Over the summer my dd and I tried 2 programs - Kurzweil and WYNN. Kurzweil “fit” much better with my dd’s needs so we wrote letters to the school to request discussion on whether it would be appropriate at school to help with my dd’s many difficulties and move her towards more independence.
On Thursday we met with the OT, school psychologist and sped director for our area. We have determined that it looks like this would be very helpful across many areas and are going to put it on a laptop which she can take to class and bring home. This will be a 30 day trial in which we will be collecting data to present to the AT committee to show its what she needs longterm. She will start by using it in 1 academic class (social studies) which is more intensive reading and writing. She will also be able to use it during her study period and bring it home for homework. If it proves difficult to use in the actual classroom, we will discuss having a “station” in her study period classroom where she can use it and again bring it home for homework.
She also has gotten paperwork signed for using Bookshare.org so she will have e-books to read!
I have one very happy dd who is looking forward to becoming more independent in her school work.
Re: Success!!!
Thanks for sharing your success. Keep us informed. It’s great that you are doing data collection as that is a way to determine effectiveness. Also, it sounds like your daughter’s enthusiasm is an obvious by-product as well!
Re: Success!!!
And speaking of success, we’re diving into Dragon Naturally SPeaking here… so far so good, tho’ not at the “ready to write this way” stage yet for my student. Version 8 ROCKS, as does the training book (DNS for the Office Professional, by Barksdale & Rutter, Thomson publishers)
Re: Success!!!
Sue,
I’m thrilled to hear your students are having success with voice recognition. DNS v. 8 is a significant improvement over all the previous versions. It really does rock and your college students are the ones who can benefit!
Karen
Just an update on the saga of the laptop
After several days of trials and tribulations, we finally got a working laptop. The first one they gave us was really old and didn’t even meet the minimum requirements for the program. Not only that but the battery died after 15 minutes of use, even after being charged all night. Very frustrating. Then we received a much newer laptop which works beautifully. Only problem is I couldn’t load my scanner or printer onto it! Finally got the OT to come over to my house and we got everything loaded. I was able to scan a couple of chapters of dd’s history book into the laptop and she has been able to use it at school. She LOVES it. She has also read a couple more chapters in her book and will be starting to use it for various assignments. We haven’t yet been able to get any worksheets scanned but that is because they are working on a project in her social studies class.
Just under 3 weeks to go. :)
You go!!!! Technology is great when it works :-) Great that you & the school folks saw the need and are meeting i t:) :)