Alphasmart for Dyslexic Children

My son has used one for two years. It really has helped his written expression. He found the AlphaSmart very frustrating before he leared how to touch type. Now that he can type about 15 wpm, the AlphaSmart is much easier to use than doing his work by hand.

One of my concerns was that he would break the AlphaSmart. However, it has turned out to be durable enough to withstand his use.

He is now in the 6th grade.

LJ

Disadvantages are: can only see 4 lines of input at a time, the spell checker in the older version was very very poor (don’t know about the newest).

Helen

My dau uses one and does enjoy it however her keyboarding skills aren’t great so it is still time-consuming. I am hoping with increased speed she will find it invaluable because most teachers can’t read her writing.

We just bought one ($219) with a printer cable for our 12-year-old. He likes it, uses it constantly. Writes his assignments on it; takes notes in class. We’re happy.

Carol

My son is 9 yrs old who has great difficulty with writing. My friend told me she met a teacher who works in a school in New Jersey which caters to dyslexic kids and they don’t allow computers in the school, they don’t believe in having these kids type rather than write, he said there is importance in the writing for these kids. Does anyone have any opinions on this?

It is obvious that the school does not understand dysgraphia. Unless they have found a cure for the student who finds the physical act of writing difficult this would be the wrong school for a student with this form of dysgraphia.

Helen

To Rendy,
I have two dysgraphic boys. Both utilized the alphasamrt briefly. My kids,deficits,or the reasons for the dysgraphia mirror each other. One has visual spatial deficits,the other has auditory deficits. My visual spatial kiddo,has reasonably good keyboarding skills. The alphasamrt screen was torture for him. He had soo much trouble looking up and having to scroll due to the small screen. This caused sentences written again,and loosing track of what he was wanting to say. My youngest has very slow and laborious keyboarding skills, his visual skills are his strength,and he had no problem with the small screen,it was still three times as long for him to type then it was to write. Problem? His writing is literally illegible. So illegible in fact,that he can not read it. Both of them now have a HP laptop. This was a much better tool for my oldest,who can now read the screen easier,my youngest does better only because of the other options,such as cut and paste,clicking with the mouse,etc.

To Liz,
It’s unfortunate that an educator would look at assistive technology as anything other then assistance. Just because someone has the assistance of technology,doesn’t mean in anyway they no longer write by hand. I want to relate a story about my youngest son. My kid wrote a story,he was proud of it,and wanted to read it to me. He couldn’t. Looking at the story,I couldn’t tell you what it meant,only a few words here and there. We went to the home computer,together we figured out what was written. Miraculously,this was a wonderful story! So good in fact, his teacher submitted it to a creative writing contest.My son was classified as having a written language disability in the public school,unbeknownst to me it was because NO ONE could read what he wrote. To be ever locked into a world in which you can not communicate through writing,is a world that I would never want to be in. My son would whole heartedly agree. We do not use the laptop as a replacement ,he gets weekly OT. But when he wants to communicate, and create he uses his laptop.
He wants to be a writer when he grows up. He is headed in the right direction.

It’s often the case that teachers and administrators take a “strong” position on a question like this — like whether Whole Language is a better approach then Phonics. It becomes a political campaign rather than what it really is: a matter of what works for one child that doesn’t work for another.

What’s wrong with using both? A child may well need to learn to write well enough to read back his own notes, but if, for instance, his handwriting becomes illegible when he has to write fast (as in a note-taking situation), why should he not be allowed to use a device like the Alpha Smart.

It may be possible for you to break through the beaurocratic love affair with rules to bring some common sense to bear on your child’s classroom situation. It may take some heavy duty convincing on your part. Try to get them to see that there isn’t a “right” or a “wrong” way to go about things, just what works best in a given situation.

Good luck.

Carol