exemplar activities

Unit 5 Activity 7 - SwitchIt! Maker - Exemplar 1

The chosen pupil is a six year old who has profound and multiple learning disabilities. He is very sociable child and extremely motivated by people and faces. Daniel enjoys using the computer and uses an AbleNet Big Switch mounted on an angled foam wedge. He is familiar with various switch-building programs but I was looking for new ideas to keep his interest.

Digital photographs were taken of Daniel and his classmates and the class team including his midday meals supervisor with whom he has a special relationship. Using the Switch It program the photographs were stored in various shapes breaking them into halves, thirds and quarters. This meant that a progressive program could be built up to form 2 piece, 3 piece and 4 piece jigsaws, using a switch press for each step.

The first session was using one switch press to get the whole picture. His reaction on seeing his Midday meal supervisor was lovely. He became very vocal and giggly. He thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the familiar faces. The build up feature was gradually introduced and expanded until Daniel was consistently switching 4 times. He remains very motivated by this activity and we have since introduced photographs of other familiar people from around the school. We are also currently arranging photographs of Daniel's family to be taken so they can be used.

The program has been used with other switch users in the class and it was interesting to observe the different reactions to the various faces.

Another class pupil is very motivated by transport so we have taken photographs of the bus that brings him to school, the school bus, his Dad's car and his granddad's car. This too has proved very motivating.

This idea will be usable in all sorts of situations to increase motivation.

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