Task 2 – Adaption to Specialist Needs

The first device that comes to mind when specialist needs are concerned is the Nursery School Teachers Assistant device. The design itself was put together with thought of those with special or specific needs. The device offers a more modern and resistant way of learning for students. Traditional methods are still very useful today. They wouldn’t be considered standard or traditional if they weren’t. The device aims to give students a method of learning that best suits them. The device offers the 3 most common methods of learning, visual, auditory and kinesthetic. By allowing the user to pick what method they find more fun to learn in you are vastly increasing their learning potential and speed. Students struggle when they have no interest in a subject, not because they are incapable but because they find it hard to motivate themselves. Below you will see a list of the different types of input and how they could be implemented. By reviewing this list you should straight away see that it caters to learners no matter what learning style they prefer or require. By offering or providing the student a choice early on in life you are giving them a head start with their life long education.

• Raised buttons to cater for the visually impaired (Also serves as a traditional way of inputting information into a device)
• Speech recognition (The student or teacher can speak into the microphone and a relevant image will be displayed)
• Text to Speech and Speech to Text
• Auditory learning (The device could output letters, words and numbers in several different pre-recorded voices)
• Touch screen (Allows for a more modern way of interacting with the device and also caters to those that struggle with other input methods)
• Vivid Screen (The screen would have multiple settings but would by default display in very bright colours and big fonts in order to hold the attention of the students)
• Expansion Bay for programmable cards in order to increase the amount of content the device has to offer

As you can see the device has been designed with most learning needs in mind, in order to cater for those that struggle with traditional methods. There is no reason why someone with a learning difficulty should be branded as an under achiever their whole life just because their needs weren’t met.