Question:

Hello! Dru and Brian came to our school and did an onsite evaluation for my son. They recommended Co:Writer and Write:OutLoud for him. The school bought the software and has taught it to my son, in the resource room. Now I need ideas on asking the school to integrate my son's the use of this program day to day. I am afraid that there is no bridge between his learning it in a special classroom and actually using it as a classroom tool. I plan to get a copy of it for home so we can use it to complete writing assignments.

Thank you!

Answer:

It's GREAT that the school moved quickly to purchase the software and teach your son how to use it. It must be so disappointing for him that he can't use these new tools to help him with his writing assignments in his general education classroom. Unfortunately, this situation is not unique to your particular school; I see it often and for a variety of reasons.

The first step is the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP). Your school district probably has a section on their IEP form where they list the Assistive Technology Devices that your son needs in order to benefit from his educational program. Listing the assistive technology is important so you can be sure he has access to the tools he needs if he should change classrooms or schools. However, assistive technology is not the goal itself, but a tool to help your son to achieve his educational goals. You want to be sure that your son's academic goals are written with assistive technology included; Co:Writer and Write:OutLoud are tools that your son can use to help him produce legible and correctly spelled written work.

For those readers who do not know - Co:Writer is word-prediction software; it predicts a word based on the letters typed and it can be configured to respond to phonetically (mis)spelled words.

Write:OutLoud is word processor with a "talking" spell checker and text-to-speech features that allow the user to auditorily proof his work. Both programs are available in Macintosh or Windows formats and produced by Don Johnston, Inc, www.donjohnston.com

I don't know your son's particular disability or specific needs but an EXAMPLE of how to include assistive technology in IEP goals follows:

Due to Mario's difficulty with fine-motor control which affects the legibility and speed of completion of his written work, his difficulty spelling, and increased frustration when he attempts such tasks; he will use a classroom computer with a text-to-speech word processor, spell checker, and word prediction program for written work.

Mario requires an hour a day of instruction for a period of at least three weeks to learn to independently operate a computer with text-reading word processing and word prediction software programs, which he will be using to produce all of his written work. An instructor who is familiar with the technology described will provide one-to-one or small group instruction.

Using the assistive technology and after training described above, Mario will compose daily journal entries, descriptive compositions (three paragraphs of fifteen sentences) and use a teacher-created book report template file to write one book report each month. These writing assignments will include proper use of spelling, punctuation, and grammar to the standard of expectation of the other fourth graders.

Remember that IEP goals such as these would be a collaborative effort between all of the members of your son's IEP team, including the general education teaching staff. All of his teachers in addition to you should receive some basic training in how to use the software programs in order to provide him with support, if needed, when he is using the computer for writing.

Since the Diagnostic Center staff has already evaluated your son I would be happy to consult directly with you and his teachers on the phone or via e-mail. It is one of the services that we offer in order to support the schools and families as they implement the recommendations made in our assessment reports.