Restrictiveness and race in special education: The issue of cultural reciprocity

The issue of segregation of students with disabilities across cultural groupsis a function of cultural values demonstrated by charter schools and theresulting dissonance between these values and those demonstrated byfamilies. Lack of understanding about school culture and diverse familyvalue systems can lead to varying family responses to the school culture,including assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalization.Assuming a posture of cultural reciprocity is suggested as a means for education professionals in charter schools to more effectively understand families of children with disabilities. This four-step process includes (a) identifying the education professional’s interpretation of family and childneeds; (b) determining the degree to which the family values these assumptions and how the family’s perceptions may be different; (c) acknowledging and respecting differences identified, and explaining the basis for professional assumptions; and (d) determining how to adapt professional interpretations or recommendations to the family’s value system

Family and cultural issues in AT service delivery

Effective assistive technology planning and decision making for children and youth with disabilities should include careful consideration of family and cultural factors. Inclusion of the family when considering assistive technology needs of the child is the key to identifying important family and cultural perspectives that can “make or break” the successful integration of assistive technology in the home, school, and community. Despite the recognition that families should be integral to the AT decision-making process, family and professional partnerships have often been difficult to establish in practice. Cultural and language barriers may compound the difficulty of forging a strong connection between families and professionals. Families from different cultural backgrounds may be less inclined to participate in the process of considering assistive technology for their child for a variety of reasons, such as lack of knowledge about assistive technology, attitudes held by professionals, and differing cultural perspectives about assistive technology. This month’s discussion experts, Phil Parette and Tom Nurse, will answer your questions and share their experience and knowledge about family and cultural issues in AT decision making. They will also offer strategies for educational professionals to develop more family-centered AT practices

Family and cultural issues in assistive technology

To ensure effective assistive technology (AT) decision-making for children with disabilities, families should ideally be actively involved in the process. An evolving issue in family-centered practice is the role of cultural and linguistic issues that may influence the participation of family members in AT decision-making and subsequent implementation of and support for devices and services. Culturally and linguistically-based values may wield strong influences on family perceptions of AT, and successful implementation of AT solutions agreed upon by team members. This discussion will address issues related to identifying and developing an understanding of family perspectives about goals and expectations for AT that are often very different from the perspectives of professionals. A range of cultural and linguistic values will be explored, with emphasis on how such values may affect AT decision-making. We will also explore acculturation issues, including generational differences, in an effort to better understand how these influences affect AT decision-making

Connecting to learn: Educational and assistive technologies for people with disabilities

Our fundamental sense of connectedness, our sense of well-being, is usually derived from the quality of interactions we have over time. We need to feel that we\u27re connected with our environment and the people and information that we value. Assistive and educational technologies have already done much to eliminate the challenges and barriers posed by disabilities and they will be even more crucial to the educational and vocational success of this population from the boardroom to the classroom; in the community and in the home. While there are many benefits to be gained by using assistive technologies, they have the potential to limit and isolate as well as enable, liberate, and connect their users. As paradoxical as it sounds, some ATs, particularly the very high-tech ones, can sometimes work against connectedness as they highlight a student\u27s differences and set AT users apart as looking different

Use of Writing with Symbols 2000 Software to Facilitate Emergent Literacy Development

This paper outlines the use of the Writing with Symbols 2000 software to facilitate emergent literacy development. The program’s use of pictures incorporated with text has great potential to help young children with and without disabilities acquire fundamental literacy concepts about print, phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, vocabulary development, and comprehension. The flexibility and features of the software allow early childhood professionals to create a variety of early literacy tools for the classroom, including worksheets, storybooks, and interactive activities

Universal design for instruction: Understanding faculty practices and needs

The purposes of this short report are to describe key principles of UDL and UDI and to describe the findings of a pilot survey study that focused on faculty members practices and needs in the areas of UDL/UDI. Limited previous research is available related to faculty perceptions of UDI/UDL in higher education settings. One exception is a study conducted by Vreeburg-Izzo, Murray, and Novak (2008). Vreeburg-Izzo et al. conducted a survey, coupled with follow-up focus groups, with faculty and graduate teaching assistants that examined the (a) climate of instructional settings for students with disabilities, and (b) perceived needs for professional development among faculty and administrators related to providing educational access for all students. Of the 1,150 survey instruments distributed, 271 were completed and returned. Results from the survey indicated that participants were primarily interested in training on UDL but also expressed interested in training on Web accessibility and distance education. Subsequent focus groups revealed that faculty (a) often felt uncertain about meeting the needs of diverse students in the classroom; (b) employed several strategies to enhance teaching and learning, but did not connect this to UDL; and (c) desired both training and technical assistance to help promote educational access for all students

\u3cem\u3eHandy Manny\u3c/em\u3e and the Emergent Literacy Technology Toolkit

This paper outlines the use of a technology toolkit to support emergent literacy curriculum and instruction in early childhood education settings. Components of the toolkit include hardware and software that can facilitate key emergent literacy skills. Implementation of the comprehensive technology toolkit enhances the development of these critical literacy skills in at-risk young learners

A review of assistive technology and writing skills for students with physical and educational disabilities

In recent years effective instruction in reading for learners with physicaland educational disabilities has received great attention in the schools.However, instruction in the corollary skill of writing has received considerably less emphasis. This review paper notes that through the use of assistive technology, students with a variety of physical and educationaldisabilities can learn to effectively (a) plan and organize their writing,(b) draft and transcribe their work, and (c) edit and revise their narrativeand expository writing.With teachers increasingly being held accountable for the development ofliteracy skills in all students, including those students with physical and educational disabilities, schools are paying substantial and growing attention to reading. The expressive side of the literacy coin, writing skills, is arguably equally significant and worthy of instructional emphasis. However, there are growing indicators that writing has not received enough attention in the national educational reform debate (National Commission on Writing, 2003, 2006; National Writing Project & Nagin, 2006). Along with reading comprehension, writing skill is a powerful predictor of academic success (Graham & Perin, 2007), and is an effective means of developing higher-order thinking skills (National Writing Project & Nagin, 2006). Writing helps learners make sense of the world (e.g., “Letters from Ground Zero,” cited in National Commission on Writing, 2006). Yet to date the teaching of writing skills to students with disabilities, including physical disabilities, has not received the level of curricular emphasis that teaching reading skills has (Graham & Perin, 2007). For students with physical and educational disabilities, stronger writing skills offer a variety of benefits. These include (a) more successful academic inclusion outcomes, (b) transfer of improved literacy skills to reading, and (c) greater pass rates on high stakes academic testing. As more and more careers require greater levels of literacy skills, students with disabilities who are unable to write effectively may find themselves increasingly minimized in these adult roles. Writing is considered to be an essential “threshold skill” for hiring and promotion (National Commission on Writing, 2003), and is a basic requirement for participation in civic life and the global economy (Graham & Perin, 2007; National Commission on Writing, 2003). This paper reviews the use of a variety of assistive technologies in enhancing writing skills in students with physical and educational disabilities

Using \u3cem\u3eClicker\u3c/em\u3e 5 to Enhance Emergent Literacy in Young Learners

Best practices in emergent literacy instruction for young children acknowledge and facilitate the smooth progression between children’s early engagement with print materials and subsequent fuller literacy mastery. In so doing, model programs target five key emergent literacy skills. The rapid rise in the breadth and depth of educational technology, including computer software, is offering early childhood education professionals new and powerful tools in teaching early literacy. This paper offers a brief review of best practices in emergent literacy, notes the growth of technology in this instruction, and examines the potential contributions of one specific software program, Clicker 5, in helping diverse emergent literacy learners acquire and practice initial reading and writing skills

Assistive Technology User Groups and Early Childhood Educators

This article explores the potential of User Groups as a professional development venue for early childhood educators in developing operational and functional competence in using hardware and software components of an Assistive Technology (AT) Toolkit. User Groups are composed of varying numbers of participants having an interest in technology, and are led by one or more skilled facilitators who meet with participants across time to help them acquire and demonstrate new technology skill sets. A series of these groups were conducted with seven early education professionals serving young preschool children who were at risk or who had disabilities. The impact of these User Groups was examined using self-reports subsequent to User Group participation. Specific data were collected regarding the types of technologies that had been used, and the types of classroom instructional products that had been created and implemented in classrooms using the technologies. A discussion of the value of User Groups is presented