Technology Tuesday

This week’s Technology Tuesday comes to you from Suzanne Phillips, a Communication Teacher at Imagine!’s Longmont CORE/Labor Source hub. It is a touching story about finding just the right incentive to get an individual engaged and interested in taking the first steps toward independence and the first step towards learning. In this case, the incentive was a song by the Carpenters, appropriately titled “We’ve Only Just Begun.”

We’ve had an exciting new breakthrough in Longmont’s CORE/Labor Source “Cause and Effect” class! This class, as I’ve written about before, teaches cause-and-effect/computer skills to non-verbal adults with limited mobility. Three out of four of my students have been moving forward at a rapid pace. They have been learning to turn on lights, using the new iPads, and pressing switches to play games and turn on movie clips. However, I have one student that had not been interested in any of our computer games or sensory items. I was starting to worry that “Sam” (not his real name) would not get much from of my class, something that no teacher wants to accept!

Then we had our breakthrough. Sam’s provider told me that, while watching a movie, Sam had suddenly started dancing while a Carpenters song played. I got to work immediately, setting up a new activity for him to use during Cause and Effect class. I attached speakers to an iPad, then attached the iPad and a switch to a PowerLink. The iPad was set up to play a Carpenters Pandora station. I sat down to teach Sam how to turn on his own music, wondering if this would engage him when nothing else had.

I explained to him what I was working on, but he did not make eye contact or seem interested in the new setup. I then demonstrated how to press the switch to turn on his music. “We’ve Only Just Begun” by The Carpenters began to play, and Sam froze. He turned slowly towards me, listening intently, then lifted one hand and started moving it slowly through the air. I couldn’t believe what happened next - this quiet and reserved guy started laughing, clapping and dancing by moving his shoulders, arms and hands. He loved it!

I stopped pressing the switch and the music turned off, he froze again and looked at me. I started the process of teaching him how to turn the music on by pressing the switch. I realized that direct access (he has to be holding down the switch to hear the music) didn’t work as well because he needed his hands for dancing! I set up the PowerLink to play 30-40 second clips of a song, long enough for him to enjoy his music and with a sudden enough stop to get him interested in pressing the switch to turn his music back on.

The first week I taught Sam the basic concepts, and by the second week he pressed the switch independently almost 20 times. I wish I could describe to you the difference I have seen in this guy. When I see him now he grins and claps his hands, he is progressing in class and I know that we have a foundation that we can build on. It is very exciting and I can’t wait to see what skills he will master next.

Thank you for reading this week’s Tech Tuesday, I will be back with more updates soon!

Can’t see the video? Click here.