high school student with disgraphia

What methods have been tried? How does she feel about her writing skills? What are her keyboarding and word processing skills like? Has Assistive Technology been considered by her IEP team? Have they considered voice recognition which can be very successful for a motivated high school student?
Can she get copies of notes from teachers? The use of a Mimio which records teachers notes from the board can be very beneficial for students with dysgraphia.
There are several possibilities. Let us know what has been tried or considered already.

She’s embarressed by her handwriting. Every school year we run into at least one teacher who tells her to just “try harder” My reply to that is always that’s like telling a hearing impaired child they could hear if they just “tried harder” As part of her IEP we request notes from her teachers, many of them tell us they don’t use notes, they teach from memory (yes, really) Her keyboarding skills are adequate, she has some issues with using the whole hand, but she’s a pretty fast two finger typist. I’ve looked at voice recognition digital tape recorders, and have seen some that will download onto the computer, but haven’t talked to anyone who has used one. She’ll use a lap top in college. However, she wouldn’t be able to type fast enough to take notes on a laptop. Is there such a thing as a voice recognition recorder that could be used in the classroom in conjunction with the laptop?
She is a very motivated student, but as a teenage, is also painfully aware of what her peers think.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and help.
Louise

Check out the Dysgraphia program put out by Audiblox.

Sue’s page: www.resourceroom.net has some excellent suggestions on dealing with dsygraphia.

—des

Hi Louise:

I am graduate student with LD. I did go to JC fist. At my University and at the JC I always have a notetaker, scribed for test,and I’ve used voice recognition software for papers.I founded it difficult to use voice recognition software for test. At the college level they must provide reasonable accommodations include scribed for test and notetaker and a computer for word processing. They do not have to provide voice recognition software but must will.
If your daughter is going to one of the colleges that are strictly for LD how they provide accommodations are totally different.
The Is the problem the physical active writing or the writing processes :?:

I hope this helps.

Suzanne

The school she’s going to is a regular 2 yr college, they just happen to have an LD program which provides tutors, counseling, mentoring, etc.
Her difficulty with writing the the physical act of doing it. She understands the mechanics of writing a paper for example, but physically, her handwriting is nearly illegible. My thought was if she could tape her classes and download the tape to the computer, maybe that would help, although many classes are not really lectures. A scribe would be the best thing, but I’m not sure how that works. Does the scribe attend the classes with the student, or is it arranged to have one of the students already in the class take notes? I was happy to read that you are in graduate school. How was your transition from high school to college?

Louise,

Many colleges have excellent assistive technology tools in place for students with LDs. What do they already have in place? See if they have a “Mimio,” a device placed on a white board which saves notes written on the white board as the instructor is lecturing which can then be saved and then printed out on a computer.

I am a college student and I know for a fact that you can in fact get her a scribe. I am not sure where you live, but in Texas all the schools I looked into because I too have a learning disability gave me all the options I could ever ask for. The services are offered, but the trick is for the student or parent to notify the school that such services are needed. I attend SWT, well now Texas State, and we have notetakers for students that need them. Hope this info is helpful.

Hi:

Does the scribe attend the classes with the student, or is it arranged to have one of the students already in the class take notes?

I have heard about both happening depending on the school .The school have attend used students who were already in the class take notes and they are paid and that required by law.

Electronic devices have lots of problems and do not always work. I have found either having a notetaker or using a tape recorder to be best.
I prefer my notetaker but use the tape recorder as a backup. Honestly anything that is going take extra work I really would not wanted to do. Honestly I’ve only listen to about a dozen of the tape when I have tape-recorded a class.
How was your transition from high school to college?

I had a hard time my first semester I had a GPA 1.75 I had three C and one D and one A in bowling .The my second semester was much better THANKS to English . Now considering I’m severely Dyslexia and English had always been my worst subject in school. And in college it became my best subject. Actually in fact I took five college-level English classes. I ended up graduating with a 3.37.

It was a matter of finding the right college for me . I now attending college with great services. Great Professors who are extremely willing to accommodate. It has been no question. But the key thing that my university offers is that all classes four weeks long . That’s what helped me the most.

Hope this help And I will be glad to answer other question.

Suzanne

Where I’ve been, the deal was the student notetakers would have a carbon under their notes, and would turn ‘em into the LD office and pick up their checks. They never knew who was getting their notes.
However, taping the classes is also really good because then you can go back over your own notes and embellish them, or over the other person’s notes to add your own. And you can hit pause and rewind, which, alas, you can never do in the classroom!

Don’t forget the option of the Mimio and its software which recreates the lecture in the way that it was presented in class. If it’s a difficult math concept, for example, the student can watch it as it was written on the board. And he can repeat specific steps as he needs to.
Hearing a lecture without the accompanying visuals can be very challenging for some students with learning disabilities.

What is Mimio? Is is software for a computer or is it a tape recorder that is downloadable? Thanks to everyone who has been replying to my post. It’s been a big help to us to know that there are lots of successful college students with LD’s

Louise,
The Mimio is a device that is attached to any dry erase board that captures what the teacher writes on the board and then saves it to be used however is necessary - emailed to students who are absent, sent to a computer for printing, replayed for a student on a computer, etc. It is an excellent tool for a variety of students and helps meet Universal Design for Learning strategies in that what benefits the students with disabilities actually benefits all students. And the teacher, too, since they now have a record of their instruction.

check it out at this website, there are online demos, curriculum tips, etc.
http://www.mimio.com/education

I think that the device being talked about sounds great, however none of my professors write on a board. I believe that a scribe would be better in most cases because of the fact that teachers also do not write everything they say, plus scribes can illustrate on the notes what the prof really stressed and can even add side notes to help the student out. I do think though that is more profs would write notes on a board all students would benefit from the device described.