Unfair advantage?!!!!! What is she talking about?! Unfair because he would be able to show what he knows instead of struggling to put something on paper? That's ludricous!
Willa, I'm going to email you some stuff about classroom accomodations. This is at the top of the list. I hope the testing OT will also tell the teachers. GIVE HIM A KEYBOARD!!!!!!!
There are two things to be done here. One is to work on his handwriting, so he can create legible handwritten whatevers at some point in life. The other goal is for Mite to produce written work as an assignment. For that, there is NO EXCUSE for the IEP to not read that Mite keyboards his assignments.
Tell the teacher to have the other "middle of the pack" kids produce some written work on the computer. See what content they come up with. Maybe some of them need the thing too. And I don't know about you, but those writing examples do not seem "typical" of a 9 year old to me. Neither do the keyboarded sentences!!!
I'm curious, how does he keyboard? One handed? Fast, slow, quick and easy or is it pretty labored? You can email me with that info!
As for typing programs, we have one from Scholastic, Brain Play, that is for 1st to 3rd grade. It's called Roller Typing. My 5 year old has been pretty independent to follow the program.