Opening doors: how new media helps kids with developmental disabilities

The students spontaneously suggested four more activities that they would like to include in the story. These new activities were directly related to the previous ones, indicating that students understood the concept of association and similarities. I made other suggestions that were not directly associated with beach activities. The students voted these down. The group did an admirable job of articulating rationales for links: 'There is beautiful sand at the beach' should link with 'We build sand castles at the beach' because sand castles are made from sand. I made suggestions for non-associative links; the students voted these suggestions down, indicating an understanding of associations.

The students were enthusiastic about reading and re-reading the story. They applied very abstract concepts of similarity and difference and time sequences to their linking.

Writing exercises can also be adapted to work one-on-one with students and in groups to provide more individualised attention. I worked with six 6-to-8-year-olds. Two could write a dictated sentence, one could read without comprehension, and the rest could read if the teacher sounded out most of the word for them.

I worked at first with each student individually. We wrote about the school concert they had participated in the week before. Each student developed one sentence about what they liked in the concert and illustrated it. Each had a different colour page to further differentiate their work and to identify the particular sentence After we had read each page, I then prompted students to link each page. They were unenthusiastic about this, probably because I had not taken the time beforehand to explain what links were and why we wanted to show similar concepts. Linking is a concept one level of abstraction beyond the already difficult concept of same and different. These children had difficulties understanding link and relation concepts such as same/different, cause/effect, or before/after.

However, the class managed to link each page to one other page. I transferred the pages into Hyperstudio, and kept the colour scheme. I then worked with each child individually to read the story. This text was very simple and kept the children's interest for about 5-10 minutes. One boy clicked on each button to read the text and checked off the list to ensure we had covered everyone's pages. Afterwards, he read the story again unprompted, this time clicking on the links in a different order. This exercise reinforced that children are motivated more when they see their own work incorporated into the reading.

Computer writing exercise

Because many students have some computer skills, and programs such as HyperStudio are relatively simple, students can create their own new-media works. These works can help reinforce sequential events, associative links, or other connective relationships.

I worked with a group of four 17-18 year olds with a Grade 3 reading level to write a new media work that would anticipate an event, and then follow up to add more details about the event after it happened (planning, mapping, memory, and sequencing skills).

The students helped create this hypertext. I showed them how to create cards, and students suggested what to name the cards and what buttons to link to each card. The basic order was pretty simple: a card for the subway route, one for the game arcade, one for the pizza restaurant.

Then I introduced the notion of complexity in time sequences by asking if each student was going to do the same thing at each place. As students were going to have different experiences, they created individual cards from the arcade and the pizza restaurant to reflect their tastes.

After our excursion, the students came back and re-read the material, this time adding pictures that they had taken and text to the main storyline and their individual cards. This exercise gave students control of both the reading and writing aspects. They were able to identify simple linking patterns and choose relevant images and text for each card. Students were enthusiastic about being able to show their experiences immediately after an event - and creating a work that looked like the other works they saw on the internet.

Teachers can also create new media works that help students learn about relationships such as cause/effect, same/different and sequencing ability in a complex task. I accompanied the first group as they made Yummy Balls. The group made a list, went to the store, bought ingredients, and followed the recipe to make the treats.

I created a hypertext with these steps and interspersed a question page after each step. Question pages asked 'Which comes first?', for example, mixing or buying ingredients? If the student chose the incorrect button, a sad face appeared with an explanation and a note to try again. If the student chose the correct button, pictures of the next stage would appear, together with a happy face.