Dragonfly: Universal Access Resources / Articles / Teaching Children with Serious Cerebral Palsy About Scanning

Type: ArticlesLinksPlay Tips

---

Teaching Children with Serious Cerebral Palsy About Scanning
By: Renata Bursten, Dragonfly Staff

Using Clicker 4 to teach children the scan method of accessing a computer.

It's sometimes hard to teach a young switch user the principles of scanning. They need simple games where they can try things out, get things wrong, and learn from their mistakes. Try setting up a simple grid full of blank cells using Clicker 4. Put a picture in just one of the cells, and set up this cell to do something dramatic, like play a noisy video or an animation. One of the cells could also take you on to the next grid, which can set up in a similar way, except with the action cell in a different position. All the other cells do nothing. The child can then play with these grids, moving on only when they select the cell with the picture. In this way children can practice hitting the switch at just the right time to make something happen. This is also a great way to assess a child's scanning skills. (adapted from materials from the good folk at Crick)