Dino Panagoulias
The use of technology to enhance learning is an effective approach for many children. Additionally, students with LD often experience greater success when they are allowed to use their abilities (strengths) to work around their disabilities (challenges). Assistive technology tools combine the best of both of these practices.
Assistive technology for kids with LD is defined as any device, piece of equipment, or system that helps bypass, work around, or compensate for an individual’s specific learning deficits. Over the last decade, a number of research studies have demonstrated the efficacy of assistive technology for individuals with learning disabilities. AT doesn’t cure or eliminate learning difficulties, but it can help your child reach her potential because it allows her to capitalize on her strengths and bypass areas of difficulty. For example, a student who struggles with reading but who has good listening skills might benefit from listening to books on tape.
Assistive technology for kids with LD is defined as any device, piece of equipment, or system that helps bypass, work around, or compensate for an individual’s specific learning deficits. Over the last decade, a number of research studies have demonstrated the efficacy of assistive technology for individuals with learning disabilities. AT doesn’t cure or eliminate learning difficulties, but it can help your child reach her potential because it allows her to capitalize on her strengths and bypass areas of difficulty. For example, a student who struggles with reading but who has good listening skills might benefit from listening to books on tape.
AT can address many types of learning difficulties. A student who has difficulty writing can compose a school report by dictating it and having it converted to text by special computer software. A child who struggles with math can use a hand-held calculator to keep score while playing a game with a friend. And a teenager with dyslexia may benefit from AT that will read aloud his employer’s online training manual.
Electronic math worksheets are software programs that can help a user organize, align, and work through math problems on a computer screen. Numbers that appear onscreen can also be read aloud via a speech synthesizer. This may be helpful to people who have trouble aligning math problems with pencil and paper.
A program that does this is called MathPad. It is an AT tool that is used from grades K-8 and allows a student to learn using a keyboard called IntelliKeys and a mouse or even a switch. This is something that can be useful for any student not just one with a disability. The use of this AT will help a student better understand the math problem at hand because of the animation features it offers. A teacher cannot force a student to understand, but, if there is a way to make a student like the content and also offer it in a variety of ways, the student tends to grasp it more readily. Computers have helped bring students with learning disabilities closer to the goal of helping them understand.
This program has a variety of purchasing options, which I have included in the links below. The cost to purchase the “suite” is $799. It may sound expensive, but how can you put a price on the educational achievement of a student at a school. This is something that can and in all likely hood be used for all students rather then those with disabilities.
http://www.schwablearning.org/pdfs/e_guide_at.pdf?date=3-13-06&status=new
http://www.schwablearning.org/on_the_web.asp?siteid=http://store.cambiumlearning.com/ProgramPage.aspx?parentId=074003433&functionID=009000008&pID=&site=itc&popref=http%3A//www.schwablearning.org//articles.aspx%3Fr%3D1075
http://store.cambiumlearning.com/Resources/ProgramOverview/pdf/itc_Overview_Math.pdf?site=sw
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