In schools, many students are faced with learning disabilities which affect their abilities to learn and understand during class lessons. ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) has been known to affect many students in school. The students find it difficult to be attentive during classes and easily get distracted. Assistive technology, on the other hand, is the assistive, adaptive and rehabilitating tools for the people with disability. Assistive technology can be used in various ways to help people with disabilities. In this case, it may be used to help the students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder improve their learning process by helping them with their attention disability. The assistive technology tools used in such cases include time timer, notability and isolator. These tools are perfect and effective in helping students with ADHD better their concentration and their school performance.
Assistive technology includes equipment, product system or software programs and codes that are used to control and improve the life of people with disabilities. In general, they are modified, assistive and rehabilitating tools that are used on people with disabilities. It is also used on people with learning disabilities such as those who face difficulty in hearing, writing, speaking, typing, remembering, and attention (Adebisi, Liman, & Longpoe, 2015). Different assistive technologies are used on various disabilities. The right assistive technology has to be chosen for a specific disability to see improvements. The people who use assistive technology include special education teachers, family doctors, language pathologists, occupational therapists, rehabilitation engineers and other qualified specialists (Adebisi, Liman, & Longpoe, 2015). Assistive technology cost varies according to the technology and the use and who uses it. It may be less costly or expensive depending on the service. In addition, ATIA, a not-for-profit organization, manufactures, sells, and provides the technological assistive devices and services. The organization is always available to provide assistive technology to the disabled whenever they need it.
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ADHD is a condition which involves attention difficulties, impulsiveness and hyperactivity. This disorder is known to be a continuous pattern of reduced attention or hyperactivity that affects the functioning development of the affected. This condition cannot be cured, but instead, treatment can help improve the affected individual`s conditions (Graham, 2017). It mainly affects children and teenagers and may progress into adulthood. This is because ADHD has commonly been diagnosed as children's mental disorder. Children with this disorder mostly have no control of their impulses and experience attention difficulties hence get distracted easily (Graham, 2017). This disorder mainly affects the school life of the child. Adults with this disorder face challenges in being organized, managing their time, holding a job and setting goals. Symptoms expressed by the children with the disability include easy distraction, not following directions, not finishing tasks, does not look like he/she is listening, forgets about their daily activities, often losing things, having habits of daydreaming, having problems organizing themselves and does not pay attention hence making careless mistakes.
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder affects a student's ability to perform in class. This is because the students tend to be distracted easily during lessons hence they don't receive the full teachings provided in the classrooms (Graham, 2017). It may also make it difficult for the student to finish assignments and tasks submitted by the teacher due to their difficulties in completing a task. The students tend to daydream during classes hence not receiving the knowledge which then affects their performance. ADHD generally affects the student's mental abilities to gain the necessary learning which are essential for their class performance; instead, they get distracted, doesn't finish assignments, they daydream and many more contributing to poor performance in class.
There a variety of assistive technologies that have been used to help students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. They include time timer, isolator, and notability (Sonne et al., 2016). Time timer assistive technology is created for those who easily distracted from their current work or those who easily lose their track of time. The assistive technology is used for the ADHD students to help them track their time more efficiently. Time timer key feature is it having a sixty-minute visual timer which has a re-disk that shows what time is left (Sonne et al., 2016). It is highly effective for students who have ADHD. They can use time timer when doing their homework, assignments and essential activities to time themselves.
The isolator is an interesting assistive technology created for people to concentrate and focus on their work. It is perfect equipment for students or individual with ADHD since it enables them to focus on their work instead of other things. It is a small menu bar application ignited when one does not need distractions (Sonne et al., 2016). It inactivates the desktop, other windows and other icons so that the individual can focus on their work. The students with ADHD can use this while doing their homework and other tasks.
Finally, notability is another perfect assistive technology that is used on students with ADHD. Notability enables an individual to take precise notes more easily. The students with ADHD may find difficulties in concentrating in class which then contributes to poor notes. Its features involve combining handwritten notes, photos, and single typing notes, featuring ideas with a variety of tools available through the software and many more (Sonne et al., 2016). The students may use this tool during classes because it will help them concentrate and take clear notes.
In conclusion, many students are affected by Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and therefore end up performing poorly in their school work. However, assistive technology such as time timer, notability and isolator are useful and are used to help students with ADHD improve their school life and performance.
References
Adebisi, R. O., Liman, N. A., & Longpoe, P. K. (2015). Using Assistive Technology in Teaching Children with Learning Disabilities in the 21st Century. Journal of Education and Practice , 6(24), 14-20.
Graham, S. (2017). Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Learning Disabilities (LD), and executive functioning: Recommendations for future research. Contemporary Educational Psychology , 50, 97-101.
Sonne, T., Marshall, P., Obel, C., Thomsen, P. H., & Grønbæk, K. (2016, November). An assistive technology design framework for ADHD. In Proceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (pp. 60-70) . ACM.
