The manual can be purchased by check or purchase order by filling out the Order Form and sending your order to:

CATO, P.O. Box 431,Winchester, OR 97495.

For online/credit card purchases, click here.

The following story is taken from the text of Assistive Technology Pointers for Parents.  It is offered as a sample of the kind of information that can be found in the manual.

Click here to download a sample of the worksheet contained in the Referral section of Assistive Technology Pointers for Parents.

A Story About Andy

Here's one of the stories you will find in Assistive Technology Pointers for Parents to illustrated the use of the Education Tech Points Framework in identifying assistive,  acquiring and using assistive technology for a particular child.  Stories about real children like Andy help to illustrate the important role that parents play on the assistive technology team.

Education Tech Point #1:  Referral

Andy’s Referral

Diana and Dave were very concerned when their son, Andy entered kindergarten. Andy had been enrolled in Early Intervention and Early childhood education from a very early age because he was born with cerebral palsy (CP). Andy’s CP made it necessary for him to use a wheelchair and he had some difficulty using his hands. The school had provided many accommodations for Andy’s physical disability and Diana and Dave were very pleased with the fact that he would attend a regular kindergarten class. Despite their excitement about Andy’s kindergarten placement, Diana and Dave worried about Andy’s speech. Andy’s CP made it hard for him to use the muscles he needed to talk and his speech was slurred and difficult to understand. Diana and Dave understood him much of the time but they were pretty sure that classmates would not be able to understand what he was trying to say.

Diana and Dave talked to several people about this problem. The speech therapist felt that Andy would be able to learn to talk better with lots of individual speech therapy. The occupational therapist (OT) knew that there were some computers that could talk for people but she did not know much about them. She wondered if Andy might need one of those. Diana and Dave even looked on the internet to find parents of other children with severe speech difficulties and gather other opinions. Finally, they decided to request an assistive technology evaluation to determine whether Andy might benefit from a communication device. They stated on the referral form that Andy’s speech was not clear enough for his classmates to understand. They asked whether there were any strategies that might help with this problem and especially asked the school district to look into the benefits of a communication device for Andy.

Education Tech Point #2:  Evaluation

Andy’s Evaluation

Because the referral question for Andy was about his ability to speak, the speech therapist took the lead in doing an initial evaluation. She visited Andy’s kindergarten class and noted the time when other kids had the most trouble understanding him. She also gathered information about how much interaction Andy had with friends in free play times and during snack. By the time she was finished collecting this information she had spent quite a lot of time in Andy’s classroom.

At the next meeting of Andy’s team she reported that she really agreed with Diana and Dave that Andy needed some help with his communication in Kindergarten. Andy’s speech was still improving but he needed to be able to talk now. She suggested that they try some picture cards that could be used in activity time. When Andy couldn’t make himself understood, he could point to the pictures to make his communication more clear.

Diana and Dave were disappointed. They had asked that the district look into the use of a communication device for Andy and the speech therapist was recommending pictures. They pointed this out and asked again that a communication device be considered. The speech therapist stated that the kind of device they were talking about was called an augmentative communication (AC) device but that she really didn’t know much about them. Andy’s OT said that she sometimes worked with a specialist from the county education agency who knew about such things. She suggested that the team ask the specialist to do a more extensive evaluation. The team decided to try the picture cards while they waited for the AC Specialist to meet with them.

Education Tech Point #3:  Extended Assessment

An Extended Assessment for Andy

The AC Specialist also observed Andy in his classroom. She noted that he was already using  the picture cards in group activities and that they were really helping other kids to understand him when his speech was too slurred. The problem was that Andy didn’t always have the right picture cards when he needed them. It was very difficult to predict what Andy might want to say at snack time or during free play and so he had less interaction with other children during these times. Also, some kids didn’t want to stop what they were doing to look at the pictures.

The AC specialist met with the members of Andy’s team. She showed them two different devices that might help Andy to communicate. Both devices had speech output and used pictures as a cue for choosing words since Andy was not a reader. One was light weight and easy to carry but was harder to use. The other was heavy and hard to program but easier to learn. The AC specialist said that she hoped that Andy would be able to use the light weight but more difficult device since it would be more useful in a variety of environments. The best way to find out was to try it during free play and snack for two weeks. If he couldn’t learn to use it, they would try the second device. Dave and Diana asked whether using two devices with Andy would be confusing. The AC Specialist felt that Andy could handle them both if necessary but agreed to watch for signs of frustration. Dave and Diana agreed to keep data at home too. They filled out an extended assessment plan to make sure everyone had the same understanding of what they would be doing.

Education Tech Point #4:  Plan Development

Developing a Plan for Andy

After three weeks of trial use of the first AC device, the AC specialist asked for another meeting. She reported that Andy was using the device well during free play activities and that she saw no need to try the second device. She recommended that Andy’s IEP be changed to include the use of and AC device like the one he had been trying. The speech therapist expressed her continuing concern that Andy needed to learn to speak more clearly and everyone agreed that speech therapy should be continued in the IEP.Additional training for the school staff and for Dave and Diana was also included in the IEP so that everyone knew how to use the device. The team decided that until he was more independent, Andy would only use the device at school.

The AC Specialist agreed to loan the device to Andy’s school for the rest of the year but in first grade, one would have to be purchased for his exclusive use. She told Dave and Diana that their health insurance might fund a device for Andy and offered to help them with the application to the insurance company.

Andy’s new IEP included goals and objectives for his use of augmentative communication as well as continued speech therapy.

Education Tech Point #5: Implementation

Andy’s Use of Augmentative Communication

When Andy was scheduled to use the AC device on a regular basis at school, things got off to a rough start. The instructional assistant who was assigned to work with Andy did not get any training on how the device worked. The AC Specialist had trained the teacher, thinking that the teacher would train her classroom staff. The teacher did not feel she knew enough to train anyone so she told the assistant to come to her with problems. In practice this was not possible since the teacher could not stop her work with 22 kindergarten children to examine Andy’s device. Andy had some words on the device that he used often but did not know how to get to most of the vocabulary.

Diana and Dave came to observe one day and noticed that the AC device never left Andy’s backpack. They were disappointed and concerned that Andy still did not have an effective way to communicate with the other children and they felt as if the school staff wasn’t really trying. They asked for another meeting.

During the meeting, it became clear that there were a number of things that had not been planned for in Andy’s use of the AC device. The AC Specialist provided the team with an implementation questionnaire that listed many questions about responsibility for the implementation of Andy’s program. The team worked through the questionnaire and found a number of things they needed to do in addition to training the instructional assistant. With a more complete implementation plan in place, Andy’s device was available to him more often and he began to make rapid progress in understanding how and when to use it.

Education Tech Point #6:  Periodic Review

Reviewing Andy’s Augmentative Communication Program

At the end of Andy’s kindergarten year, the team met again to plan for Andy’s entry into first grade. There were some surprises in store for everyone on the team. Andy’s speech therapist reported that she had continued taking data on Andy’s classroom language and was happy to report that the other kids in Andy’s class were better able to understand his oral speech. The classroom assistant who worked most closely with Andy had taken data on his use of the AC de›vice and she reported that he was using it more often and with less prompting. As the team discussed these apparently conflicting results, it became apparent that Andy had learned a lot about communication during the year. He had learned to speak more clearly, to speak in ways that his friends could understand but had also learned to use the AC device to “repair” communication attempts when his speech was not enough. Andy had a lot to say and had learned ways to get his message across to everyone.

The team was excited and encouraged. They discussed the things that would need to happen for Andy as he entered first grade. Among the activities they planned were training for all of the first grade classroom staff in the use of Andy’s AC and development of a system to add and change vocabulary on a regular basis as the instructional program in the first grade class moved along. They agreed that Andy’s speech therapy was still helping him to improve his oral speech and should be continued. Finally they planned for the development of some new communication cards that Andy could use when it was inconvenient for him to use his device. Andy’s team felt confident that they had made the best possible plan for him given the information they had but they were also pretty sure that unforeseen problems would arise. They decided to plan a meeting to discuss the AC program at the end of September to identify any changes that were needed.

The cost of Assistive Technology Pointers for Parents is $12 including shipping and handling. The manual can be purchased by check or purchase order by filling out the Order Form and sending your order to:

CATO, P.O. Box 431,Winchester, OR 97495.

For online/credit card purchases, click here.