Personal+Philosophy

Personal Philoshy of Assistive Technology

I believe children learn best in an environment that is adaptive and not rigid. Children need to be in a facility that is willing to bend and change with the student rather than against the student. Children also learn best when the educator has a genuine interest in their learning. The general educator’s role is to teach the core subjects and skills (reading, writing, math, science, etc.) while also teaching social and adaptive skills. The special educator’s role is to work with students with exceptionalities so they know how to manipulate their environment to work with/for them. It is the special educator’s role to work with the general educator to make the students with exceptionalities experiences the best. The special educator should constantly be evaluating and re-evaluating what works and what does not for each individual student. The role of parents/guardians in the overall educational outcome of a student is vast. Parental concern and involvement in a child’s education decides a lot about the effectiveness of a general educator’s teaching and more importantly the special educator’s teaching. If parents are not working with their children on the methods that the special educator is trying to implement, the change in the child is not going to be very great. The skills need to be reinforced constantly and not just in the school setting.  The best way to achieve these goals is through the use of assistive technologies. Technology can help students adapt to new environments, to work with the student’s disability and not against it, and help the student be more thoroughly integrated into the world. Technology gives students with disabilities the chance to be on par with their peers in the general education classroom, and also allows them to make gains previously unattainable. Just like parental involvement is important in a student’s education, it is important in the successful use of assistive technologies. If technologies are not being used or reinforced in the home, they will not be able to make the students as successful as possible. In all situations, parents and teachers need to be in constant communication for the purpose of bettering a student’s education.