Writer Needs Input

Ellen, Have you been to http://www.closingthegap.com? They have links and resources for all different types of A.T. : Hi everyone,: I’m a writer and a mom of a 13-year-old son with dysgraphia and other
: related LDs. He has been using a portable word processor (the
: Alphasmart) since 5th grade and it has made an enormous difference
: in his ability to keep up with the workload in his mainstream
: classes. I’m sure that I am not the only one out there who has
: discovered (via the word-of-mouth parent and teacher network) a
: high-tech tool that has changed my child’s life. (And I have
: discovered that almost always, you find out about such tools
: through networking with other parents or through teacher, OT
: recommendations etc.). So, I am now working on a story for a
: national family computing magazine on the various tech tools
: parents have discovered to help their learning disabled and ADHD
: kids. Have you found a high-tech gadget or piece of software that
: you use at home and/or school to help your child’s learning
: differences and can’t live without? I’d love to know about it. Age
: range is preschool through high school (but centering on
: elementary and middle school)… These should be things that a
: parent can buy or have the school provide (rather than costly
: school- or center-based programs that need to be implemented by
: the teachers in a school setting). It might be something as simple
: as Talking Computer Books for preschoolers and early graders to
: something like a Math computer game for elementary school kids to
: an electronic organizer for an older child who has trouble
: planning and remembering tasks. I’ll be looking for ideas that
: target the following areas: speech/language disabilities;
: reading/dyslexia; writing difficulties; math disabilities; ADHD
: and organization. Also, if any of you are parents of an autistic
: child and have discovered something that has helped your child’s
: expression, I’d love to hear it.: Thanks for sharing! Your comments will help me help other parents and
: their kids. I will also be featuring this site in the Resource Box
: to accompany the story, as it is such a wonderful place for
: parents to find support.: Ellen Parlapiano

The two biggest helps for our son (age 13, 7th grade) so far have been getting the textbooks on tape (especially the dreaded social studies text!) and having him use a mechanical pencil when he writes. We go through a TON of mechanical pencils! His SLP suggested it, it forces him to write with a softer hand, helping keep his grip looser. If he writes too hard - the lead breaks!He’s a terrible typist, so we haven’t considered alphasmart yet (hopefully typing will improve!).We’ve bought Dragon Naturally Speaking for Teens - but haven’t installed it yet. When we do I’ll let you know how that works for him.I think what you’re doing is great - word of mouth works wonders.

Thanks for your input, Lynne. That’s very interesting about the mechanical pencil. I’d never thought of that. Matt uses eraseable pens, but you can just imagine how smudged his paper is!Do you have a favorite source for getting textbooks on tape?FYI, from other input I’m getting about Dragon for Teens….many parents are finding it disappointing—especially if the child has speech/language issues. I’ll be eager to hear how your child does with it. Thanks again for sharing!Ellen

No I hadn’t heard of that site! I will definitely check it out right now. Thanks for the tip!Ellen: Ellen, Have you been to http://www.closingthegap.com? They have links
: and resources for all different types of A.T. : Hi everyone,

I recommend looking into text readers, software that reads text out loud. Examples are textHELP Read and Write and CAST eReader. These programs read and highlight the text on the screen. As a teacher of 7th and 8th grade students with learning disabilities, for 13 years, I have seen this type of tool make the biggest difference in my students’ lives—grades, attitude, reading level. When you can get the textbooks scanned (with a program like OmniPage Pro 10) and converted to electronic format, it not only assists with reading, but also can be helpful with homework completion. The student can copy and paste portions of the text instead of typing entire answer.: Hi everyone,: I’m a writer and a mom of a 13-year-old son with dysgraphia and other
: related LDs. He has been using a portable word processor (the
: Alphasmart) since 5th grade and it has made an enormous difference
: in his ability to keep up with the workload in his mainstream
: classes. I’m sure that I am not the only one out there who has
: discovered (via the word-of-mouth parent and teacher network) a
: high-tech tool that has changed my child’s life. (And I have
: discovered that almost always, you find out about such tools
: through networking with other parents or through teacher, OT
: recommendations etc.). So, I am now working on a story for a
: national family computing magazine on the various tech tools
: parents have discovered to help their learning disabled and ADHD
: kids. Have you found a high-tech gadget or piece of software that
: you use at home and/or school to help your child’s learning
: differences and can’t live without? I’d love to know about it. Age
: range is preschool through high school (but centering on
: elementary and middle school)… These should be things that a
: parent can buy or have the school provide (rather than costly
: school- or center-based programs that need to be implemented by
: the teachers in a school setting). It might be something as simple
: as Talking Computer Books for preschoolers and early graders to
: something like a Math computer game for elementary school kids to
: an electronic organizer for an older child who has trouble
: planning and remembering tasks. I’ll be looking for ideas that
: target the following areas: speech/language disabilities;
: reading/dyslexia; writing difficulties; math disabilities; ADHD
: and organization. Also, if any of you are parents of an autistic
: child and have discovered something that has helped your child’s
: expression, I’d love to hear it.: Thanks for sharing! Your comments will help me help other parents and
: their kids. I will also be featuring this site in the Resource Box
: to accompany the story, as it is such a wonderful place for
: parents to find support.: Ellen Parlapiano

There are some assignments that have to be done in ink and my son also uses the erasable pens.The textbooks on tape we get from www.rfbd.org - reading for the blind and dyslexic. They are a great resource!Don’t tell me Dragon for Teens is a disappointment! Oh well, at least I didn’t pay a lot for it, if it doesn’t work out. I’m also considering wordq - right now I do a lot of his typing. Just like a secretary!

:Hi Ellen<I have a ten year old son who has difficulty writing and spelling. At school he uses an Alphasmart and at home he is using wordq. We also tried dragon naturally speaking for teens and were not sucessful with it. We have also tried the mechancial pencil but he was breaking them so fast and the leads were flying everywhere that we decided it wasn’t safe.He is really enjoying the wordq.Faye

My son has a Franklin Speller. It speaks the word typed into it so even better than correction of spelling is that fact that when he hits a word he can’t read it, he can type it in and have the word “spoken” to him albeit in a very robotic voice.: I’m a writer and a mom of a 13-year-old son with dysgraphia and other
: related LDs. He has been using a portable word processor (the
: Alphasmart) since 5th grade and it has made an enormous difference
: in his ability to keep up with the workload in his mainstream
: classes. I’m sure that I am not the only one out there who has
: discovered (via the word-of-mouth parent and teacher network) a
: high-tech tool that has changed my child’s life. (And I have
: discovered that almost always, you find out about such tools
: through networking with other parents or through teacher, OT
: recommendations etc.). So, I am now working on a story for a
: national family computing magazine on the various tech tools
: parents have discovered to help their learning disabled and ADHD
: kids. Have you found a high-tech gadget or piece of software that
: you use at home and/or school to help your child’s learning
: differences and can’t live without? I’d love to know about it. Age
: range is preschool through high school (but centering on
: elementary and middle school)… These should be things that a
: parent can buy or have the school provide (rather than costly
: school- or center-based programs that need to be implemented by
: the teachers in a school setting). It might be something as simple
: as Talking Computer Books for preschoolers and early graders to
: something like a Math computer game for elementary school kids to
: an electronic organizer for an older child who has trouble
: planning and remembering tasks. I’ll be looking for ideas that
: target the following areas: speech/language disabilities;
: reading/dyslexia; writing difficulties; math disabilities; ADHD
: and organization. Also, if any of you are parents of an autistic
: child and have discovered something that has helped your child’s
: expression, I’d love to hear it.: Thanks for sharing! Your comments will help me help other parents and
: their kids. I will also be featuring this site in the Resource Box
: to accompany the story, as it is such a wonderful place for
: parents to find support.: Ellen Parlapiano

Thanks so much for the tip.Ellen: My son has a Franklin Speller. It speaks the word typed into it so
: even better than correction of spelling is that fact that when he
: hits a word he can’t read it, he can type it in and have the word
: “spoken” to him albeit in a very robotic voice.

Thanks so much, Linnie.Ellen: I recommend looking into text readers, software that reads text out
: loud. Examples are textHELP Read and Write and CAST eReader. These
: programs read and highlight the text on the screen. As a teacher
: of 7th and 8th grade students with learning disabilities, for 13
: years, I have seen this type of tool make the biggest difference
: in my students’ lives—grades, attitude, reading level. When you
: can get the textbooks scanned (with a program like OmniPage Pro
: 10) and converted to electronic format, it not only assists with
: reading, but also can be helpful with homework completion. The
: student can copy and paste portions of the text instead of typing
: entire answer.

Hi Ellen,I am a SpEd teacher and a graduate student doing research on parental access to technology for their students with special needs. I would love to share resources with you. My premise is that parents rely too much on schools to give them info on tech devices for their students. Teachers, like myself, cannot know all there is out there. I would like to set up a network where parents, teachers, AT assessment folks, and vendors could interact to solve problems for students with special needs. Interested?By the way, closingthegap.com is great! Also check out elabresources.com newhorizons.org edc.org ataccess.org dreamms.org apple.com/education/K12/disabilityHere is my story. I recently procured an FM listening device with a desk top speaker for a student with a cochlear implant. It made a huge impact in the general education setting for my student. My research topic became clear when the parent asked me why I hadn’t gotten it sooner. Well, I didn’t know about it until a teacher working in another district brought it to my attention. Once I knew what to ask for, the assistive technology assessment and qualification was a snap. Next time, how do I or a parent get the info that we need sooner? Thus, my networking research idea. Anybody out there want to get involved?Paulette: Hi everyone,: I’m a writer and a mom of a 13-year-old son with dysgraphia and other
: related LDs. He has been using a portable word processor (the
: Alphasmart) since 5th grade and it has made an enormous difference
: in his ability to keep up with the workload in his mainstream
: classes. I’m sure that I am not the only one out there who has
: discovered (via the word-of-mouth parent and teacher network) a
: high-tech tool that has changed my child’s life. (And I have
: discovered that almost always, you find out about such tools
: through networking with other parents or through teacher, OT
: recommendations etc.). So, I am now working on a story for a
: national family computing magazine on the various tech tools
: parents have discovered to help their learning disabled and ADHD
: kids. Have you found a high-tech gadget or piece of software that
: you use at home and/or school to help your child’s learning
: differences and can’t live without? I’d love to know about it. Age
: range is preschool through high school (but centering on
: elementary and middle school)… These should be things that a
: parent can buy or have the school provide (rather than costly
: school- or center-based programs that need to be implemented by
: the teachers in a school setting). It might be something as simple
: as Talking Computer Books for preschoolers and early graders to
: something like a Math computer game for elementary school kids to
: an electronic organizer for an older child who has trouble
: planning and remembering tasks. I’ll be looking for ideas that
: target the following areas: speech/language disabilities;
: reading/dyslexia; writing difficulties; math disabilities; ADHD
: and organization. Also, if any of you are parents of an autistic
: child and have discovered something that has helped your child’s
: expression, I’d love to hear it.: Thanks for sharing! Your comments will help me help other parents and
: their kids. I will also be featuring this site in the Resource Box
: to accompany the story, as it is such a wonderful place for
: parents to find support.: Ellen Parlapiano

Faye,
what is Wordq?

As an occupational therapist who evaluates children to use voice recognition software for writing I continue to be disappointed. We have the latest and greatest and still Nat. Speaking 5.0, external microphone, Pentium III is still not the answer. Some of the problems continue to be:

-using it in an environment with little ambient noise
-fluency in reading the passages
-decreasing the student fidgeting in the chair
etc…

One trick that does help is to print out the passages that you need to read to train the system. The passages also need to be enlarged for easy reading. i.e., 14 point/16 point font size. We have various sizes that we use.

Just my humble opinion.

Joyce Machala

I have a 9 yr old son that was just recommended by his OT to use an alpha smart. His IQ is 129 but has much difficulty with writing. Could you tell me where I could get more information about the alphasmart. I am hoping it will not take our school district a long time getting one. Do you know where a parent might purchase one?
Thank You. Tina Sutherland you may personally email me. [email protected]

I’d like to be involved.
[email protected]