What Help Do I Need? Assistive Technology and Settings

1. What your child learns and why

Your child matches a need to a tool or setting: larger text, captions, a screen reader, voice control or a selection switch. They practise choosing and asking “Is this comfortable?” The people are fictional; the simulation changes no device settings and saves nothing.

2. Three questions for dinner

• What would you ask before suggesting a setting?
• Why does larger text not meet Dara’s need?
• How can we find out whether our suggestion is comfortable?

3. 10 minutes together, no screen

1. Draw fictional Grandma Rada, who would like larger letters.
2. Make a “What helps me” card with large letters and a drawing. Take turns: one person suggests, the other says what they prefer.
3. Revise the card after the answer. Ask permission before making one for a real relative; a grown-up changes real settings.

4. What success looks like

Your child explains a choice based on a need and asks whether the person finds it comfortable.

5. Common difficulties

“One solution for everyone” → return to the need. Confusing a tool with a setting → a screen reader is an assistive technology; larger text and captions are adaptive strategies.

6. Safety

Keep personal details off the cards and do not publish them. Do not ask your child to pretend to have a disability. A grown-up makes real changes with the person’s permission.

7. Where to go next

Before: DB-RK-23 “Making Something New from Others' Work: A Collage with Credit” · Next: DB-IG-01 “Games Before Computers: Luck and Skill”

You do not need to know the answers. Say: “Let’s think it through together.”