Scenarios

This section is intended to give you lots of ideas about how to incorporate ICT into your teaching. Whilst this Unit is not the place to provide detailed technical instructions on the use of specific applications or equipment – you will need to consult the manuals for such information – we have identified a number of key skills that are required to carry out activities similar to those described below. It is assumed that you are familiar with the operating system your computer uses and can manage basic tasks such as starting up programs, simple word-processing, saving and printing work. The key skills and the type of equipment will be listed at the end of each example. These will be linked to the activities, which you will find at the end of this section.

In many cases, in order to give your pupils effective access to the technology, you must liaise with colleagues – other professionals involved with your pupils, outside agencies etc. You will also need to communicate information to others involved with the pupils. When your pupil is achieving success, it is important that all those in contact with the pupil know what works for that pupil.

Scenario 1 – Seating and positioning

Before considering the range of devices and techniques available to facilitate successful computer control for pupils with physical and learning difficulties, it is important to spend time considering seating and positioning issues. No matter how good your choice of device for a pupil, and however much care you take in the introduction of it to them, there is a chance that they will not achieve optimal control unless their seating / positioning has been considered first.

Liaise closely with occupational and physiotherapists to ensure that each pupil has the appropriate postural support necessary for them to gain optimal physical function. For pupils with severe physical difficulties, this support may need to be considerable. However, even for pupils who have minimal physical difficulties, the provision of a chair that enables them to support their feet can facilitate better concentration and attention to the task.

Not only is the seat important but the height of the table surface and the monitor will also have a significant bearing, in some cases, on the success or otherwise of trying alternative access methods. The monitor should be positioned at eye level and centrally (except where the pupil has a visual problem requiring positioning to one side).

Example 1 – Pupil incorrectly seated for working at the computer

A seven-year-old girl with spastic cerebral palsy was seated in a Buggy seat for work with switches at the computer. The switches were placed on a table in front of her and she was encouraged to access them by hand. The computer was on a computer trolley placed behind the table on which the switches were mounted. The computer trolley had a surface for the computer and keyboard and a raised shelf for the monitor.

There are a number of issues related to this scenario:

Problem 1 – Buggy seat

This will place the pupil at a slightly reclined angle. This will in turn affect two important elements -the visual field and the control of her arms.

• visual field : Try tipping your head back slightly and note the difference this makes to what you can see. You probably have a good view of the ceiling, but not much below elbow level. However, as the monitor is quite high in relation to the pupil’s head, in this instance she can at least see the screen.
• control of the arms: Have you seen a pupil whose arms tend to bend at the elbow and the hands are positioned at shoulder level? This was the case with this pupil. When she was tilted backwards, as is the case in a buggy, it accentuated this position of her arms and made it more difficult for her to bring her arms down to press the switches.

Solution

By altering the pupil’s seating so that she was placed in a slightly forward-leaning position she was able to

• see what was going on around her better and have a more normal view of the world;
• bring her hands down to the switches more easily because gravity assisted her.

If you have a pupil who you feel is incorrectly seated, discuss this with the pupil’s occupational therapist or physiotherapist. Responsibility for seating varies between the professions in different parts of the United Kingdom. Having consulted with the therapists, teachers / carers will be able to implement the recommendations in day to day practise.

When the pupil was placed in a more upright position she needed a lap strap to keep her bottom back in the seat; her foot rest needed adjusting to the correct height; and she needed a jacket to help her maintain an upright posture of her trunk.

Problem 2 – The height and position of the monitor

The girl was now able to reach her switches, but seeing the monitor was a problem as she had to tip her head right back to see it.

Solution

To overcome this problem the monitor was moved off the trolley and onto the table that the pupil had been using.

The pupil was then moved to the other side of the table. The switches were placed in front of her, the monitor was positioned behind the switches on the table and the computer and keyboard (used by the teacher to set things up) was placed behind the monitor. In this way the monitor was at eye level, the switches were within reach and an extra piece of furniture was removed from the classroom.

Key skills and equipment

The key skill for the above example is:

• analysis of the position of the pupil and the computer equipment

The key equipment is:

• computer trolley – in this instance not needed!

You will find further references to the importance of seating and positioning in Unit 4 – Identifying individual needs and Unit 8 – The development of switching skills.

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