The chapter had several points that really triggered reflective thoughts for me.
1. The section regarding personality and temperment. I completely agree that there are individuals that feel "stuck" and that "stuckness feeds on itself". I beleive though this idea applies to all individuals that have low self esteem, are less assertive and have trouble self advocating not just those individuals with disabilities with those personalitity traits. Also just as one can become stuck it only takes "a little battle won to build you up". Everyone needs a mental perk to get the motivation to persevere. Sometimes I think that people that feel they are disadvantaged (or disabled) are the ones that feel they have the most to prove and are motivated to prove others wrong. Again that inner strength is part of ones personality and temperment.
2. Very interesting the number of references to training with AT devices. There was great emphasis on having training for the user but also the importance for the secondary people involved. Being at school and always having such time constraints (it feels)it is a great concern for me that I am not using even the resources I have currently avaliable to their potential. Also people at the board level are spread so thin that it is difficult for them to have inservice at the school level.
3. I am really excited to learn about the itouch and the proloquo2go. According to the design factors for the highest rate of use AT devices (as listed in the chapter) no wonder this device is gaining such popularity with all individuals. I am thinking this course could be timed any better! I recently found out that our board (Valley) has just acquired some itouches and the SLP's will be responsible to provide them to students in schools. Again I am concerned with the amount the SLP's have been trained, the amount of the they have in our schools and that time being allocated for training us at the school level. I'm hoping this course will provide a pre training for me and maybe make me feel more comfortable using it and offering it to a student I have in mind. Service delivery!
I'm getting excited about the hands on part of this course!
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