Technology Helping Expression

Many parents and teachers of children with special needs wonder if using technology to communicate is a good idea, or if it will stifle and get in the way of oral speech production. Application development has definitely come a long way in this area of technology. As children progress through typical stages of language development, they are usually quick to find oral speech to be the easiest and fastest way to get a message across. But for some children with a variety of speech, cognitive or physical impairments, verbal speech is not an effective way to communicate. It's important to remember that we communicate in many different ways. We use facial expressions, gestures and body language, writing and oral speech, to name a few. If verbal speech is impeded, assistive technology can help them discover the joys of expressing themselves. One of the best devices are the tablets where children can use apps that have pictures and sounds to get across whatever it is that they want to say. What do you think about the help of technology when there are impairments in either speech or other forms of expression?

Pay Attention

As you are reading this post, I bet that you have other things to do such as getting back to web development project or answer the emails that are piling up in your inbox. You are also probably chatting on Facebook, checking your phones, and trying to do something else. There is only one way to avoid this situation, which no one ever does because there's too much risk. The first is to all out shut down your phone and all forms of social media. This includes phone powered down entirely, not even glancing at Facebook for a second, and even avoiding Gmail because Google had the genius idea of making that social. The risk that exists in this situation is the fact that if, on the off-chance, something actually important happens, you will forever be blamed for not helping. I have found that because of all the technology and constant connectivity, people, myself included, have found it near impossible to even stay focused on the conversation topic. I have been in the middle of a sentence, and had friends start talking about a completely different event that happened. Try to keep track of the conversation and all you will end up with is a headache.