Here in Ontario, the kids are heading back to school tomorrow. With that, I know there will be a few tears shed as I work with ds and his homework. :cry:
He was assessed last spring and there really wasn’t any time to put any new strategies in place. This year he will be entering Grade 5, and will be having the same teacher as last year. I feel this will be good as she will be able to see if there has been any concentration improvements since he started meds for his combined type ADHD.
Summary of dx: ADHD, ld with graphomotor skills, working memory and phonological processing (therefore affecting his word reading, spelling and writing) He also has a generalized anxiety disorder. Currently he is taking 20mg/day of ritalin, but that dosage is being monitored on a monthly basis to determine the best amount for him. He has average to high IQ and verbal skills.
Last week I met with our new principal to go over the findings of this report because I knew our outgoing principal would not have actually discussed specific children. She told me that any type of assistive device likely would not be in the actual school until either the end of this school year, or even the beginning of next! That is not acceptable to me as this poor child has suffered enough and I would like to see him get a wee bit of positive self image back. DH and I have agreed that we will purchase any type of speech to text system we may need.
My question is this - given these types of ld’s, what types of assistive devices would be recommended? For now we are going to look at a 3-sided study carol for when he needs to concentrate. We are also going to get him a tape recorder so that he can record what he wants to write, then take his time to type out his notes. I know there are a lot of “simple” devices such as graphic organizers out there, but I would really appreciate hearing from real people in the know as to what has worked for them.
I appreciate any help.
Be well,
Jori
Thank you
Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I thought I would have had a lot more responses, but I guess I wasn’t clear enough on what I was needing information on.
I didn’t realize that you can get a system within Word that will do a transfer of words to written text. Basically, the report was saying that he would benefit from additional time to complete writing activies, the use of graphic organizers (I don’t know anything about these), plus it was recommended that he have a system in class that would allow him to “write with a computer” to allow him to concenrea on his ideas and allow him to edit and rewrite later - which is where the portable tape recorder would come in to effect. He has learned how to touch type over the summer and although he would be slow with that, it would likley be faster than his printing/writing abilities.
The report also suggested a “guiding rule” for memory stategies to make information more rote in meaning. No clue as to what that means.
How does the system within Word work? Other than a microphone into the computer, what else would he need? Any hints/tips on this one??
Thanks.
Be well,
Jori
You said,
We are also going to get him a tape recorder so that he can record what he wants to write, then take his time to type out his notes.
You may be interested to know that you can record directly into Microsoft Word and then listen to what you have said and then type out notes, paragraphs, etc. All you need is a microphone (and of course Word as your word processing program and most people and schools seem to use that program.)
There are a number of other possibilities, including text-to-speech programs, but it depends upon your son’s unique needs. What did the report recommend? What, specifically, would you like the assistive devices help your son overcome?