Morgan, Music and Friends
As Morgan works on his story about music, classmates walk by with curiosity. They stop to check out the program and tell him how cool it is. An ancillary benefit of the TAP experiment is the increased positive integration that has occurred in the classroom. The computerized lessons have offered an opportunity for independent learning that is highly motivating, which is a key benefit. Repetition that is built into the structure of the lesson has been a worthwhile learning tool for this student with Down syndrome. While working completely independently for a time period of 20 minutes a day, he has gained a better understanding of word order and sentence structure. Overall, TAP has created an exceedingly successful learning tool that capitalizes on the very motivational use of computers with high interest story topics. All the topics chosen were of interest to Morgan, which kept him on task and keen to stay involved. Access to the computer has been a highlight for Morgan's Grade 5 year.

Denise Delights in Doing
Denise enjoyed working on the computer! She worked on the Clicker 5 program for about 15 minutes, 3 times a week. At the beginning Denise liked to press the buttons but would press the same key too many times. Now she will say out loud, “not too hard, only once. While using the Clicker grid set for the monthly writing sample, she could read the first sentence on her own:” This is a ______.” Near the end she liked to try and read the words by moving the mouse to each word while repeating what they said. Denise became very confident in setting up the computer and was able to move to the various screens. Denise really wants to read books on her own and this work has helped her with her vocabulary both recognizing the written word and with her speech. She is now speaking using 4 to 5 words in her sentence. Well done, Denise!

Justin Just Loves his Computer!
Justin, a grade 6 student in Saanich has been using Balanced Literacy and Clicker 5 on a laptop from SET-BC. Justin’s team reported that participation in the TAP project has increased Justin’s language with familiar adults and peers, has increased his understanding of word families, and increased his awareness of grammar. Justin is very motivated by the software activities and for example, sings along in Balanced Literacy. The Clicker 5 materials from curriculum SET were a perfect match for Justin’s language and literacy level. curriculmSET materials such as “Zoo Animals”, “Music”, and “Valentines” were very engaging and motivating. Justin’s team has used curriculumSET activities as templates to create their own materials on shared student activities such as “Camping”. When asked about his computer, Justin happily stated “I love it!”

Colton's Confidence Soars
Colton’s team is pleased to share his success: “The computer has really boosted Colton’s self-esteem. Colton can show the other students how to do things on the computer. He really enjoys the computer and gets totally involved. I can't believe how he has taken off with learning to read. He is an amazing young man. I can hardly believe how much progress he has made lately.”