[Roisin McCarthy]

The child I will consider is an 8 year old child with dyslexia as this is the sample child that I have used throughout the course. The child has reading and writing difficulties and also there is a possibility of discalculia.

The technology that I would use to support this child would be:

Immersive reader which would assist with reading and writing difficulties, by reading the text aloud, highlighting one line at a time to help with focus, display pictures for words to help with understanding and convert speech to text to help with writing and editing their work.

Audio books to assist children who may have diffciulty reading. They can have the book read aloud to them through apps such as Epic or Bookshare.

In Maths I would use digital resources to aid learning, such as interactive number lines and couting rods from toy theatre or top Marks.
The child can use One Note – to record notes for instructions on how to do calculations. Kahoot can also help to assess the child on an individual basis through the app.

The School Development Plan focuses on an inclusive school environment where all students, regardless of their abilities or needs, have access to high-quality education and through the use of AT I believe this assists in achieving this.

 

[Roisin McCarthy]

PART 1:

The SETT Framework assists in aiding the integration of assistive technology into a student’s educational plan. The SETT framework enables the AT tools to be tailored to the student’s specific learning needs and environment.  The STUDENT section compliments the IEP profile here where needs, information and learning targets are identified.
The ENVIRONMENT section analyses the learning style of the child, the setting the child learns in and the resources available in the school.
The TASK element identifies the priority areas for the child within the curriculum and what tasks they are finding challenging.
The TOOLS can then be identified as low tech or mid tech depending on the framework analysis and incorporated in to the child’s IEP.
Assessment approaches are undertaked at each section of the framework – through discussions with the child and family (STUDENT), observations (ENVIRONMENT), standarised tests and classroom assessments (TASK), feedback from the student and analysis of the AT tool being used (TOOL).

Part 2:

Student: 8 Year Old boy with ADHD and dyslexia – difficulties with fine motor/written tasks
Environment: Inclusive classroom, supportive SNA, access to a sensory room and movement breaks
Tasks: Needs to complete written assignments, participate in class discussions
Tools: Speech-to-text software, visual aids,

In the SSF:

Needs are documented in the student profile.
Targets to include – creating a paragraph about their past times, reviewing, editing and presenting it using power point.
Regular reviews assess effectiveness and adjust support levels and AT effectiveness.
Using the SETT and SSF together enables a child-centred approach to delivering and reviewing the support needed for a child with needs. Educational and AT supports are alligned to best support the child and ensure an inclusive environment.

[Roisin McCarthy]

Part 1:

I used Immersive Reader to ask my student to create a short passage about their favourite pasttime, to initiate interest and create a good relationship with the student.

Ryan will use oral discussion to brainstorm different past times and then move to discussing his favourtite past time.

Ryan will open a Word Online Document and he can use speech to text to create sentences about his past time. He will be asked to use adjectives and key grammar in his sentences.

Ryan will then use Imersive Reader to listen to his paragraph read alound. He will use the highlighting option to identify key grammar elements such as verbs and nouns.Ryan will then correct any spelling mistakes that are underlined in red. He will insert full stops to his sentences.
Ryan can then use another microsoft tool – Powerpoint to create a presentation of his past time and find a famous person in this sport/hobby. He can insert images here.

Part 2:

Teachers are, without doubt, lifelong learners. I am teaching ten years and reflecting on my initial teacher training to today, I have learned and gained so much from completing courses and upskilling. I feel there is such a need in our profession to continue upskilling. I feel we as teachers learn and grow each year we are in the classroom. Learning is continuly changing and we need to adapt to learners needs. We are human and make mistakes, but learn from this with every year and every child that we meet. We need to adapt to new technologies, changing needs of students, curriculum updates and our diverse culture now seen in schools. I do believe more teacher training

 

[Roisin McCarthy]

Immersive Reader is an amazing tool built into many Microsoft 365 applications. I have never heard of this tool, so it is a very useful tool for use in the classroom as a whole and in a small group environement or one to one teaching. It offers a number of supports for students in Literacy in particular for reading, comprehension, and writing.

It can help children who have dyslexia that may have difficulty reading a text book. It can help children with ADHD that may struggle with focus and attention. It can also assist the EAL child. It uses mechanisms such as line focus, picture dictionary and a read aloud function to assist in literacy lessons.

For Microsoft Teams you can use Immersive Reader to support independent reading in school or at home. The In Class Notebook option, enables students to write or read texts using the tool.

For the Edge Browser the student can open daily news articles, or educational websites in reading Mode and activate Immersive Reader. The child can use text to speech here.

In terms of how this tool can help me with teaching in the SEN setting, I can use it for reading comprehension support for dyslexia students using the read aloud function and line focus. I can use it to  teach grammar and sentence sturcture by highltighting parts of the text to focus on verbs, adjectives etc.

[Roisin McCarthy]

Module one showed me how AT can be used to assist children with a variety of different learning needs. I particularly liked how it broke it down in to low, mid and high technology. AT encourages inclusive learning for all pupils. It enables puplils to feel they can learn and participate in all aspects of the curriculum using a method that suits their needs.

I wasn’t aware of the SETT framework, as this will be my first year moving in to SET.The role of the SENO in matching the needs of the child to the correct tool using a framework was interesting, this being the SETT framework. It was interesting to see how we can identify the student’s needs and environment in selecting the correct technology for the child, instead of just selecting an app that the child may not engage with.

In terms of supporting the School Self-Evaluation process it can provide meaningful data and make the curriculum accessible for all learning, while alligning with the Digital Learning Frameowkr.

It links well with the Digital Learning Framework, in particular from review of the document, it links well with Standard 1.3: Learners use digital technologies to support their learning, and to collaborate and communicate effectively.
Standard 2.2: The teacher selects and uses digital technologies to enhance teaching, learning and assessment.

Overall this module effectively hepled me to identify AT for use in my role as a SET next year.

[Author]

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