School starts in just a few weeks for us. As part of my DD's new 504 she will be offered access to an AlphaSmart and/or Write Out Loud. I know very little about these accommodations other than brief descriptions in the Eide's book. I'm not sure if the school plans to offer any training or if DD is supposed to figure them out on her own. Has anyone had experience with either of these? Any feedback, good bad or indifferent would be helpful.

Also, I'm trying to have DD learn the keyboard this summer. Is there anything in particular that I should have DD practice over the last few weeks of summer that might help her use these tools?

Are you talking about the computer keyboard? A couple of years back I bought some vinyl lower-case letter overlays for my son's full-sized keyboard, and he loves them to this day (prefers to type on that keyboard compared to a laptop). Here's a sample-- not sure if these are the ones I bought:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003IB77G8

@lucounu, I don't think that the overlays are the same thing.
@ mon, She is 8, going into 3rd grade so an Alphasmart might be helpful if I can get her up to speed on her keyboarding. Her teacher last year declined to use it because DD couldn't keyboard. The teacher thought that it would have been overwhelming for her to learn keyboarding during the school year just to use the Alphasmart. I will check out Typing Instructor for Kids. DD has just been doing the free BBC typing program Dancemat Typing. I'm not sure exactly how Write out loud works. All I know is that it is a software program that is supposed to help with writing and spelling.

You might want to try this program. It's free and suppose to have fun games as it teaches them to type.

http://rapidtyping-typing-tutor.rapidtyping-software.qarchive.org/

Alphasmart is a very sturdy and easy to use machine that schools like to give elementary aged children. My nephew used one and loved being able to keyboards simply. The teacher should be able to train her how to down load her files so they can be printed out.

Yippee!

I've never heard of http://www.donjohnston.com/products/write_outloud/index.html

but from the website it looks like a simple wordprocessor that one uses on a PC (laptop, desktop or netbook) that has the advantage of converting text to speech. This seems like it would be good if the child is having trouble reading, or to make the child more aware of what they have typed, for editing purposes.

10 minutes a day of keyboarding practice seems like a great plan. 2 sessions spread out over the day seems like it would be ok too.
At age 8, your DD may not really be ready to touch type fluently, so I understand the teacher's concern that learning to type and using typing for school might be too much to do all at once. But if you work on typing steadily, she will eventually learn to type comfortably. I took it as a great opportunity to learn a physical skill - practice matters more that understanding.

You might enjoy reading 'cheaper by the dozen' as aloud reading - there is a whole chapter on typewriters in it.

love and more love,
Grinity

My son used both the writer and alpha smart in grades 4 and 5 to prepare for a laptop in grade 6. (he attends an LD school and all students get laptops in sixth grade). The writer has a good typing program built in. It is pretty basic, teaches homerow and proper keyboarding and has many timing options for kids that are slower to catch on.

In the summer my son uses type to learn - you can get it through scholastic.

These word processors are good for getting kids started - but by middle school I believe that the complexity of their work demands a laptop with Word and a full screen.