Improving access to technology at Grandview: new iPads and a SMART Board
Technology is helping change children's lives at Grandview Children's Centre.
Grandview Children's Foundation recently made a significant financial contribution to boost the technological capabilities of Grandview Children's Centre with the purchase of new iPads and a SMART Board.
Studies show:
- tablet technology facilitates communication with children and youth who have special needs in the area of speech and language
- touch screen technology enables easier access to technology for children with coordination and learning challenges
- it is easier to tap on a touch screen than to write or type
- the flexibility and portability of tablet technology benefits children and youth who have physical disabilities
- iPads are used by a wide variety of people; therefore, providing children and youth with access to iPads may result in less alienation from peers, and increased integration and inclusion
Staff, families, Foundation and Centre Board Members and Linda Kenny, Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Association of Children's Rehabilitation Services, along with members of the local media, attended a joint Foundation-Centre Media Event on June 14, 2012 held to publicly announce aquisition of the new technology. Lorraine Sunstrum-Mann, Executive Director of Grandview Children's Centre, conveyed the significance of the iPad and SMART Board donation to our guests: "At Grandview, we are pushing to ensure that we are bringing technological solutions to the children, youth and families we serve to help them meet their goals."
Lorraine explained, "We have known the use of technology as prescribed augmentative communication devices for some time; however, the donation of iPad and SMART Board technology allows us to imagine broadly how we may introduce and continually improve technology at Grandview Children's Centre, and access to technology for our clients."
Grandview's clinical staff, and in particular our iPad Super User Group, are working on discovering the best app (software application) options, out of literally thousands available, to enhance and augment the professional knowledge they possess to create programs and therapy plans with their clients.
Grandview Children's Centre thanks Grandview Children's Foundation for making the donation of new iPads and SMART Board technology possible.
Click here to read the June 19, 2012 article, "Going high-tech at Durham's Grandview Children's Centre: iPads open new doors for Durham kids with disabilities" by Jillian Follert, reporter for durhamregion.com / Metroland Media Group.
For more pictures from the iPad Media Event, click here