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Does anyone have recommendations for dictation apps? We've tried Dragon on an IPad with poor results and are fishing for another option before resigning ourselves to spending time training it. DS7's school is suddenly keen on using IPad apps to accommodate his written output issues, so I'd love any other app suggestions, as well. We want to encourage this new supportiveness!

What happened specifically with Dragon on the iPad? Was the trouble too many incorrect interpretations of your ds' spoken word or was it clumsy for your ds to use? Has he tried the voice-to-text built into the iPad keyboard?

Seven is young for using voice-to-text. I am not sure of success rates with iPad voice-to-text, but in the re-iPad days I read that many students really didn't take up voice-to-text until after their voice changed with puberty and that it was easier to train then.

Ds has fine-motor dysgraphia, and when he first tried voice-to-text on the laptop he preferred it over typing - BUT -it still wasn't easy for him to train it. Part of the challenge for our ds was that he has a hard time with creative writing also (not just the physical act of handwriting), and he felt weird talking to the computer when trying to train it. The last time we touched base with AT support folks, we were told a good way to train Dragnon is tread from a favorite book, keep reading and ignore mistakes untill you've read for quite a while, then go back and correct the mistakes. We got this advice about the same time ds got his iPad, and the voice databank on the iPad has always worked great for ds so he's never tried training Dragon again.

I don't have the names of any early-elementary apps at the moment, but I know I've seen apps for graphic organizers and apps that include word prediction. DSl uses Pages for word processing and the built-in camera to take pictures of assignments and notes written on the classroom whiteboard. IIRC, there is a list of apps for dyslexic/dysgraphic students on the Eide's Dyslexic Advantage website.

That's all I can think of at the moment, hope it helps a little bit!

polarbear

We are supposed to finally be meeting next Monday about DD8's AT eval. They are recommending an iPad for her too. I'll report back after the meeting if they offer anything other than Dragon. Please do the same if you find out more. Thanks.

Dragon doesn't work for my DD11 either. I think that there is something about the pitch of her voice that it just can't learn. We have similar problems with phones, part of her voice just drops out. My husband literally misses half of the conversation with her on his work phone. We have an IPAD2 so it doesn't have it's own dictation system. I wonder if this will get better as she gets older. My DD13 uses Dragon with no problem (no dysgraphia issues, she just finds it faster than typing).

FWIW, she does like typing on the IPAD. We use Pages. It can save as a word doc and she can email it to her teacher. I think that she also has used email to transfer it to our iMac and edit it with Word for longer projects.

Just a few notes - I'm not singling out mon's ds here, just quoting to mention what our ds is using - his school requires all 7th graders to use an iPad for all their schoolwork; ds can use his laptop instead if/when he needs to, but so far he's one of the dysgraphic kids who prefers his iPad to a laptop, after several years of using a laptop to complete his schoolwork.


DS and the other students at his school all use bluetooth keyboards, not the virtual keyboard for the bulk of their work.



There are a few apps for this I've looked at. I also agree this is an issue - although the apps I've seen are not horribly bad, the main issue I would have using them is they are in self-contained apps, not something you can run while you're using Pages or mail etc. DS, otoh, prefers the way iPad does spell-check and word prediction (which is nowhere near as robust as Co:Writer etc)... but otoh, he never liked to use Co:Writer and similar software on the laptop because the software used the arrow keys and he liked having those available to maneuver the cursor around in his documents.


DS has an equation editor on his iPad (not Efofex), and also has graphing apps. He also has apps for his graphing calculator, but there are things lacking (I think) on the calculator app. He's ok with what he has re math apps on the iPad and feels like he isn't missing anything over using Efofex on his laptop. He's in Algebra I, so his impressions may change as he moves on in math.


I can't remember the name of ds' equation editor, but the way it works is you build the equation in the equation editor and then cut and paste if you want it in a new doc.


DS and his classmates transfer and turn in files using email - it's *very* easy to email a doc on the iPad - you can pull up an email directly from within the individual apps.


Pages allows the user to save/send a file as a Word doc - ds does this when he wants me to proofread for him so I can read the files on my laptop, and he turns in homework to one teacher in Word docs. I use a Mac; his teacher is on a PC - it's all been very seamless.

[quote[I do wonder if he had started with the IPAD, if he'd be more accepting of it, but for now, we are PC people. [/quote]

I'm a Mac person who also has used PCs quite a bit for work. When I found out ds would be required to use an iPad for school this year I had a lot of concerns and felt he would be needing to carry both his laptop and iPad back and forth to school. I'm still ds' main AT support person when it comes to researching apps/software etc because he's never had good help with that from school. When I researched what he would need for the iPad, I wasn't convinced it would be possible for him to make the move anywhere near 100%. I was very surprised that ds not only made the move without much difficulty, he clearly prefers the iPad and now the only time he ever opens up his laptop is to play games that aren't available on the iPad. In the areas where I didn't find an equivalent app compared to what he used on his laptop, he found his own workarounds and finds his own apps. He wasn't happy with voice-to-text on the laptop and didn't use it much; he found it much easier to use on the iPad. The smaller size and weight have also been a bonus for him.

In the meantime, I've become a real fan of the iPad also - and now see it as much more capable of meeting the needs of dysgraphic students than I did at this point in time last year.

I also think that the nature of how technology evolves is one of the greatest gifts our dysgraphic kids have going for them - as ds gets older and tech keeps getting better and better he is looking much less different from his peers at school.

polarbear

To the OP re apps - one thing my ds uses and *needs* that your ds probably doesn't need yet, but you might want to be aware of: the ability to scan worksheets and files. There are a number of scanner apps; ds uses JotNot (I think that's the name - I don't have his iPad at home today to double-check). It's not really a "scanner" - it takes a picture and converts the picture to a file. It's easy to use, but you need to have good even lighting on your document and that can be tricky.

When ds scans in a worksheet, he uses an app to allow him to edit/type on pdf files. I think the app he has is called "Type on PDF". He doesn't like the app as much as he liked using Adobe Pro on the laptop, but he's able to use it and it's another app which allows you to easily send/share docs.

polarbear

Our previous school really fought the idea that ds should ever move to voice-to-text - as well as many other AT accommodations. I remember walking into the office on day, totally battle-weary and feeling like no one at school would ever understand why it was ok to move ds to AT over handwriting - to pick up a copy of a draft IEP. When I walked into the school office, each of the school administrative assistants was... um.. talking to Dragon lol! I started looking around and realizing - there are a lot of very neurotypical folks out there using voice-to-text! And ds didn't discover the built-in voice-to-text until a classmate found it while playing around on his own iPad - and all the kids in his class thought it was cool, and ds isn't the only student who uses it.

polarbear

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions. And special thanks, polarbear, for prompting me to look into dysgraphia in the first place (after my first post when I knew nothing about the 'could be' written output disorder - it has been an eye-opening few months).

Our Dragon problems were incorrect interpretations of DS's words, but we probably didn't give it a fair go. At the time DH was not onboard and thought it would undermine DS's writing progress (a stretch of the definition of 'progress' if ever there was one!). He's mostly come around and I'll try another Dragon training attempt during spring break. Although I didn't realize the iPad had something built in - I'll try that, as well.

I was wondering about the keyboard issue. I can't type on the pretend keyboard, myself, so I never use the iPad, but a bluetooth keyboard, as well as an iPad, might be too much for a 7 year old to keep track of. Anyone have success with that age group maintaining possession of such things over time?!

The school is going to be searching out math apps over spring break and I'll post if they come up with any good ones. Meanwhile, I'll check out the Eide's site.

Thanks again!

For my son, math and science kid, efofex was so important he went back to a pc. We could find nothing to compare to it. He also had another software program that he really liked that wouldn't run on his mac products. For a while he was running both a mac and pc.

My kids definitely wouldn't have been capable of managing an iPad for school etc at that point in their lives - none of them, even the most organized. DS didn't start using his laptop on his own and taking it back and forth between school until midway through 4th grade. He used an Alphasmart provided by the school at school before that, with another loaner Alphasmart at home for awhile. He had access to school computers starting in 2nd grade. I think the iPad can work (and a keyboard), but without turning it over to him to take care of and be responsible for.

Re the keyboard, our ds has a sturdy carrying case that the keyboard and iPad both fit into. When he uses his iPad, he can stand it up like a laptop monitor using the case, and type on the keyboard without removing it from the case. The potential gotcha with the bluetooth keyboard is that the student has to have wifi access at school, and that was something that ds' previous school was not willing to let students have. His current school has no issues with it.


Be sure to let us know what you find! FWIW, after I posted yesterday I remembered that ds has an app called "Math Paper" that allows you to write simple equations and save them to pdf files. He also has an equation called "Graph Paper" that is exactly that - graph paper that you can annotated on the iPad. If you search "Math Paper" in the app store it brings up some apps that might be helpful!

polarbear