FREE ESSAY ON TECH FOR SPECIAL ED

TECH FOR SPECIAL ED

DYNAMYTE
During my visit to a Technology Center, I was able to view various technological devices
used for assisting disabled students. While many of the devices intrigued me, I found the
machine DynaMyte to be the most impressive. The machine is used to help students to
communicate.
This machine has a touch screen that enables students to put sentences together. The
screen consists of twenty-five boxes, which link to different aspects of a chosen topic.
For instance, if a student touched the "Home" topic, they will be linked to another page
containing various sub-topics associated with the home. By choosing various words, the
students can arrange sentences. With a touch of the screen, the computer through
synthesized speech, communicates the sentence that the student has produced. The device
is also useful by keeping track of the words they have created for their sentence. 
This device is used to help students who posses a lack of motor abilities, speech
impediments, autism, cerebral palsy, as well as other disabilities. The machine has
several "switches" which the consumer could purchase, to help them compensate for their
particular disability. The machine typically costs between seven and eight thousand
dollars. The price can increase with several additives. Besides the "switches", the
consumer could also opt for a larger screen, which would bring up the price of the
DynaMyte. This machine was created to be a compact version of the DynaBox, which is twice
the size of the DynaMyte. 
This machine is very useful in helping students to communicate. Though the instructor did
mention noted concern about the students desire to pursue speaking by themselves, she
stated that the overall opinion of this machine was optimistic.