If you have ever worked with students with severe motor and cognitive disabilities, you have probably had some who used those colorful plastic switches to play games on the computer, speak messages, activate toys, etc. While switches can be a great way to help students access leisure, communication, and academic activities, it is not always easy to get students to hit those switches when we want them to. I eventually came to learn, after visiting several different classrooms and working with several different students, that many of the things I did to try to encourage kids to use their switches was actually making them dependent on ME to prompt them through the activity, rather than doing it independently because THEY wanted to.
Our AT team made a brief (less than 6 minutes) video last year as a training tool for new people working with switch users as well as a RE-training tool for some of us who have been making mistakes along the way. The idea behind the video is to prompt students in a way that will encourage INDEPENDENT switch activation, rather than be DEPENDENT on us. This is a great tool to use with paraprofessionals and peer tutors. The video will never win any film making awards, but the content is solid, and I hope it helps you evaluate the prompting we give kids.
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