All Together We Can » Special Education

A Moving Video

Samuel Sennott — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:19:18 +0000

Switch Accessible YouTube: SWAY

Samuel Sennott — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:10:40 +0000

Hello Everyone. Check out this holiday treat: Switch Accessible YouTube. It’s called SWAY and it is another simple jem from Gary Bishop’s lab. SWAY seems to stand for Switch Accessible YouTube! Click below to go to a playlist about Proloquo2Go, the AAC app for the iPhone and iPod touch.

SWAY, Switch Accessible YouTube

What other holiday treats have you found lately?

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From service dog to SURFice dog

Samuel Sennott — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:20:33 +0000

Mads posted this on the Simmons ASTECH list and it is must watch.

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TED Talk: Patrick Awuah on educating leaders

Samuel Sennott — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:06:08 +0000

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TED Talk, Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity

Samuel Sennott — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:15:35 +0000

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Writing Idea: Write a Post Card and Google Sends it Free

Samuel Sennott — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:12:42 +0000

Google Post Card Opportunity

Here is a terrific opportunity that Google is offering and proves to be a terrific authentic writing opportunity for children, teenagers, and adults. Basically, Google will mail the post card you create. From beginning writers to the most advanced, the art of sending a post card is not only fun, but socially relevant. Common, how cool is it to get a post card.

On the page:
Spread some holiday cheer, one card at a time.
Holiday cards

Sure, email is great, but there’s something uniquely heartwarming about the kind of card that comes in the actual mail — especially for folks who don’t hear from us as often as they should, simply because they aren’t online.

So we’ve made it as easy to send snail-mail holiday cards as it is to send email. Simply fill out the form below and we’ll send one free holiday postcard on your behalf. Yes, through the mail and everything.

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Celebrating the Life of Patty Cassidy

Samuel Sennott — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 06:38:47 +0000

Patty Cassidy, or Patty the conqueror as she has been come to have been known by, has been battling breast cancer. On Thanksgiving, I got a call from Caroline Ramsey Musselwhite telling me that our friend Patty had passed away early that morning. I first met Patty at Closing the Gap and then she later was my professor in AAC at the Simmons assistive technology masters program. I remember her passion for the individuals she taught to communicate. When she showed her videos of her students, I remember seeing someone who simply loved and believed in her students. She has been a beautiful model to me. One of the things that she made a point to teach me personally was the importance of modeling language. Not so ironically, I have been engaged in an in-depth literature review of the practice of modeling in AAC. As I re-work that study into a submission to a publication, I will do it in memory of our friend Patty. While I only knew Patty for the last few years, she was one of the friends I have met in the AAC world who I look up to the most. Maybe it was because she was so down to earth or maybe it was because she was so nice to me, or maybe it was that we looked at AAC so similarly, whatever the reason, we were friends and I will miss her. It made me smile when I heard about the true extent of the support she has had. One can only wish for friends and family like that in life. Special prayers go out to her three children.

Patty, We love you and celebrate you, our friend

This image is from a book put together for Patty in the last year. You can read inspirational stories about Patty and about funeral arrangements here: http://cassidynews.blogspot.com

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Successfully Passing my PhD Candidacy

Samuel Sennott — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:35:51 +0000

This post has a more personal flavor.

Last week, I successfully passed my PhD candidacy at The Pennsylvania State University with the paper, The Effects of Aided Language Stimulation on the Communication Performance of Individuals with Complex Communication Needs.

It has been a miraculous time. Proloquo2Go, the iPhone app I co-developed, has taken the world by storm, with David Pogue featuring it as a part of his TEDMED talk last week, CAN MY IPHONE SAVE MY LIFE?
, and then writing about it in his NY Times column, Medical Apps for the iPhone. This comes after a front page NY Times feature of two beautiful users of Proloquo2Go. There have been a ton of other major media features as well. Here are a few:

-Medicare Would Rather Buy $8000 Computer than $150 iPhone App
-iPhone applications can help the autistic
-ieeeTV Proloquo2Go AAC in your Pocket
-TUAW Proloquo2Go: Assistive communication for the iPhone and iPod touch

Last month, in October, we presented to overflowing rooms at Closing the Gap and had the first ever rounds of iPod touch labs at a major assistive technology conference. The stories pour in daily about how Proloquo2Go is helping children, teenagers, and adults. All of this is fantastic beyond belief.

It is truly beautiful to see individuals getting the communication technology they need, combined with getting the coolness factor.

Yet, among all the beauty and energy that is Proloquo2Go, I have been quietly hitting the books and spending long hours in classes and at my writing desk. I am ten months into my PhD at The Pennsylvania State University. It is an amazing experience that has proven to be a terrific decision in my life. Being here with the AAC faculty, Janice Light, David McNaughton, Kathy Drager, and Krista Wilkinson is truly amazing. The special education faculty are awesome. The range and depth that they represent is a wonderful gift in my life of learning to be a teacher/ researcher.

Finishing the candidacy process has set me free in a way that is hard to explain. I have been feeling so terrible missing my classroom teaching practice. This creative absence has left me feeling so indulgent. Where before I felt like I was going the way, I now am just reading and writing constantly. Yet, all of the sudden, nearly in one fell swoop, all of that is swept away and I see that this absence has left me quite a bit more prepared to serve the community that I care so much about. The research training is very important in my practice. So now as I turn to finding my lab, I feel free to go very deep into the work and study. I know that I can have the best of both worlds now, researching and having a group that I work hands on with. I also feel free to enjoy the process. The high stakes candidacy is very stressful! It feels great to realize what a gift this program is and how I have a great opportunity to leverage it into greater ways to contribute to the field dedicated to serving individuals with disabilities, their teachers, their families, and now their researchers.

Overall, I am very thankful to all the supporters of my work. The special education faculty in particular have been simply amazing and I feel that I owe them a great deal of thanks.

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Love is all you need…

Samuel Sennott — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:32:21 +0000

Love is all you need…

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Cool Tools Session w/ Dan Herlihy and Samuel Sennott at Closing the Gap

Samuel Sennott — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:43:26 +0000

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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