading and/or auditory processing disorders. Students with difficulty hearing have the ability to use sound and language to follow along with written context in order to better internalize content while auditory learning posses the capability to generate increased activity with the child's brain development in visual learning and imagination (neocortex); making deciphering incoming stimuli easier due to pre-exposure (SanMiguel, et. al, 2013). 

While assistive supports are healthy for student learning and inclusivity, teachers also warn against abuse of assistive technologies out of fear of students refusing to complete tasks without additional supports (Flanagan, et. al, 2013). 

Resources:

Center on Technology and Disability. (2018). Assistive technology 101. Retrieved September 28, 2018, from  https://www.ctdinstitute.org/sites/default/files/file_attachments/CTD-AT101-V4.pdf 

Flanagan S., Bouck, E. C., & Richardson, J. (2013). Middle school special education teachers’ perceptions and use of assistive technology in literacy instruction. Assistive Technology, 25(1), 24-30.

Jiang, H. S., & Jones, S. Y. (2016). Practical Strategies for Minimizing Challenging Behaviors in the Preschool Classroom. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 44(3), 12-19.

SanMiguel, I., Widmann, A., Bendixen, A., Trujillo-Barreto, N., & Schröger, E. (2013). Hearing silences: human auditory processing relies on preactivation of sound-specific brain activity patterns. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(20), 8633-8639.

Assessment in Early Childhood

 Educators need to be able to meet the growing needs of students through active monitoring. This monitoring is through unique, developmentally appropriate assessment strategies that help build collaboration between students, families, education professionals, and development experts. This collaboration allows for the student to be fully represented and reported in all facets of their daily life to ensure the whole child is analyzed and represented. When there is team collaboration, student gains are higher than what they would be with individual assessment due to different areas of child expertise coming together to solve a problem from all angles (Gettinger, Stoiber, 2006). 

In order to best provide quality educational instruction, educators need to be able to identify problem areas in their student's academic and personal performance. This identification then leads to documentation of problems areas, and lastly evaluation and analysis with other experts within the field of child development. Students best benefit from having numerous disciplines communicate and collaborate to solve development concerns due to varied perspectives that give unique insight into variables that otherwise wouldn't have been considered (Gettinger, Stoiber, 2006). 

This strategic method of evaluation leads to techniques of purposeful assessment strategies to accurately measure and analyze student behavior and development. Purposeful Assessment is the strategy of utilizing evaluation measures that directly analyze, measure, and provide insight into a precise problem area. Having numerous disciplines tackle an issue leads to further insight to a problem area a child has and better likelihood of an assessment strategy that best targets the child's weak spots for specific targeting. This also leads to accountability measures being enforced that can be accurately tracked and evaluated for optimal student performance (Cobb, 2003). 

Scenarios:

Hello Everyone :)

Zara is in 2nd grade and.enjoys reading. Zara often can be found at her desk.rrwding many books throughout class the entire day. Zara has difficulty making friends but often expresses desire to be part of social groups verbally to both the teacher and the students. Due to the Students not being receptive to Zara, Zara grows frustrated and begins physically hitting students. Students are now afraid of Zara and find ways to avoid her. Zara notices the tension and grows even more angry and begins to physically assault the students with weapons such as scissors and sharpened pencils. One afternoon to lunch, Zara is pushed by another student as they line up for lunch. Zara immediately grabs the student by the neck and proceeds to choke into unconsciousness. Zara is reported down to the office and school counselor and advised professional Assessment

Colby is 8 years old in 2nd grade. Colby attends Ms. West's class and is one of eighteen students. Colby comes to schoolate each day, has uniform dirty and/or disheveled, and is often eating his first meal of the day upon arrival. Colby immediately finds himself making non-verbal sounds, crying, and scratching himself to signal to Ms. West that he wants to nap on the readnft carpet. Ms. West informs him that he is unable to do so because it is lesson time and the schedule says math then science before lunch. Colby begins to cry harder, scratch his skin until he draws blood, and scream. Ms. West eventually allows Colby to grab the stuffed bear in the corner and nap until lunch. This behavior occurs throughout the day, every day until he is pulled out once daily for thirty minutes by a school therapist. 

Resources:

Cobb, C. (2003). Effective instruction begins with purposeful assessments. The Reading Teacher, 57(4), 386.

Gettinger, M., & Stoiber, K. C. (2006). Functional assessment, collaboration, and evidence-based treatment: Analysis of a team approach for addressing challenging behaviors in young children. Journal of School Psychology, 44(3), 231-252.