[SENco-forum] ICT -presenting info in an SEN friendly way.

I know better than most being a parent with children with differing dyslexia
that reality never matches any high flown ideals set by the DDA or any
policy, but we have to keep trying.

BECTA had a wonderful government sponsored scheme called the CAP project.
When the scheme started and it was a great way to plug the gap between the
'haves' (Statemented children) and the 'have not's' (prior to devolved
budgets anyway) and I know of at least 4 children with severe SpLD but no
statements who now access the National Curriculum and Literacy independently
and without readers or scribes etc., because of this scheme. They have their
own laptops with scanners/printers and specialist software.

Initially CAP set out to provide communications aids to any child age 5-18
with SEN who were not Statemented.  It was assumed that Statemented children
had legally protected rights to communications aid equipment, but not all
SENco's knew what to put into the LEA box 6 labelled 'communications aids'
in the mistaken belief that this was just for severely handicapped children
requiring switching systems rather than just plain old ICT, and so even some
of them missed out.

Anyway -

When BECTA realised that there were children who were Statemented who still
didn't get the ICT driven equipment that they needed the scheme was extended
to all children.  It was like opening Pandora's box.  Yucky stuff got out
(LEA's desire not to have to pay for electronic equipment ever again) and
all the money got sucked in, leaving a big black hole where no children get
any ICT support.

It is a sad tale and schools are going to have to understand that more &
more children will be in mainstream schooling that require ICT. So they are
going to have to provide, or let parents provide suitable access to it.  For
me personally it means that while 1 child has a BECTA computer & another
will eventually get money via her DSA (Disabled Student Allowance) to buy a
computer it leaves me having to buy and supply two more laptops for my
equally hampered 16 & 10 year olds. It' not fair, but when is life fair.
Without proper support and teaching they may as well not be in school for
half the subjects.

All I know is that if they don't get the right support now they will not
stay in the Education system long enough to access DSA of their own. The one
who made university eventually has a 151IQ.  But what a waste of a combined
IQ of 397 between the 3 of the others just because the system cannot teach
them in a way that they can learn -SpLD Specific Learning Difference- and
this should not be a disability that excludes them from the education they
need.

Sharon

PS we use IBM x21/31 that weigh about 1kg without the base.  Battery last 4
hours and that is fine for most days.

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Cook [mailto:richard_cook at blueyonder.co.uk]
Sent: 21 October 2006 15:35
To: SEN at tringham.net; Becta Senco
Subject: RE: [senco-forum] Lindamood Bell/presenting info in an SEN
friendlyway.

Sharon wrote:

ICT also provides an excellent way to support many SEN.  Teachers have to
make lesson plans and find or make worksheets anyway so it
should be possible to provide a copy online to be accessed by pupils.

How?

Reality in my school - (new build 4 years old) - there are four rooms with
ICT, three are used 100% of the time to teach business studies/ICT.  KS3
pupils are in there 1 lesson per week.  There is a bookable ICT room which
is heavily used by faculties.  All other classrooms have one machine for the
teacher to use - register & power point.  Pupils do not have access to ICT
on a lesson by lesson basis.  Classes are taught enmasse using books and
worksheets in the main.

Yes of course there are parts of lessons where multi-sensory approaches are
used, and differentiation takes palce, but to accommodate precisely all
needs to any great extent is a dream at present.

Richard

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