Clicker success stories

Rachell Johnson, Program Manager for the South Carolina Assistive Technology Program, shares how Clicker has helped students make significant writing progress.

"I watched students go from forming a single sentence to writing full paragraphs independently, without another adult guiding their hand. It was incredible to see... I just love it so much. I wish more people would try it.”

We spoke to Barb Jermyn, a physical therapist and assistive technology professional, to learn how she has been using Clicker to support students with physical barriers to writing.

“We had one set of students who were on the autism spectrum and struggled tremendously with any type of writing skills. [...] We introduced Clicker to those students and by the end of the school year, they were completing and writing sentences and answering appropriate ‘who’ ‘what’ ‘when’ and ‘where’ questions”.

A Washington State success story.

"We see Clicker being really positive for a broad range of students' needs… making consistency a key feature in how we teach, so that the kids are not learning the system, they're learning the content of what the teachers are trying to teach."

Hear directly from the educators supporting students with physical impairments, autism, and diverse learning needs—and how Clicker makes writing accessible and meaningful for every student.

"Students in functional classrooms went from writing single sentences to full paragraphs with Clicker."

During Spokane's 90-day Clicker pilot, occupational therapists, special educators, and classroom teachers explored how the tool could support students with very different needs—from those who are nonverbal or at a tracing level, to students in general education who struggle with handwriting, spelling, or sentence construction.

"You can't really take formal data on joy, but when kids are genuinely excited about coming to centers because of Clicker - that's huge."

Brian Friedlander, Ph.D. is an assistive technology consultant who has been using Clicker to support students with disabilities for almost 35 years.

“Clicker is one tool that should be available to all elementary schools who are working with kids who have both reading and writing challenges.” 

For a student who had always relied on a one-to-one paraeducator, Sarah shares,

“...it was a whole new level of independence and participation."

Insights from Gayl Bowser, national consultant and facilitator for state AT leaders.

“Clicker has stood the test of time for a reason. It helps kids write for themselves at early stages of literacy - and that’s what matters most.”

Berkeley Unified School District, California

“Clicker gives them the independence to write on their own.”

Palo Alto USD, California

“For Palo Alto, the biggest measure of success is what students can now do on their own. Many who once relied on constant one-to-one adult support are now writing independently in general education.”

We spoke with three educators from Aptakisic-Tripp School District to hear how Clicker has made a difference for their students - and for themselves.

“Clicker makes it easy to customize resources to fit the individual needs of our students. The flexibility of the software and ease of use is what we love most about Clicker!”

Erica Lovchik is a high school alternative curriculum teacher in a self-contained life skills classroom. Her students have significant physical mobility challenges which, for many of them, can make holding a pencil quite difficult. Erica was looking to improve her students’ access to learning by removing the writing barrier for them.

“Clicker is a program that offers SO much and getting authentic writing from our students just wouldn’t be possible without it!”

Gina and Javy are intervention specialists for Cincinnati Public Schools. They work with teachers and students to help integrate assistive technologies into the classroom. They met with us to share how Clicker has positively impacted their medically fragile students.

“One of the best things about Clicker is we can use it in combination with our other assistive technology tools, including switches and communication devices. We have one student who accesses the switch box with his foot. Completing the group writing activities with his classmates and being able to participate - fully - in a way that works best for his needs has certainly left a positive impact!”

Jen is an SLP in New York, and she was looking to support her daughter Jade’s literacy journey. Jade has Down Syndrome, and her mum met with Toni to talk more about her daughter’s learning goals.  

“Jade absolutely LOVES to write. Jade has Down Syndrome and is not yet able to write with a pencil and paper. Clicker gives Jade an opportunity to access an education in writing without delay and for this we are so incredibly grateful."

Jackie Rosenkrans, Special Educator at Harford County Public Schools, has been using Clicker to reach students who require different levels of learning support.

“In the past we have not had a lot of adapted options to help our students progress their writing, but the fact that this program is so versatile really helps to reach students on many levels.”

Nettie Reese is an AT Paraprofessional who recently got in contact to celebrate a ‘kodak moment’ one of her students had using Clicker.

Nettie has worked with the AT team for Carroll County Public Schools for 24 years, visiting every school as needed and helping their students to use Clicker.

“Her differences didn’t make a difference when she used Clicker. She was equal to everyone else in her class.”

Rose Racicot is an Occupational Therapist (OT) and Assistive Technology Specialist with 35 years of experience. Rose shares how Clicker is being used across a number of districts to help students overcome writing barriers and become more independent learners.

“I've watched the transformation of so many elementary kids through the use of Clicker… I’ve been on a mission since then to help educators see this tool as a way to give students who don’t have those supports a way to be successful. The accessibility is built-in. To this day there is not a comparable tool.”

Barb Lark shares how Clicker is being used in Life Skills classes across Everett School District in Washington to develop students’ literacy skills and give them a voice.

“It’s a literacy tool that allows for immediate expression of ideas. For students with learning challenges, it allowed access that they otherwise wouldn’t have had. It allowed them to access independent reading materials. It allowed them to express themselves in writing, in a way they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do.”

Mark is the founder of ATHelp.org and ATTrain.org and has over 35 years’ experience utilizing assistive and instructional technologies in educational and vocational settings.

“If all pre-schoolers saw tools like yours [Clicker], they would know it’s acceptable to interact with learning in alternative ways… I don’t think any student should leave school, who has any challenges whatsoever in our curriculum, without a tool that helps them in life.”

Vanessa Simons is a parent of a elementary school pupil with a variety of learning challenges. Vanessa explains how she uses Clicker to help support her son's learning at home.

"Clicker is a great tool which can scale support and challenge. It can help in many ways, not just if the child has a special need or a diagnosis. If a child struggles to get their words together, they struggle with spelling or building sentences, if they don't understand a pattern, Clicker can help. Oliver can now confidently build and self-correct his sentences, which is not something I could have imagined just four months ago."

Julie Osherow is an AT Specialist with a focus on literacy support. She is using Clicker to support students with a wide range of special educational needs.

"If you don’t already have it, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend adding Clicker to your AT toolbox – it is such a comprehensive tool for literacy, with features and customizations to suit all students, regardless of cognitive level or physical ability."

We sat down with Christy Hagy and Diane Witte at Northview High School to talk about their experiences with Clicker and how they are using it to support students with a myriad of learning needs.

"We record baseline data for our students on areas like visual engagement and motor targeting. The use of Clicker to support students in these areas has shown quantitative improvements of 20%-30% on these scores, which is fantastic."

This video was recorded at Willow Dene School, where they are using Clicker extensively to help students access the curriculum and find their voice.

Marianne Baird is an Assistant Headteacher and SENCo for Sunny Bank Primary School.

"The best thing about Clicker is that it boosts children’s confidence and allows them to see themselves as writers. It removes barriers to writing, and it takes away some of that cognitive demand and overload, so children can record their ideas and gain confidence."

Anita Clarke is a SENCo at Cringleford Primary School. We recently spoke with her about the successes they are seeing whilst using Clicker with their students.

"We committed to a whole-school approach to literacy difficulties, so we’re not just using Clicker with our special needs children. Because we have a Site License, we can roll it out across the school, so that all our students can show their potential and abilities."

Ellie Bennett is a teacher at Gorseland Primary School, working in the Specialist Support Unit where they support children with moderate learning difficulties and complex needs.

“Clicker has developed our children’s confidence in their own abilities to write and we have been able to share many proud moments with them through their achievements of using it.”

Emma Gorton is a member of the senior leadership team and a Year 4 teacher at Micklehurst All Saints. She is also the Key Stage 2 phase leader and the SEND Coordinator. We recently spoke with her about why the school decided to upgrade to a Clicker universal Site License and how Clicker is removing barriers to success for the students.

"Clicker has truly transformed the writing experience for our students. The children love that they can use it to create narratives, reports, explanations – anything they want to write, they can do it with Clicker. Clicker has raised their self-esteem beyond words and revolutionised how they feel about their writing."

Erika Lye is the founder of Mountain Movers, an inclusive education charity that supports children with complex needs. We recently spoke with her about the positive writing outcomes they are seeing since they started using Clicker.

“We focus on children with additional needs, but we always make sure we’re including everybody who wants to participate. For children who may otherwise feel disengaged by literacy tasks, Clicker is a real confidence booster because it gives them a medium to express themselves."

Betsy Caporale has been working in the field of AAC/AT for over 25 years. She has worked with the California Department of Education and is the owner of Augmentative Communication Solutions. She has been using Clicker with a student whom she has worked with for 14 years, with great success.

“Jane has made incredible progress in just one school year – from using Sentence Sets to writing a speech for her public speaking class with support from Clicker Word Banks!”

Carol Allen, Education Advisor for ICT and Inclusion, and John Galloway, Advisory Teacher for ICT/ SEN and Inclusion, recently joined the SENDcast podcast on the ‘Low Cost, No Cost Technology Ideas’ episode.

“I would say Clicker is the gold standard piece of software to support reading and writing for any age, primary, secondary, higher education.”

Andrew Simpson reviews Clicker for Access: technology north, an AT consultancy service that works with disabled children to provide technology solutions that support and enable communication, entertainment, learning and independence.

"For those who are unfamiliar with Clicker, it is a child-friendly word processor that’s jam-packed with assistive features to facilitate extended writing and help to develop literacy skills, available on Windows, Mac and iOS."

Mike Davies shares his thoughts on Clicker for Teach Primary magazine.

“While not only aimed at struggling writers, you can really see how Clicker can provide valuable support to students who fall into this category, as well as those with accessibility issues or for whom English is not their first language."

Lauren Woolf is a elementary school teacher with a passion for literacy and uses her site That Little Outfit to provide a hub for teachers, parents and carers to help children develop a love of reading and their literacy skills. Here, she gives her verdict on Clicker and how its supportive features benefit students and teachers alike.

“Having thoroughly tested the software with different tasks, Clicker appears to be ideal for all elementary school aged students as it offers such a varied amount of support and challenge for learners, no matter their writing ability. It genuinely does help children to create meaningful pieces of writing, one sentence at a time.”

Cheryl Gaughan tells us how Clicker is raising enthusiasm for writing and giving a voice to children at Talbot Specialist School.

"Although I use it a lot with children who have SEND, the good thing about Clicker is that you can use it with both children who have SEND and those who don’t. A child doesn’t have to have a disability or a need, because it’s useful and engaging for every child. I think that’s the nice thing about it, is that it’s not seen as something that only SEND children can use but all children in any setting, too."

Sheila Robertson is a Principal Teacher at Wallacestone Primary in Falkirk. She works in the management team managing their PEF funding as well as a variety of children with different educational needs.

"I can understand that for teachers who have been teaching for a number of years, the thought of using any kind of technology can be daunting, but this is something that is so user-friendly that anyone could begin using it. We have a vision across the school management that this will definitely fit into, so I would absolutely recommend Clicker to other schools."

Garnock Community Campus used some of their Pupil Equity Funding to purchase Clicker to help close the attainment gap.

"The real success of Clicker has been the way that it gives our young people who struggle to access the curriculum due to literacy challenges the confidence that they really can produce extended pieces of writing. It’s such a motivational tool, and it’s really helping students to reach their potential."

Recently, June Howard sent us a message to share how Clicker has made a world of difference to a year 9 student she works with – not only in terms of his learning, but also his behavior in school and at home.

“He has behavior and learning difficulties but since using Clicker his behavior has improved immensely and he is now above target in 8 subjects - all the teaching staff are amazed at his improvement!"

Ricardo Morais is a class teacher at Oaktree Special School. He shares with us how they have been using Clicker, and the difference it has made to the students' writing confidence.

"When I consider the positive impact that Clicker is having, there’s one particular student who comes to mind in my class. Tom* was a very reluctant writer when he joined our school... But with Clicker, being able to customize the program so much gave Tom the confidence to have a go at writing. It’s fantastic, Tom has gone from writing very simplistically to wanting to write lots more."

Anne Harris shares how St Joseph's are using Clicker to target dyslexia and increase writing confidence across the curriculum.

"For me, the best thing about Clicker is how it increases writing confidence. He knows that if he goes wrong or gets in a muddle with his spellings, it doesn’t matter because he can have another go and there is something there to support him and help him put it right. Not only did this improve his writing within Clicker; he has since been able to write much more with pen and paper too."

Kate McKay is using Clicker to support children of all ages at Dunnottar School, which caters for children with a range of physical and learning disabilities including cerebral palsy, Down’s Syndrome and autism.

"Within a day of their training, teachers were telling me of activities they had tried with their students and the fantastic success they were having along with the interest being shown by the students. They could see student self-esteem rising with each push of a button."

Emma Dibden has been using Clicker to increase student motivation and make writing more accessible for learners with literacy difficulties.

"From the anecdotal feedback from the children, there are several of them who were previously totally turned off by writing, but absolutely rave about it now they have Clicker! We’ve had their parents come in celebrating the amount of work they’re able to produce now, and the ideas they’re finally able to get down on paper. Clicker has really inspired and excited these children about writing, which is exactly what we had hoped for."