Dyslexic children and laptops-advice please

[KateF]

I know some Mnetters are qualified in dyslexia teaching or have older children coping with dyslexia so hoping for some help here. dd2 is 7 (Yr 3) and has moderate-severe dyslexia and dyscalculia. There is no support 1:1 available for her in school. We have worked really hard on her reading which has improved a lot but her writing/spelling is appalling. She cannot write anything that makes sense and it is impacting on all her schoolwork. Having met with the Head and her teacher we are wondering if she should use a laptop and spellchecker for all her written work or is she to young to become dependent on a computer? Any experiences /advice gratefully received -thanks
(have to go to school now but will check back later)

Hmmm

"dependent on a computer"

But would you describe someone as dependent on pen and paper, or dependent on using a dictionary? a laptop is just a tool. And in fact using it will tend to improve their ability to work with pen and paper.

I would be very supportive of using a laptop. There is special software for dsylexia - I dont know anything about it, but actually a Word processor running on a netbook with a spell checker would be a great help.

By the way have you had her checked for visual disturbance as that can be a source of dyslexia. The Institute of Optometry in London will advice you on this if you have not done it.

Thanks for that nlondondad. I think by "dependent" I meant that she might lose the motivation to learn to spell.
Bumping for anyone who might have practical experience.......

DS is dyslexic and spelling seems to be impossible for him, whereas his reading has improved markedly. i would rather he used a laptop or scribe than had to struggle and do worse than he would do otherwise . DS was far more demotivated by getting all his spellings wrong. teachers are all very on board and he does get lots of help all organised by the SENCO.

my brother has bad dyslexia - he is now 31 years old and when he was diagnosed aged 7 he had had such a hard time with people suggesting he was thick or stupid that my parents were delighted when the school suggested he used a computer. he started getting good marks at school and became actively interested in his homework rather than it being a struggle to get him to even bring his books home.

Go for it, for what it is worth he still is appalling at hand writing and spelling and yet he had a fantastic job (that he loves) earning more than I ever could.

katef will the school let your DD use a laptop

Just woundering as DS is 8 is dyslexic and finds reading and writing hard

I think he would be better with a laptop for his school work
But don`t know if the school would agree

Niftyblue-it's just one idea the Head and I discussed, by no means definite but she certainly wasn't against the idea. It's just the concern over whether it's too early to go down that route. I'm certain dd will have to use a laptop sooner or later or she will never keep up with written work. The only alternative seems to be that I become her LSA and scribe for her in literacy based lessons but I can only do that until the end of this year as I'm hopefully going to University next year. The school has no LSA available and no money to employ anyone else .

Ds 13 has it written in his IEP that he can use a pc for homework. There was some talk of him being given an alphasmart but the senco was off sick and nothing came of it.
His does think faster when he is using the pc. We were told he needed to make sure his typing speed was a minimum of 30wpm.