Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Assistive technology recommendations?

knute, fwiw, I don't think my dd could have faked her VT computer exercises - they were things that forced her eyes to track etc... if she'd attempted to fake it, it would have been reflected as no progress in her scores. There was a way to see progress over time on my dd's program, and they were also short exercises - no more than 15 minutes total, made up of very short subsets of tasks. DD liked them. OTOH, I think it that the non-computer exercises she did were much more obviously helpful for her vision.

polarbear

ps - fwiw, I'll also add - we've been told that we should take our younger dd for a developmental optometrist eval - and the first horrible parent thought that flung itself into my head was NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Not another YEAR of VT exercises at home.... AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!! (blush). Of course we'll do it if she needs it, but ugh. VT can be very time consuming for the parent involved!

Seriously! DS doesn't mind the exercises BUT as a very creative introvert he needs a decent amount of 'downtime' and 'in-his-own-world-time.' So he is in school until 3pm and by the time we get home it's 3:20/3:30 and we need to do homework and reading and bath and dinner and bed/stories and many days he has a therapy appointment (OT or VT), soccer, and/or allergist (we go once a week for shots trying to get his bad allergies under control). Plus he really needs to wind down with bath and then stories by at the latest 8pm so he can be asleep by around 8:30/9pm. He gets up early in the morning and sometimes I fit some in then but he likes to get up early to 'play' before school (again he's trying to fit in his 'in-his-own-world-time' ) and many times I am tryign to get myself dressed, younger DS dressed and fed, Ds himself dressed and fed, etc... It is SOOOO hard. He enjoys the computer program and I am hoping that could be something to make up for the low-tech homework we are routinely missing at this point.

Soooo, super good news about vision therapy. School is sending DS to a developmental optometrist for an eval and to get started on his VT through the school!

I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE it! I think 50% of the success on this front was me and the 50% being in a really, really good district!!! So thrilled as it will mean going to VT much closer to home and the cost will be covered by the school!!! So happy!!!!

Yay marytheres - that is wonderful!!!! Good job advocating!!!!

polarbear

Reviving this thread in hopes I may be able to get recommendations of apps, etc to load now that we invested in an iPad for DD. She still has the one the district is providing for her out of district placement but the process of getting what she needs loaded has just been SO bogged down. We bought her one ourselves, as a supplement not a replacement, and told the school to load anything and everything they think may be useful. I think they're a bit gun-shy, though. We had been told for weeks that they had lists of apps they wanted to try but it seems they have so far only loaded a couple now that they have the second machine available to them.

Last night we got home and she asked "Mom is it ok if I do some math on my iPad?" Seriously - my kid with every LD in the book - including a math disability - was asking to do math. For fun. On a Friday night. I could not believe it!!!! There was no math app but she asked me to write an addition worksheet up for her so she could take a picture of it and write her answers on the screen.

Any recommendations for *fun* apps she can "play" without noticing that she is learning or reinforcing skills? The AT consultant recommended Luminocity for working memory issues but DD says "it's boring" and doesn't want to play it. She is now 6 weeks into this new school - which is going quite well - but she STILL doesn't have any audio books. She and DH are at the library now trying to load what she is reading in all 3 reading groups (2/3 grade for decoding, 5/6 grade for instructional and 8th grade for comprehension.) She actually asked to able to read aloud with the other kids in the 8th grade group so she will need text and audio. I can't believe I really just typed that. I am just so amazed.

So any suggested apps? As a reminder she is 8 (3rd grade) and has been labeled "NLD-ish" not because she really seems to have NLD but because the neuropsych said "it's easier than saying super high verbal along with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, math disability, etc." She has HUGE deficits in visual perception, working memory and processing speed. She also has fine motor deficits and speech impediments. They are working on keyboarding and voice-to-text but it is a slow, slow process.

I am also happy to have her access "just for fun" games and apps too. I think anything that increases her comfort level with the technology is probably going to be good for her. I am guessing it will also help in terms of the fine motor, visual perception and maybe even working memory depending on the game. She works so hard just on everyday tasks I want her to be able to just relax and have fun sometimes too.

For straight-up math facts practice, my DD9 enjoys "King of Math." It's pretty easy, though, or at least you have to go through the easy levels to get to the difficult ones. DD9 is anxious and can't handle anything timed, but she likes this one.

I'm so happy for your DD. I know things aren't perfect and there is a lot of work to be done but it sounds like she is moving forwards and that onto itself is amazing after all that she has gone through. I'm sure finally being placed at a school that believes in her made a lot of difference. Yay for her, her school, and her parents for embracing radical acceleration.

Sorry, not much help with math apps. We've tried a bunch but I was never happy with any of them. When it comes to math, my favorite is still DreamBox Learning. It gets visually "messy" time to time but I think if your DD can work through the visual confusion, it could be a good tool for her as the program works on getting students to understand and process mathematical concepts visually. The good news here is that they are releasing iPad version soon:

http://www.dreambox.com/ipad/

Thanks for the tip. We installed the junior version and DD was instantly hooked. I actually like this app. It attacks the same concept from many different angles so they get the practice without the repetition.

Pettson's inventions is a fun app.

Thanks - I loaded both of those this morning along with a whole bunch I found recommended on various LD sites. Right now I am loading just about anything free that looks like it could be appropriate. Anything that looks complicated or costs money I will wait on until we get some more specific recommendations. It's funny how excited she is about things like math and spelling apps. Just having it on the iPad seems to make it interesting. Not sure how long this will last but I want to make the most of it while I can!