We are not progressing well right now with mavis Beacon. Are there any recommendations for LD friendly programs. My son has dysgraphia, fine motor problems,visualspatial problems and poor spelling and some reading problems. My daughter has more reading problems and spelling problems.
Thank you
typing programs
Another program name for you: Typing Tutor 7 (perhaps they no longer have this edition though). This is the program through which I learned typing. It worked very well for me, but whether it’s the best program out there, I don’t know. It introduces keys slowly; you master specific keys before moving on to other keys. About LD friendliness, I don’t know; depends on what your LD is in. I believe that the thing most important in learning to type is memory. Thus gradual instruction where new is introduced only after you get the old down is very important. And even more important is MOTIVATION. You progress at your own pace,sit in front of your own computer in your own time and put in as many hours as you want.
With something like typing, if he TRULLY wants to learn to type with five fingers, he will; it may just take much more time and effort than average.
typing programs
We’ve used a bunch of different programs and the Typing Tutor series has been on of the best for my dd. She has Typing Tutor 12, which I picked up at a used book store. One of the reasons she likes it is because you can type copy from books or magazines and get a feel for “real world” typing exercises.
One program that I’ve also looked at is http://avko.org/Webstore/Books/401.htm - Individualized Keyboarding (Student) which includes: 404 Improving Reading & Spelling via Keyboarding (Teacher). We’ve used the Sequential Spelling program and really like it.
Another option is to start looking at word prediction programs. These can be really helpful for dysgraphics as they reduce the number of keystrokes, help with spelling and learn your sentence patterns. Some will even learn what common letter switching or phonetic spellings are used and give words based on your patterns. Word prediction also has an auditory component so that you can have sentences or paragraphs read back to you to help with editing. Word Q (http://www.wordq.com/), Co:Writer (http://www.donjohnston.com/catalog/cow4000d.htm) and Talking Word Processor (http://www.premier-programming.com/TWP/Talking%20Word%20Procesor.htm) are just a few of the most common ones.
typing programs
A good word prediction program that also has good speech recognition is WordQ (speech rec is SpeakQ or SpeechQ, I forget which).
Both of these programs are easier to use than TextHelp! for word prediction or Dragon for speech rec - one feature is that if you “mouse over” the word predictor it will read the word to you, so you don’t put in some of those fascinating “Spell check” substitutions.
Three things to check: Diana Hanbury King’s book “Keyboarding Skills,” which takes a language approach (teaches the alphabet and then three letter words instead of the home row thing, which means you’re in more familiar territory most of the time) - www.rlac.com is a good source for it. (It’s a book, not software.) The author has written lots of materials for students with dyslexia; I used this program with high schoolers and liked it.
http://www.customtyping.com/ - this is an online typing course, designed for special education students (including resources for using it with assistive technology). I haven’t used it but it is often talked about on the QIAT (assistive technology) listserv I’m on.
http://www.thelearningstudio.com - this lady also designed typing programs for people with motor challenges; she passed away in 2001 but the materials are still available.