[Bridging_the_digital_divide] Special-ed pupils learn via high-tech inspiration

Wed Sep 22 12:43:35 EDT 2004

Special-ed pupils learn via high-tech inspiration

Monica Mendoza
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 22, 2004 12:00 AM

There's a classroom, across the courtyard from his office, where  
Assistant Principal Tim Ramsey likes to spend time.

  The work of pupils in that room at Desert Mirage Elementary School  
draws him in at least twice a day. The children know him and revel in  
his attention.

  But it's Ramsey who revels in them.

  "It's because they are honest," he said. "There are no shields."

  They are just nine children, in kindergarten to Grade 2, in the  
Pendegast Elementary School District's special-education class. The  
children have severe learning disabilities. For some, saying complete  
sentences is a learning goal for the entire school year.

  But they share one thing in common: They love technology.

  What Ramsey comes to see in room K3 is an innovative special-education  
teacher who uses a software program for children with disabilities and  
a 3-foot-wide, touch-sensitive computer screen that has the children  
making educational gains beyond what teachers and parents predicted,  
even hoped.

  Some of the children have exceeded their goals so much that the  
teacher and the parents are setting new learning goals just months into  
the school year.

  Theirs is a story of winning and of learning. It has children  
applauding one another and 25-year-veteran teacher Pat Spreitzer  
chatting away to her husband every night about their progress. Visitors  
have come to see the children at work. District officials want to know  
how they can duplicate it. And the little children of room K3 are  
teaching other pupils at their school how to use technology.

  "It's amazing," Spreitzer said.

The technology

Spreitzer's class is a self-contained special-education classroom,  
which means children with similar abilities are in class together.

  In Arizona, there are about 20,000 children in self-contained  
special-education classrooms with disabilities that range from speech  
and language impairment to mild mental retardation to emotional  
disabilities.

  In Spreitzer's class, there are two full-time assistants, and speech  
pathologist Kelli Gladieux works one-on-one with the children several  
times a week. She describes the children as having receptive and  
expressive language delays. It means they have difficulty translating  
language into usable information and have limited vocabulary.

  "Some things that would take a typical child months to learn -  
counting, learning colors - takes these children years," Spreitzer  
said.

  For years, Spreitzer has used computer software and hardware by  
IntelliTools, specially designed technology for children with  
disabilities. Last school year, she put the computer lessons on a giant  
SMART Board, a large touch-sensitive computer screen, one of four at  
her school that teachers reserve and check out for a limited time. One  
child, who is legally blind, came alive during the lesson on rain  
forests. He could see, he told the class. He wasn't the only one  
impressed by the "big computer." Other children wanted to touch it,  
hear it make sounds and seemed to enjoy the computerized voice that  
read sentences to them.

  Spreitzer found something that worked and wanted a SMART Board for her  
class, one she could keep full time.

  Last spring, she won a $3,406 grant from Salt River Project Learning  
Grants. Now room K3 has its own SMART Board; learning has entered a new  
era.

  The learning

On the walls in room K3 there are words, graphs, photos and shelves  
loaded with puzzles and games. In one corner is a 3-foot-wide computer  
the children call the "big computer." Using it involves following  
directions, taking turns, choosing vocabulary words, reading and  
operating the computer.

  "Some children who were saying only one or two words are saying whole  
sentences," Spreitzer said. "It's something they have connected with,  
it's how their brain works."

  At least two times a day, the children assemble their chairs around  
the big computer, anticipating Spreitzer's calling their name. And in a  
"Come on down" game-show way, the child jumps out of his seat and  
approaches the screen, waiting for the question.

  "Where is the horse?" she asked in a recent lesson based on a book she  
had read to them.

  Each child takes a turn constructing a story, by touching a picture or  
word that answers her questions. As the teacher calls out the  
direction, the child touches the correct answer. When the child gets  
the right answer, the other children cheer.

  The big computer and the lessons Spreitzer designed have helped  
children expand their sentence length, increase their vocabulary,  
excite them about learning, help them with social skills and following  
patterns and direction.

  "There really is a difference in the speed in how they are meeting  
their goals," she said.

  Parent Dawn Flynn has seen the growth in her son, Harrison, who is  
diagnosed as mildly mentally retarded. He is 6 and last year, when he  
started school, he could say only a few words. One of his learning  
goals for this school year was to say entire sentences, his mother  
said.

  Now her son runs into the house every day after school to show her a  
printout of his work from the "big computer," she said.

  What Harrison can do today, "I didn't expect for five or six years,"  
Flynn said. "I have tears of joy every day."

  Last week, Harrison talked on the telephone to his grandmother. Flynn  
could hardly get him to stop.

  "I couldn't even have given that as one of his goals," Flynn said. "We  
always hope for the best. We were given those teachers, which is more  
than the best."

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/ 
0922special22.html#

---

Jason Barkeloo
President
TouchSmart Publishing
http://www.touchsmart.net
t: 513.225.8765
f: 206.666.4856

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