10 Amazing Learning Tools and Assistive Technologies for Children with Special Needs

A variety of advanced learning tools and assistive technologies are available to help children with either physical impairments or cognitive problems. They have proven to be an efficient and effective approach to enhancing the learning experience for differently-abled children. They compensate for the skill deficit and cover the disability areas of special needs students, and increase their chances of succeeding and becoming valuable members of society.

Assistive technologies enable children with disabilities to perform daily activities and participate in community life. Research has shown that differently-abled children feel motivated to fully utilize their abilities when provided with the right tools and technologies.

Learning tools and technologies are available for children having any form of disability, be it hearing, vision, or attention-related issues. Moreover, they also feel empowered, develop a sense of independence and start practicing self-reliance. Sometimes differently-abled children may have to study in a traditional classroom, and assistive technologies can assist them to adapt easily to that new classroom setting.   

Special education teachers are required to pursue advanced degrees in special education. It equips them with the knowledge to utilize the latest assistive tools and enables them to help their students to incorporate these technologies into their lives. Moreover, advanced degrees also benefit their careers and allow them to participate in the research process for the development of new tools.

Technology has advanced a lot, and brilliant new learning tools and assistive technologies roll out every day and are readily available for children with special needs. Let’s discuss some of them.

Amazing Learning Tools

Learning tools help children with learning disabilities like wiggles, fine motor delays, and sensory integration challenges to help them stay focused, write better, and read easier. Following are some learning tools;     

EZC reader is an award-winning learning tool. It consists of colorful transparent stripes that can be used as bookmarks. It helps children with visual problems to focus more easily on words when reading a storybook or coursebook.  

Children with specific disabilities find it challenging to write on flat surfaces. Investing in a tilted surface can make things easier for these kids. Tilted desks with a metal clip on top are an excellent tool as they keep the paper from slipping, and kids don’t have to worry about anything other than writing.

Fidget toys are small-sized toys that can be squeezed or fiddled with to help nervous children having concentration problems utilize their distractible energy and easily concentrate on the task at hand. They are especially useful for kids with ADHD or autism.   

Fluorescent lights can cause distraction and distress for some children with special needs. Installing light filters can help deal with such issues. They are also quite affordable, and schools also willingly install them to assist students with special needs.

Pencil toppers are tiny things at the top of a pencil that wiggly kids can play with to burn off some nervous energy. They come in different forms, shapes, and colors. They help easily distracted kids stay focused when learning.

Assistive Technologies

Assistive technologies are more advanced than learning tools but, their function is also to assist differently-abled children. Some advanced assistive technologies include the following;

Chrome books come with built-in audiovisual assistance. They have a screen reader called Chromevox, which reads the content out loud for students using the chrome browser. Moreover, they also come with features like screen magnifiers, high-contrast mode, and select-to-speak that make on-screen content reading easier.

Frequency modulation systems are designed to reduce background noise in the classroom and amplify the teacher’s voice. The teachers are equipped with a microphone that can broadcast either to the whole class or a single student wearing a receiver. It is an excellent device to help children with attention, hearing impairment, autism spectrum disorder, auditory, and language processing issues.

Speech notes is an online, simple and accurate speech-to-text software. It is designed based on Google’s speech-recognition engines and acts as a dictation tool for children with physical disabilities who are unable to write. It helps them transcribe their speech into text with over 90% accuracy. It is an easily accessible tool as you don’t even have to install, download or register for it.

A similar text-to-speech software also exists for children with speech impairments. It converts the text that they write into speech form that is easily understandable by all.

VR headsets can be extremely useful for polishing the social skills of differently-abled children. They help create a non-threatening environment for students with anti-social behavior to help them develop and practice pro-social skills.

It can also help enhance student learning and engagement in class. It creates a virtual world for students with special needs and allows them to interact with and learn from their virtual environment. Basically, it contributes to the treatment and improves the quality of life of children by minimizing the effects of a disability.    

Adaptive classrooms are becoming increasingly popular. Traditional furniture is not designed with the needs of special students in mind. Therefore, specialized furniture designs that provide students with special needs more access and ease of use are on the rise.

For example, an adaptive chair is designed to improve the sitting posture of mobility-impaired students. Chairs may often be fitted with special cushions that provide enough movement and stimulation to children with sensory processing issues to help them maximize focus without having to walk around.

The Bottom Line

Various assistive tools and adaptive technologies are available to make the life of differently-abled children easier. They assist children with any form of physical disability like visual problems and hearing issues or cognitive impairments like cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorder, and ADHD. Learning tools help kids with attention issues to stay focused by eliminating distractions and help them concentrate on the task at hand by dissipating their nervous energy. They include tools like EZC readers, tilted surfaces, light filters, pencil toppers, and fidget toys.

Adaptive technologies are much more advanced than learning tools and include chrome books, FM listening systems, speech-to-text software, adaptive furniture, and virtual reality. These technologies are also focused on assisting differently-abled children and helping them increase their attention span. Hopefully, this article will help you understand the role of amazing learning tools and assistive technologies in the lives of children with special needs.

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