By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-803119.mp3
Dallas, TX – Education experts say computers may be the answer to teaching disabled children. That's after a decade of success with specialized computers in Dallas Head Start programs. KERA's Bill Zeeble reports.
Thanks to evolving software and technology, classroom computers are becoming more important than ever.
Step into this class taught by Daina Moses at UT Dallas' Callier Center. The school and research facility teaches many hearing impaired children. A couple of normal hearing 5 year olds sit next to two hearing-impaired children. They are in front of the KidSmart Young Explorer computer screen and keyboard, a nearly child-proof IBM product. It looks more like a playhouse than computer. A sign language lesson is on the screen. Despite the disabilities, Moses says all four students are learning and communicating with each other.
Daina Moses, Teacher: Kids do well with it because it's for kids of all levels. We have hearing impaired and normal hearing. They all can feel successful using the programs.
Moses says because they're so young, the children rapidly pick up sign language. They also learn social lessons, like sharing, and conversation.
Moses: The kids are much more confident and outgoing. They help each other with different things on the computer. I have a little bitty kiddo who's shy, but her computer skills are really good. So I pair her with new kids and ask her to teach the computer and you can see her blossom.
Classroom software for disabled children grew out of an early childhood education program used for Head Start. Wanda Smith is CEO of the Dallas program and praises the software's benefits. She says her students were introduced to computers when most lacked them at home. Not only did computers help teach them math and reading, Smith says her students are now comfortable with technology.
Wanda Smith, Dallas Head Start CEO: If the program had not been developed, what would 10,000 of our children, who've been exposed, what would have happened to them when they went into public schools? It's not a pretty thought.
While research hasn't yet proven students learning with computers outperform those without, Susan Hoff's already convinced. She's president of the ChildCare Group, which teaches low income pre-schoolers.
Susan Hoff, President, ChildCare Group: The children that have this opportunity are head and shoulders above those who don't. We know in DISD about 35-40 percent of children get to kindergarten behind. Part of the development lag is not knowing how to use computers or learning tools. This gives kids that important access they need to get to school and not be behind. It's not rocket science to see when we have 40 percent behind in kindergarten and a 40 percent dropout rate. We need to start on the front end.
Dr. Bert Moore, who is a Dean at UTD also swears by specialized classroom computers.
Burt Moore, Dean of Behavioral and Brain Science at UTD: Not only has it been shown to enhance general cognitive abilities, but it also makes them part of the community that they'll enter. So at every level its important. Computer literacy is an absolute requirement for moving into schools these days. They'll be forever left behind otherwise.
These early-education computers and those for learning-disabled students in Dallas have been donated. DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa says he only regrets not having enough for everyone since they are expensive.