Choosing a quality software title for classroom or home use is hard enough for most parents. If you have a child with a disability that decision is even harder. One aspect of my job is looking at many software titles to see how appropriate they are for students with special needs. In this article I am going to share with you a few pointers on selecting software that will be both fun and accessible for your child. It can be difficult to try out software, but the better retail outlets will let you examine a demonstration of a program before you purchase it. Computer companies are also making it easier for parents and teachers by providing demonstration copies of their programs on CDs and also on their web site. Bear in mind the following issues when choosing software and feel free to quiz the salespeople. After all, it is your money.
Reference Software
There are a lot of reference programs available on CD, including encyclopaedias and databases. The problem with many of these programs is that the majority of the content is often presented as text only. This is fine if you can handle text but for students with special needs this can be a big issue. Children with learning disabilities and intellectual impairments may have trouble accessing information presented in this way. Children with visual impairments may have trouble accessing the software with screen reading programs.
Try to select programs that present information in a variety of ways. Multimedia programs that include video clips, sound samples, photographs and diagrams can help cater for children who may find it easier to interpret information in these forms. If there is a lot of text, a supportive program will have a text to speech option.
Layout
Programs with 'busy' screens can present problems for students who may be easily distracted by animations and objects all over the screen. It can also make choosing activities and options difficult for children. For children with a visual impairment, cluttered screens can be an obstacle to locating information. Dark text on a dark or heavily illustrated background may be difficult to read. Try to find programs that place text in clear positions. Text that highlights as it is read can provide an added contrast and also help draw attention to the text. The "Sherston Naughty Stories" and also their "Nursery Rhyme Time" program have all of these features and just a few large, icon-based buttons that make it very easy for young children to navigate through the pages. I'll be writing a few software reviews for these and other Sherston titles soon, but in the meantime you may want to look at their website at www.sherston.com.
Access
Look for programs that allow you to set various preferences to suit the needs of your child. Many companies are now including forms of text and cursor enlargement, and even switch access. Also, look for programs that allow you to set levels of difficulty. This might include the actual difficulty of individual activities, or it might allow you to limit choices available to the child at any one time. Menus and navigation buttons that speak, automatic help and speech options are other support features that can help make a program suitable for your child. Programs in the Edmark Early Learning series are good examples of software with many of these features. You are welcome to look at my teaching ideas for this series on my Edmark Software Strategies Page.
It is also worth a visit to the Edmark site at www.edmark.com
An Educational Game?
There are countless 'educational games' on the market that are merely arcade games with a few maths or spelling questions tossed in. Will the children be entertained? Of course they will. Will they learn anything? Now there is the question. Drill and practice may have its place, but it can only reinforce information that children already know. Much better value are programs that let the children explore a variety of concepts. Some of the better programs offer both 'Question and Answer' and 'Explore' modes of play. Activities that children can relate to real life will help them make those links from concrete to abstract concepts while building on their knowledge of the world.
Many of the traditional games have a negative response when a child makes an error. This type of response does not give a child any idea why they were wrong. Programs that give the student some useful feedback are more supportive. "I need more" or "that is too many" give students useful feedback to indicate a solution to their problem so that they can go back and try again, whereas "beep - wrong!" just means they have made another mistake. Again, the Early Learning series from Edmark has great feedback and also has both the explore and freeplay modes of play. "James Discovers Math" from Broderbund is another great example of a program with these features. I have put some strategies for using James on my James Discovers Math page.
Open or Closed
The term 'Open-Ended' applies to programs where students can make decisions and alter the outcome of the activity. Examples of these could be graphics programs and creative writing programs. 'Closed' programs are programs where children can only move through activities in a particular way with a set out come. Drill and practice games would be included here and also closed databases. In between are the programs that have some guidance but also elements such as the explore play mentioned above, giving students a chance to manipulate items, hypothesise, experiment and test their theories and decisions. As a teacher I have found that I can use open-ended software many different ways in many different areas of the curriculum. Graphics programs such as Kid Pix Studio are the best examples of open ended programs, however programs such as the Edmark Early Learning Series and James Discovers Math also display that open-endedness in their free play mode. You can read about my strategies for using Kid Pix across the curriculum on my Kid Pix Page and you can also download sample slide shows of songs that my students and I made in Mareeba.
Age Appropriateness
Let's not kid ourselves. Trying to find activities age appropriate to older children with special needs can be a nightmare. Thankfully software publishers are addressing this problem to some extent by using non-human characters in their programs. Animals, monsters and aliens in some of the programs appear to be of any age. When you think about it, these characters have no race or colour either. Some companies are now deliberately casting older characters in their programs however this is not a widespread practice.
A final thought
I look for software that can be used by a range of students. If a child is mainstreamed it is always a nicer option for them to be able to use the same software that the rest of the class is using. In the home children like to use software that their siblings enjoy. Many titles aimed at the mainstream have features like those mentioned above and so are ideal for children in these situations. On the other hand, some software and hardware options intended for students with special needs can often be useful for students outside of this population.
Do you have any comments on this article? Perhaps you have a program that you can't live with out. Tell me about it and any other issues you would like to see discussed by filling in the feedback form.
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