The grant facilitated the P.A.L.S. (“Peers Assisting Language and Speech”) program, which provided additional iPads to peers in classrooms with students who have severe communication deficits and use AAC devices (iPads with picture-icon programs for communication). These iPads were utilized by peers during recess, playtimes, and partner-reading sessions to engage with the target student in conversation, identify sight words/core vocabulary, and practice interactive reading comprehension.
The initiative offered general education students the social-emotional benefit of forming friendships and interacting with students with disabilities and diverse needs. It also allowed target students to learn age-appropriate language, sentence structure, and social language skills from typically developing peers using the same AAC devices. The program aimed to promote inclusion and acceptance of students with disabilities and severe communication deficits. Both target students and their general education peers gained additional practice with Core Vocabulary/Dolch sight words, constructing grammatical sentences, and responding to WH questions during paired book-reading activities.
