Switch It Up in a NY Minute! Teaching Students with Complex…

INTRODUCTION Students with Complex Communication Needs (CCN), significant physical disabilities, and Cortical Vision Impairment (CVI) have profound challenges with communication, mobility and physically accomplishing basic school tasks. Throughout the day, they may be “observers from the bleachers”, having little opportunities for true, independent participation and access to activities. Figuring out how to reverse this and put students in the driver’s seat might appear complex at first, but it is a very do-able process once you breakdown the components! When it comes to learning, finding what is meaningful for these students is key to unlocking their potential. Yet, despite our best efforts, we sometimes find ourselves facing roadblocks. We have all most likely experienced this. Is your student showing disinterest in using switches? Does your student bang and throw switches? Are you struggling to teach them the essential skills of scanning on an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device? Perhaps you've been stuck in a rut, using the same tired switch games year after year, feeling like creativity has hit a dead end. If any of this sounds familiar, fear not! This article is here to offer a fresh perspective with solutions to help you " SWITCH IT UP " and to reignite enthusiasm in your students and your classroom. GUIDING PRINCIPLES Successful teaching of switch access is not just about the activity and the AT, but it’s also about the professionals’ being on the same page with the important beliefs and knowledge. NO COGNITIVE PREREQUISITES: Professionals may believe that students need to have a certain prerequisite set of cognitive skills for using switches. Students may bang, slap and attempt to throw switches. This often leads to professionals thinking that these students “aren’t ready” for switches or that they need to work on cause/effect. These students typically end up getting access to only “cause/effect,” activities devoid of social interactions and real-life context – which is what they really need to build understandings. WATCH OUT FOR A TESTING AGENDA: Professionals may focus on accuracy and timing of switch access in a mechanical trials- based manner. This type of testing agenda where students have to hit switches on demand does not allow students to develop the thought processes and problem-solving skills which are necessary for developing the motor planning skills needed for switch access. Instead, make switch activities authentic and based on real life, motivating interactions. While it is important to track progress, gathering data can be done through naturally occurring activities.

CORTICAL VISION IMPAIRMENT (CVI): Many of our students have CVI. CVI is a complicated, and often unrecognized diagnosis, and each student has different visual abilities and needs. Some students may benefit from switch activities with black backgrounds with simple neon-colored items with slight animation to help engage students’ vision. Whatever their needs are, don’t let vision be a gatekeeper to engaging in switch activities. Students with CVI may have difficulty looking and listening simultaneously-especially in busy, loud classrooms. Bottom line is...don’t force students to use their vision for activities. If it is already hard to use a switch, decrease the visual demands. Choose activities that have auditory and tactual components so that vision is not necessary. Talk to your Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI) for guidance about students’ vision needs, as well as the visual presentation and positioning of switch activities. FIND THE RIGHT ACCESS METHOD: Students with significant physical issues often end up with the wrong access method to access AAC device and basic school tasks. Many students struggle to use an AAC device with their hands or eye gaze and can point to just a few individual messages. Frequently, those students would have access to far more vocabulary if they could use switches for scan through the messages. Another common scenario is when students are struggling to use 1 switch with high reaction time demands when they should be learning to use 2 switches! Professionals need to use the access framework to determine the access method that gives the students access to as much vocabulary as possible-with room to grow. BALANCE THE PHYSICAL & LANGUAGE DEMANDS: When struggling switch users are faced with learning to use switches with AAC devices and during academics, they often fail because, the cognitive/language demands AND the physical demands – simultaneously - are far too high resulting in student shut down. Struggling switch users will have far more success when these skills are broken apart. “Learning motor skills requires conscious effort and, therefore, occupies the individual’s working memory until it reaches a level of automaticity. The brain’s working memory can only focus on a limited amount of information at one time. Anything that is not automatic occupies working memory, which limits available working memory for learning new tasks. It is now widely accepted that individuals can learn skills in parallel," (Burkhart, 2018). Focus on building the physical skills for switches during fun, failure free motor activities with minimal language demands. During lessons with heavy language demands, such as using AAC devices/academics, minimize the physical demands so that students can devote their energy and focus to the content. A possible solution in these situations is partner assisted scanning (PAS). PAS can be an invaluable strategy for giving struggling scanners access to AAC. During PAS, the communication partner verbally and/or auditorily lists out choices for the student. When the student sees and/or hears what they want,

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