Dysgraphia Doesn’t Have To Be Limiting
One of the things about teaching writing that can be very frustrating is that some students have dysgraphia, which can really hinder their writing speed. What this means, is that while other students have written a three page essay, your dysgraphic student is still sitting there with four lines on his paper. Dysgraphia is such an aggravating disorder for the student. Most kids who have it are very smart, and it can be so frustrating for them when they cannot put their thoughts down on paper. Fortunately, if the student has 504 modifications, you can request that technological assistance be available. Oftentimes, this means that the student can type on the computer rather than write things out by hand.
However, most students, especially those who are in elementary and middle school, cannot type! So what the modification is really doing is creating a new problem in place of the old one. Fortunately, new technological advances are being made all the time. Take a look at an alternative.
I am going to suggest the
Dragon Naturally Speaking software for student writing modifications. With this software, the student can speak into a microphone and the words will appear on the screen. This way, typing speed is no longer an issue. Of course, there is always the issue of people being able to speak much faster than they can type, anyway. If you don’t believe it, go take
Dragon’s typing speed test!
The thing about this software is that it can take students who were lagging behind the rest of the class, and make it possible for them to be competitive with the rest of the class. After all, writing is about sentence structure and ideas. It is an awful thing for a student’s ideas to be suppressed because of a disability. With this software, they can quite literally find their writing voice.
If you’re wondering what other people think about this product, check out
Dragon Reviews. I’m really excited about this product. I can’t wait to get my district on board with this! I can see all sorts of educational applications that are beyond the scope of this post. Just imagine!
