Let's Play Projects
All children need opportunities to discover and actively explore the world around them. It's how they learn. However, for many young children with disabilities, play is limited. The Let's Play! Projects provides ideas and strategies to promote play through better access to play materials using assistive technology to give the children this critical access.
National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC)
NECTAC's Overview of AT includes basic information and links to Federal Law, funding and information resources, and more.
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
NAEYC addressed technology and assistive technology in their peer reviewed journal Young Children. For a copy of the article " Assistive Technology: Supporting the Participation of Young Children with Disabilities" go to http://www.naeyc.org/yc/pastissues/2003/november and then scroll down and click on the title.
National Center to Improve Practice in Special Education Through Technology, Media, and Materials (NCIP)
The NCIP Early Childhood Collection includes basic information about selecting and using AT for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. It identifies AT for different needs and describes the benefits of using AT at an early age. Some of the AT examples are from the 1990's and newer AT tools may exist, but information about AT and its benefits is sound. This site provides good background information.
Tots 'n' Tech
The Tots 'n Tech Research Institute (TnT) is an inter-university collaboration whose mission is to provide up-to-date information and resources about adaptations, including assistive technology, to use with infants and toddlers.
The Ideas to Share page is shows a variety of ways that activities can be adapted to make participation possible. The search is easy. You click on either a function the child needs help with or an activity to adapt and receive a variety of ideas with pictures and a *pdf download if you wish to have them available in a print format These are mostly low-tech ideas contributed by people working with young children in early intervention programs across the country.
YAACK
The YAACK website covers issues related to AAC and young children. Its purpose is to provide information and guidance to families, teachers, speech/language pathologists and anyone else who is involved with a child with special communication needs. It is intended to be easy to understand and practical, and to cover a wide range of topics dealing with AAC and AAC-related issues of children at various ages and stages of communication ability, and with different strengths, disabilities and learning characteristics.
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