Dylan's Success Story
"I want to do that!""I did it all by myself!"
"I'm a smart boy, right?"
Comments from a typical child? Wrong!
Meet Dylan, an eager, enthusiastic, eight year old boy who enjoys school and the process of learning. Integrated into a grade two classroom, this active youngster with cerebral palsy and who is legally blind, wants more than anything to be doing what the others are engaged in. Whether its working on a spider unit or remembering penguin facts, Dylan accomplishes a variety of tasks with the use of a computer, an IntelliTalk program and a closed circuit television provided by SET-BC.
Technology, both in the classroom and at home, allows Dylan to compensate for his limited vision and poor fine motor control. The school based team approach helps to put a plan of action into play, building upon his strengths. Simple tasks such as; fill in the blanks, alphabetical order, unscramble the word, fact finding and poetry forms are done with greater independence using the intellikeys overlays. The use of an ergonomic keyboard assists him with journal and story writing where a push of a button automatically reads it back to him. It is evident to those who work closely with Dylan that he likes school.
In his own words, Dylan's greatest success is "Having lots of friends."