ACCESSIBILITY TOOL FOR SPEECH LANGUAGE INTERVENTION

Nikki Heyman, a speech language therapist works with a varied youth population that includes students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and non-verbal students. A proponent of technology for language intervention with children, today she uses Plotagon Studio to help students articulate and understand their experiences through animation. The impact, she says, has been “amazing.”

HELPING STUDENTS EXPRESS THEMSELVES

For example, her students with Autism Spectrum Disorder, who often have difficulty identifying social cues and expressions, create social stories in which they reenact situations from their own personal experience. The resulting animated videos serve as a visual record to better understand appropriate behaviour, delineating personal boundaries and the nuances of everyday life that the students may previously have misunderstood.

It’s an amazing tool, just to have the social modelling together with the video says Heyman.

ENCOURAGING WRITING

Heyman directs the writing process by combining the analog and digital worlds: each student writes the scenario and dialogue in a notebook and then dictates the text to Heyman. She then transcribes the story into the Plotagon Studio application on her computer and reviews the resulting script onscreen with the student.

But more than the process, it’s the end product that ultimately motivates the students, turning reluctant writers into enthusiastic moviemakers. The play button is the carrot, says Heyman. The animated video that they produce in the end is something that the students are excited to share with parents, relatives and friends.

These same students who are taken out of their regular classes for speech therapy and who often struggle to complete assignments enthusiastically describe their new craft to their classmates.

Now they have something that’s even better than the kids who don’t come out for therapy, says Heyman.They’re really proud of it.

SOCIAL STORIES

Here is another example: L is a 16 year-old boy with ASD. He arrived for his session and went to the bathroom, but he left the door wide open. By the time he returned to the room, I had created the social story below for him. He no longer leaves the door open when he uses the bathroom.

Children with language difficulties are often reluctant writers. Read how Nikki Heyman uses Plotagon Studio to help encourage her students to write.

Nikki Heyman is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Check out here blog Talking Talk to learn more about her work.