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Tips for Planning: Before You Begin
At the team meeting, choose someone to write all topics where everyone
participating can see them. We suggest large flip chart pages or
individual posters with headers: Student, Environment, Tasks and
Tools. The team will identify tasks the child needs to be able to
do and the relationship of the child's abilities/difficulties and
environment to the child's performance of the tasks.
The following questions and aids are designed to assist with this
process.
The Student
When first considering what the student needs to be able to do,
it is fine to be global. "Talk" or "write" may
be appropriate answers, though some elaboration is desirable. This
will be made more specific in the Tasks section. The primary goal
is to begin to establish consensus among group members about what
it is really important for this student to be able to do and the
barriers that keep the student from doing whatever needs to be done.
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What does the Student need to do? (main
areas of concern)
What are the Student's special
needs?
What are the Student's current
abilities?
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- It must be kept in mind that ALL data on a student is
not pertinent to choosing and using assistive technology.
The objective is to share information on the student's
abilities, preferences and barriers to learning and to
work for group consensus
- Keep in mind that, no matter how great the needs, everyone
has abilities and preferences that can be built upon and
enhanced.
- For the Student, identify What We Know and What
We Need To Know
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The Environment
For every student, multiple environments must be considered, as
no student exists in only one environment. When considering only
school environments, the differences are profound among the classroom(s)
at different hours of the day, the playground, the cafeteria, the
hallway, the bus stop and a variety of other environments a student
experiences. In each environment, there are factors to consider
including arrangements, support, materials and equipment, and attitudes.
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What are the
instructional and physical arrangements?
Are there special concerns?
What materials
and equipment are currently available in
the environments?
What supports
are available to the student and the people
working with the student on a daily basis?
How are the
attitudes and expectations of the people
in the environment likely to affect the
student's performance?
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- Don't overlook the anticipated arrangement of the environment.
Think: ACCESSIBILITY!
- Who might be responsible for supporting the student? How
much training may be needed?
- The physical environment isn't the only environment to
examine. Perhaps the emotional environment (attitudes and
expectations of people) needs some adjustments too!
- For the Environment, identify What We Know and
What We Need To Know.
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The Tasks
The purpose of identifying tasks is to determine which current
opportunities will enable the student to move toward mastery of
his/her goals. If the answer is "None," then AT tools
will not solve the problem, as they are just a means to participate
in activities that build knowledge and skills. If there are no tasks
that provide meaningful practice, mastery cannot possibly be expected.
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What activities occur in
the student's natural environments which
enable progress toward mastery of identified
goals?
What is everyone else doing?
What are the critical elements
of the activities?
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- Start with "what everybody else is doing", but
recognize that participating in the same activities doesn't
always to lead to the same results for all students.
- Find a good balance. Consider activity modifications that
can increase participation for students with disabilities
while not changing the critical components of the activity.
- Activities generally call for clusters of skills, not
single, isolated skills
- A simplified task analysis may be helpful to determine
what elements of a task would be difficult or impossible
for a student to do without significant assistance.
- For the Tasks, identify What We Know and What
We Need To Know
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Decision-Making Process
The WATI Planning Guide is a single page form that leads the team
through a five-step decision making process. After the information
above is shared, the team will begin to focus on identifying problems
and then generate solutions. Select one or two critical tasks and
ask "What does the students need to be able to do"? Solutions
that address these tasks will be generated.
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