Visual Effects to Provide Appropriate Stimuli for students with SEN

This revised article articulates how and why parents and educators can use Windows Media Player, WinAmp and many more players to advantage with children with SEND, vision impairments or students who enjoy watching mesmerising displays on their MS Windows computer or Notebook.

Windows Media Player (Free)

The very versatile Windows Media Player is a popular choice for many users when playing back videos and movies. They could have been captured from old Flip cameras, digital camera, iPhones, iPad sand from tablets and Smartphones of all operating systems. They come alive when used with WMP when using MS Windows computers. Often users have most likely used the new visual effects with students who require stimulation to gain their attention and focus on the screen or display or Interactive Whiteboard.

Over the years, teachers and support staff have employed these effects to elicit appropriate responses from students who are vision impaired. WMP and another freeware program, WinAmp V5.8 successfully with students who have physical needs who use a switch or other input device. Younger students or those with SEN can happily listen to tunes or music. It might be their preferred music (for fun, leisure, visual stimulation, relaxation or music appreciation) they can watch mesmerising and entertaining visual effects. 

Educators, therapists and parents can observe student visual attention, eye gaze response, tracking and gauge and monitor changes or improvements in head control. 

Other behaviours that may prove to be difficult or impossible to assess or evaluate may not be readily available. 

Using this simple but effective technique, educators and therapists can roughly measure 

·       Concentration span

·       Eye gaze (on one or more objects)

·       A student’s attention span when matching items or focussing on a graphic, a character, a pattern in more detail, while interacting with a game, activity or App.

Students will often engage and respond quite favourably, as they are engrossed in the synchronicity of the music and the visual output on the screen using different media players. This is mainly evident if a favourite or current song or a medley of tunes is mixed, especially for a student by a sibling or Mum or Dad. Younger students will watch and actively respond and enjoy this interplay. 

There is no need to purchase expensive software. Students can listen to MP3 tracks or music soundtracks created by themselves (in software such as Sibelius 7.5, Acid Music Studio 11, Super Dooper Music Looper Xpress or edited in the free cross-platform music editing software Audacity (i.e. MS Windows or MAC OS).

Users can visit several different sites provided by Microsoft. Many fascinations and mesmerising visual effects are available. It is easy to download and use them. Locate the download link next to the visualisation that would interest the student(s). Any of the displays will play in the background of the Windows Media Player Console while a music file plays. This will also play if a user does not have a video codec installed for a video file. In that instance, it plays as a placeholder.

After downloading and installing the visualisation, a teacher or parent can activate it from within any version of Windows Media Player by clicking the arrow next to now playing.

Choose visualisations and then continue on to choose a specific visualisation. As a user installs more Windows Media visuals, they appear in a list in the software.

There are obviously other media players that people use on their desktops or laptops. 

When using iTunes, the arrangement and options are similar – users can download quite a few visualisations at no cost. 

WinAmp (Free)

Another program that was mentioned at the beginning of this article has proven to be invaluable at two of the Special Developmental Schools, where I have been the computer coach or ‘mentor’.  It is the free, flexible and versatile WinAmp.

WinAmp freely provides:

·       A selection of ‘Skins’

·       Plug-ins

·       Virtualisations

·       And invaluable online services

WinAmp can play many different file formats and is a great alternative or backup to Windows Media Player. 

There are times where certain file types will not play (usually as a particular Codec is missing or not installed). 

The visualisations offered for WinAmpare stunning and very appropriate for students of all ages and abilities. 

Songbird (Free)

Another excellent Media Player is Songbird. It is ideal for older and more capable users. 

Students can control their music, their videos and services they subscribe to as well as organise, search, sort and rate their favourite tracks and tunes.

The onboard DJ offers up Flickr pictures, YouTube videos, Art for Kids Hub on YouTube and Last.fm favourites for the current artist. 

Students can also sync their handheld devices and take their music with them. Songbird supports the latest generation of iPhones and the latest Smartphones. 

VLC Media Player (free) 

The other media player that is very useful and invaluable in a special class or special school with children who love watching computer screens or Interactive Whiteboards is VLC Media Player. It provides interesting content and is freely available on the MAC OS platform as well as on Linux/Ubuntu/Red Hat and MS Windows computers.

This is a cross-platform open-source multimedia framework, player and server. VLC Media Player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, Ogg Vorbis, AAC formats etc.) as well as playing tracks and media from DVDs, Audio CDs, and various streaming protocols. 

Portable Versions  

Some free Portable Apps run successfully from external hard drives or USB pen or thumb drives.

VLC is flexible and versatile. A portable version is available freely for use home or for at school, especially using touch screens, Notebooks with touch displays or Interactive TVs or Electronic Whiteboards. 

Note: There is a portable version of Audacity that can be run from a USB drive (e.g. EduApps) as well as from. 

CoolPlayer+ Portable is very appropriate for older students while SMPlayer Portable is a fully featured video player.

Useful Resources for Students with SEN

·      Ian Bean’s famous and delightful enriching and captivating resources for children of all abilities and SEN activities

·      Priory Woods School and Arts College– another fantastic resource with free activities and Flash Movies

Gerry Kennedy AT Advisory Sources acknowledges the Copyright of Microsoft, WinAmp; EduApps; Audacity; VLC; Songbird; YouTube: Flickr; Last.fm; CoolPlayer +; Sony Super Dooper Music Looper, Ian Bean’s site and other programs used in this article. They remain the property of the respective companies. All images captured from the web are to be used for children with SEN, visual disorders or for younger students with vision impairments.