LUNENBURG -  Early in 2009 the South Shore Regional School Board's (SSRSB) Assistive Technology (AT) Centre introduced the iPod touch to their programming as a method of providing engaging and portable opportunities of inclusion to students with disabilities who live in the area.

 Now, a year later, over 50 students from schools across the district have had both their scholastic and personal lives changed for the better as a result of the technology.

 AT specialist Barbara Welsford says iPods are multi-functional devices that can be programmed with applications, or apps, which are specific to each student's individual needs.

 "It's all app specific and that's the neat thing. It's a hand-held, multi-functional device," she explains. "The teachers are saying they are able to better communicate with students and from our perspective ... it's a motivational device which offers rewards and social supports."

 Ryan Wilson is a Grade 6 student at Hebbville Academy who has benefited immensely from the iPod technology.

 "He has autism, glaucoma, Phelan-McDermid syndrome and is completely non-verbal," Ms Welsford says. "The goals for AT for him were to enhance his communications and build literacy and math skills."

 AT Centre staff started working with Ryan in Grade Primary with a one-button response device known as a Big Mack, before later introducing him to the more advanced Go Talk 9 and Go Talk 20 electronic communication boards.

 "That gave us the idea that he had the cognitive abilities to go to a much more dynamic and comprehensive device," she says.

 Ryan received his iPod touch last spring and by September his school-based team was trained and he was fully implemented with the device using a software program known as Proloquo2.

 Andrea Conrad, program support teacher at Hebbville, says that when she first began working with Ryan a year ago, "he didn't really have a lot of tools to be able to communicate with us.

 "We implemented [iPod touch] fairly quickly in the school year ... we've seen a huge improvement in his ability to communicate with the teachers, his peers, myself. He's doing a lot of work with the computer in the classroom," she says. "It's also important to note that with the itouch, and using the Proloquo, his verbal talk with people has also increased."

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 Ms Welsford says Ryan wears his iPod around his neck in a special case equipped with a lanyard, so he has access to the device at all times.

 "It's a portable, accessible communication tool, but he also uses it for academic, social and sensory needs while accessing opportunities for success in his program," she says.

 Recently, Ms Welsford travelled to Toronto with AT consultant Anita Kingdon, autism consultant Catherine Rahey and program support teacher Cindy Kowalyk to attend the 2010 Bridges to Learning Conference. There they made a presentation which was live streamed around the world via the internet on their successes using iPod technology in helping disabled students on the South Shore.

 "We're using it as an assistive technology device, but it's really an off-the-shelf device that anybody has access to, and actually that's what makes it so affordable and attractive," Ms Welsford says. "That's what's really, really exciting for us."

posted on 06/08/10