Laptops and VMax: Transitioning AAC

The other day I wrote about an article in Wired Magazine on autism. I posted the video created by Amanda Baggs where she shares her language. The author of the Wired article shared that during the interview, she sat with a DynaVox VMax and a keyboard in her lap.
The VMax has quite a few bells and whistles. There is a large 12.1" screen and wireless access for devices through a bluetooth adapter. There is the "V"also, that is a smaller version. A wireless keyboard can be used with it and it can connect to the Internet to access a free email account given to the purchaser. There are communication boards for instant messaging online. It runs Windows applications and has a 40 Gig memory. The VMax can be used as a Environmental Control Unit for appliances, media center, etc. There are phone and dialing capabilities too.
I think of several of our children who have autism and are using laptops with starter software like Boardmaker with Speaking Dynamically Pro to learn access to AAC. We have touchscreens that can be put on them so they can be used in a similar way to a Dynavox device. With Boardmaker Bridge, the boards and topics built on a laptop can be imported into a Dynavox device later.
We are using the laptop as a way to transition to a dynamic display device down the road. If you are interested in more on this device, check out the video demo on the DynaVox site.

All the best to you!

The Alphasmart Neo with Write-Outloud To Go

I have 3 students currently using this combination. These are lower cost items that provide speech generation for students that can type. By using the files to save conversation topics, students can open and access a topic and use the stylus to select and "play" the text.
The Neo and Write Outloud To Go package runs about $700 for everything and can be a big price difference for accomodating communication for some kids rather than a $7,000 high-end dynamic display device.

We have had to look at students individually, trial the equipment and make sure it made sense for them. Some students may not be capable of managing the reading and writing prerequisites needed to get full-advantage of the unit. They might need a picture-based unit like a Tech Talk or Go Talk.

In order to have the Write Outloud To Go have speech output you have to attach a speaker to it with the headphone mini-jack. The software was designed to allow student writers to have text to speech support while working with headphones on. I have adapted it as a communication device by attaching a pair of Sony speakers you would use with a portable CD player or ipod. They don't need batteries and fit together. There is another little mini-jack speaker that is for an ipod, takes batteries and is very possible as a sound source. Both are pictured below.

The white set is from: http://www.handhelditems.com/ Look for ipod speaker items.

Check out the Alphasmart Neo with the Write Outloud To Go bundle on the Don Johnston site at: http://www.donjohnston.com/products/portables/wol_to_go/index.html

Check out the Afford-a-Speech also as another alternative at:http://www.affordaspeech.com/SS200.htm

Don Johnston's website has a free download checklist of items to learn in initial training to use the Write -Outloud To Go HERE. It opens with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Here are the speakers I use. There are some portability issues though.

These below might be better. I don't know how loud they are.

All the best to you!

Lon

My Oregon territory for Assistive Technology

I have to take the opportunity to brag about the beautiful region I work in. My territory covers 12 school districts in 7 counties over about 1/3 of the state. My days of travel can be some of the most beautiful places to drive you could imagine. Last week we had one of those unusually warm, sunny days that comes around the end of February or first of March to tease you into thinking spring is here. I had to drive East over a mountain pass to get to a rural district that lies in a little town with an old hotel, store fronts out of an old western movie and a geo-thermal hot lake that was a spa and sanitorium in the 1920's. Movie stars like Douglas Fairbanks were guests there in those days. It has now been taken over by an artist/sculptor as a gallery and destination resort.

I drove over a summit with fir and pine and 4 feet of snow piled on the sides of the freeway, the Grande Ronde Valley with it's river winding through was visible below. The sun was warm, the sky was blue and I was celebrating how great life is. This region is home to craggy peaks, giant boulders and tiny ghost towns from the gold rush in the 1800's. The movie "Paint Your Wagon" was filmed here in the 60's and I remember what a buzz it stirred in the area when I was a kid.
I visit remote places like Burnt River, with a small district one-complex school and dedicated staff. Towns like Echo, Stanfield and Athena-Weston is where rural is spelled in capital letters!


There is something about getting the chance to drive an hour to an appointment, through sweeping fields and rolling hills with distant snow-capped mountain ranges of the Eagle Caps as a backdrop. It is a blessing to have the opportunity to clear your mind, meditate on good things and set your mind in preparation towards a good and productive session or meeting.

If you are a speech pathologist reading this blog and you are looking for a place to work away from the rat race with good small community people and values, let me know. There are always places for you in our region!
I am 2-3 hours from the Columbia River Gorge and Portland where gourmet dining, micro-breweries, Broadway shows, sail-boarding and skiing are. We make short trips to go to OMSI- a great museum, the Portland Zoo, and the Oregon Coast and Edgefield - a 9 hole golf, gardens, micro-brew, winery/pub/restaurant retreat by McMenimans. I have linked all of them on their names.
I just want you to know that I love WHERE I do my work as much as what I do. I hope you love what you do and where you do it as much as I do!

All the best to you!










Image Credit: http://www.wallowacountychamber.com/community.htm

Online Visual Thought Mapping "Cool Tool"

I had fun today exploring and researching some idea mapping sites. I had originally looked for some software that was free to download that allowed a person to create maps of ideas under headings and sub-headings. I found that "Free Mind", a popular free open-source software, wouldn't work on my computer after the downloads. I downloaded the software and the Java updates to run it, but it just froze my screen when I tried to use it.
I looked at several programs that were 30 day trials, but then turned to the free online kind. These are programs that allow you to log on, create mind maps, name and save them under your account in your own online file space, and then re-open and edit them later. They use some pretty sophisticated programming that allows you to map ideas, re-size bubbles, change text, colors, etc. You can drag and drop the maps to be where you want. You can add icons and even link sites, documents and images.
Test Run:
The sites I tried were: Bubbl.us (link here)pictured above. It is probably the easiest to use. The buttons to do what you want appear on each bubble as you roll over it. There is a cool delete X that makes the bubble explode when you hit the X. There is a drag button, a color hue button and an add another bubble under or next-to button.
Another one I tried was (link here). This one was more like a regular desktop application with a series of buttons and menu options, font, size, graphics,
etc. It is pictured below.
What I like about these first two was that you can demo them without having to sign up and create an account. If you are interested in exploring and playing with them you just go to the site and click "start".
The other online idea map software I used was Mind42 (link here).
This online application has a blog on blogger (here) and allows collaboration. While you are online doing your mapping, you can open Google Talk and instant message/invite someone else to get on and collaborate with you.
I have put an image below on the post showing what it looks like with Google Talk on.
You can use a Skype account to allow a log on by others and have a conference collaboration. You can add thumb-shot thumbnails of website pages and add sticky notes. It is probably the most sophisticated of the ones I explored.
Uses:
So what does this have to do with assistive technology? I see several uses. One is as a resource for parents, therapists and teachers to be able to collaborate on an idea or a student. I would love to be able to sit in my office, get a few other therapists online and a parent and work on ideas for a student.
Another use is for students that are ADHD or have a learning disability where they need to have a way to organize their thoughts and keep notes. If a laptop was used, they could take notes and "map" the session for later. These type of apps make a great tool for structuring ideas for reports and writing projects. A student can organize topics and sub-topics to get an over-all view and narrow down the content needed.

"Inspiration" and "Kidspiration" allow students to map ideas and then with one button, convert those ideas into an outline ready to use for writing a paper. Inspiration (link here) has been forerunner in education-based idea mapping, but it is n ot an online application. It is a software you buy and load on your computer.
I am in schools where there is wireless throughout the building. If you have that luxury, the online apps could be a note-taking resource during a class. If not, they would be limited to the computer lab or by connecting a laptop in class via an Ethernet/Internet cable to a hot-spot in the wall.
I would recommend taking some time to explore these online applications. They are free and can be a great organizational tool.

All the best to you!

Lon

The Edjurist Accord: Another Educational Law Resource

Educational Law Blogs are an Important Resource
Justin M. Bathon, author of the Edjurist Accord, an education law blog in Indiana, posted an article on the importance of educational law information blogging as a resource for parents, specialists and educators. Justin is an Associate Instructor at Indiana University - Bloomington where he teaches educational law. He got his J.D. and Masters of Educational Administration from Southern Illinois University in 2005.
Justin has a wonderful resource and it is evident that he has put many hours, days, weeks, and months of time into developing his resources. I would like to link his article on his blog that directly relates to my post on Special Education Law HERE.
I am putting his blog on my "Blog Family Sites" list also, where you can access his blog homepage and link to it or subscribe.
The Edjurist Accord link is HERE.



Thanks Justin for your efforts and comments.


All the best to you!

Special Education Law Blog Excellent Resource

I have had several comments, emails and conversations come up recently that have led to issues of special education law. I know enough about it to (hopefully) stay in compliance when I am working on cases within our schools and regional programs but there are probably things that we do as professionals unknowingly that are on the edge. I know I have been to state meetings where we all ask what is the actual definition of the law in a certain case to make sure we know what we should be doing. To me that implies that maybe we weren't quite in-line with what we should be doing. It is a learning process for professionals and parents alike.

I have some great administrators I work with that know the federal and state laws as they apply to Early Intervention, IEP's, etc. I am finishing up a two-year school administration program through Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. My School Law class was taught by a former principal who is now in a District Office in a supervisory role. He was witty, knowledgable and a great example of what I think a school administrator should be like. he taught me a lot about how to think in cases that could be full of potential landmines.

So where can we go for legal information? If you have an attorney in the family, that's nice, but special education law is a niche that needs specific knowledge. I refer to a blog site called: "Special EducationLaw Blog." This blog is a resource for case examples, advice, news and parent advocacy by Charles P. Fox, an attorney in Chicago, Illinois. He has other guest authors as well. I am putting his link on my important links list on the sidebar. I would highly recommend going there if you are researching something of a legal nature.

All the best to you!

Boardmaker Plus! Makes Great Interactive Note Taker.

I have been working on using Boardmaker to build talking notes on buttons that can be scanned by students who use the program for speech access already. I am trying to think outside the box to get curriculum access to these kids that can't read the textbook or write notes. The assistants help do this in addition to being a scribe. As long as they are "scribing" they might as well be doing something that puts it on "steroids"! The resolution is actually better than the window shows, once you play it. Watch the video below to see how I do it:



All the Best to You!

Lon

Podcast #2: Teens Talk About Disabilities and Assistive Technology

Podcast#2: Teens Talk About Disabilities and AT
I have been promising a podcast on what teens say about disabilities and assistive technology. It is about 10 minutes long. I have an introduction for about a minute and a short close. Other than that, the entire thing is just sound bites from the day.
To listen, use the player in the sidebar. It plays the latest podcast automatically. If you are accessing this as a past archived post, click on the "posts" button and find this post in the playlist. I hope you enjoy listening!

Below are some pictures:

Above: Kathy Howard, from the OT/PT department, shares how to balance on a wobble board and pass a bounce ball from left to right. It's harder than it sounds!


Here, I am handing 2 students a ribbon switch to try. They are filling out their interview sheets.

All the best to You!