Christina's Success Story
March 2009
Christina was one of the first students in Maple Ridge to be referred to SET-BC as part of the TAP (Technology Access Project) for students who are coded in the Moderate to Profound Intellectual Disability category (C). She was an excellent referral due to the work the school team had done over the years with Clicker 4 and the differences the use of technology made for Christina in her school environment.
Christina has become a writer in a supported Clicker 5 environment where she uses a set of inter-connected journal grids to write about her favourite topics. She writes with idea support but navigates the grids and prints independently. She is very proud to show off her newest writing about Kim Possible or Shego.
Christina‘s speech has developed with her writing and reading and she can now read aloud what she writes.
She keeps a hard copy of her writing as a journal, which she will take with her when she goes to high school next year. Her new support team will be able to see her writing ability and find out about her interests as well. This will provide them with necessary baseline program information for reporting purposes, while giving them a nice introduction to her through the writing.
The difference technology has made in Christina’s willingness to be at school has been significant. She is capable, self motivated, mostly independent using her technology and very proud to be a writer and reader! She appropriately asks for help when she needs it and is quick to look in her grids for the information they suggest. The team sometimes enters information in Christina’s writing (in small font) about the content that was done independently and what she needed assistance with. Alternatively they will print her independent draft and then a copy of what was done with guidance.
Christina is a terrific example of the power technology can make in the lives of students who were not perceived as readers or writers before technology use.