Providing All Preschoolers With Opportunities to Learn
Increasingly, students with disabilities are being educated in preschool settings together with typically-developing children. As the youngest students with disabilities strive toward the same developmental milestones as their non-disabled peers, the challenge is to provide all students with opportunities to:
• develop autonomy by expressing their own preferences and interests
• learn the social nuances of engaging in group learning experiences
• deepen their language skills and become effective communicators
Fellow classmates help fasten
pictures to Sabrina’s eye-gaze board.
Teachers and specialists throughout the country are exploring ways technology can help preschoolers with disabilities reach these goals. Take, for example, Barbara Smith at the Diagnostic Center in Brockton, Massachusetts. With the help of Helen Virga, Brockton’s computer specialist, Barbara has discovered a range of technologies that enable her students with disabilities to participate in all aspects of her typical preschool curriculum. Barbara’s classroom moved from a self-contained model to an integrated model two years ago. About the change she says, “Integration is easily twice the work in terms of preparation, but when we consider the progress these kids have made, we could never go back.”
Photo: Jeff Dunn
NCIP is the National Center to Improve Practice in special education through technology, media, and materials.
What’s Inside
• Ways technology can help
preschool teachers include
students with disabilities in
developmentally appropriate
activities
• A profile of Sabrina, a 5-year-
old girl with cerebral palsy
who uses technology to
make choices and interact
with her peers
• Descriptions of the technolo-
gies Sabrina uses
• How a specially designed
keyboard aids students with
autism
• A list of additional resources
available on NCIPnet
To read the rest of this article by the NCIP:
http://www2.edc.org/NCIP/library/ec/Profile5.htm
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