Special Projects Grant: AAC Device

Submitted by: Corinna Fulton

The staff and students of H.S. Paul would like to thank the Manitoba Association of Multiage Educators (MAME) for providing a Special Projects Grant to our school. This $1000 grant has allowed us to purchase an iPad, along with the required apps Proloquo2Go and Pictello, as a “talker” for students with communication needs. Many of these students are diagnosed with Autism and need lots and lots of modeling to learn how to use their device and recognize the vocabulary so they have it at their fingertips. Oftentimes, many of these students are on a long wait list to receive personal devices. Having a school device for adults to model with helps provide these students the tools they need to communicate their wants and needs at a faster rate. In addition, this device will be used by classroom teachers to become more familiar with the tools and apps. This will allow them to interact more easily with the students in their classrooms who have their own device. We are also looking forward to the opportunity to use this device to model for whole class groups so that the use of the device becomes normalized and students can also use it to communicate with minimally speaking classmates. We can’t wait for this device to be used widely throughout the school on a regular daily basis!