Metaplay 3
July 17, 2009
Turns out, I’m not quite ready to do the play vocab list yet. I haven’t introduced the whole framework. I should explain the framework before I fill it in. There’s a bunch of categories I need to outline and define.
The whole thing makes something of a matrix when it is done. This is a rough draft: you are seeing it pretty much at the same time as I am so wish me luck.
Here we go.
We can improve on this.
Parallel Play
June 28, 2009
Parallel play
Parallel play is when two children are playing the same play frame, but not collaborating with one another or influencing one another’s play directly.
Rather than through negotiation, the two children’s play frames are synchronized and coordinated by imitation. You often see one child repeating the same action that another child does. (Classic Vygotsky: the play frame is in their ZPD and they are learning how to act in it from one another).
This poses problems for kids with disabilities: #1: their motor and linguistic capacity to imitate.
Can our kid actually perform the physical actions of driving the car up the ramp or putting a dress on Barbie? This is a problem (but is a little out of my universe as an SLP. I’ll let the OT and Rec Therapists work on this one).
Can a child using AAC imitate something that another child says that sounds interesting?
No.
Disabilities in pop culture 7
March 31, 2009
I loved this scene from season 5 of Malcolm in the Middle.
Malcolm and Stevie
Stevie has stopped talking in this episode and is using an AAC device.
Would an AAC device in real life survive that sprinkler?
Stevie: (with computer) Thanks, Malcolm, that is what I really needed to hear.
Malcolm: Oh, good.
Stevie: (with computer) This thing sucks at sarcasm.
It’s funny because it’s true!
AAC in the news
March 30, 2009
Click me
Watch this video from the Today Show.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/#29955316
Augie’s system that he was using before the eye-gaze system is Dasher. He can continue to use Dasher with the new Dynavox eye-gaze system. If the current system is working for him, I hope he does.
Mintpad (proto-Siftable?)
March 25, 2009
Wow! Right after I repost the Siftable video, this thing is announced for release in the U.S.
Mintpad tablet device
I could see this thing replacing the BigMack or Step-by-Step devices. They’re about the same price and a million times more adaptable and capable.
Get the price down to $50 and use their networking capabilities to make an ad-hoc network with one another and you’ve almost got Siftables.
I think this is one of those technologies that the manufacturer is going to be astonished at what the end-user ends up doing with their product. The applications they are planning for this are all wrong. This thing is destined to be an interactive toy or an accessory to a more powerful central device. If I ran an AAC company, I’d be pushing to get the price down to $50 each and I’d sell them in packs of 6 or 9.
Engadget writes about Mintpad
Siftables
March 24, 2009
Let’s repost this with the video.
Does an AAC device have to be a single device? What about an array of devices?
I look at this and think of blocks that are also an AAC device. Embedding communication into the play context is the key to authentic interaction. Dividing attention between the play context and a separate communication device is a barrier.
“That’s not fair”
March 15, 2009
I don’t know how to embed TED talks in WordPress, so click on this link and watch the video. Then come back here.
The key to using technology to overcome disabilities is to not try to duplicate the functioning of a “normal” person, but to give people capacities that they wouldn’t ordinarily have had.
AAC devices are not, and will never be, a “prosthetic voice” no matter how hard we work on designing them. We’re artificially limiting ourselves by trying. We can do better. We can make AAC a more powerful communication method.
Update: YouTube saves the day
Kindle, Text-to-speech, and AAC: a rant
March 5, 2009
Here is my issue with the Author’s Guild— synthesized speech is a “derivative work” to them. As in, an interpretation of an author’s words and not the author’s words themselves.
Amazon's Kindle 2 e-book
So what are the implications of such an idea on AAC users? We’ve been holding to the philosophy that the AAC user is the originator and that the AAC output is that person’s “voice.”
So, if Kindle’s output isn’t the authors’ words, what is AAC output? Is it really the person’s words or some derivative of it?
Text-to-speech under attack
February 27, 2009
In case you were not aware, Amazon’s Kindle 2 electronic book contains a text-to-speech feature that reads e-books out loud using synthesized speech.
Amazon's Kindle 2 e-book
People with vision impairments or who are otherwise unable to read can download the newspaper or a novel from anywhere (it uses 3G over the cell-phone network) and it will read it aloud.
Cool feature, right?
Roy Blount Jr, president of the Author’s Guild doesn’t think so. Read the rest of this entry »
Cognitive maps
February 24, 2009
So let’s say you are here
you see this sign
and you want to go the third floor.
Do you go up the stairs or or down? What does the sign indicate?
The sign indicates that the third floor is down from where you are standing. It may seem obvious to you that this isn’t right, but why?
