Secondary and dyslexic (Y9) - laptop for school? Recommendations?

[goingmadinthecountry]

Ds is Y9 at grammar, will get 50% extra time or 25% plus reader, can also use laptop but obviously needs to start in class asap. School has huge heavy ones or tiny ones with useless keyboards.

Don't mind buying one to go back/forward and am having meeting with Senco and spec teacher as soon as I pin them down but would really appreciate advice if anyone has any.

Thanks.

From my DS's experience - weight is the crucial factor. He has had one with an external DVD drive. He can plug one in if he needs to but doesn't need to carry the weight round normally. He had a 13" screen. These are slightly harder to find but meant the keyboard was a bit bigger. Some of his friends have a netbook and then plug it into a bigger screen when at home.
Insurance too is vital as we have found to our cost laptops don't bounce!!! A neoprene sleeve also gives them some protection, looks reasonably cool so they use it. Good luck.

Thanks for the reply. Ds rarely gets home intact himself so I dread to think what will happen to a laptop!

How old's your ds? And is he quite happy using it in school? And has it helped?

Don't really mean to sound needy.......

Hi, My DS is now in the sixth form and has had a laptop since he was 10 years old. He uses it for all exams and prep. He doesn't tend to take it to lessons now as his handwriting is just legible and they get given lots of handouts. Like your DS, he is allowed 25% extra time, a reader and a laptop.

It has made a major difference to the standard of his work. When you look at an essay he has written by hand and one written on the laptop you would not think it had been written by the same boy. This is because he can concentrate on the content of the essay rather than the mechanical process of writing. We also made sure he could type at 25 words per minute minimum before he took the laptop to school so he could get maximum benefit out of it. We used the Mavis Beacon touch typing programme and he did 5/10 mins a day over the summer holidays.

In addition to the insurance I mentioned above do ask the school where he can store his laptop securely when he has PE or at lunchtime. At my DS's school they had a lockable store.

The only other tip I can think of currently is about your DS's attitude to having a laptop. It is there to help him and can't be used as an excuse if it doesn't work eg it is his responsibility to make sure it is charged, that homework is printed out and if it fails he has pen and paper at the ready.

Hope this is useful. Do ask if you have any more questions.

Thank you - as soon as the Senco responds to me (just had to apologise for sending a stroppy email to the wrong person ) he can get started. He did TTRS typing a couple of years ago and types at quite a good rate - certainly much quicker than his writing! His presentation is pretty dire as well. He has Dragon voice recognition software on his laptop at home and that helps hugely with note-taking.

Will have a good trawl round the internet for a laptop.