writing software for 6 year olds

Why do you want such a sophisticated software. Is the child physically disabled? The only think I can think of is Dragon or one of the other speech to text softwares.

BTW, my daughter went to keyboarding class at 7 and now, at 10, types about 20 wpm.

But the software was designed for adult voices and doesn’t work well with children’s voices. Also, the training sessions — I’ve done it — are not the ‘quick and painless’ process that the promotional materials would have you believe. If you do it the “quick and painless” way you don’t get the kind of accuracy you really want.

My student has severe gross and fine motor problems.

Sue, I read that Dragon is for adult voices.

Since I can’t find anything yet for my student, I’ll just teach keyboarding first. Has anyone used Type to Learn Jr from Sunburst? Looks fun and easy for the little ones.

There’s another one Somthing about type and talk or something - one of the teachers’ boards may remember the name. Does he has any problem with reading and sounds? I think the one I’m mentioning also helps with sounds.

Read, Write and Type is designed for very young children. I used it with my son starting at age 7. At age 12 he types 30 wpm with 95% accuracy.

I’ve heard good things about it from everybody that’s tried it. Another fun option is Read, WRite & Type, which also reinforces reading skills by focusing on letter sounds (without managing to make the task too tough). There’s a new version at www.readwritetype.com but you can get the early edition (though it’s not as good :)) very cheap online (just do a search for “read, write & type”).
The other good ‘program’ I like is Diana Hanbury King’s Keyboarding Skills, which is a book, not software — but it goes in alphabetical order and gets to short words and it just works a whole lot better with my kiddos that struggle with arbitrary rote symbols. If the problems are mainly motor, then that may not be an issue.
There was a lady who specialized in keyboarding materials for students with motor problems and NVLD issues — her website’s at http://www.thelearningstudio.com/ .

Is that the only program you have used with your son? My daughter only types 20 wpm, but I think with pretty good accuracy (but don’t know percentile) She’s 10. Does your son use the keyboard at school daily?

No, he also used Type to Learn at school. When my son attended public school, I had typing as one of his IEP goals. We started with an expectation of 5 wpm with 50% accuracy and went from there. My son hated Type to Learn. He found it horribly boring and thought it was “unfair” that you couldn’t play any of the games unless you met certain speed goals. Nonetheless, I think it was an effective program for him. My son is now in a private school but carries a laptop with him everywhere. He takes notes and tests on it but still does do some ordinary pen and pencil writing. All homework (except math) is done on the laptop. We used to scan worksheets and do them on the computer too, but now he is usually able to write his answers on the sheet. We credit this to medication for his ADHD, six years of OT, and, perhaps, the effects of maturity.

Andrea

I have a 10 year old daughter who uses a laptop in her gifted classroom and has used an ALphsmart (getting a Dana soon) in general ed. She also uses pen and pencil, but with longer writing assigments, the computer is a better avenue. We are in only our 2nd year of OT, on ADD meds and she has accomplished much with sheer determination. Only during the summer does she do any real typing work (mostly games to increase speed). In 2nd grade we also paid for private keyboarding lessons (b4 we found out the school was supposed to provide this). We currently are not having them work at it, b/c she uses the computer for alot of homework and are hopeful that just the daily use will increase her speed and accuracy.

Thanks for your feedback.

If motor issues create a problem….there is a virtual keyboard available online that is FREE. I have used it with students and it is great. it is called, “Click N Type’. You only have to be able to operate your mouse to keyboard with this program. It also has word prediction and sticky keys. You can also change the keyboard from Qwerty to alphabetic order or most frequently used keys. It can sit on your desktop and then be used with any program.
A program like this if you had to buy it is expensive…..this one is FREE.