Why Use Dysgraphia Assistive Technology for Writing?

Whether your child has dysgraphia, ADHD, or Executive Functioning deficits, writing can be quite difficult for a child with a learning disability. It causes problems with handwriting, spelling and written expression on paper.

Writing is a difficult activity because it involves all of the following:

1. Fine motor activity such as holding and using a pen,
2. Gross motor control in maintaining a stable and appropriate posture,
3. Mental processing and recall of word structures involved in spelling,
4. Mental recall and application of punctuation and grammar,
5. Mental processing and working memory used for building sentences, and
6. The ability to perform all of the tasks above simultaneously at a speed fast enough to get thoughts written down on paper.

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Learners with dysgraphia, ADHD, or Executive Functioning deficits find it highly challenging to accomplish all that is needed to write effective compositions without using assistive technology. If you’re interested in other strategies for Writing, be sure to check out other Assistive Technology for Dysgraphia and Writing Disabilities too!

Fortunately, to the relief of many parents and learning abled kids, assistive technology can rescue your child from his writing difficulties!

Battle tested voice-to-text options are available at affordable prices, THANKFULLY!

Benefits of Using Dictation / Transcrpition Tools to Overcome Dysgraphia

For kids with dysgraphia, ADHD, or Executive Functioning deficits, writing by hand can be a dreaded task.

In most cases kids with specific learning disabilities that affect writing end up producing work that does not reflect their true ability to express themselves. The child’s conversational skills often demonstrate a much higher level of thinking than the child’s written work.

With assistive technology, a child can concentrate on what he wants to say and let the dictation & transcription voice-to-text tool complete the words-to-paper portion of the writing task.

Dictation tools transcribe your child’s natural speech as he speaks. Taking the hand-written component out of writing can transform a child’s hatred of writing into a much more enjoyable task.

With dictation tools, your child can boost their creativity, speak with their naturally robust vocabulary, and organize their thoughts much more easily.

Additionally, your child can easily see spelling errors and correct their own mistakes since most dictation tools work like word processors too with built-in spell-checking and grammar checking features.

Because kids with dysgraphia typically have illegible handwriting, having a transcribed speech-to-text composition is more legible than a handwritten one. When a child has reached their teens and still has poor handwriting, it is critical for them to be able to present legible papers if they plan to go to college.

In college, virtually all papers are typed, so it is an additional benefit for your child to be able to use dictation tools to create lengthy college papers.

For kids with ADHD, having to hold a composition in mind for any length of time before it gets written on paper is an invitation for intruding thoughts that make your child forget what he was going to write. Transcription tools let your child get his thoughts on paper almost as fast as he can say them, which enables him to write before he forgets what he was going to say.

Children with Executive Functioning deficits often have overlooked errors in spelling and punctuation. While dictation software won’t be a cure all for overlooking errors, it does help minimize them. Additionally, the software will allow your child to get ideas on paper as he organizes them in his mind, which can help with the organization and planning component of written assignments.

SO, teaching your child to use a dictation tool can ease struggles with written school work.

➜Click to See dictation / Transcription tools on Amazon

How Do Dictation Tools Work?

Dictation tools work on the basis of recording a person’s voice, recognizing the syntax and phonology, and then converting words to text using a set of rules. This magical process uses voice recognition logic built into the device’s software.

The device must have a microphone. Often there are speakers for text-to-speech reading aloud of what has been transcribed.

Dictation capability can be integrated into telephones, tablets, computers, etc., so that your child can use the options built into many devices these days. The physical act of typing isn’t actually required these days. In fact, I do a lot of my writing using dictation!

Depending on the severity of your child’s dysgraphia, he may experience relative ease or difficulty in using the dictation tools.

How Easy is it For Your Child to Use Dictation Software?

Elementary children may not speak with proper pauses or emphasis, which may make the dictation tool misinterpret the child’s words. Generally speaking, transcription is more difficult for young children to use than it is for teens to use.

Speech-language difficulties also make dictation software susceptible to recording errors caused by word repetition, poor pronunciation, or misspoken words.

However, if your child is a well-spoken middle or high school level learner, he’ll probably find the dictation tool relatively easy to use. Knowing how to use dictation tools in college can enable a student to really impress professors with great papers!

Which Dictation / Transcription Tool is Best for My Child?

There are a number of dictation options in the market today. While most phones support speech to text conversions, there are also notable market leaders in tools that are user friendly, cost effective, and compatible with other applications (like word processors). If you don’t want to give your child a phone (yet), then having a handheld dictation device can be a great alternative!

Some of the top products in the market today include:

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Windows Computers: If you have a Windows computer, the Microsoft operating systems offer built-in speech recognition software. If you want to give dictation software a trial run, this is a great place to start. However, if your child will be using dictation software regularly as assistive technology, portable tools built specifically for this purpose will probably serve their needs better. 😉

Dictation: This is a free, online speech recognition option. When your child goes to this page, he can dictate into the computer microphone and there is a note window that will show what has been dictated. Your child would then have to copy and paste the dictated text into his document. This is a workable, free solution if you don’t want to spend the money for Dictation product otherwise.

➜Click to See dictation and Transcription Tools on Amazon

Inspire Writing Creativity in Your Child by Using Assistive Technology

In most cases, children with dysgraphia are average to above average students who can perform better and achieve academic excellence if they are taught to use assistive technology interventions early in their academic careers.

If your child speaks eloquently, but writes simplistically, getting and using a dictation/transcription device can open up a world of written creativity for your child.

Brighten your child’s educational future with a dictation/transcription voice-to-text tool!
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