Education is an area that no child should be abstained from. Irrespective of the financial situation of the child, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that every child is being provided with the highest quality education. Among these are those children as well who have learning disabilities. In our society, children with any kind of disability are treated differently from the rest of the world. Some children have learning disabilities owing to which they find difficulty in their educational aspect as well.
For children with learning disabilities, there is assistive technology. Assistive technology mainly helps children with dissimilar sorts of learning incapacities which can be cognitive difficulties to physical injury. Many educationists are of the view that it is high time that technology is used in the field of education to enhance learning for children. Moreover, children that have learning disabilities should be given the chance to have educational success by allowing them to use their aptitudes to cover up for their incapacities.
The assistive technology for children with learning disabilities is mainly any device, piece of tools or system that focuses on avoiding, working about or reimbursing for the learning deficits of the child. It should be noted here that the assistive technology does not help in curing the learning disability, rather it helps the child in reaching his/her potential so that they can capitalise on their strength and divert their attention from their difficulties.
It would not be wrong to state here that by making use of assistive technology, the child would become self-reliant and have a intellect of independence. Children with learning disabilities, who struggle in school become extremely reliant on their parents and educators for getting help in homework. The use of assistive technology would make working easier and more independent. There are a series of learning disabilities that are addressed by the assistive technology.
Listening
Some assistive technology tools can aid those children who have trouble in handling and memorising vocal language. These types of devices can be utilised in different surroundings, such as class speech or meeting with the numerous speakers.
Math
The assistive technology provides a tool for helping with math subject as well. Children that effort with computing, arranging, supporting and imitating math problems on paper, can make use of the tool for the visual/audio support, and learn the subject easily. The tool also helps with solving basic math problems as well.
Writing
There is diverse kind of tools available within the assistive technology range to help children that have trouble with writing. These tools aim to help the children in circumventing the actual physical task of writing and allow the facilitating of proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar usage, among many others.
Reading
Children who have trouble in reading can make use of the reading tools provided by assistive technology. The basic purpose of these tools is to present the text as speech, which would allow the children to decode, read fluently, and comprehend the sentence in the right way.
There are various tools available that can be used to support children with learning disabilities. Some of them are:
Abbreviation expanders
This tool help with word processing. The user is allowed to generate, store and re-use the acronym for any words that are used frequently. Moreover, it saves the user keystrokes and allows the right spelling of words and expressions.
Alternative keyboards
This form of programmable keyboards tends to have special overlays which help in customising the look and purpose of the standard keyboard. Children with learning disabilities might have difficulty in using a standard keyboard. However, in this keyboard, they can decrease the input choices, group keys by colour/location, and then add graphics to aid with the comprehension.
The field of education is being made easier for every student, irrespective of him having any learning disabilities or not. By making technology a part of the education field, many researchers believe that education would significantly see an improvement in the overall structure. The goal is to provide quality education to every child. No child should be left behind due to any reason, from attaining quality education. Parents and teachers should play their role accordingly to help children.
Author bio –
Katie Bell is a special needs teacher and academic educator at Best Coursework Writers Magazine. She is currently working with special needs children in Pine Oak Secondary School. Her five years of working experience with special needs children has taught him that every child is special and should be treated with care.