The following is an email I sent to Jack's teacher this morning! I need your links, info, comments please!
I was browsing some special needs catalogs and came across a few games like this:
Language and Communication
Lots Of Action
Kids love amusement parks. This great program gives you 16 errorless activities that provide hours of fun and teach cause and effect, scanning, and visual tracking. Animated activities include a ferris wheel, motorcycle stunts, popcorn machine, dolphin show, bumper cars, car wash, roller coaster, and much more. Use a single switch, two switch step scanning, or touch screen to start the action. Each activity can be played with 1, 2, or 3 segments. No prior knowledge or understanding is needed. Chronological age is 9 mos-4 years. CD-ROM:Win.
Have you come across a switch that is just one or two buttons? Before we would purchase something like this I would like to ask around to see if anyone can show me an example of a mouse or switch that would work for Jack!
Any information would be great!!
Thanks,
Angela
PS -- feel free to forward this email to anyone else who may know of something that could help!
Well, I Initially had turned our mouse to work better for a left handed user for Regan, and then I found over the years...that she would rather adapt to our technology things, rather than have them adapted to her. She loves our computer and not only is getting better at games, but has taught herself better typing skills, taught herself Powerpoint and a little web design. There should be a technology therapist on staff or made available to Jack that can help you with a lot of these issues. Our regional education center sent one out for Regan and they did an eveluation. She received several things at school to try, and they discovered the same thing I did at home...she did not want them to adapt to her at all. Go Figure...I was right all along!
ReplyDeleteLike Christine said, you may be able to get an assistive technology eval from someone in the district or the co-op or even an outside source if the district can't provide that.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever heard of Intellikeys? It's a fantastic tool that provides access to all types of kids. The nice thing is that all curriculum can be adapted using it. While it can be a tough program to learn (for the staff), once it is learned, the possibilities are endless. You should look at their site http://www.intellitools.com/ You can download a free trial of the software too. You can purchase the adapted keyboard with it which allows access as well. Every now and again, you can find them on ebay as well because people have no idea what it is they are selling. also, all of the activities that you create with Intellitools can be accessed using single switch using a special adapter.
The site Info Grip http://www.infogrip.com/ sells all sorts of different types of mice. Joysticks, track balls, etc that you might want to look into also.
As for using his left left (this is for you as well Christine), you can manually change the settings in the computer to set the mouse up for a left handed user. I can't recall offhand where it is located on the PC side, but it is similar to the mac and is under Universal settings I believe. It shouldn't be too difficult to locate).
Let me know if I can help more Angela....this is my job after all and I do love what I do :)