Technology Assisted Active Learning: Aarna’s Case Study

learning. Anticipation starts passively when learners associate two contiguous events initiated by and carried out by another per- son. A hungry infant might stop crying when she hears her approaching mother’s voice and anticipates feeding. Active learning is required for continued development (Ranganath and Richey, 2012). Exploration is intentional and active for two reasons: It processes sensory components of objects in an effort to find attributes that provide pleasure, and it uses those attributes to evoke memories of previous experiences with the sources of those attributes. This results in object identification. At first, a neonate reflexively sucks anything that touches his mouth. As he begins to move his mouth intentionally over his mother’s body, he learns that some parts of the body have the sensory components he finds pleasur- able and some do not. He sucks when he identifies the part of the body that provided food in the past (Richmond and Nelson, 2007). Object permanence, the understanding that a thing continues to exist when there is no direct sensory perception of it, develops as experiences store up in long-term memory. An infant explores a toy, discovers a sensory component that he likes, loses contact with the toy, and searches for it when he wants to experience the pleasurable attribute again. At first, an infant initiates a search almost immediately after separation. Gradually, longer intervals occur. During snack time, a learner might eat crackers for several minutes before he gets thirsty and searches for his cup of juice (Bremner et al, 2015). Cause and effect skills emerge when learners want to make something they enjoy happen again. The relationship between the learner’s body and the object acted upon is direct. The learner may achieve the desired effect with movement of any part of her body. She demonstrates understanding of cause and effect relationships with planned and initiated movements. The cognitive skill develops with or without full execution of the desired action. Searching for a spoon is object permanence. Picking it up and banging with it is cause and effect. The action of the hand with the spoon is the cause and the sound of banging is the effect. At first, cause and effect behaviors are egocentric. What other people do with spoons is not important yet (Saxe and Carey, 2006). When the relationship of objects to other people becomes interesting, the skill of imitation emerges. Attention to the actions of another person is typically visual. Visual attention activates mirror neurons that stimulate activity in the motor processing parts of the brain. The patterns of electrical activity in the watcher’s brain mirror those of the doer. Imitation occurs when the watcher plans and initiates the doer’s action. Full execution of the action is not necessary for coherence—understanding what is happening (Melt- zoff and Prinz, 2002). Visual modeling is a powerful tool for creating motor imaging. Tactile modeling also creates motor imaging. Tactile modeling is not hand-over-hand manipulation. Rather, it is hand-under-hand support during which, to the maximum extent possible, the watcher’s hand ‘rides’ the doer’s hand (Chen and Downing, 2006). When a learner wants something to happen (an effect) and cannot cause it to happen directly with the movement of some part of her body, tools solve the problem. Tool use or means/ends skills require the learner to understand the relationship not simply between her own body and the object she wants to effect, but also between her body, the tool she will use and the object that is the source of the desired effect. Using the hand, head or foot to tap the touch screen on a device to hear the sounds it produces is cause and effect. Using the hand, head or foot to press a switch that activates a sound source is tool use or means/ends. The rela- tionship between the body and the object is no longer direct. There is now a three-way relationship between the body, the tool and the object. Establishing direct body/object cause and effect relationships helps learners understand that the switch tool is not the source of the desired effect (Deak, 2014). The development of spatial relationships starts with exploration and becomes more refined as skills develop. First, an infant learns the spatial relationships related to his own body parts. He can put his thumb in his mouth. He then learns the spatial rela- tionships between his body and the objects around him. He can put a toy in his mouth. Still later, he develops understanding of the spatial relationships of objects to other objects. He can put the toy in a box (Vasilyeva and Lourence, 2012). SEMANTIC DEVELOPMENT Semantics is the study of the development of meaning in language. When a word has meaning, hearing it calls to mind expe- riences with the thing to which the word refers. This mental lexicon is a powerful tool for developing coherence. When learners understand the meaning of words, they can predict events and organize experiences into categories that generalize to multiple contexts. Meaning develops sequentially in interactions with objects and people (Pecher and Zwann, 2005). • Sensory component processing: How does the thing look, feel, sound, taste and smell? • Comparison: How is it similar to or different from other things? • Evoked memory: Do attributes call to mind previous experiences with it? • Use: What can I do with it? • Relationship to others: What do other people do with it? • Naming: What do people call it? Each step in the chain presents unique challenges for learners with severe multiple disabilities. When visual impairments, hearing loss and motor impairments limit access to information, accommodations for sensory component processing and comparison make

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