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http://www.smartpunters.com/TNAssistiveTech/

I just found a new product and I am excited about using the trial version.  The new product is Communicate: SymWriter.  This product is by Widgit Software and is available through Mayer-Johnson.

From the Mayer-Johnson Website:

Beginning readers and writers gain extensive literacy support through symbol usage, and more advanced students also benefit from the language support symbols provide.

Communicate Navigation Communicate: Series Communicate: SymWriter Communicate: Bundle   Communicate: In Print 2       Books       Examples       Graphics       Symbols       Writers      Add-Ons  Communicate: By Choice       Included activities Communicate: Webwide      Browsing      Pages

Teachers, parents and therapists can quickly and easily adapt written materials with symbols to create stories, sentence strips, directions, recipes, schedules, songs, poems, worksheets and more.

Also create computer-based activities with voice output and symbol support, such as topical writing and sentence building, spelling and counting activities, assessments and cross-curricular exercises.

Beginning writers or individuals who don’t recognize text can write with symbol support and benefit from speech feedback. Or, text users benefit from a talking word processing program.

Communicate: SymWriter is the next generation of symbol-word processing, with Smart Symbolizing—parts of speech automatically symbolize correctly. Windows Vista compatible.

Follow this link to see a comparison of Writing with Symbols and SymWriter.

WWS200 vs. SymWriter

I will let you know more about it when I use my trial version.

http://www.smartpunters.com/TNAssistiveTech/

We are back from our two week Spring Break!  It sure is difficult to return with two weeks off, but I love having two weeks.  It gives you enough time to do things around the house and still have time to vacation.

O.k.  I was thinking of topics that I would like to learn about at the TAAT Conference.  I've been in AT for about 4 years and I have a pretty good idea about equipment and products.  I would like to know more about "how to" do things.  I would like to hear AT personnel discuss how they evaluated certain types of students.

For instance, I could do a presentation on a student who has CP, is wheelchair bound, poor speech skills, etc.  I would present on my thought process and types of equipment I used to evaluate.  Pretty much opening it up for discussion on what else I can try to help this student.

If we all pick a scenario, we can cover a variety of disabilities and unique situations. 

What would you like to see at the TAAT Conference in Nashville this year?

I talk to a lot of people who have questions about AT, but I can't seem to remember their questions once I get back to my office.  I also host the Maury County AT Consortium and never know what to talk about.  Some of the members work with high school and some members who work with elementary.   I have  CDC teachers,  resource teachers,  SLPs and  supervisors.  I  have lots of information to share, but I really don't know which topic to discuss.  I want to make sure that everyone walks away with something that is useful to their own position. 

So to those of you out there that attend the consortia meetings, lets hear it! 

O.k., back to something useful to everyone else.  I have just received my copy of "WriteAssist" by SecondGuess Software.  I haven't seen all the bells and whistles, yet...but it seems to be pretty cool.  I had "WriteOutloud" and it wouldn't install on my XP. I needed to upgrade.  I began searching for something that had word prediction  for someone who spells phonetically and came across this program.  

Here is a flyer from SecondGuess Software:



http://www.smartpunters.com/TNAssistiveTech/

Recently, my supervisor has asked me to help with the SPED equipment in our county.  We already have AT Tracker Plus so I called Sherry at Adaptive Solutions to find out if Tracker would be a good solution.  She seemed to think that it was a good idea. 

I think we have been using AT Tracker a little differently than intended.  When I first started this position in AT, there was a lot of equipment that was purchased for classroom use and not necessarily for specific students.  So when I entered the equipment, I checked it out to teachers instead of students. 

In the personal information section I have listed all of Maury Co.'s SPED teachers and this is how I distribute and collect equipment.  At the end of the year, I print a report for each school and all equipment is listed.  Oh and by the way, we have the 1k network version.  Can any of you give any comments or suggestions for the use of AT Tracker Plus? 

Since this is my first time blogging, I am just telling you about some of the dilemas I am facing day to day.  I'm hoping that someone will step up and give me some comments.....Lewis......ha ha!

The picture is just a test picture.  Aren't they cute!

Jill

One of my issues since I began working in AT is finding training.  What a lot of outsiders don't understand is that an AT person almost has to be knowledgeable in ever aspect of Special Education.  The trainings that I need to attend are not only about AT, but about speech, OT, PT, Autism, etc.  I am always searching for a local training, but those requiring travel are also appealing. 

So today, I was searching for software for equipment inventory and found a few conferences that I did not know about.  By the way, I was on the Adaptive Solution website for AT Tracker.  We already have this, but SPED is wanting me to work on keeping up with other SPED inventories as well.  So if you know of any good inventory software, let me know.  O.K. enough with that.....after a few clicks, I made my way to the AAC Institute for Continuing Education.  www.aacinstitute.org  Go to CEUs for Participants.

If you haven't already discovered this site, check it out.  I know there are lots of other sites, but I had not seen this one.  Let's make a list of good conferences or trainings.  Should I create this in the links?  Let me know what you guys think.

Please post comments and tell others about the blog.