Assistive Technology - Providing Access to Learning

July 11, 2017

To approach this assignment, I decided to focus on my students, past and future, with Selective Mutism. Much of the technology I discovered is applicable for students with autism disorders as well. 

Selective mutism is a disorder in which a child does not speak in specific social situations in which speech is expected (for example, school, with playmates) but speaks normally in other situations (Hung, Spencer, & Dronamraju, 2012, p. 222).

Though I have worked with students diagnosed with selective mutism, none have utilized Assistive Technology (AT) in our classroom. I suspect AT was never recommended for our classroom because of the students' young ages and first school experience, and more importantly, because progress was shown as soon as the students began seeing therapists from the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders.  Since I may encounter different situations in the future, I am interested in learning more about AT for speech and verbal exceptionalities. I see AT supporting students during various classroom activities such as morning meeting, free choice, snack, lunch, and peer play opportunities on the playground.  AT could also assist the teacher in assessment of the student.  
I found a number or AT applications with good reviews from educators and parents:

1. Talk Tablet 
2. Proloquo2 
3. iCommunicate 
4. My Talk 
5. Voice4U

The iCommunicate application has an Introduction and Demo on You Tube that might be helpful for educators considering this application. After experimenting with iCommunicate on my own, I found the Pros and Cons listed below.  

Pros of iCommunicate:

• Can be utilized on my phone or tablet.
• Inexpensive.
• Teachers and parents can add topics and vocabulary that are applicable in the classroom. In other words, the application is fluid and can continuously be customized for the student and classroom. I was able to delete items easily as well.  
• Personal photos of students and adults, rather than stock photos, can be added for personalization and familiarity. 
• My voice, or the student with selective mutism's voice can record their voice at home, (or wherever they are comfortable) and then play it at school, so peers hear the student's voice (or the teacher's voice), rather than a robo-voice.  
• It has the ability to turn off the text-to-speech.
• All languages can be incorporated, which is beneficial for ELL classrooms.  

Cons of iCommunicate:

 The only con I can come up with (without having tried it with an actual student) is that students with selective mutism are often working on gradual steps to reintroduce communication into specific social situations. I suppose it is possible that iCommunicate could inhibit those steps. 

One of the articles below touches on research involving AT and selective mutism. I'm confident further research will come out as more technology is utilized in classrooms around the world.

*I wrote this post before we covered Boardmaker and Tobii Dynavox, which I now know would be applicable as well.  

Reference Articles:

Using Technology for Communication with Selective Mutism

Augmentative and Alternative Communication