Assemblymember Simon testifies on assistive technology, attention, and nuanced tech use

Thank you very much.

I did not go to Hunter.

I did not go to a CUNY school or a SUNY school, so I'm really like, you know, out there.

So I'm going to take a slightly different approach and kind of talk around some of the issues that I think are important that we look at and some of the things I have learned over the years about how to suss through some of these things.

Because as you know, from just listening to the testimony and your own work, there's no easy answers here.

And it's very nuanced.

And that whole endeavor of educating our young people is much more nuanced than I think a lot of people realize.

So let me just say that, you know, as a matter of background, I have my master's in teaching preschool deaf children.

So for me, zero to three are very big, important issues, as is language development, which is

something that is, I think, critical to what it is we are in some cases using assistive technology for.

I moved to New York to get my doctorate in clinical psychology.

I did not finish that degree.

I know enough to be dangerous.

But really what I know is what I don't know.

I have a very healthy appreciation.

for that.

And it's stood me well in representing people with disabilities for 30-some years and in my role as chair of the Assembly Mental Health Committee.

So one of the things I learned by trying a case that was a seminal case on

who has a disability under the law, which was a case representing a woman with dyslexia who was denied accommodations repeatedly on the bar exam, my favorite people, the bar examiners.

It was a lot about tests and measurement and about assessing what works and for whom.

So a couple of things that I wanted to just mention.

Number one, I think we need to keep talking about assistive technology in a way that is constructive.

Assistive technology opens the door for so many of our students.

And, of course, we're talking about screen time here, but assistive technology is not exclusively about screens.

And so I want to make sure that we don't inadvertently kind of just not focus on other aspects of assistive technology because they're not related to screens.

One thing is, for example, at IEP meetings, they're supposed to ask about assistive technology, but most parents don't know to ask about it.

And so many fewer students get an IT evaluation than should.

And if they had an appropriate assistive technology evaluation,

Right off the bat, we would have an IEP that better provides for the...

services for that student.

And we could make a huge difference in children's lives if we did more of that.

But we need to be doing more training of teachers, related services professionals, and administrators on using that to help achieve IEP goals and make our students succeed.

Tech can also be a large part of the accommodations package, right?

And so that is true at all levels.

I did a lot with younger kids, but also a lot with higher ed and testing.

But I think it's very important that technology is also about not just reading on screens, but on text-to-voice and voice-to-text.

And we know that when children are reading with their ears, for example, that they are learning just as much.

For years, we've been told that reading comprehension correlates very highly with IQ.

It does, unless you have a reading disability, then it doesn't.

But we do know that listening comprehension correlates just as highly, if not more so, with intellectual ability.

And so for our students who have difficulty with reading, really better utilizing the assistive technology that provides that information through listening comprehension is critical.

But also building that listening comprehension and developing that with tech and without tech is critically important.

Attention is a huge issue.

We know that technology can be distracting.

can lead to distraction, can affect attention.

Really, the battle for attention is often on our screens.

Chris Hayes wrote a whole book about that.

It is a real issue, but it's also about executive functioning, and our kids really need to learn more about executive functioning, and I think that our teachers and our support personnel need to understand better what executive functioning is,

because it's very easy to miss that piece of it.

So it's not just attention.

It's about marshalling your resources and being able to organize and plan and follow steps, et cetera, et cetera.

The CUNY Reading Fellows Program does an excellent job.

It is partially in person.

It is also partially remote.

But I think it's important to mention that it's not AI.

It is just a remote tutoring with an adult on the other side of the screen.

I want to make sure we don't lose sight of some of those kinds of programs that are working very well and are, in fact, helping our students with learning to read and guiding that.

They hold cognitive issues around attention and...

Executive functioning and learning.

The other issue about devices is that they can be communication devices.

And for many of our students who have difficulty communicating, whether they're on the spectrum, for example, or they have neuromuscular disorders, there's a whole host of communication devices they may

They have a screen, they may not, but it's how they communicate with other people.

And so the devices can actually connect you in many ways, although we also know that obviously there can be a downside to that,

where it helps a child learn to focus, where it gives them confidence that they can control the craziness in their world, for example, that they can develop relationships with others through assistive technology.

We need to make sure that we cabin that so that they are not not learning how to communicate with others.

And for some students, that may be the only way they can communicate with other people.

So I think it's very important that we focus on that.

I don't know how much of that is AI-driven at this point.

I think most of it is not, but I think it's very important to look at how we weigh those various factors.