Mobile technology to increase parent engagement

The untapped potential of mobile applications to increase opportunities for parent engagement is enormous. Parent engagement is widely recognized as critical for children with disabilities, and optimal for children who are considered at risk for delayed development. However, there are many barriers to parent engagement. Mobile technology provides a platform to overcome many of these barriers. An iterative design-based research project was conducted to develop an application for increasing parent engagement. The design process, feasibility testing, and results are presented. Next steps and future opportunities are discussed

Stop blaming the teachers: The role of usability testing in bridging the gap between educators and technology

Despite the often reported benefits of educational technology, educators often find it difficult to integrate these applications and devices into typical school practices. Although there are a number of complex factors and interactions that contribute to this problem, the usability of educational technology is rarely considered. The current paper discusses the role of ‘usability testing ’ to improve technology integration into classroom practices, including common usability testing methods and measures. Finally, we discuss how educators and administrators can influence developers to improve their usability testing and their reporting of those tests. The marriage between education and technology has often been rocky. It sometimes feels more like an ‘arranged marriage ’ than a natural convergence of two seemingly compatible fields. Historically, the federal government has tried to improve this relationship by adding technology initiatives to its educational programs, including President Clinton’s “National Call to Action ” to connect all public schools to the Internet (Office of the Press Secretary, 2000), and President Bush’s No Child Left Behind initiative (US Dept of Education, 2002), which requires all students to be ‘technologically literate ’ by eighth grade. These initiatives have led to an increase in access to technology and spawned local legislation to further improve technology integration in specific states. For example, by 2003, 100 % of all U.S. public schools had access to th

Exploring Growth in Expressive Communication of Infants and Toddlers With Autism Spectrum Disorder

One of the earliest indicators of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is delay in language and social communication. Despite consensus on the benefits of earlier diagnosis and intervention, our understanding of the language growth of children with ASD during the first years of life remains limited. Therefore, this study compared communication growth patterns of infants and toddlers with ASD to growth benchmarks of a standardized language assessment. We conducted a retrospective analysis of growth on the Early Communication Indicator (ECI) of 23 infants and toddlers who received an ASD diagnosis in the future. At 42 months of age, children with ASD had significantly lower rates of gestures, single words, and multiple words, but significantly higher rates of nonword vocalizations. Children with ASD had significantly slower growth of single and multiple words, but their rate of vocalization growth was significantly greater than benchmark. Although more research is needed with larger samples, because the ECI was designed for practitioners to monitor children's response to intervention over time, these findings show promise for the ECI's use as a progress monitoring measure for young children with ASD. Limitations and the need for future research are discussed

Stepping-Up Technology Implementation—How Does it Happen?

While technology-based interventions enhance instruction and improve outcomes for students with disabilities, implementing and integrating technology in authentic learning environments continues to be a challenge. Based on the experiences of a variety of Stepping-Up Technology Implementation projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, this mixed-methods study explored the essential factors for the successful implementation of technology-based interventions in K-12 schools and early childhood programs. Based on the qualitative analysis of projects’ implementation reports and responses to the follow-up questionnaire, four major themes emerged. The barriers and facilitators to technology implementation were reported across such areas as (a) developing and sustaining buy-in, (b) ensuring implementation fidelity to support the intervention, (c) research-to-practice dilemmas, and (d) data serving multiple purposes. The discussion and practical implications for supporting technology implementation are provided

Modelling the early expressive communicative trajectories of infants/toddlers with early cochlear implants

For children with normal hearing (NH), early communication skills predict vocabulary, a precursor to grammar. Growth in early communication skills of infants with cochlear implants (CIs) was investigated using the Early Communication Indicator (ECI), a play-based observation measure. Multilevel linear growth modelling on data from six ECI sessions held at three-monthly intervals revealed significant growth overall, with a non-significant slower growth rate than that of children with NH (comparison age centred at 18 months). Analyses of gesture use and of nonword vocalisations revealed the CI group used significantly more of each, with more rapid growth. In contrast, the CI group used significantly fewer single words and multiword utterances, and with slower growth. Maternal education and time to achieve consistent CI use impacted significantly on growth for the CI sample. The results indicate that progression to vocabulary by young CI users can be supported by encouraging their use of prelinguistic communication