Focus On: Supporting physically impaired students in mainstream schools.

In this issue we show you how one physically impaired youngster was supported in a mainstream school

Set out clearly the strategies employed and how they helped support learning

Identify other resources used in this area look at the results of this support

Anne's Story
Anne was diagnosed as having mild Cerebral Palsy at the age of two. A Record of Needs was opened for her in nursery school and the normal course of reviews was undertaken. Anne is of average intelligence but the hand tremors and occasional spasms she experiences mean that keeping pace with school work can present difficulties.

In primary school she received typing lessons and used a typewriter. In Primary 7 she started with a Tandy WP2 laptop but its limitations in secondary school meant the decision to move her on to a PowerBook came sooner rather than later. An interim step to this was the use of a standard Mac in the Technical Department using Claris CAD and KidPix with a trackerball to aid access. She then progressed to an Apple Macintosh 145B PowerBook. To start with the principal software package she used with the PowerBook was ClarisWorks. She now uses ClarisWorks in all subjects with the addition of Microsoft Works in OIS. MacWrite II will be used by her in the near future because of the spellchecking ability of that particular package.

Anne is currently in general/credit classes for English, Maths, OIS, Modern Studies, SVS, French and Biology. She expects to sit Highers and hopefully move on to college.

In both schools Anne received support from teaching and non-teaching staff.

This case study is a combination of comments and reports from teachers, support staff, the pupil herself and her parents.

Individuals and schools have not been identified but further comments and questions should be referred to Tom Nisbet at SCET.

SETTING THE SCENE
A description of the situation within which the hardware was used to support learning.

Although Anne's needs were never so extreme as to consider special school, she is one of an increasing group of pupils being educated within their community schools as opposed to being educated in the special school sector. While in primary school Anne's first introduction to technology was a typewriter. This had two effects on her work. The first was to make it look much more presentable but the second was to slow down the speed of her work. Anne had little training at first but then a regular slot in the timetable was created for keyboarding skills practice.

Once in Primary 7 a Tandy WP2 laptop wordprocessor was the next step on the technology road. This was an important step forward in terms of the amount of work that could be done and stored on the machine. Fortunately Anne's keyboarding skills were now good enough for her to produce lengthy pieces of work that were very presentable. The same drawback as happened with the typewriter occurred with the Tandy. Anne's pace of work slowed down dramatically with the new skills that she needed to learn to operate the technology. A one-day in-service day was organised which gave very limited training.

Once in secondary school, it became apparent that the volume of work that Anne was asked to undertake was far beyond the capabilities of the Tandy. Steps were taken to supply Anne with a PowerBook. This was not an instant process and involved much letter writing and assessing. Now that she has the PowerBook problems are becoming less and less as she becomes more used to the various functions of the machine. The PowerBook Anne is using has an internal disc drive and she is now able to use it much more effectively and efficiently.

One of the drawbacks of using technology is when breakdowns occur. Everyone loves technology when it works but when it fights back, this strategy to support learning can stall. The length of time for repairs to be made or replacements to be found can be a frustrating period. Even if an immediate back-up machine is available it often does not come packed with the same software needed to sustain the work being done in the classroom. Weighing up all the positive and negative aspects of the progress to date there is no doubt that Anne now has the technological support that she needs to maintain a course of study in a mainstream secondary.

USING THE HARDWARE

Some comments from school departments:

Anne is currently following Standard Grade courses in seven subjects. The consensus of opinion is that the technological support that Anne receives is meeting her educational needs. Comments from departments suggest that Anne can compete well with other students in course work:

Positives:
Anne can complete all written work within the same timeframe as other students

her work is easy to mark and redraft

her self-esteem and confidence have risen

the adaptability of the PowerBook is a vast improvement on the Tandythe only way forward in subjects which require a lot of writing

PowerBook has proved very useful

Not all of the comments were positive

Negatives
this form of technological support is of no use in Maths at present

all text and assignments need to be typed up in ClarisWorks by departments beforehand

if no printer is available then frustrating delays occur

problems occurred when using a standard mouse

THE SUPPORT STRATEGY AND HUMAN RESOURCES
Any support strategy is a combination of elements. Here we look at the humanresources and how they were deployed in schools to support Anne.
In Primary 4, when the first typewriter was used, the help was from an occupational therapist who gave some time. She came every week to make sure Anne hit the correct keys but there was no real teaching involved. Then, for the whole of Primary 5 and the first term of Primary 6, a typing teacher was brought in. She came for one hour per week to show Anne how to type properly. A typing course followed and this proved to be the best non-technological support to date. After a short time in Primary 6 it was felt that Anne did not need her any more and this support was ended.

When Anne moved to secondary, support came through the Learning Support Department of the school and through a Special Needs Auxiliary. There were also another 14 recorded pupils in the school to be supported. Fortunately for Anne the Auxiliary support was interested in computers and could comprehensively support Anne in the appropriate subjects. No formal training was given to the Auxiliary so her skills development was self-taught and through personal interest.

The Auxiliary support is currently with Anne in Biology, Maths and SVS. It is most needed in Maths where there is no IT input. Support is available in OIS but such are Anne's skill levels that it is not necessary at this time. Anne has three non-class periods during the week because of option choices. She knows that she can self-study or seek supportat these times. Anne has open access to any printer in the school for the purpose of producing work or assignments.

SEN AUXILIEARY COMMENTS
The secondary school that Anne attends has an SEN Auxiliary whose function is to support all SEN pupils throughout the school within the classroom setting. The comments that have been written here are focused on the support of Anne but are common in many situations.

On the positive side:
IT has given Anne much greater independence, it has boosted her self-confidencewhich is reflected in her performance across the curriculum.

She has also benefited socially through her feeling of personal worth and adevelopment of the extrovert side of her character (ie she isn't self-consciousabout her hand tremors any more).

Her work is more easily accessed and stored with Mac PowerBook technology. Theadditional facilities such as scrapbook and calculator allied to powerfulpackages allow for easier coping with things like scientific datarepresentations, graphs and charts.

On the negative side:
There was no specialised training for either the Auxiliary or the pupil. Since no time was set aside during class hours, lunchtimes and intervals were used for training and this meant that important social interaction was lost. This training time imposed a very heavy burden on both the Auxiliary and the pupil.

The PowerBook, although portable, is quite heavy for Anne to carry and can put a physical strain on her towards the end of a school day.

Maths is difficult because of fractions etc. However, the Mac can cope with basic numbers.

When the Mac breaks down (which can happen occasionally) there is no back-upmachine available.

The SEN Auxiliary is sometimes unavailable because of her commitment to otherpupils and not just Anne.

The majority of teaching staff are NOT computer literate and discomfort with IT, in particular the hardware side of things, still exists.

A PARENT'S PERSPECTIVE
It is always a struggle to help youngsters through school. It is even harder when your son or daughter needs extra support to keep apace with their peers. The small problems become magnified and the setbacks more intense. However, when after years of encouragement, exam time comes and your child is there with the rest then it is worthwhile, not finished but satisfying.

It is clear in our case that technology has greatly helped Anne. From typewriter to word processor to PowerBook. When the technology breaks down, is inadequate for the job, or is missing that vital piece of software, then frustration sets in. But IT is not the whole answer. The support by specialists in schools and parents at home complement the technology and all three together make a support structure to help Anne make progress.

A PUPIL'S POINT OF VIEW

I feel that my Mac has had a great improvement on my work. I think this because with my smaller word processor, that I had previous to this, it did not hold half as much information as the Mac does. This is very important because as I am working my way up secondary school I am going to have more and more information to write down and also loads of homework too.

This will be my lead-up to when I have to sit my exams with the rest of the people in my year group. The other good thing is that I have started to use discs for saving work instead of leaving things on the hard disc. I have a disc for each subject that I am doing at present.

While it was useful having technology, what was even more useful was the help I got from people in the school and at home. The Learning Support Department and the class teachers helped a lot but my main help in school came from the Special Needs Auxiliary who was always there to support and encourage. At home my Mum and Dad have always helped with any problems that have arisen since the day I started High School and even before that. Without these people helping me I would have found school much harder than it is at the moment.

NEXT STEPS AND PROGRESSIONS
The support team for Anne feel that the future is fairly secure for her. The type of hardware used at present will cater for her secondary educational needs and any other academic demands made on her.

Her increasing technological skills and confidence level mean that when she comes to decisions about Higher Grades and possible further education, it will be her academic ability and not her physical impairment that will be the determining factor.

Computer life ends when Anne leaves school. She will require help from another source if she goes on to further education in order that the enabling quality of technological support is maintained there.

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This page was last updated: 11/3"/96