Strategies to Enhance Daily Living and Social Skills Difficulties
Headphones or earplugs to shut out distractions and enhance concentration while reading or writing are beneficial to persons with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Amplification for Students with LD improves listening conditions and attention levels by amplifying the instructor’s voice, and reducing the effects of background noise. A typical product is composed of two basic parts: a wireless transmitter with a microphone (worn by the instructor) and a receiver with headset or earphone (worn by the student). The system carries the speaker’s voice directly from the speaker’s mouth to the listener’s ear, helping to make the speaker’s voice more prominent. This device improves auditory discrimination and auditory attention by allowing the individual to focus on the speaker, overriding extraneous and distracting background noise.
Variable Speed Control Tape Recorders (VSC) enable the user to play back audiotaped material at rates that are slower or faster than those at which it was initially recorded. The ability to adjust speech rates means that users can reduce the speed of playback to a more comprehensible level without the loss of voice quality. Similarly, VSC tape recorders enable the user to increase the speech rate in order to reduce the amount of time it takes to listen to class lectures or prerecorded text.
Personal Data Managers are available as software programs. Typical features include monthly calendars, daily schedules, planners, a clock and alarm, memo files, “to do” lists, address books, telephone directories, and check registers. Personal Data Managers allow the user to store, organize, and retrieve vast amounts of personal information useful for persons with organizational and/or memory difficulties.
Free Form Databases are software programs that enable the user to create her own notes of any length on any subject. Rather than notes on paper, these electronically stored notes can be retrieved by typing in any piece of information contained within the note. The ability to retrieve information by only remembering a fragment or piece of information can be quite beneficial for individuals with memory and organizational difficulties. Through a simple cursor movement that highlights each note, the user can browse through all the notes within the database until the one being sought is found.
Interactive CD-ROM programs are the most effective media for assisting those persons with social skills difficulties. They enable the user to role play in simulations of real-life situations and to place the user in decision-making positions. [Portions drawn from Raskind, 1993, 1994]
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