Giving all Students a Voice "A posting"

The article entitled “Finding a voice in the Classroom; Tips for Good Communication with AAC Users in School,” credited by DynaVox Technologies discusses how students with disabilities affecting their communication can become actively involved and increase their experience at school. The article states that about 400,000 students between 5 and 17 years of age cannot use speech to communicate, because of a disability such as cerebral palsy or autism. An AAC device which stands for Augmentative and Assistive Communications tool can help a student communicate in school. This is a speech-generating tool has many capabilities including it contains the students favorite things, such as candies. With this tool the student can explain their summer vacation and even show digital images. The student can cheer on classmates which increases confidence. The device often has speaker phones and can check in on homework assignments or share something that went on over the weekend. The student can record jokes or anchor a newscast and air it over the school’s system. The student can conduct an interview, order lunch, or sing happy birthday to a classmate. Lastly, this tool can help students to talk and listen, they can respond to more then just yes or no ended questions. They will be able to express their feelings.
I choose this article because I am interested in teaching students with disabilities. Last week I observed an autistic classroom and more then half the students were non-verbal students. A device like this would have been very helpful and encouraging if these students had one. I had heard about speech-generating devices but had never read articles on them and I found this article very interesting. I think an AAC device can help a student to get the most out of their education and experience at school. In the beginning of this semester I had asked the question “What are the most commonly used technologies that help students who are mentally handicapped for example autistic students?” Although this article does not discuss how commonly used this device is, it opens doors to explore the opportunities technology has for students with handicaps. This article also does give an example of a technology that autistic children can use.
If anyone who is reading this posting is interested in reading up on this article I summarized you can access it by this link:

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1094650291&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=8631&RQT=309&VName=PQD