Tell us the teacher you want to support

Sandy Jones

I teach a self-contained classroom of students diagnosed with moderate to severe autism. I have 14 students in my classroom, 11 of whom are non-verbal. My needs and wishes are to be able to accommodate my non-verbal students with augmentative communication devices. At the present, there is a software program we can purchase that can be put on 5 separate devices. The best device for this is the IPOD. This would give my students a voice to use to be understood by others. It would impact their lives, their families lives and all the students in the classroom. If I cannot find funding for individual IPODs, funding for 3 IPADs or Androids could be used for 2-3 students or more to share. All students need the reassurance, self-esteem and confidence to be able to speak for themselves. In my classroom this saying is very literal because devices with software actually gives them the voice to speak.