Special needs, laptops and MFL

[karmakameleon]

My son is in Year 7 and has some specific learning needs. He’s very bright but has consistently struggled at school and for the last couple of years we have been advised to encourage him to type. He always refused until very recently when he taught himself to touch type and agreed to use a laptop for English.

Over the last six months we can see a definite improvement and clear progress in all subjects. He’s using the laptop for all essay subjects and, at our last parents evening, teachers commented that his written work is beginning to match what they know he is capable of based on his oral contributions in class. There is still some way to go but there is definite progress.

So now I get to the “but”. The only lesson where he is not allowed to use a laptop is MFL. This is now the only subject where he is clearly still struggling. He was told by his class teacher that this was because of accents not being standard on the keyboard. At parents evening I asked if it was possible to teach him how to use the keyboard to produce accents but this was glossed over. Afterwards the teacher sent me a lengthy email on why it was important to learn to hand write in MLF.

I’m keen to understand if this is standard practice before I take this further with the school. If there is evidence that handwriting is better for learning MFL, even with special needs, I’m happy to let the conversation drop. However given the change in him overall and his considerable progress in just six months (he’s gone from bottom of the class in every subject apart from maths to at least average in the last round of tests) it seems like something we should at least consider.

Would be grateful if anyone has any experience of this and can advise.

Talk to the senco.

Thanks, that is my plan but want to understand whether this is standard practice and an evidence based approach first.

My DD used a laptop for French and Spanish GCSE.
We made a little card of the shortcut keys for the accents, and she was allowed to take it into the controlled assessments. (Did GCSEs pre reform)

I can’t see why. Both DDs study / studied MFL at university and use laptops permanently. Can’t see why it would make a difference at school, although I’m not an expert and it might be to do with learning about the use of accents. Good luck OP.

Hmm, being very very cynical here, but is it worth allowing him to "fail" at MFL to give you evidence to get him out of doing it for GCSE?

SENCO.
Never heard of no laptops for MFL

It sounds highly unlikely that it would be a bad thing, so my gut says approach the senco as the subject teacher is being obstructive.

He’s still a long way from GCSEs so don’t want to making those decisions yet and certainly don’t want him to be forced to drop subjects because he isn’t reaching his potential. It’s likely that at least one MFL will be compulsory until GCSE, but he’s unlikely to do two.

The fact that laptops can be used for public exams is helpful. If they couldn’t I could understand the school’s position.

My DS with SEND used an iPad at school rather than laptop. He was allowed to use one in his GCSE but it had to have predictive text turned off (fair enough) and he had to use a blank school iPad that could not connect to internet, not his own.
The iPad can have a French/Spanish etc keyboard and it makes it easier to apply accents.
There was an issue in his mocks where they tried to get him to use school laptop rather than iPad and the accents were in a different place which caused frustration, so we made sure it was hi “usual way of working “ I.e. IPad for GCSE

I'm an MFL teacher and students have successfully used laptops in lessons and exams with and without accents.

This MFL teacher is being an antiquated arse and depending on the type of laptop there are very simple ways to do accents.

The best way is to change the layout of the keyboard under settings to French or German or whatever and then give a laminated table mat print out of where all the French keys are like a map. It takes a little bit of time to get used to the fact that A and Q are transposed and the full stop is somewhere else but the keyboard can quickly be switched back to an English keyboard for other lessons. No need for more than one device.

It could be because the amount of writing is minimal at this stage in year 7. A significant part of the lesson is speaking and listening.
If he has a worksheet to complete this generally can't be done easily without emailing him the sheet and him being able to download and fill it in.

The spell checker won't help him in MFL. If you do manage to set it to check spelling and grammar then the computer is doing the work he is meant to be doing himself as he is being taught to write words and phrases and make agreements etc not to use the ICT to do that for him.

In a written exam the student will not be allowed to use a spelling and grammar check.

the teacher sent me a lengthy email on why it was important to learn to hand write in MLF.

I would have replied with a lengthy email about how teachers should understand the specific needs of the children they teach, particularly when an aid has been given to them to enable them to learn.

Then I would be right at the head teacher making a formal complaint.

This comes from years of navigating schools with arsehole teachers who thought the knew better than my child diagnoses though, so I'm a tad touchy!

I don't recall 'ease for the teacher' being a deciding factor on adjustments. The teacher could easily email over a pack of worksheets that can be uploaded to a folder on the laptop, ready for the lessons.

I agree @keye !

I asked once if the subject teacher who didn’t want to allow the iPad had read his EHCP in its entirety. No? Then I invited them to, and then discuss with me how their suggestion was person centred and met DS needs. Didn’t hear back.

It may not be easy for a child to download the sheets. I have a child who uses a laptop. He struggles to log on and print his work never mind get on to his email and download. I notice you have ignored the rest of my post. If you are only writing a very small amount it may not be appropriate to have to log on, type it and print it out in the lesson.

Thanks all. To everyone to says the teacher is just being obstructive, that is definitely the feeling I get. The lengthy email didn’t say much of substance but simply repeated several times how important it is for him to learn to write. Generally the school has been very supportive with his special needs so this is all new to me.

I’m aware that he can’t use the laptop for spell check etc and he doesn’t for English either. His SPAG still has a long way to go but at least he can concentrate on that rather than the physical process of writing. To give an idea of how hard this is for him, in recent tests he scored marks in the 70s and 80s for listening, comprehension etc and 12% in his writing exam. There is clearly something amiss here.

I will also suggest the iPad but given the teacher’s attitude I don’t believe this about how we do it and what type of technology we use, just that she doesn’t “believe” in it at all.

What is MFL?

There is some out of date information here. I believe now that students are not allowed to take additional notes into exams and so can't have a card instructing how to do accents (coursework rules were different).
Students can definitely use laptops in MFL exams but it rarely benefits. Your child may be one of the rare ones though. It depends on the specific reasons.
Some students get a printout of their typed work to add accents to by hand (very difficult to do on a lengthy piece of work). The exams officer should be able to check how accents are allowed to be typed (eg aski codes rather than shortcuts) and then your child has years to practise before GCSEs.

His geography teacher shared with me a worksheet where for short answers he had handwritten and for longer answers, he had typed and she had printed the typed passage and glued it to the worksheet. This would be the sort of thing I’d expect.

She’s an idiot and needs her beliefs given a good hard shake. There is a ton of assistive technology that can and should support him to excel. I would imagine he needs a proper Ed Psych assessment and then for school to follow whatever’s recommended.

There is also some evidence that spelling and handwriting are linked in that the process helps with spelling. Maybe consider use of IT alongside maintaining some use of handwriting.

MFL = modern foreign languages

I see MFL is languages, I’d argue that your DC is being discriminated against in this case and under the equality act they have the right to a tech accommodation to support needs.

I how your senco can support and website a plan is in place for laptop use. Just basic common sense, if he needs a laptop for writing English than he needs one for MFL!

If he is only doing one language you can get keyboard stickers for different language layouts that you put over the keys so you can still, of course, see the English layout but have the other language in the other corner of the key. Then you can set up the keyboard layout input and toggle between English and French/German/whatever. Makes accents etc easier. That's what we all did at uni when studying languages!