Effective Contributors and Responsible Citizens. Autism specific apps.

2. Effective Contributors and Responsible Citizens. Autism specific apps. Children with autism have difficulty with face to face social situations. They struggle to read facial expressions. The children will be given opportunities to relate to others and manage themselves through apps developed specifically for autism . I.e. those which model social situations. They will develop tolerance for others through facial expression / emotion apps. The apps break the learning down into manageable steps in a way not currently possible due to sensory overload. The technology will thus provide opportunities to develop life long communication skills , this along with the ICT skills being developed will support children in contributing to society in adulthood. In summary the technology will provide an engaging context for learning and support children in overcoming barriers to learning which their autism presents. It will also offer opportunities to tackle aspects of their autism such as difficulties in communication ,social interaction and imagination. The nature of the technology means we could continually adapt the apps we use to best meet the needs of our learners and the listed apps are just a sample of those that would currently support the class in their learning and development. N.B We would also be looking for support in accessing App store under teachers login as it is currently blocked by web sense. We have already purchased 2 ipod touches thus we may also encounter problems with the number of machines we can install apps from once downloaded.

3. Evaluations June 2011 The children are motivated and engaged when using the Ipods. The technology has been used to develop and apply skills across the curriculum. Children have made very good progress in their number and letter formation and letter sound awareness and have benefited greatly from the touch screen aspect of the technology. They are able to focus and engage in such learning for significantly longer periods of time. The children also benefit from story applications where they can see the text highlighted as it is being read, games associated with the stories have also developed comprehension skills in some of the children. The talking applications which allow children to hear their own voice has supported pronunciation work and developing turn taking in a conversation. Less able children have also benefited from the tap to talk app and are in the early stages of using this to learn new phrases- The visual aspect along with a narrative allows the children to learn phrases and supports the way we work in class to develop children’s language and communication. Children have benefited from creative apps such as drawing pad and paint studio and enjoy uploading their own photo’s. This has helped children explore various facial expressions as they can annotate pictures of themselves and other familiar individuals. Apps specific to autism ( i.e. expressive and smile at me) have also supported children in their awareness of others facial expressions and they can practice their own facial expressions by mimicking the simple graphics demonstrating various emotions. The children can practice in a safe way without the sensory overload of complicated and ever changing real life facial expressions. The children has also hugely enjoyed autism specific apps such as model me going places as they can develop their knowledge and skills in simple social situations such as going to the park/cafe etc. The apps have been successful in breaking such experiences down into small steps and the mobility of the equipment allows it to be taken on such trips if children need a reminder of what to do in a queue etc. This supports the children in transferring their learning to real life. In numeracy children have engaged for significantly longer periods of time in mental agility practice and the visual aspect of applications such as Kid maths has supported understanding of the concepts of addition and subtraction. The various levels and rewards help children build confidence in their ability and motivate them to learn. The technology has been hugely beneficial for all of the children and has supported the learning we carry out in class by further engaging children and allowing them to remain on task practicing essential skills for significantly longer periods of time. The exclusive benefit of the technology is its touch screen and accessible user interface as well as its interactivity children can hear , see and touch what they are learning and are given constant and instant feedback. Next steps-The project is in the early stages and will continue to be developed to support and enhance learning across the curriculum within the school. Children would benefit from using the ipod to record their learning and achievements through videos and photographs . The flexibility of the technology and the ever increasing apps on offer will allow us to expand and develop their use as our children’s learning and development needs change.