Grant Supports Work of Education Professor and Special Education Students

Assistant Professor of Education Pete Post ’74 recently received a $250 Ray Graham Memorial Award from the Illinois Council of Exceptional Children for his proposal to create adaptive books with special education students in his Low Incidence Disabilities class.

Creating adaptive books is a method commonly used by educators that makes a book’s content more accessible and understandable for children with learning, vision, communication, or motor difficulties. Ways to adapt a book may include adding voice output devices, simplifying a book’s visuals, changing the text size or spacing within a book, or using pictures with text.

The grant will be used for purchasing books that Post’s class will adapt on the Elim Christian School campus this spring. Using Elim’s computers and Boardmaker program, the class will begin adapting books during Elim’s spring break, which, for Trinity students, will consist of taking the books apart and reassembling them using icons and interactive pieces they’ve created, according to Post.

Post believes Trinity students will gain the most from the award.

“Trinity students are the ones that really reap the benefits, especially working with the Boardmaker program,” he said. “It is wonderful to have financial support for an exercise that only helps Trinity students become better educators while contributing to the community and helping students learn to read.”

The adaptive books from Post’s class will be finished by the end of the spring semester and will then be donated to Elim and other institutions, including the Little Red Schoolhouse.