AT Seekers and Inventors Assignment

The “off the shelf” AT item that we found at the Dollar Store was a package of small and colourful stickers. The stickers were selected for a student who has difficulty providing spaces between his words during a writing task. The student is in grade3, is proficient with forming the legible letters of the alphabet, and the size of the letters are appropriate. However, when the student is writing, there is lack of spacing between words across all subject areas. The student is able to discriminate between words in a sentence that is read aloud. For example, when the statement “I want to play in the snow” is read aloud, he is able to recognize the six different words in that statement. However, when it comes to writing a statement like this, he neglects to separate the words. The purpose of the stickers is to help the student to separate his words by placing a sticker after each word that he writes. As mentioned, this is a challenge for the student in all subject areas. Therefore, the stickers would initially be used during all written tasks within each of his subjects in the classroom. The stickers would force the student to reflect on where spaces are needed, with the hope that the use of stickers could be phased out over time. A natural progression may be for him to start using his finger in place of the stickers, followed by the use of a writing checklist, and then the automaticity of using spaces between written words.

Ten other “off the shelf” AT items that we discovered at the Dollar Store included:
o A hair elastic band to assist with the tripod hold of the pencil
o Headphones for text-to-speech applications on a computer
o An oversized pen for students who have difficulty with fine motor skills
o A pen with a lanyard that is attached to the desk for students who have issues with organization
o Highlighters for the color coding of information
o An oversized calculator for students with a visual impairment and/or fine motor skills
o A magnifier for students with visual impairment
o A clipboard for students who have difficulty keeping their paper still when writing
o A business card holder that could be used for social stories, contact information of the child, or as a communication device
o Chalk that can be broken into smaller pieces as a means to practice the tripod grip

Our invented form of AT was “glitter glue loose-leaf”, which involved the use of glitter glue to create raised lines on a loose sheet of paper. The raised edges created by the glitter glue are designed for a grade 3 student who has a tendency of forming oversized letters. The student is able to form letters that are legible, and she has wonderful ideas when she is writing. In addition, she really enjoys writing fictional stories that allow for her creative nature to shine. However, when prompted to use smaller-sized writing, the student is resistant to stay within the recommended lines of the loose-leaf. The purpose of the raised edges created by the glitter glue is to encourage the student to use an appropriate sized font. The hope is that through practicing writing tasks with the raised lines, the student will develop automaticity in using smaller sized writing. The glitter glue paper will initially be used in all classroom settings, as this is an issue within all of her subjects. The intent would be to phase out the use of the glitter glue paper in one subject at a time, with the hope that the skill of using smaller sized font would transfer in all of her educational settings.