Michael (IEP 3)

     Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance: Michael is in the second grade classroom for most of the school day. He is interested in the material being presented by the teacher and wants to participate. He has a full time paraprofessional who assists him. He has difficulty being an active participant in academics because he uses a voice output AAC device and frequently does not have the “right” answer. The teacher is concerned at the amount of time it currently takes while Michael struggles to answer questions. The teacher is interested in finding ways for Michael to more actively participate.

   Annual Goal: Michael will use eye gaze and prerecorded messages to respond to appropriately phrased questions in four subject area classes, mathematics, reading, science and social studies in three out of five opportunities.

The eye gaze and prerecorded message will allow Michael to be an active part of his class. This gives him multiple ways to communicate in a faster manner so he no longer has to struggle to think quickly or rely on a device that does not work well for his unique needs. 





Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative 

Johnny (IEP 2)

      Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance: Johnny uses his right hand to write and to physically position his left arm and hand. He has difficulty managing papers as he writes. He collects and utilizes a lap tray, incline board, non-slip mat and modified clipboard but often waits for staff to set up modifications.

 Annual Goal: Johnny will initiate the set-up of his writing station 80% of the time given a chart of needed materials for each task.


The best tool for Johnny would be an incline board with a non-slip mat. This will help Johnny with managing his papers. It will also help him with him improve his posture and his penmanship. This tool allows Johnny to work to the best of his ability without feeling frustrated about losing or misplacing his papers. 




Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative 

Eric (IEP 1)

    Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance: Eric participates in regular education programs for his academic subjects. His hand strength is limited and he fatigues quickly when doing any handwriting task. Civics and English homework are a particular problem because of lengthy assignments and reports that need to be completed.

   Annual Goal: Eric will use a computer or portable word processor to complete 100% of his assignments in 10th grade English and Civics classes.

The device that best suit Eric's needs is a laptop computer. It would be the most beneficial for his needs. Laptop computers are extremely light weight and would be easy to carry from one class to another. Eric would be able to keep up with his peers work load wise. It allows his to keep notes, write papers (and send them to the teacher via e-mail), and it also is able to offer a wide variety of other options (making the font bigger, different color background, etc) if he were to need them.



Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative 

AT & IEPs

My last chunk of blogs from October focused solely on Assistive Technology devices and the students who would benefit most from those services. I hope you learned as much as I did! This new cluster of blogs will focus on AT and Individualized Education Plans (IEP) and how as educators we can implement them into our classrooms. 

In the next five blogs, we will take a look at the students present level(s) and annual goals and the device(s) that would be appropriate for that student.