Need help with O.T. evaluation and recommendations

I’ll check with my technology forum, but I believe there are some things like pencil grips that can help in these situations.

You might like to look at the following book which is available both in paperback and audio format (CD) from Amazon.com. Sally E. Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level. This book covers the topics of dyslexia, reading, studying, IEP help and technology assistance.

Thank you for your response. I do have Sally’s book on Overcoming Dyslexia. It is a wonderful resource. I requested the OT eval. because it the gate way to assisted technology. They provided my son with a Yuropen and it really seems to help with any fatigue. My concern was to get him some speech recognition software for next year. He has the visual perception but putting it down on paper(motor intergration) is another story. This summer I am planning on having him work on some typing programs besides his cursive Handwriting without Tears. I appreciate any suggestions. Thank you.

Hi Bgmom,
Their is particular therapy for developing visual motor integration/ coordination.
Which develops visual-spatial thinking, vestibular balance, fine and gross motor skills, proprioception and contra-lateral [left-right brain] communication.

Which basically involves, learning to Juggle.
Where you need to buy a bag of Beans, where make up some small clothe beanbags, with a handful of beans in each one.
It begins by simply tossing one beanbag, from the left to the right hand and back forth.
Then moving onto juggling, with two beanbags.
Later, onto 3.
It’s all Therapy as Fun!
Geoff,

In my opinion someone other than the OT should be doing the assistive technology evaluation for your IEP. You should be able to ask for assistive technology evaluation for your IEP. I checked with my technology forum on special education and this is the response back I got about writing especially when injuring third grade.

“My suggestion with kids like this is to begin to learn keyboarding NOW. 3rd grade is not too soon to experience keyboarding – as long as the expectation is not that he will be a “home row keyboarder” at this point. The effort to form letters and write legibly is, no doubt, keeping him from producing quality work. Most kids like this tend to write less (just to get it done), and end up hating to write. For some kids the only way to get out legible work is through keyboarding – reality is most kids type their finished products by middle school anyway. I would look at the NEO, Alphasmart, The Writer, or some other portable keyboard with printing capability – portable, doesn’t tie up a classroom computer, can go back and forth school to home. Typing will be slower than writing at first but practice is the key. There are lots of great FREE keyboarding programs on the web for download at home and/or school. I would also stress that he will need to continue to write with a pen/pencil for SOME activities (worksheets, etc) so pick and choose those activities for which he will use each tool. Hope this helps.

Wendy”

I have some follow-up questions for them. I’ll post some additional answers.
Jim Nuttall — Michigan
Dictated with speech recognition software Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9.1.
www.geocities.com/jnuttallphd

Thank you for your replies. At the ARD meeting, the school district did not believe that my son would qualify for assistant technology because a person has to have mutiple disabilities to get it. When I asked the O.T., she said for assistant technology my son needs to type faster than he writes. Initially the O.T. suggested that we first get my son to write in cursive and forgo the AlphaSmart laptop. He has been writing cursive for the past six months with Hand Writing without Tears Manual. I told the O.T. that I firmly believe that writing help reading but, he is at the end of third grade. In fourth grade,he is going to be tested in Texas Writing TAKS test. He needs the independence of not having his mom type up his sentences and help with taking what is in his mind and then getting it into words. She did recommend that he get Inspiration, software program that organizes your thoughts. Also, I did see a website on balmetrics. It is supposed to help with Vision Motor Intergration. Has anyone tried it?

Thank you for your replies. At the ARD meeting, the school district did not believe that my son would qualify for assistant technology because a person has to have mutiple disabilities to get it. When I asked the O.T., she said for assistant technology my son needs to type faster than he writes. Initially the O.T. suggested that we first get my son to write in cursive and forgo the AlphaSmart laptop. He has been writing cursive for the past six months with Hand Writing without Tears Manual. I told the O.T. that I firmly believe that writing help reading but, he is at the end of third grade. In fourth grade,he is going to be tested in Texas Writing TAKS test. He needs the independence of not having his mom type up his sentences and help with taking what is in his mind and then getting it into words. She did recommend that he get Inspiration, software program that organizes your thoughts. Also, I did see a website on balmetrics. It is supposed to help with Vision Motor Intergration. Has anyone tried it?

Hello dg:
I checked with my technology forum and see that a number of people qualified in assisted technology do have occupational therapy backgrounds. Using an AlphaSmart or speech recognition software would be considered assistant technology.

In terms of the fourth grade testing you might check to see what accommodations the Texas examination offers. In some states students are allowed scribes when they are not able to do handwriting work. The student dictates their response and the scribe writes it down. Don’t know if this is an option in Texas?

Jim Nuttall

Thank you jim and gg. I did find out that in Texas standardized tests, voice recognition is not allowed unless they spell each word letter by letter…Crazy! I’ll be working on his typing skills this summer and juggling. Again, thanks for your comments