laptop at school

We bought my son a HP PDA at the start of 6th grade. This is smaller then a laptop. We are going to buy him a slim laptop at the end of summer for 9th grade. We will buy him one that has windows-XP. The version of MS-Word allows you to setup the processor in one of many languages. HE will be taking Spanish and the workd processor puts in the accents, checks the spelling and puts in the upsidedown question marks. There is also a software called Form Pilot available for trial online and for about $30 that allows you to scan in worksheets and then opens a textbox right on the lines and input answers. I don’t know which one we will buy yet. We will probably also buy a new backpack that has a built padded place for the laptop.

Helen

Our college age boy got one, and I can’t even tell you which brand, but it was on sale and he used it with somehwat regularity. Gravity was the only downfall… :( Make sure you get a real good case, and do your best to insure that he learns to put it in the case prior to moving it from where he was working. I suppose another thing to look into would be pay the extra money for guarentee/warentee for such disasters. Other than that, no problemas :)

Andy

Whoa Helen,tell me more about the worksheet program!

In andswer to Anne,yes,both of my kids AGE 11 and 13 have laptops. They have Hewlett Packard. It has windows me. Miscrosoft, they have had it for almost two years.

The way they treat the laptop,it has been incredibly durable. My oldest has keys that stick at the present,but they really are not using them as much as I would like to see them used it. Mostly me kids are still really learning to use them,handwriting , although, is not legible it is still quciker then the computer,or laptop,I should say. My oldest has a mouse plugged in,because the pad on the laptop is really hard to used,I personally think it is too:-)

If I had it to do over again,I think I really would have pushed for assistive technology training in OT,rather then handwriting,because fine motor is still hindering the use of their laptops. For now, they use them for the games.

My youngest stubbornly will not use it for writing,I don’t push him,I want it to be a part of him,not another torture device,but a tool. Know what I am saying?

Anyway,the laptops by HP are very durable,just haven’t found the magic to getting them used.

To make this really useful I think you would want the software on a labtop which would have to have access to a scanner. My son couldn’t put the software on his PDA which limited him to using his large computer. You would want a scanner available at school as well.

http://www.colorpilot.com/typewriter.html

Helen

Hi Socks,

Again, thank you for validating what we’ve been doing. After pushing the school for over a year, he started getting keyboard training at school in November. We had an assistive tech eval in March to help us plan for middle school next year, and during the eval FOR THE FIRST TIME he told the evaluyator that typing was easier for him than writing!!! YAY!!!!

I think we’re going to go to the full lap top for next year. We haven’t gotten the written report from the assistive tech eval yet, but they told me that they would be recommending it. I know our school system has “Smart Boards” in many classrooms too, so he’ll be able to get notes directly from the board via those.

While he is supposed to have access to a keyboard at all times in the classroom now, the reality is that he only gets to use it for final drafts. I’ve been told by the SPED teacher that his prnting is legible, even if it’s very slow, so they “save” the limited number of computers for the kids whose writing can’t be deciphered at all. With my son, it’s not a legibility issue, it’s a speed and processing issue. He works so hard on the process of printing that there’s no “brain space” left for thinking.

Karen

I also back getting keyboard into the IEP if your child cannot touch type yet. Once a child can touchtype 12 words a minute it is faster then handwritting for a dysgraphic child.

Helen

Thanks for all the responses!

I’m printing them all out to go shopping for the laptop.

I really think we are on the right track here.
DS is a wiz at typing doing an online computer game.
Of course most of it is in computer shorthand.
Which brings up an interesting thought - what is it
about computer shorthand that a dyslexic child
can pick it up so fast and become literate at it?

High interest or phonically pure?

Anne

Though… I have to wonder… adding layers of language to be learned can end up just being more complicated.

I think phonetics should be the foundation.

There are already abbreviation features in the word processors, so you can put into the “autocorrect” your own abbrev’s. That way whenever you type “bcz” it could change it to “because.”

However, that would *guarantee* (unless the kiddo had a visual memory) that when the kiddo wrote something out in longhand, he’d probably have no clue how to get past bcz. I’ve had a significant number of students report that after taking a typing class, they are better spellers. (I know it was true for me… but nobody would confuse me for dyslexic in a hundred years.) Word prediction might be the best option — things like TextHElp! — where you put in the first letters and you get options to choose from and you type the number of the option and it finishes the word for you. Since it factors in grammar as well as the letters for figuring the next word, it helps with the grammar part too.

Hey I have a L.D. and A.D.D. so they think my handwriting is bad becasue of this. At school this year I got a Dell labtop. My parents bought it for me they got a special educational discount on it through the school. It works very nice it has all these cool programs. Like one my teachers let me do my art work by clip art then draw it out by hand. i thought you all might of wanted to know:
>
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~~educational discount on it through the school~~

Now there’s an idea to explore!

Anne

We found out something pretty cool when we took our son for an assistive tech eval. I don’t know if evetyone else knows this or not, but there is a really neat feature right in Word to help kids with editing.

If you go to “view”, then “toolbars” then “reviewing”, there is a highlight tool. Once you highlight something, you can leave either a text or voice recorded note about what needs to be changed. We’ve been using this feature a lot with both of our kids since we learned about it.

Karen

Awesome!