using a laptop in school re dyspraxia

[JetCat]

Just over a year ago, an OT recommended my DD (13) use a laptop for school work, as she has dyspraxia and processing difficulties. However DD refused to use one, as she didnt want to be seen as different.

However, a year has now passed, and she obviously has been thinking more about it, and at a review appointment with her consultant this morning, the possibility was raised again. So, the consultant is going to write to school and recommend it again.

Can anyone tell me the practicalites of this please? DD isnt a fast writer, and probably an even slower typer - but apparantly using a laptop will help her with the layout of her work etc. I cant figure out which lessons she would benefit from using one, and how she wouldnt fall even further behind?

Could the OT or more likely,school arrange for a touch typing course for your dd?(at school and practice at home). That would help with speed of typing. As OT has written to school it will may be included in the arrangements.

I don't know if you know about the dyspraxia foundation? Don't know much about them, but noticed they do a newsletter for teenagers. And maybe they could give you advice as well about using laptops at school. Sorry, I do not know how to do links to websites.

Apolgies if you have already thought of these suggestions.

thanks a1, that is food for thought. OT has discharged her now, saying that the service dont work with secondary school age children with dyspraxia I will ask school about the touch typing when they get the report from consultant in a few days.

I will check out the foundation, many thanks

My DS1 started using a laptop in school after his dyspraxia diagnosis at a similar age. He has now been using it in school for over four years and took most (but not all) of his GCSEs on computer, which is one of the main advantages of your DD starting to type now.

The way we did it was:

He went to a touch typing course in London for dyspraxics and dyslexics, but I believe there is touch typing software available

We set up standard documents with formatting in place so that he could start notes in a lesson or homeworks quickly

He started using it in lessons gradually: English and History first, where there is the most benefit. Before using it in a lesson for the first time, he asked the teacher if that was OK (of course they said Yes). I think he has to remember to sit near a power socket in classrooms.

He also started typing all the homeworks he could at the same time, For him, that was very soon much quicker than typing, plus it freed up some 'thinking space' in his brain.

Over time, he started typing in other subjects at school, e,g, languages, Geography - any essay-based subjects. He doesn't type class notes or homeworks for Maths, Chemistry or Physics because it is too tricky and they are not very wordy subjects.

I agree with a1b2 that the Dysraxia Foundation website is a good resource. Your DD might also want to go on the Dyspraxic Teens website, which is a forum which does what it says on the tin.

And does your DD have a SENCO at her school? She might well get some help from the SENCO with getting the laptop use sorted out.

The only thing is can't advise on is the self-consciousness thing. My DS1's version of dyspraxia means that he is not very aware of what others think or body language, so he has always been really happy to use his laptop. And it really made a massive difference to the quantity, quality and legibility of his work.

I hope that helps. Do ask me if there any other questions that you think of.

thanks tobefair - that is very helpful.

My DD is only just becoming aware of what others think, although CAMHS think this is more anxiety based than peer pressure IYSWIM. There are other children in her school who use laptops (dyslexia) but DD still worries that she will be singled out.

I was wondering about the maths/science based lessons, and how it could be used, so it is great to hear your DS manages in those lessons without a laptop. Those are DDs strongest lessons anyway (very structured, right or wrong answers etc., no room for middle ground).

She does have a senco, who is just starting to get on board with DDs difficulties, and if i am honest, i do envisage a bit of gentle persuasion will be needed to get the school to accept the recommendation, although the OT did say if she did recommend one, then the school would have to provide one. DD does actually have one at home, but I (and the consultant) don't think that her taking it every day would work, as she has such poor organisational skills, she would leave it somewhere and forget it. Either that, or as she is very naive and gullable, she would give lend it to someone

Ah, that reminds me of another question, if that is ok. Did your DS have a separate computer at home and one at school? IF so, how did he manage to transfer documents between the two? Did school allow use of a memory stick or something?

For your standard documents, did you use a template, or simply have an existing file for each subject? (i know i havent explained that very well, sorry!)

ds uses one whereever he has lessons involving paragraph type work, similarly for exams (English, History, some Geography, Latin etc) and homework. It also enables him to revbiew and edit his work mroe easily and elss messily than hand written. Really to benefit she needs to be able to touch type to a reasonable speed first.

He has a usb stick for use at school (in their network only) and emails work home for completion or printing (to prevent transferring viruses).

Jetcat, to answer your questions:
DS uses his own laptop in school and at home, carrying them back and forth every day, in one of those backpacks with a padded space for a laptop. (School didn't provide a laptop.) I was convinced that he would lose or break it, but he has been doing this for over four years and never lost the laptop, perhaps because it is so valuable to him.

E-mailing homework back and forth is the alternative, but requires them to be quite organised too.

Which reminds me, DS has also asked permission to e-mail in homework, which was usually granted (although some people wanted it printed and handed in). His school is quite IT-literate and they use e-mail a lot. Again, there may be a policy in your DD's school, which the SENCO should know.

The template I mentioned was just a Word template. The header contains DS's name and a 'date' field, so it automatically puts in the date the document is created. In the main body of the text are the words Title, underlined and bold, then the rest of the text is formatted in something sensible. This template means that is easy to start a homework or classroom notes quickly, and to remember to give the work a title. Your DD needs to save the basic document as, say 'Template.doc', and then get into a discipline of saving a document as soon as it is started as, say, 'Coastal erosion.doc'. Preferably in, say, a Geography folder on the computer. The template is the same for all subjects. For subjects like Geography and Biology he types what he can and hand-draws any diagrams on a separate page. I hope this all makes sense.

it does ToBeFair, and gives me food for thought before the next senco meeting

Just to add, possibly belatedly, to this thread- we swapped my son from handwriting to using a laptop in year 5, after an OT recommended it. It seemed a big step but he started in one half term just in a few subjects and now for almost all. DO push it if you have a dyspraxic child- when they write a piece by hand it is not just slower and more messy, it is generally a less good piece. They have to use a great deal of brain power just to write and therefore cannot also think about what they are writing. My son did his english exams using a laptop in school for the first time this autumn as came top in the class for an english composition which is completely unheard of. He was also top of the year in history, which he previously hated as there was too much writing. His English comprehension was dominated by his strategy of "how can I answer this is as few words as possible" rather than "what is the best answer I can give" and we are having to train him out of that. Learning to type is free if you do 10 mins a day on the bbc website,-mine learned enough in about 2 months to make it worth doing in school- and it really is that simple. Good luck!