Technology to help low-vision readers

Victor Reader Stream is now AudibleReady
http://www.closingthegap.com/lib/pdf/2008/Feb-Mar/Spotlights/Victorreader.pdf

The reason that I chose this topic is because I really became interested when Crystal suggested that Richard use audible books. I knew that there were books on tape, but that was the limit to my knowledge. I also thought that it would be really important to find a solution that Richard could use to help him read. This was his biggest area of importance, and it appeared that it was really effecting his quality of life.
The produce that I looked at more in-depth was the Victor Reader Stream. This product is a pocket-sized MP3 player that was designed for low-vision people. The interesting this is that it now has the capability to play the Audible.com books. It can provide over 140,000 hours of audio versions of books, magazines, or newspapers. All the keys on the device can be accessed through audio feedback so the location can be easily found.
I really believe that this device would allow Richard to engage in the occupation that he enjoys the most. By implementing this device, Richard would be able to listen to the books that he enjoys reading, or the newspaper articles that he finds interesting. Another reason that I think that this would be a great device for Richard is because it is a small electronic device that may not be noticed by everyone. I think that in the beginning of the interview, Richard made a point that he did not like others noticing his disability.
I feel I have seen this in others. A lot of times a device is not used because it makes a person's disability stand out more than they feel comfortable with. Usually when this happens, the device is no longer used.
I am not sure if anyone has every experienced using this product or seen it. If so, I would be really interested in what you thought of it!

ACC devices for children with Autism

Challenging our belief systems regarding people with autism and AAC: Making the least harmful assumptions.

By: Joanne M. Cafiero

http://www.closingthegap.com/lib/pdf/2007/Apr-May/ATinDepthMay.pdf

This above article challenges practitioners to look at the way they assess children with autism as well as how AAC devices are being used. I began looking for an article by searching children and assistive technology. I came across this article and it was really interesting for me because I used to work with children with Fragile X syndrome and many of these children had a duel diagnosis of autism.

Interestingly, the article began by looking at recent numbers saying that mental retardation was present in 70-75 percent of individuals with ASD, as compared to a study in 1958 stating that 30 percent of individuals with ASD had mental retardation. The author believes that this gap can be attributed to many of the tests are language based and are not appropriate for a child with ASD, as well as many symptoms of autism mask their actual cognitive performance. Greenspan (1992) proved this by showing that half of the children with ASD have difficulty in motor planning meaning that they cannot show what they actually know. I was very surprised to find that if a child has challenging behaviors, some practitioners would not introduce them to AAC devices until these behaviors were under control. I believe that everyone has a right for the means necessary to improving their everyday life. I worked with a little boy once that was not able to communicate, and once he was able to use an AAC device to communicate, his challenging behaviors actually decreased. The author also cautioned the use of timelines (ie. If this does not work in two weeks, we will no longer use it). I think that this is an important point because of the goals that need to be accomplished. Everyone is a different learner and progress at their own speed. The author really stressed making the least harmful assumptions, believing that a student may be more cognitively or communicatively able than they are performing on a standardized test. Once we are able to do this, we can open the doors to possibilities for these children, and not hinder them because they do not have a high enough developmental score.

When working with children with Fragile X, I had to perform a developmental assessment on each child. I always hated giving the results back to the parents because I knew that they were more capable of things and just were not able to perform it when I asked. I hated counting a “no response” as incorrect because I really did not know if they knew it or not but that was how the test was designed. The parents had a really hard time seeing the “numbers”, and wanted to prove to me that their child could do more. Even more, I hated to think that this number would actually hinder this child from opportunities. I think that I was really forced to look outside the box and begin looking at each individual child and their capabilities instead of assigning them a number. I think that many times society is too fixed on assigning numbers to intelligence instead of looking at individual strength and weaknesses to improve their quality of life.

About me...

Hello everyone... Well this is the first time that I have ever experienced "blogging" so hopefully I will be able to figure this out!

My name is Julie and I am a second year OT student (and in the finial semester of classes!!!). I received my Bachelors degree in Psychology and Legal Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Go Badgers). After I graduated, I was offered a job at the UNC-Chapel Hill working on the Carolina Fragile X project. I could not pass up moving to a much warmer climate, so I packed up my things and moved down South and began working as a research assistant. I traveled around the country working with young children with Fragile X syndrome and their families. This is when I knew that I had a passion to become an OT and work with young children with disabilities. I worked there for 4 years before deciding to go back and get my Masters degree at ECU.

I met my amazing and supportive husband when I moved down here, and we got married last May. In my spare time I love hanging out with my husband/friends/classmates, and taking our labordoodle, Emma, on walks. We just bought a house in Garner, so most of our free time now is spend on projects around the house.

I look forward to getting to know everyone through out the semester!