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Mia is a typical 11-year-old fifth-grade girl. She enjoys singing, dancing and playing soccer. She loves going to elementary school in Holmen, her teachers, music and reading. She has a vibrant and lively mind. But two years ago, her family’s genetic history caught up with her and her mind and body began to deteriorate.

Linda Stollenwork, Mia’s mother, said that about two years ago, she started noticing Mia’s speech was slurred. Then Mia started having problems with coordination, balance and moving. And her muscles would stiffen to the point of being rigid. Mia was diagnosed with juvenile Huntington’s disease when she was 9 years old.

Juvenile Huntington’s is very rare and strikes only one in every 10,000 persons. Only 5 percent to 10 percent of those diagnosed with Huntington’s are younger than 20.

The degenerative brain disease will progressively take away Mia’s motor and cognitive skills and she will develop emotional problems. Her walking is now getting worse. Her mother thinks she’ll be in a wheelchair by next year. In the meantime, she just wants to be a normal kid.

Luckily for Mia, her daily home, social and school life is made easier through an extensive inventory of more than 2,000 assistive technology devices available from the Holmen School District. As Mia’s speech deteriorates, she relies more and more on her Dynavox, a voice output device that helps her speak in classrooms as well as in social and home situations.

Jacob Schroeder, the 5-year-old youngest of three boys, was born with spina bifida. Spina bifida is a birth defect occurring in one of every 1,000 births. Jacob also has severe brain damage and cerebral palsy. He is unable to speak or support his body. More than anything, Jacob wants to have a voice.

Aimee Litwin also has cerebral palsy, a learning disability in math and dyslexia, which causes her to write in mirror images. Aimee wants others to know she can accomplish as much as anyone else her age.

Aimee couldn’t have succeeded in everything she’s done without the help of others and the assistive technology available in the schools. In fact, Jacob, Mia and a host of other area children with special needs find ways to adapt in their education thanks to technology.

Recently, Aimee presented her story to the Holmen School Board as a way of expressing gratitude for the district’s willingness to invest in assistive technology that allowed her to grow, mature and succeed. She is 20 years old, attends college at Western Technical College and will transfer to Viterbo University to obtain a social work degree.

“Aimee wanted to spread the word about how assistive technology helped her,” said her mother, Annette Hundt, explaining why Aimee spoke to the board.

Hundt is also an educational assistant in the Holmen schools. What Hundt likes about the Holmen district is that it goes beyond what the federal law requires in providing special students whatever they need to learn.

In Holmen, students do not need to be on a special individual education plan or qualify under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to be able to use assistive technology.

“The focus for Holmen is that anyone can use the devices,” said Sarah Winn, the occupational therapist for the school district. “It’s not just for special education students. A child doesn’t have to be singled out if they need help.”

Assistive technology is any device that can help someone cope and accomplish daily tasks. It could be as low-tech as a different kind of pencil grip or as high-tech as computerized speaking devices, calculators, switches, voice synthesizers or any device designed to help an individual perform some task of daily living.

In the Holmen School District, students like Mia, Jacob and Aimee are taking advantage of 2,000 pieces of equipment and software available in the assistive technology lending library. More than 800 pieces of equipment might be checked out at any one time.

Pre-kindergarten students in Onalaska also use assistive technology. Studies show the earlier intervention and assistance is provided, the easier it is for children to learn. Some of the Onalaska pre-K students are not verbal, so low-tech assistance such as pictures that either teachers or the child can point to are heavily used.

Sally King, the speech therapist at Eagle Bluff Elementary, uses sign language for much of her conversation with the children.

The 3- and 4-year-olds at Eagle Bluff have a wide range of disabilities and intellectual levels that include spina bifida, autism, speech impairments caused by an inability to swallow and cognitive, motor, social, speech or language problems.

Teachers can create many different kinds of communication boards, a low-tech device. “It helps for those with low verbal skills or who are reticent to speak,” said Jenny Johnson, the occupational therapist for the Onalaska School District.

But the devices aren’t always cheap. Mia carries around a Dynavox everywhere she goes at school and home. At a cost of almost $7,500, it is one of the most expensive pieces of equipment the district has obtained.

The Dynavox is a voice output device. Mia can touch pictures on the display screen and a recording will say things in relationship to the picture such as “I want milk” or “that’s funny” or “stop.” It is programmed to tell her to brush her teeth, but there’s no picture of her favorite lunch — tacos.

“We’d be lost without the Dynavox,” Stollenwork said.

Aimee said she started using assistive technology when she was in kindergarten. She now uses the computer program called Dragon Naturally Speaking that translates the spoken word into text on a computer screen.

“It makes you really plan what you’re going to say,” Aimee said. “You can’t just run off at the mouth because you have to give grammatically correct answers, like in English or preparing a paper or essay.”

For Jacob, the devices give him a sense of identity. “I’m surprised how much he’s changed with new ways to communicate,” said his mother, Karla Schroeder. “It has changed his personality. Right away, he goes to a switch to let you know what he wants or is thinking. He knows he can speak. It gives him so much more power.

“When we have children severely disabled, we think they can’t do much,” Schroeder continued. “In the district they say, ‘Let’s see what he can do and how we can help him.’ He’s making choices, which is more than I ever dreamt he could do. It makes me wonder what else he can do.”

Mia’s mother is a little worried about how Mia will transition to middle school next year. “The staff is putting together an IEP (individualized education plan) for her. Their philosophy is to let her have the best day she can have. They don’t try to go over her head. They want her to feel she can succeed.

“Even if Mia only has a year left, she’ll have a good quality of life because of these assistive devices,” she said. “They are a Godsend.”