Assistive Technology for Young Children: Creating Inclusive Learning Environments - Softcover

Sadao, Kathleen C.; Robinson, Nancy B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1598570919 ISBN 13: 9781598570915

Publisher: Brookes Publishing Co., 2010

Synopsis

Assistive technology (AT) can help young children with disabilities fully participate in natural, inclusive learning environments but many early childhood professionals don t get the training they need. Fill that gap with this unintimidating, reader-friendly resource, the go-to guide to recommended AT practice for children birth 5. Developed by two leading early childhood specialists with in-depth expertise in assistive technology, this book demystifies AT and gives readers solutions they can implement right away, regardless of their technical experience. Early childhood professionals will learn about the broad spectrum of AT supports for children with disabilities from low-cost, low-tech options such as Velcro and homemade switches to higher tech options such as speech-generating software. Educators, early interventionists, SLPs, and other professionals will learn how to select, implement, and purchase AT devices; determine funding options for AT; assess children s needs; use AT to aid implementation of universal design for learning; embed AT into activity-based intervention; and support communication, language development, and early literacy skills. Professionals will get a CD-ROM with printable forms for evaluating children s AT needs, determining which types of tools and strategies to use, and creating individual AT toolkits that help children meet OSEP outcomes and developmental goals. A must for AT novices and seasoned users alike, this professional resource and supplemental textbook will help readers use the best of today s technology to ensure a fully inclusive education for young children.|Assistive technology (AT) can help young children with disabilities fully participate in natural, inclusive learning environments but many early childhood professionals don t get the training they need. Fill that gap with this unintimidating, reader-friendly resource, the go-to guide to recommended AT practice for children birth 5. Developed by two leading early childhood specialists with in-depth expertise in assistive technology, this book demystifies AT and gives readers solutions they can implement right away, regardless of their technical experience. Early childhood professionals will learn about the broad spectrum of AT supports for children with disabilities from low-cost, low-tech options such as Velcro and homemade switches to higher tech options such as speech-generating software. Educators, early interventionists, SLPs, and other professionals will learn how to select, implement, and purchase AT devices; determine funding options for AT; assess children s needs; use AT to aid implementation of universal design for learning; embed AT into activity-based intervention; and support communication, language development, and early literacy skills. Professionals will get a CD-ROM with printable forms for evaluating children s AT needs, determining which types of tools and strategies to use, and creating individual AT toolkits that help children meet OSEP outcomes and developmental goals. A must for AT novices and seasoned users alike, this professional resource and supplemental textbook will help readers use the best of today s technology to ensure a fully inclusive education for young children.

About this title

About the Authors

Kathleen Curry Sadao, Ed.D., Program Specialist, Supporting Early Education Delivery Systems (SEEDS) Project, Sacramento County Office of Education, P.O. Box 269003, Sacramento, CA 95826.

Dr. Sadao has been in the field of early childhood special education (ECSE) for more than 25 years. She received her doctorate in educational administration from University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1995. During the 1980s and 1990s she traveled the Pacific Islands providing training and technical assistance to newly developed ECSE programs as a Head Start Technical Assistance consultant and later a National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center coordinator. Her research focus has been on interagency collaboration, parent involvement, inclusive practices, and cross-cultural issues in education. In 2007, she coauthored a book with Dr. Nancy Robinson focused on interagency collaboration and evaluation. Since 1997, she has spent her time in California focused on preservice and in-service training programs in ECSE as a faculty member of the University of the Pacific, Gladys Benerd School of Education, and as an administrator of an early intervention program. Most recently, under the auspices of the Supporting Early Education Delivery Systems (SEEDS) Project at the Sacramento County Office of Education, she has worked as a program specialist developing training materials for the field and facilitating a state-level assistive technology (AT) work group creating web-based AT training products. Currently she and her SEEDS Workgroup on Early Education Technology (SWEET) team have been fieldtesting the AT training modules around the state of California. She has presented her work at the Council for Exceptional Children, Division on Early Childhood, conference and other state, national, and international conferences and has published several articles on the SWEET AT efforts.

Kathleen Curry Sadao, Ed.D., is a program specialist at the SEEDS Project, Sacramento County Office of Education in California. She is involved in developing training products for the field of early childhood special education with a focus on assistive technology for young children, and she also conducts extensive national training in the AT field.
Nancy B. Robinson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is Associate Professor and Program Coordinator in the Department of Special Education and Communicative Disorders at San Francisco State University. She teaches in the area of AAC and consults with the SEEDS Project in the development of AT for young children with disabilities.

Edition details

• Publisher: Brookes Publishing Co.
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1598570919
• ISBN 13: 9781598570915
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288