Special Education

Shana Baber

Cued Speech and Its Use by Speech-Language Pathologists

Cued speech was originally developed as a teaching technique to be used with deaf students by Dr. R. Orin Cornett. Cued speech, consisting of eight handshapes (for the consonants) and four positions around the face (for the vowels) in combination with visual information provided on the face and lips, will be demonstrated. This technique permits representation of all phonemes, or speech sounds, of spoken language in a visual form. Because of its integration of multiple senses and brain areas -- sound, sight, kinesthesia, and motor movement -- this presentation will address how cued speech may be particularly well suited to help many students with exceptional needs, regardless of their hearing status.

Session B - 10 a.m. - Room 350.

Megan Bultsma and Sarah Gibbons

A Collaboration in Assistive and Educational Technology: Department of Special Education, Eastern Michigan University and C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, The University of Michigan

This presentation chronicles the experiences of our one and a half year internship with C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. The internship was created in an effort to bring state of the art educational and assistive technology to the hospital to better serve patients, some of whom have exceptional learning needs. The internship produced tangible products which included training manuals, an assistive technology cart, videoconferencing system for distance learning, and a K-12 educational software library.

Session B - 10:45 a.m. - Room 352.

Reeda Firth-Harrison

The Effects of Brain Gym on Visual Response Time

This study examines the use of brain gym and how it effects the visual response time of students who are visually impaired and learning disabled. Brain gym is a program that incorporates cross-motor activities to activate the brain and theoretically increase eye-teaming skills as well as learning. This project involved recording visual response times before and after brain gym movements. The impact of brain gym on visual response is examined.

Session C - 11:30 a.m. - Room 301.

Claire Letendre

Can You Hear Me Now?

Becoming a teacher of the hearing impaired requires one to be knowledgeable of the anatomy and physiology of the ear. Learning how normal hearing occurs is the first step, before learning the different types and ways of describing a hearing loss. This presentation was developed for the introductory course for students majoring in hearing impairment. This course focuses on basic knowledge of hearing impairments and teaching strategies for this population. The purpose of this multi-media presentation was to provide an overview of critical anatomical and physiological elements of hearing prior to enrollment in the next course, "Introduction to Audiology."

Session B - 10:15 a.m. - Room 350.

Allysa Rivet

An Adapted Speech Assessment for Young Children with Hearing Impairments

This test was designed to determine whether a child is able to produce a certain sound in the initial, medial and final positions of words. Instead of giving the child a list of words to pronounce, the child is shown common pictures to name. This allows a child with little or no reading ability to be tested to determine which sounds the child has mastered or needs work on. As a special point of interest, a videotape demonstrating my administration of the test to a preschool child who has a hearing impairment will be shown.

Session C - 12:3 0 p.m. - Room 352.