Effective Technology: Integration for Disabled Children: The Family Perspective explores microcomputer-based special education intervention programs aimed at advancing mildly handicapped children and empowering their parents. The book applies the stress, resources and coping model to families with disabled children, examining specific components of the pro§ posed model through family surveys and studies, and presenting future directions for research and experimentation. The book also offers an overview of the research related to effective integration of computers into the special education system, with particular attention to a cognitive approach to skill development through various software programs. Effective Technol§ ogy: Integration For Disabled Children is intended for researchers and practitioners in a wide range of fields interested in family research and parent-empowering interventions as well as for those involved in technology integration within special education contexts.

This guide presents strategies for applying technology to help students who have cognitive and physical disabilities, and shows how technology is useful not only in presenting curriculum and assessing students, but also in the administration and organization of special education programs. Case studies and descriptions of state-of-the-art applications illustrate how technology can help students with disabilities master complex materials and basic skills and how technology can support educators in assessing and evaluating students' progress. Chapter 1 describes the most common challenges associated with educating children with disabilities and discusses research-validated approaches in assistive instruction and assessment technologies. Chapter 2 demystifies the process of determining what technology will best meet student needs and discusses the cost effective acquisition of those technologies. Chapter 3 delineates strategies necessary to ensure that technology investments produce continuous learning improvements, including the establishment of a technology team and devising a long-range technology plan. Chapter 4 provides assistance in finding the help needed to make technology "pay off." It includes an extensive resource list that provides contact information and describes national, state, and local organizations, information centers, clearinghouses, and research group that provide services, information, and demonstrations of technology. An appendix includes relevant federal documents on assistive technology. (CR)

-Assess children's AT needs --

This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. A current look at the most effective uses of assistive technology for students with disabilities that emphasizes the link between technology and learning. This updated text focuses on the use of assistive technology to increase the independence and participation of students with disabilities in schools by providing them with access to the curriculum. With an emphasis on both the relationship between assistive technology and learning and on how assistive technology can be integrated into the curriculum, this text assesses the school-related tasks that students with special needs must perform in order to be successful. Additionally, this text provides descriptions of technology-based solutions, presenting these obstacles in clear, engaging prose. Instead of approaching this topic through disability categories, this book recognizes that each child is unique and that there are multiple factors to examine before choosing technology tools for each student. Throughout the book, assistive technology tools are not discussed in isolation — the context for technology use is always the classroom, the teaching-learning process, and its impact on students with disabilities.