Case Studies

My student, John, has used Clicker for the past 2 school years. What a difference this software has made to his unique learning needs. Let me tell you a little about the journey.

John is a student with a medical diagnosis of arthrogyposis, an orthopedic condition that affects the joints of the body. In John’s case, it affected the joints in his hands. He has difficulty isolating his fingers, using a standard keyboard was difficult. Clicker allowed him to use a mouse to access a word processor. Also John learns the printed word best using a whole word, whole language approach. Again, Clicker to the rescue! We tried other on-screen keyboards, but the effort needed to spell each word letter by letter was too laborious for him.

In the Clicker Grid section, John uses all the help he can get. John uses the instant graphics available with Clicker when new vocabulary has been introduced. He also uses the sorting feature to alphabetize his vocabulary to make locating his selections easier. When his selections are sent to the Clicker Writer section, his product does not have the graphics and looks “just like everyone else’s” assignments. John is very proud of his work.

John has his reading program presented on the computer using Clicker. Because he has difficulty turning the individual pages of his books, the material has been scanned and modified to meet his needs. Now he can independently open the story, read the story (or have the computer “read” it to him) and then move the graphics into the Clicker Writer. His vocabulary pages appear and he can write a novel sentence about what he has just read, proving his comprehension of the material.

While John’s reading and writing skills are not at grade level, he continues to make progress. The good news is that Clicker has been growing with him. In the future, we look forward to using Penfriend. Hopefully, it will help him improve his writing skills even more. John’s parents are please with his progress and his successes.

Brad J Wing

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