elainem Report post Posted March 5, 2008 Hi despite ours and scools best efforts my 7 year old ASD/Dyspraxic ds is not making progress with his writing. He works very hard and this is an arduous frustrating task for him. Anyne have a child this age using alternative methods of recording - eg laptop, alphasmart. I was unsure whether he might be deemed too young and that we should carry on with writing. Will be checking with OT as well but wondered if anyone had experiences to share. Thanks Elainex Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kinda Report post Posted March 5, 2008 Hi Elainem My son (AS) had wonderful writing when he was younger but it took him too long to write anything and so he resorted to the computer. He used to write exams by hand and was given some extra time but I believe it never fully compensated him. The use of computer was mentioned in his Statements for higher school and university when he was afforede extra time and a computer. Where I work I very rarely see people actually hand write anything now other than the odd note. I think if you try him on the keyboard and see how he gets on, for me there shouldn't be a problem but then heh what do I know! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oxgirl Report post Posted March 5, 2008 My lad has always struggled with this too, elainem. He's 14 now and still has a scribe writing for him during lessons, sometimes he adds the odd sentence or word depending on what mood he's in. He finds typing equally arduous and frustrating and has never had the patience to practice and master that either, so we're still really stumped as to what to do really. Hope you find a solution that works for you. <'> ~ Mel ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rach04 Report post Posted March 5, 2008 My lad is terrible. They have found that his dyspraxia doesn't help him with a normal keyboard he used neowriter for a couple of weeks and then they took it off of him. There are to many keys on a normal keyboard for him and he gets very confused. Ask about neowriter there is a site just type it in to your search engine they are very expensive hense why i havent got one but could prehaps be something to mention to your ep. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stella63 Report post Posted March 5, 2008 Hi Elainem, My youngest was provided with an Alphasmart in year 3 because his handwriting was so poor. I think he used it in yr 4 as well but it then it disappeared!!! He was then assessed in yr6 by the SENICT (requested by SENCO) for a laptap and was provided one by County. When he started secondary school in september he was quite reliant on it at first but now his handwriting is hugely improving and he hardly uses it at all. Funnily enough my oldest son also had dreadful handwriting until he started secondary school - don't know whether there is a connection there? Stella xx Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Karen A Report post Posted March 5, 2008 Ben started using an Alphasmart in year 3 and I cannot explain what a huge difference it has made.Ben has gone from being frustrated and finding writing difficult and painful to being one of the most advanced in literacy in his class [year 5].People tell me he may be a writer one day.Now that I see what he can produce with the Alphasmart I can understand why he was so frustrated before. Ben has DCD and hypermobile fingers and so can not write very much before he gets cramp.Now he does write when doing short pieces of work and his writing has improved.School and the OT experimented with various pencil grips and I bought various pens that were supposed to help...but none of them made a big difference.Karen. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elainem Report post Posted March 5, 2008 thanks so uch everyone am def going to look into alphasmart Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites