We're Celebrating Eye Gaze This Month!

March is here, and with the new month comes warmer weather, more sunshine, March Break vacations, and... a new content month from Bridges! This month we’ll be featuring eye gaze. Like past content months, we’ll be serving up eye gaze related blog posts, resources, webinars and more.

Bridges has been working with eye gaze for over 10 years, and during that time we’ve seen the technology evolve from an access method for a specific individual system, to opening learning and engagement to many in a special needs classroom. In classrooms across Canada, eye gaze is used for children with a range of the most complex instructional needs due to cognitive, communication, physical, sensory, and even visual impairments. The impact for both students and teachers has been profound.

Educators, therapists and parents have been astonished to discover the skills and potential demonstrated with eye gaze and how quickly some of their students progress.

Eye gaze technology is upending assumptions and opening up a world of possibilities for some of our hardest-to-reach students;

• In Hamilton, a grade 8 student who was not known to have literacy skills, wrote “I luv you” then looked at her mom, within an hour of using an gaze system for the first time. 
• In a Toronto classroom, a non-verbal student who was, according to his IEP, blind with profound cognitive challenges, was identifying colours and following verbal instructions to use his remaining vision effectively.
• Another non-verbal child who tried many different access methods with little success was soon able to run circle time activities with Clicker!

Another success story that we love to share is Aidan's experience with eye gaze. Watch the video below to see how quickly he picks up the skill. 

We are so excited to share with you throughout March what we’ve learned about the potential of this exciting technology:

New to eye gaze? Check out our eye gaze in the classroom resource page. You’ll find tons of great info, from the components of a classroom eye gaze system, to eye gaze theory and implementation.

Free webinars on eye gaze. For newbies, check out Eye gaze in the classroom: "I have to completely rewrite the IEP”

For those who’ve already had an introduction and want to know where to start, we’ve added a new webinar -- I got an eye gaze system, now what?

Register here: https://www.bridges-canada.com/pages/free-bridges-webinars

Another great resource that can bring you up to date with the latest in eye gaze is Inclusive Technology’s free guidebook for eye gaze in the classroom. Click here to download your copy.

And don’t miss our eye gaze overview video, which discusses using eye gaze as a tool for group instruction:

Stay tuned for more eye gaze resources from Bridges! Be sure to check back to our blog, as well as our Twitter and Facebook feeds, for eye gaze news, tips, tricks, and inspiration.