Across Spokane Public Schools, teachers balance the challenge of meeting the diverse needs of students within the same classroom.

During the 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.

Students had plenty of ideas but no access to write them

Teachers observed the same pattern in inclusion and self-contained classrooms. Students had ideas to share, but no reliable way to get them down on paper. One student could only trace letters, another wrote her name with constant prompting, while others flat-out refused handwriting because of the effort it required.

To capture student ideas in these classrooms, teachers relied on scribing. This limited student independence. As OT Anne Hopkins Vallee explained, "I've been using Clicker a lot with a large continuum of ability levels, including students who are not very verbal, if at all, and who literally cannot write with a pencil or even really type effectively."

Adding to this layer, many students lacked foundational writing skills, such as building a coherent sentence. "There were kids I thought would be much higher—like they'd just need the Word Bank," said OT Jen Carter. "But then I realized they weren't even able to build a sentence or understand how to put together a coherent thought."

Choosing Clicker

Staff were drawn to Clicker because of its flexibility and scaffolding. Teachers could set it up as an errorless learning tool for students with significant disabilities, or as a creative and independent tool for students who are tech-savvy and eager to use supports. "Those kids figure it out really quickly, too," Anne noted.

For teachers, Clicker provided instructional value that exceeded their expectations. OT Shayna Schmeling explained: "I know it's not designed to be a curriculum, but it really does act as a curriculum tool - and in some cases, it could even be used as a standalone teaching tool. It helps give students more independence, and it also creatively gives teachers some powerful teaching tools."

What student progress proved about writing support

The 90-day pilot gave staff more time to explore Clicker than in previous short-term trials with other products, where they’d struggled to see if they worked or not. For Clicker," Thirty days would be too short because it's such a robust program and there is a learning curve," Shayna reflected. "This time, I felt much more confident going into it because I already had familiarity and could explore all the different ways it can be used."

Across the district, staff observed:

• Engagement across ability levels
  
  Students with lower cognitive skills thrived in animal-matching activities, while general education students who usually resisted writing eagerly engaged with Clicker. "It really captured their attention," said Elementary Special Education Teacher Shelley Lorek.

• Increased independence
  
  A third grader in a general education setting avoided handwriting tasks and relied on her teacher to write down her ideas. With Clicker, her dictated work was turned into Sentence Sets she could manipulate herself. At first, she listened to almost every word before selecting, but by the end of the pilot, she had reduced her reliance on audio cues by more than half.
  
  "The Analytics feature in Clicker shows us if a student had to hear a word first before selecting it. At the beginning, she was listening to almost everything. But as we talked, 'If you know the word starts with P, find that word' - she stopped relying on the audio so much and became more independent."
  
  She was selecting words independently, building sentences with greater confidence, and producing more written work than ever before.

• Visible growth at the foundational level
  
  A sixth grader began at a tracing level; he was unable to write or type independently. After using Clicker consistently, he sustained 5–15 minutes of active participation, wrote his name without prompts, and used sentence scaffolding sets with 70% accuracy.
  
  Analytics showed that his output grew, averaging 45 words per session—a leap that would have been impossible on paper. "It was really encouraging to see his progression," Shayna reflected.

• Identification of hidden needs
  
  Teachers discovered that even students they thought were more advanced struggled with basic sentence construction. Suzy Morrison, Special Education Teacher, reinforced this: "I have students who are emerging in some skills and more advanced in others. I thought some of them were more independent than they actually were - but Clicker showed me they weren't. Sometimes we don't realize how much help we're giving, especially with writing. That was eye-opening for me."
  
  One student particularly stood out. Suzy taught him some skills, then stepped back to see if he could handle it independently, and he did. Clicker instantly showed Suzy where the gaps were, so she could explicitly teach through those gaps and then reassess later with more independence.

• Joy and confidence
  
  Not everything they saw could be measured in charts or percentages. What stood out just as much was how eager students were to use Clicker. Elementary Special Education Teacher Mary Ormsby shared, "My kids found it so engaging. I have a couple of students in particular who normally don't like to engage with what we do in class, but they will engage with Clicker. They'll participate with it on the board during group lessons, and they'll use it one-on-one on their computers.”
  
  As Shayna put it, "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."

Scaling writing support past a pilot program. What does it look like?

The pilot sparked discussions about expanding Clicker access. "It's great for all these kids—and probably would be great for every student in special education classrooms, even the ones we didn't get the chance to trial it with," said Carmen Mercer, Special Education Data Systems Manager.

Currently, funding for Clicker comes from assistive technology budgets tied to individual IEP accommodations. Expanding access to whole classrooms would require tapping into different funding streams. "That's where we need to have classroom-based conversations moving forward," Carmen explained.

Despite budget logistics, enthusiasm for scaling is strong. As Carmen summed it up: "Whether it's for 10 or 20 kids across the district, or something more global, Clicker is a tool worth investing in."

Start where Shayna started: download her data collection sheet or if you’re new to Clicker and would like to find out more, book a free discovery call.