Laura Downey
Chapel Forge Early Childhood Center
Special Education/Technology Coordinator
Prince George's County

Laura Downey is challenged daily with finding technology that can best help her students and those of her coworkers. The students at Chapel Forge Early Childhood Center in Prince George’s County range in age from infants to kindergarten and can have severe mental, physical, and developmental needs. Downey, the school’s technology coordinator and a special education teacher, seeks out adaptive technologies that can help the children at school and at home. She presents technologies to staff every week and compiles a list of Web sites, software, and computer activities that teachers can integrate into their lessons. She has trained teachers throughout the region and district to use adaptive technologies, branching out beyond the use of these tools for children with developmental disabilities to find ways they can be effectively used with any child.