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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 3,363
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 3,363 |
I should mention that DS is in a private school. One more quick thought before I really have to move on to cleaning my house lol! We've been to public, optional and private schools and I've worked with other private schools. I think what works depends much more on the individual school than whether or not it's a public/private. We've finally found a school that's a great fit for our ds - not perfect or ideal, but it's working really well, which I can't say about our previous school experience. The thing that we found in our new school was two-fold - first, the teachers respect what the parents have to say and what outside experts believe, as well as being willing to let students try accommodations suggested by parents and private evaluators. The other thing is an openness to technology in the classroom. polarbear
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Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 154
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Posts: 154 |
So what voice-to-text do you use polarbear? My tester suggested Dragon but I have read it doesn't work that well for kids. I have read glowing reviews of the new Ipad's Siri voice recognition but have no idea if it works for academics.
I have made DS keyboard because it works for him, somewhat, although he is slow. However I had him work on the Typing Instructor for Kids program (only about $15-20) to improve his keyboarding. It is classic keyboarding method in the context of various pretty entertaining games and it helped him a lot. He can type 20 WPM now but he has to correct the spelling of about 25% afterwards!
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 3,363
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fwtxmom, our ds has Dragon. I agree that it's not that easy to use for kids, and it's also not practical in a lot of situations during school. We're just starting to try out Dragon on the iPad - and so far it looks really *really* promising. I didn't know that Siri was available on the iPad for anything other than asking questions... but I haven't looked into it. I find Siri's voice on my dh's iPhone very annoying lol! Our ds learned to type first using BBC-Mat typing online when he was in 2nd/3rd grade - it's free and it's fun. My dds used it also even though they don't have dysgraphia  After he'd gone through the BBC lessons he practiced in Ultra-Key for about a year, then we stopped making him practice and just let him get his practice through his schoolwork. He's not much faster at typing than he is at handwriting, I think due to the nature of his fine motor challenges. I'm really hopeful for the iPad - the few times we've tried Dragon so far it seems to do a fairly reasonable job of voice recognition without the ton of training you have to do on the regular computer, and it's worked well in the presence of background noise. OTOH, I'm probably just delirious from too many late nights watching my ds plod through his homework at the speed of a turtle and hoping for something to drop out of the sky and make his schoolwork go faster.... so I may change my opinion of the iPad Dragon after we've worked with it a little bit more. polarbear
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Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 154
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Keep me posted please! All the parents of older kids at my DS' school have promised a real writing beat down next year (in 6th grade) and I am cringing at the prospect. I have a meeting with the academic dean tomorrow to try to get the groundwork in place to ASSURE the accommodations DS needs are followed consistently-not when convenient or if the teacher happens to think about it. I want him to work on a voice recognition program this summer to try and prepare as well.
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 10
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OP
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It sounds like you did not get written recommendations from your testing. Is that right? You need a diagnosis and recommendations in writing. This will help right now to have recommendations tailored to your son but also will help in the future. My tester told me we needed to have new testing done every three years and especially right before the SAT/ACT. Needless to say, I have not been thinking about the SAT with a son in 5th grade but apparently some kids get suddenly "diagnosed" around that time to get extra test time. Having an early, documented diagnosis and follow up will help your DS get extra time if and when he needs it for these tests, as well as the extra time he needs now. We only received general recommendations for DS' educational options and some enrichment options, but nothing specific for his dysgraphia. We did not get a diagnosis from the tester, but we have a written diagnosis from the doctor who made the diagnosis last year. The tester did recommend getting the diagnosis documented so that DS can get extra time if needed for standardized tests in the future. I waiver back and forth debating whether or not I want to set up another meeting with the teacher since it is so close to the end of the year and we are planning to homeschool next year. My impression from her is that we are requesting accomodations, not to level the playing field, but make excuses for DS' weaknesses.
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 3,363
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Posts: 3,363 |
I have a meeting with the academic dean tomorrow to try to get the groundwork in place to ASSURE the accommodations DS needs are followed consistently-not when convenient or if the teacher happens to think about it Great job getting a head start on documenting the accommodations - documentation is soooo important! We still had problems with teachers not bothering with the accommodations even when we had them in place in ds' IEP but at least we had that official piece of documentation The other thing that I found got easier as time went by - our ds started wanting to use his accommodations, and was very aware of what they were - so it eliminated the likelihood of him not receiving an accommodation because a teacher "forgot". I'll keep you updated on Dragon! polarbear
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 3,363
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Joined: Sep 2011
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I waiver back and forth debating whether or not I want to set up another meeting with the teacher since it is so close to the end of the year and we are planning to homeschool next year. My impression from her is that we are requesting accomodations, not to level the playing field, but make excuses for DS' weaknesses. I would ignore the teacher's take on it, and call a team meeting to get accommodations documented. Even though you won't need documentation for homeschooling, having that documentation in place now may help your ds in the future. You might want him to take gifted program testing (like through CTY etc) or high-stakes testing early, or you may need to have him take standardized testing through your state's homeschooling requirements - and if so, your ds might want/need accommodations. You'll also have it for a later time if he does go back into public school - and it may help make the process for getting accommodations then go easier. Best wishes, polarbear
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Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 15
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Posts: 15 |
Not to hijack your post .. but can anyone tell me the benefits of WISC versus WJIII? My now ten yr old did WISC a few yrs ago and now we are getting DD8 and DS 6 tested... they have said they are doing WJIII... should they be doing WISC? whats the difference? Thanks !
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 10
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To those who shared your experiences and suggestions...thanks! You've helped me to better understand DS' tests results, organize my thoughts, articulate what I have had difficulty articulating, and look long-term at what my DS might need.
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 10
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 10 |
[/quote] I would ignore the teacher's take on it, and call a team meeting to get accommodations documented. Even though you won't need documentation for homeschooling, having that documentation in place now may help your ds in the future. You might want him to take gifted program testing (like through CTY etc) or high-stakes testing early, or you may need to have him take standardized testing through your state's homeschooling requirements - and if so, your ds might want/need accommodations. You'll also have it for a later time if he does go back into public school - and it may help make the process for getting accommodations then go easier.[/quote]
Polarbear, can you explain the process for getting accommodations for future standardized testing, also for the annual state standardized testing? I wonder if it would be possible to request extended time for the 4th grade writing portion of the standardized testing coming up next month.
The problem with meeting with the teacher to request documentation is that she really hasn't done much to accommodate DS. To my knowledge, she has only written out math problems on graph paper so that DS did not have to copy them from the book and give him extended time to finish tests (which she has recently started deducting points for). In addition, these "accommodations" are given to a handful of other students in the class. In my opinion, these accommodations are so minor compared to what she should have been doing for DS, especially in regards to writing projects, reports, daily written work, etc.
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