Transitions: Basic PowerPoint AT

Transitions are the simplest effect you can apply to your activity. They can help increase engagement by providing visual and auditory input. It isn’t tricky, but for students needing this additional feedback to stay engaged, it can make a big difference.

For example, you can draw a student’s attention to a page turning in an adapted book by adding a chime sound and a visual page turn. The effects take on even more importance if a book is set to play automatically for a child lacking physical skills to activate page turns.

Or you can quickly create a simple cause-effect activity by making slides of various solid colors and adding a variety of visual transition and sound effects. This can be activated by touch screen or switch. Feel free to download this Cause-Effect sample activity to reinforce mouse clicks or switch hits.

On the other hand, you can reduce input by using a slow automatic transition through a quiet black screen for a momentary pause between questions. This can help students with cognitive challenges or ones who are easily overstimulated.



Transitions are added through the Animations Ribbon

Transitions are easy to add. Click the Animations tab (1) in the toolbar to pull down the ribbon. Select the visual and auditory effects (2) you want to happen when this slide appears. You can also click the “apply to all” button to have every slide launch with this effect if you like.

In Advance Slide box (3), the last on the ribbon, you can set the slides to advance with a mouse click/keystroke/switch hit, or to advance automatically after a certain amount of time. This time can be set to vary for each slide, so if you are recording a narration or the student is required to read independently, you can allow ample time for these to happen.

To most easily see the transition times, go to Slide Sorter view (1). They'll show right below each page (2)

If you need to see the timings for all the pages and adjust individual ones, open the Slide Sorter view (1) for a nice little summary of transitions. They are listed just below each slide’s thumbnail image (2).

There. Easy as pie! If you have students struggling to stay engaged with PowerPoint activities, try adding visual or auditory signals to help them attend to the screen. It just might make a difference!

As always, please let me know if you are having trouble with any of this and I will be more than happy to clarify or brainstorm with you!

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For information on using PowerPoint to support kids needing Assistive Technology, check out these other posts in this mini-series:

1. PowerPoint as Assistive Technology--REALLY! (Intro)

2. AT Considerations for Creating Activities in PowerPoint (making sure the activities you design support the needs of your students)

3. Adapting Books for Computer Access (utilizes PowerPoint)

4. Shortcuts for Making PowerPoint Activities (easy steps for bringing elements from other activities into your new ones)