[senco-forum] any advice please

Hi Ruth
It might be worth considering a Dana from Don Johnston with the sound
card and Write Outloud - this will give him a mobile talking wp that he
can use at his desk and with headphones it will not disturb any one else
- he will get aural prompts for any errors and if he has to use a
worksheet, he can load it into WOL and have an instant talking worksheet
- they are developing a version of CoWriter, but it is not available yet
- Inclusive do a text predictor, TextPlus for the Dana but I have not
tried it - one of the advantages of the Dana over the Neo is that you
can download all sorts of Palm OS progs - including Inspiration for Palm
OS.  KAZ is OK for some dyslexics but confusing for others - First keys
to Literacy is good and a lot of kids like the Disney program

Another program that is really supportive is Communicate in Print from
Widgit - it will allow him to use rebuses whilst he prepares writing,
but can remove them for the final printout - it is specially useful for
homonyms like pear/pair/pare  here/hear herd/heard etc and a lot of
dyslexics who are visual learners quickly latch onto the symbols as a
means of support.

Cheers
Judith

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judith Stansfield
SEN ICT Consultant
BDANTC (Associate member)
Farm Cottage, 24 East Road, Melsonby,Richmond DL10 5NF
stass at onyxnet.co.uk 
01325 718139   07990572365
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Ruth
Newbury
Sent: 02 February 2007 13:38
To: 1BECTA Senco
Subject: [senco-forum] any advice please

I now have a final diagnosis regarding my grandson's performance in
school.  (This has been a very expensive proceeding!  I can only advise
those of you who think teaching is underpaid to retrain as EPs.  You can
all then charge £425 for a full assessment.  I might add that this is
from the best EP that I have ever met - and who writes an extremely
readable report, that can be understood by the uninitiated as well.)

The main areas of concern are his short-term memory, speed of written
processing, spelling, reading and maths.  Not a lot to work on is there?

He is a year six student, due for SATs in May.  I am now getting all
geared up for the software I need to buy and equipment I need to get in
order to get him sorted out.  He is quite a hard-working soul and wants
to do well.  He ought to be at the top set sort of level if you look at
his non-verbal scores for example but he has a lovely zigzag profile and
I am looking for ways to work at home to improve on the low level scores
which are certainly demonstrating areas and hold him back in class when
he needs to be able to perform independently.

Looking at memory I am about to use Mastering Memory and Time to Revise
from CALSC - both brilliant pieces of software.  If you have never met
either of these pieces of software have a look at the site.  Jane
Mitchell also produces a very nice student diary guide as to how to plan
your time too.

I'm about to buy an Alphasmart Neo - which comes with a Kaz keyboarding
tutor pre-installed.  I'm wondering just what typing programme most of
you would choose for a boy of this age.  He enjoys computer games
involving blood and gore or football.  Kewala springs to mind but is
there anything new out that I haven't met?  As a firm believer in
bribery and corruption I'm about to offer a cash payment for either
grandson who has finished the course and can key in without looking at
the keyboard by the end of the summer term.  He currently has a writing
speed of eight words per minute, half the expected speed for his age
group so keyboarding is probably the most essential skill he needs in
order to be able to perform and a level with his peers.

Wordshark and Numbershark are both on my list as well.  Saw the updated
versions at BETT and they both look even better than I expected.

Once I can move him onto a computer I shall produce Wordbar (from Crick)
plus a planning tool.  We've already looked at these and he finds Mind
Manager the best suited to his style of planning.

Please don't imagine that I'm going to have him working flat out on all
these every night.  I'm just looking to get ourselves geared up to work
in stages to make up the deficits as we match up what goes with home
work (twice a week-one English one maths) and what we can do for fun and
what is the additional graft!  Keyboarding is going to be the additional
graft initially - 10 minutes every night.  

What I am hoping for is advice from you.  Have I picked the software you
would choose?  What else might you be doing?

And the diagnosis of dyslexia has proved to be just what he needed.
Until the diagnosis he just regarded himself as an inadequate student.
He now knows that with help he can do it, and that soon he should be out
to do it by himself in he works at the right things.

And I can also say that you end up feeling very inadequate as a
grandparent that you haven't seen that your grandson is dyslexic!  The
EP was kind enough to say that all the things we have done with him
since he was born have masked his dyslexia.  Looking at his maths
performance I had debated about dyscalculia, but because I don't see him
work that much I wasn't aware of some of his problems.  As a granny I
spend more time cooking with him, or doing the fun things, than I do
with the serious issues of home work!

So any advice will be gratefully received.  I'm an old dog always ready
to learn new tricks!

Regards

Ruth