Tablet PCs in education settings
Tablet PCs in therapy settings
Tablet PCs are being used in different therapy settings to support people with a disability. You can find out about how tablet PCs are being used to support:
- young children with autism with early intervention therapy
- high needs clients at Multicap, a disability support organisation
- young children with hearing loss with auditory-verbal therapy.
Young children with autism
AEIOU Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that provides a professional early intervention program for children aged 2½ to 6 who have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). In early 2011, AEIOU Foundation introduced iPads in each of its learning centres across Queensland, trialling speech and occupational therapy apps within its early intervention therapy program.
Becky Mead, a speech pathologist at AEIOU Foundation's Nathan Centre, uses iPads with children with autism who participate in the early intervention program. You can watch Becky doing a communication activity with Byron, a young boy who participates in the program, using a book and Proloquo2GoTM, an app on an iPad.
Video transcript
Description:
AEIOU Foundation operates centres throughout Queensland that provide an early intervention program to support young children with autism. Byron, 4, participates in one of the programs. He is using an iPad with Becky Mead, an AEIOU speech pathologist. Byron is spelling out words with assistance from Becky on the iPad. Becky then reads Byron a book, and he provides answers to questions that she asks by clicking on different items—such as colours and animals—on the iPad, as well as providing verbal responses.
Transcript:
Byron using iPad: K... E... K-E-Y-S. Keys. (sound like keys rattling).
Becky: Good spelling. What is it?
Byron: Keys
Byron using IPad: Keys, Keys, Keys
Becky: Do another one... (does sign language for a bird). Bird.
Byron using iPad: D... I... I... B... R... B-I-R-D. Bird. (makes tweeting noises for a bird)
Becky: You got it!
Byron using iPad: Bird. Bird. Bird. Bird. Bird. Bird. Bird.
Becky: Can you tell me Byron what is it?
Byron and Becky together: a bird.
Becky: Next.
Byron using iPad: I... S... H... P... S-H-I-P. Ship. (makes sound of a horn honking). Ship. Ship.
Becky: What do you see?
Byron: ship.
Becky: a ship.
Byron using iPad: A...
Becky: This one's a long one.
Byron using iPad: I... N... T... R... T-R-A-I-N. Train. (iPad makes a train sound; Byron uses his arms in a circular motion, and so does Becky.)
Becky: What is it?
Byron using IPad: Train. Train.
Byron: train
(Change of task, with Becky reading Byron a story book. Byron is actively engaged, providing responses to questions that Becky asks as she reads through the book.)
Byron using iPad: Next page.
Becky: Next page. (turns the page) Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?
Byron using iPad: Bear. Bear.
Becky: What colour? (Becky does a hand gesture).
Byron using IPad: Bear.
Becky: Is it brown or green? (points to colours on iPad).
Byron using IPad: Brown.
Byron: Green!
Becky: It's not green. It's a...
Becky using iPad: Brown bear.
Becky: Tell me?
Byron using IPad: Bear. (Points near brown colour on the iPad). Bear.
Becky: It's a brown bear! Good work.
Becky: Here we go. I see a red... (turns page).
Byron using IPad: Next page. Red. Red.
Becky: Red
Byron using IPad: Red
Becky: A red what?
Byron: You do it...
Becky: (Becky does a hand gesture) Bird.
Byron: Bird. Bird.
Becky: Touch here. All together.
Byron and Becky using iPad together: A red bird.
Becky: A red bird, Ok, red bird, red bird, what do you see? (turns page). I see a?
Byron: Duck!
Becky: It is a duck. What colour?
Byron using iPad: Yellow.
Byron: Yellow duck.
Becky: Yellow what?
Byron using iPad: Duck.
Byron: Duck. Duck.
Becky: Touch up here?
Byron using IPad: Yellow duck.
Becky: a yellow duck. Where is it?
Byron: Duck. (Byron points to the duck on the story page.)
Becky: A yellow duck. Yellow duck, yellow duck, what do you see? (turns page). I see a blue horse looking at me?
Byron using IPad: Blue. Blue. Blue.
Becky: Too many blues. A blue—what?
Byron using iPad: horse.
Byron: horse
Becky: Blue horse. It's a big blue horse.
Byron: Horse.
Becky: That's right. Blue horse, what do you see? I see a?
Byron: horse.
Byron using iPad: next page.
Becky: Next page. I see a?
Byron using iPad: green.
Becky: I see a green what?
Byron using iPad: Green. Green. Green. Green. Green. Green. Green. Green.
Becky: I—I see. What? A?
Byron using iPad: green.
Becky: green
Byron using iPad: frog.
Becky: Let's touch it together!
Byron and Becky using iPad together: I see green frog.
Becky: I see a green frog!
(New page shown, with the book open in clear view.)
Becky: Goldfish, goldfish what do you see?
Byron using iPad: Next page.
Becky: I see!
Byron: monkey.
Becky: A monkey! Good talking. Looking at me...
Byron using iPad: black, black.
Becky: Good boy. Monkey, monkey what do you see? I see, children... (shows Byron content on the iPad) I-I see...
Byron using iPad: my turn. My turn.
Becky: Your turn. Children. Let's find children. I. I—see. I see...
Byron: children. I...
Byron and Becky using iPad: children.
Becky: Children looking at me. I think it's the last page Byron. Last page. (turns page). We see a?
Byron: Page.
Becky: We did turn the page. We see a?
Byron: Page.
Becky using iPad and talking at the same time: A brown bear. A...
Byron using iPad: Bear. Bear.
Becky: It is a bear. Byron, do you want to choose? What do you see?
Becky says the devices can help children with autism to develop language, social and fine motor skills, and support them being ‘really interested in learning'.
‘It's hands on and it's cause and effect,' she says.
‘"I do something, and it does something back."'
She says that along with the benefits, educators always need to consider the drawbacks of any ‘high-tech' device used as a learning tool.
‘When you teach something on a high-tech device, you also want to teach it on a low-tech device. High-tech devices get low batteries, and they can break.'
You can read stories about two boys—Liam and Mitch—who were enrolled in the AEIOU Foundation's early intervention program last year. Both boys participated in a research project with Griffith University about the validity of tablet PCs as a learning and teaching tool in Semester 2, 2011. This year, a follow-up study about tablet PCs and autism is underway. You can find out more about this research on the next page in this guide.
High needs clients
Multicap, a high needs disability support organisation in Queensland, has been using tablet PCs—iPads—for more than 6 months. The devices are currently being used with communication, learning and behaviour management strategies to support clients who fall in the scope of restrictive practices legislation as part of the Disability Services Act 2006 (Qld).
Janine Allen, Area Manager in the Disability Services team at Multicap, says the devices have been a useful support tool.
For one client, the portability of the device has been invaluable. She loves weddings, and previously went to bridal shops with a bag full of wedding albums and magazines. Now, she carries her tablet PC on shopping trips with a support worker.
‘We take her to wedding shops and we'll take video and photos of her,' says Janine.
In another instance, a client with a savant skill in maths has benefited from using a tablet PC.
Before the devices were introduced, staff sometimes spending hours researching and preparing maths tasks for her to do.
‘For us to research that (maths activities for her) and write it down would be 2 hours (of work),' says Janine.
The client responded very positively after starting to do advanced maths using an education app on a tablet PC.
‘She was so engaged in it that there was no time for (negative) behaviours,' says Janine.
‘She purely looked satisfied.'
Young children with hearing loss
Eddie Bird is a client of the Hear and Say Centre in Brisbane. He has bilateral cochlear implants and his auditory-verbal therapist, Kirsty, uses a tablet PC as one of many tools to support him with developing his communication skills.
Disability Online spoke to Eddie, his mum and his therapist.
You can find out more about Eddie's story, and watch a video of him using a tablet PC with his therapist at the Hear and Say Centre.
