July 6th, 2010

It is interesting that there are so many forms of assessments that are related to making the appropriate AT to student match, and even more interesting that as a program support and classroom teacher, I have not heard of these assessments before. I'm wondering if this relates to my previous post...are these assessments not done because there is a failure on the part of the education system to recognize the potential of ALL students?

I am particularly impressed by the WATI framework of assessment. The detailed checklists are incredible, and I think that it's wonderful that the document can be downloaded for use by all educational professionals, students, and parents. Reflection on such assessments highlights the fact the importance of the assessment process in making the appropriate match between students and assistive technology, because if the fit isn't good, than the access to learning has not been gained.

The HAAT model stands for Human Activity Assistive Technology, and is intended to consider the needs of an individual, the activity he/she is required to, and the context of where that person is performing the activity (especially in circumstances when assistive technology is being used). It is a human performance model in which the three components of human, activity, and assistive technology are considered in order to recognize what is needed for an individual with a disability to accomplish his/her goal. The activity relates to the overall goal of the use of assistive technology, the context describes the environment in which the activity is being performed, and the human factor takes into consideration an individual's sensory input, motor skills, and central processing abilities.

Though all of these assessment processes have their individual merits, all of these models are relatively similar, as they all take into consideration the environment, student, task, and technology.

The class then moved on to the topic of commication, and how we can help non-verbal students to communicate more efficiently. The skits were particularly fun and enjoyable to watch, and I'm excited to get engage in more hands-on learning with the ipod touch and proloquo2go! In thinking about the different ways in which we are able to communicate, the following ways come to mind:

 Writing
 Pictures
 Props
 Gestures
 Behaviours
 Facial expressions
 Body language
 Eye contact
 Verbal communication
 Technology
 Selection sets