Education Magazine

Excellence In Education Lincoln Daily News January 25, 2023 Page 27 Once students are in grade school, they continue to use visuals to help with communication. In the kindergarten through second grade instructional life skills classroom at Northwest, Juri Kirts uses visual schedules to prepare children for using communication devices. Once students with autism reach the upper elementary level, Speech and Language Pathologist Janna Conrady helps families get communication devices through grants and insurance. Deanna Brooks teaches the third through fifth grade instructional life skills class at Northwest Elementary School and has a child with ASD. One of the main areas Brooks students struggle with is communication, and she has various ways for them to communicate. While younger students use a lot of pictures like PECS, when they get to Brooks, she starts introducing them to communication devices. Brooks has “talker time” to help the students understand how to use the device. In Brooks’ opinion some of the best training you can get is just getting in there and working with the students. As Brooks said, “There are no two individuals with ASD that are the same. Each of my kiddos are so unique and smart in their own ways. Showing them that you are taking an interest in them means so much.” Brooks and others work closely with American Assistive Technology, which will come to the school with multiple different devices and evaluate the students for free. Once an appropriate device has been chosen, the Speech and Language Pathologist (SLP) will write an essay to the student’s insurance to help get it covered. Brooks said, “we have also applied [for] many different grants [to] companies to help get these devices completely covered so that the parents do not have to pay.” Communication has been the main focus in Brooks’ classroom. She said, “I want my students using their devices as much as possible. I want them to not only be able to communicate their wants and needs but also Continued --