Hi - from Kieron

[kieron]

Hello there,
My name is Kieron Sheehy. My interests are mostly about developing better futre educational environments and this sometimes involves technology. I like symbol communication things (e.g.Makaton, rebus etc), morphing software, and finding different ways of teaching word recognition to children with severe learning difficulties.  Recently we (i.e schome) have been  looking at the use of Second Life (a virtual online world)  as  a site for educational experiences.   
My favourite biscuit still has to be a plain chocolate wholemeal.
Kieron

[Bee]

Hi Kieron,
I share the same interests (better future educational environments) but confess I do not know much about morphing software or Makaton, rebus, etc. What is it exactly and how have you been using it?

[kieron]

Hi Bee,
Well these are very much a 'minority interest', as they are only directly relevant to a small percentage of the population.  Some children with severe learning difficulties do not begin to recognise simple words, and so I inverstigate ways in which we can help them to get the hang of this i.e to recognises a single words. My research has been about how to do this using symbols/not using symbols. The morphing software allows you to get a picture of something and then gradually turns it into the word which represents it. It is fun!
A wider application of symbol recogntion is in designing 'environments' for very young children. I'm just beginning a project where we will be designing places for 0-7 year olds. The buildings,curriciulum and  life in general  need to be structured to make them accessible to all the children. I'll be looking at ambient technology and symbols/pictures and how we can use these so the children can have fun engaging with the place. I hope to post stuff up about this next year when we get going  and get permisssion to show some plans and pictures of the building going up.
It's a very schomey project in my view and I hope to get my project colleagues into schome:-) 
Hope that makes some sense.
Kieron

[Bee]

Hi Kieron,
Thanks for the explanation. A friend of mine in New Zealand, Annette Stock, also works with language disabilities. She has been doing some very interesting work using rap.
YOu may be interested in exchanging ideas. Here is her site:
http://www.speechtherapist.co.nz/