November 16, 1995

Engineering students help kids with special needs

A teacher asks her class, "What is today's date?" The children who know the answer raise their hands and wave them eagerly. The teacher calls on a student, who then speaks her answer aloud.

It seems so simple for a child to answer that question, but many students cannot. Nonverbal and noncommunicative children may know the answer yet not be able to express it. Groups of students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University are working to help students with these and other special needs. Through a senior design course, the students provide original solutions to problems supplied by faculty members and industrial sponsors.

Working in teams of two to three, the seniors devote 10 hours a week to their projects either in a campus lab or at the industry site. Each semester, about 15 companies sponsor 50 to 80 projects.

Since 1992, Gracie Williams, Assistive Technology Specialist for Wake County Schools Special Education Services, has asked N.C. State students to design projects. This semester teams are developing a device to help children learn the names of objects, a light box for a visually impaired student, a small hand-held voice box to identify activities and a verbal communication device--all of which help teachers in the classroom by facilitating interaction with their students.

According to Williams, such products on the market now are not customized and thus do not match the students' special needs. The ECE seniors visit the classroom, observe a child and design a learning aid or other assistance for that particular student.

Zelbie House, Mark Pack and Howard Comer form the team developing the Verbal Choice Box for a nonverbal student, "Jonathan," at Washington Elementary School in Raleigh. The three seniors began the project hoping to design a product that would help a special student communicate in group settings and learn social skills.

The Verbal Choice Box allows the teacher to record six different phrases or words, which the child can then play back in any order. By pressing a button with a picture on it, the child can hear the sound for that picture and then construct whole sentences. The teacher can make fresh recordings each day to fit new lesson plans and activities.

Kris Englander, Jonathan's teacher, finds the device particularly helpful at snack time, when she must respond to the needs of six children at once. Jonathan can press the buttons for the statement "I want a pretzel, please" and express his desire without frustration.

"It promotes independence because it's an easier means of communication for people who don't know signs," Englander said. She also uses the box with another nonverbal student. During work time, the students can get Englander's attention without having to gesture frantically. From across the room, she can hear "I'm finished. Come check my work" and respond right away.

According to Dr. Dorothy Strickland, director of the Senior Design Center at N.C. State, existing products for augmentative communication--the area of assistive technology that focuses on helping noncommunicative and nonverbal people express themselves--cost thousands of dollars.

"It's amazing to me that these simple learning aids aren't available, and when they are, they're expensive," Strickland said. "We're trying to provide aids that aren't available, that are more affordable and of sound design."

Many of the available products also are not very sturdy. Strickland tells her students that their products must cost no more than a few hundred dollars and withstand being thrown across a room.

A few of the past student projects are still being used in the schools. A talking card reader and a lighted choice box (customized for a low-vision student), though designed for individual children, can be used by others as well, indicating the potential for these projects to see multichild use and be even more cost effective.

The school system and children with special needs are not the only beneficiaries of the project. The college seniors add a dimension to their education that no lecture hall or laboratory can provide.

"When they interact with the children, a special bond forms," Williams said. "You can see these college students melt into the situation. It seems to make a lasting impression on them."

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