Dan Herlihy and I are very excited to present a session:
Dan & Sam: Cool, Free, or … You’ve Gotta Have It Applications!
at Closing the Gap! Date: Fri, Oct 16, 2009 from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
Here is a preview of the presentation.
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This goes out to Kara Lynn and her family. Kara Lynn is a mother. She is a mother who has ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease and struggles to use her natural voice to communicate. She is a mother to a son Aiden, who has Down Syndrome, who also struggles to use his voice to communicate. They both use Proloquo2Go, the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) solution for the iPhone and iPod touch. I look up to all mothers who work hard raising their children. Yet, today, we salute Kara, a mother who works extra hard!
Read about Kara and Aiden in the New York Times Technology column:
For Speech-Impaired, Insurance Fights Remedy
Kara and Aiden - Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
From Gordon College STILLPOINT Magazine:
Making Voices Heard
by Heather Smith
Samuel Sennott’s commitment to improving the lives of disabled people began with a life-changing volunteer experience. Caring for babies with cerebral palsy and adults with developmental disabilities at Michael Carter Lisnow Respite Center in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, inspired Sennott (pictured at top right), who graduated from Gordon in 2004 with an education major, to transform others’ lives.
With the help of colleague David Niemeijer, Sennott has recently released an application for the iPod Touch or iPhone that provides a complete communication system for the disabled. Created specifically for those with little or no ability to speak, the Proloquo2Go will revolutionize the way that autism, stroke, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and Lou Gehrig’s Disease patients live. READ MORE
Thomas and Richard Ellenson have been heros to me since I first happened to pick up the NY Times Sunday Magazine nearly five years ago and read the article chronicling the story of Thomas’ attending kindergarten in NYC. Seeing Thomas cruising around Yankee Stadium in this ESPN special is simply awesome. Please share this terrific video around. It’s not cliche’, dreams can come true.
Sometimes the stars/ contingencies align! Today, I had the privilege of having lunch with Temple Grandin. While I have read many of her books and followed her work for quite some time, today was the first time I was able to hear her speak. It was also terrific to show her Proloquo2Go.
Temple Grandin and Samuel Sennott
Temple Grandin’s Talk
The closing keynote address she gave to over 1,000 people for the Penn State National Autism Conference made me shiver. Her message of early, intense intervention and cultivating the interests and talents of individuals with autism was moving and brought into focus exactly why I am a special educator. You can watch the webcast of her talk and other talks from the week long conference, here: http://www.outreach.psu.edu/programs/Autism/webcasting.htm You can obtain the handouts here: http://www.outreach.psu.edu/programs/Autism/handouts.htm While sometimes I feel more like a speech therapist or an occupational therapist, listening to Dr. Grandin speak helped me realize that while I am passionate about empowering people with literacy and communication skills, I love the holistic experience of teaching and helping individuals with disabilities and their families. This multi-component approach to helping is important. The many sides of special education: Behavior Analysis, Speech Pathology, Literacy Instruction, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Vision Therapy, Teaching, Music Therapy, Psychology, Neurology and Medicine and beyond are helpful and can be balanced to assist the individuals we serve. I am happy to be a part of that. Days like today help me see how many components are necessary to the success of the diverse and unique individuals we serve.
Lunch with Temple Grandin
I emailed Dr. Temple Grandin a few weeks ago and set up a meeting to show her Proloquo2Go, the affordable and innovative communication system for the iPhone and iPod touch I co-developed during a sabbatical time before joining Penn State for a PhD in Special Education this past year. First, Temple, two terrific new colleagues from PSU and I had a nice buffet lunch after her Keynote address. We spoke about her diet and dieting for people with Autism. The conversation shifted around to some of the points in her talk such as medications, florescent lighting in schools, wearing colored glasses, lcd monitors, brain imaging and sensory disorders, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, the DSM-V and the importance of affordable solutions for individuals with autism from low SES areas.
Then after the meal, I showed her Proloquo2Go on my iPhone. It was fun to show her how it worked and neat to watch her interest in the text to speech capabilities combined with visually presenting and organizing concepts. We had fun trying to push the speech technology to the limits of pronunciation! I asked her what her impressions were and she said that she saw the value of the communication technology, but stressed the importance of affordability and durability. She liked the iMainGo 2 case and I felt very much validated when I told her that we have created Proloquo2Go to be one fifth to one tenth of the cost of the comparable portable AAC systems. Overall, it was terrific to hear her encouragement about Proloquo2Go. It was a rare opportunity and I am so thankful for the experience.
Here with the best group in the world in Richardson, Texas, we are talking about how to integrate information. Here are some ways to collect new information to integrate.
- Teaching Learners with Multiple Needs http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/
- Speech Language Pathology Sharing http://speechlanguagepathologysharing.blogspot.com/
- Schuyler’s Monster Blog http://www.schuylersmonsterblog.com/
- Teaching Every Student http://teachingeverystudent.blogspot.com
- Teaching All Students: http://teachingall.blogspot.com
- Free Resources from the Net for Special Education http://paulhami.edublogs.org
In some preparations for a presentation I came upon some resources some of you may like to check out:
Online Digital Instruments are a terrific resource for motivating students in the domains of access, writing, conversation, and more.- Try scratching behind singing the ABC’s, or your phonemic awareness tongue twisters.
- Handout
Online Digital Instruments.pdf
Use these for:
- a break
- as a musical instrument
- as a background to a friend saying the abc song
- as a background to a friend reading their latest story or poem
- Playing and then journaling about how it felt to play
- Anything you can think of
iPhone App Gives Voice to Those Without
as seen on ABC News Channel 8 Washington, DC on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 Read the background story on the News Channel 8 site.
…the President of The Pennsylvania State University, Graham Spanier, that is.
Penn State Board of Trustees meets; President Spanier’s remarks
Friday, July 10, 2009 12th Paragraph Down about Proloquo2Go and Samuel Sennott
Seriously, being a PhD student at The Pennsylvania State University is one of the most fantastic experiences of my life. The individuals I am surrounded by are simply phenomenal. From four AAC faculty to experts in Special Education, Psychology, and Computer Science, to the amazing students in the programs I am connected to, it is simply terrific to be here. Reading Dr. Graham Spanier’s remarks about the work I am doing and my place in the Penn State community made me smile even wider.
I know how lucky I am in all of this. I will take these opportunities being presented to me and work as hard, smart, and long as I can to serve individuals with special needs, as well as their families and the people who support them.
Here Ryan is simply being a Cub Scout. Simple, but awesome is all I have to say! Go Ryan!
