School stress - so much writing

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CrabbyMomma
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10 Feb 2010, 11:38 pm

Any feedback on helping ds get through all he written work of high school would be appreciated. NYS 9th grade social studies is taking over our life. He can have a scribe but I don't always have time to write for him. Anyone who has made it through high school please let me know how.



DW_a_mom
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11 Feb 2010, 2:12 am

What I've taken away from reading on forums like this one over the years is that he has to get comfortable typing on a computer. If there are reasons he can't do that, you could try voice software, but I would really encourage him to work on his keyboard skills. It is never going to be fast or easy, but many have had a lot of success transferring all their writing to computers and are able to get by comfortably that way.

My son is in 7th grade and his skills aren't where either of us want them yet, but he has agreed it is his future. Right now I will type for him for social studies, but not language arts, and we are pushing for typing and editing to be the priority in his academic support period. Funny enough his OT says he has technically "graduated" with this skill, in being able to type 30 words a minute in his own lingo, but that is still pretty far from being able to use a keyboard for everything written. I know from AS adults here that he CAN get there, so we keep plugging away at it.


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PunkyKat
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11 Feb 2010, 11:01 am

Fight for the accomadation for him to be able to use a laptop. If you are worried about your child using it to play games when he/she shouldn't, just install a word processer and nothing else.


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gramirez
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11 Feb 2010, 11:16 am

Or you could just get a word processor, such as an AlphaSmart (very common; your school probably has them) or an eMate. AlphaSmarts allow your son to type up documents, and then transfer them to the computer. I highly recommend them, as they are far less distracting than a computer.


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DW_a_mom
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11 Feb 2010, 2:33 pm

gramirez wrote:
Or you could just get a word processor, such as an AlphaSmart (very common; your school probably has them) or an eMate. AlphaSmarts allow your son to type up documents, and then transfer them to the computer. I highly recommend them, as they are far less distracting than a computer.


With battery life that goes almost a full school year - amazing. Nothing to plug in. Hard to see how each sentence fits into the whole, and difficult to edit on, however, but a great first line of entry point. My son has an AlphaSmart but we are talking about shifting to a laptop or netbook just because of where he is with editing. Other kids think its a cool little toy ;) but more for a middle schooler than a high schooler, JHMO.


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Tory_canuck
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15 Feb 2010, 1:58 am

In litigation, we have our lectures in a computer room, which allows me to type notes during the lecture.Its alot easier on my hands since I prefer typing over handwriting...its also easier to read since my writing sucks.Im suprised my instructors are able to read my writing on the tests....must be a lawyer thing (they are lawyers).Most of my school work is done on computers too.


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