Summary
Age: 9 years
Gender: Female
School Placement History: Regular
education with resource support
Education Classification:
Orthopedic disability (athetoid cerebral palsy)
Type of Technology: Voice
Recognition
Intervention Referral
Jennifer has athetoid cerebral palsy and is
unable to write using pencil and paper. Her family was concerned
as she was entering 3rd grade about her ability to keep up on written course
work. They were interested in increasing her independence as she
had previously dictated all written work to family members and school personnel.
Previous Intervention
Educational Interventions: Jennifer
has utilized dictation to another person as her main mode of writing.
This was often difficult because her speech is very unintelligible to unfamiliar
listeners. Her intelligibility score on the Sentence Intelligibility
Test (SIT) was 10%.
Technology Interventions: The
school assistive technology team assessed Jennifer for computer supported
writing. A system utilizing Discover Board, Mouse Keys and Co:Writer was
implemented. The keyboard worked "okay" according to Jennifer, but
mousing was very difficult, because she had to be very precise and it was
slow.
Assessment Summary
Literacy Needs:
Summary of Technology Assessment:Jennifer
was evaluated to assess alternate input methods, most specifically for
mousing purposes. The Head Mouse from Origin Instruments was evaluated.
Jennifer was not able to control the cursor well enough to hold it on a
cell and activate it when in dwell function for keyboarding. She
was able to get to a desired location for mousing, but in order to click
on an area she had to activate a switch which altered her head position.
Jennifer liked the Head Mouse, but decided it would not be much faster
for mousing. She was also concerned about her ability to maintain
a position in front of the computer for an extended period of time.
Dragon Dictate 3.0 was evaluated to utilize
the mouse grid. Jennifer is able to verbalize the numbers 1 through
9 with enough differentiation that it was suspected that she could train
the commands necessary to run Mouse Grid. The training for the Audio
Setup Wizard was done by the evaluator and no subsequent training was done
prior to the evaluation. Jennifer trained each of the numbers 3 times
and the commands "button click" and "button double click". She was
then able to use the mouse grid with 80% accuracy.
Summary of Intervention
Spring 2000 - Jennifer loaded Dragon
Naturally Speaking Preferred (v. 4.0) on her home computer. The goal
was to train the mouse grid so that she could use it to run recreational
programs. Subsequent to this trial evaluation, Jennifer will decide
whether or not this system will work better for mousing. She also
trained several words that she commonly types to see whether or not she
can use the technology for dictation.
Outcome Updates
Comments
Permission to share this information is
on file at Munroe-Meyer Institute of Genetics and Rehabilitation, Scottish
Rite Computer Supported Literacy Program.
Technology Links
Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred, Dragon
Systems Technology
Discover Board, Don
Johnston, Inc.
Co:Writer, Don
Johnston, Inc.
Sentence Intelligibility Test, Tice Technologies
Inc.
A. Writing Needs Checklist
Conventions: Handwriting and Mechanics
L Is handwriting easy or laborious?
N Is his or her handwriting legible?
Y Does he or she have keyboarding
experience?
W Does he or she prefer handwriting
or word processing?
? How much handwritten text can
he or she produce in 15 minutes?
Y Does he or she express when physical
limits have been reached?
N Can he or she produce the appropriate
size of text for tasks?
N Does he or she use appropriate
spacing between words?
N Does he or she have appropriate
margins?
N Does he or she use appropriate
punctuation and capitalization?
Spelling
D What is his or her underlying spelling
pattern (deviant, prephonetic, phonetic, transitional, or standard speller)?
Y is he or she a consistent first-letter
speller?
Y Can he or she recognize a word
spelled incorrectly?
N Does the student think he or she
can catch his or her spelling errors?
Form and Syntactic Maturity
Y Does he or she have difficulty with
the word order in sentences?
Y Does he or she have difficulty
with grammatical features (e.g., pronouns, verb tense, present progressive)?
N Is he or she using complex sentence
structures?
N Does he or she use complete sentences
(e.g., sentences with no main clauses)?
N Do his or her sentences have agreement
within and across other sentences?
Content and Vocabulary
N Does he or she have difficulty finding
the right word to express meaning?
Y Does he or she have a weak vocabulary?
Consider both everyday, favored words and specialty, sophisticated words.
Y Does he or she understand a variety
of word meanings?
Y Does he or she avoid words because
of spelling difficulties?
Fluency
Y Is he or she able to easily generate
writing ideas?
Y is he or she able to generate
original ideas?
? What is the average length of
text he or she is able to produce?
Organization
N Does he or she plan before writing?
N Is he or she able to represent
his or her thoughts in writing?
N Is he or she able to produce a
cohesive writing product? Is there a clear shape, sequence, or direction?
Y Are there differences in his or her
written output when he or she is using a prewriting organizer?
N Does he or she use an organizational
structure that is appropriate to the task?
N Does he or she produce a variety
of types or writing products?
N Does he or she have a sense of
audience when writing?
Editing
Y Is he or she willing to edit?
N is he or she able to revise during the
writing process?
N Does he or she revise after the
first draft?
Y Is he or she a one-shot writer
(does no revising)?
? When the student's text is read
aloud, can he or she detect writing errors?
Visual and Auditory Discrimination Skills
Y Is he or she able to auditorily discriminate
between words?
N Is he or she sensitive to sound
(classroom noise or synthetic speech?
Y Would he or she be able to utilize
on-line correction?
? How many features would he or
she be able to utilize when writing without inhibiting the writing process?
N Is the student distracted by "extra"
visual stimuli?
Attitudes and Beliefs
? How motivated is he or she to write?
Y Does he or she enjoy writing?
Y Does the student like to have
others read his or her written work?
Y Does the student believe that
people understand what he or she is saying when writing?
N Does the student believe that
his or her papers look good (handwritten or word processed)?
N Does the student think he or she
is a good writer?
N Does the student think he or she
is a good speller?
Y Does he or she persist when confronted
with a difficult task?
Y Is he or she a risk taker?
Approach and Strategy Use
? What strategies or problem-solving
skills does he or she use when approaching a writing task?
N Is he or she able to write independently
(without assistance)?
N Does he or she demonstrate any
avoidance behaviors or strategies when writing?
Y Does he or she become frustrated
when writing?
Illustrations
Y Does the student need to produce writing
products paired with illustrations?
Y Does the student have motoric
difficulty when illustrating?
Y Would an illustration program
be motivating or provide the student with writing topics?
Writing Needs Summary
1. What penalizes student most in school
(e.g., classroom goals, grading) as far as producing adequate writing products?
Motor access to writing tools, weak language due to non-verbal status.
2. Which of the above needs most
negatively impacts his or her writing process? That is, which need
requires the most cognitive and/or physical effort? Motor ability
to write with pencil or keyboard.
3. Ask the student what is most
difficult about writing. What is most enjoyable about writing?
4. Ask parents or teacher what student
finds most difficult about writing. What does he or she enjoy about writing?
5. Does the student's writing needs
match the concerns of the student, parent, and teacher? Yes.
B. Writing Requirements Checklist
School Writing
X Fiction/narratives
X Descriptions
Expositions
X Journals
X Creative writing
X Create books
Plays and skits
Riddles
X Rhymes
Worksheets
Reports
Note taking
Summarizing
Outlining
Poetry and songs
X Spelling practice activities
Essay exams
Personal Communications
X Notes
X Letters
X Lists
Journals/diary
Personal feelings
Personal experiences
Writing Requirements Summary
1. What types of writing products is
the student currently completing at home and at school? Stories, spelling
lists, single word test answers.
2. What types of writing activities would
you like this student to be able to do in the future? Creative writing
activities, writing activities of greater length.
3. How many writing tasks does he
or she complete per class/day/week? 3-4 small tasks per day.
4. What is the typical length required
for each writing task? Variable.
5. How much time is student given
for each writing task?
6. How many hours or days is student
given to complete each type assignment?
7. Does the time given match the
time needed? Time is adjusted to meet need.
8. Does student need more time than
is typically given to complete written tasks? Yes.
A. Features of Computer-Supported
Writing
Keyboard Assistance
X Access
X Speed
X Accuracy
Talking Word Processors
X Optional/required speech output
Level of
speech output
Individual letters
X Sentences
Paragraph
X Selected (highlighted text)
X Entire documents
X Highlights units spoken
Speaking rate adjustment
Loudness adjustment
X Headphone/external speaker option
X Pronunciation editing
Types of Spelling and Vocabulary Support
Spell Checking
X At conclusion of document
X Simultaneously
X Error detection (with suggestions)
Entering corrected
words into document
X Automatic spacing and capitalization
X Copy model
X Type from memory
X Automatic insertion
Forms of Organizational Assistance
X Topic suggestions
X Writing style suggestions
X Completeness and accuracy queries
X Cohesion assistance
Grammar Assistance
X Error detection
X Grammar correction
X Grammar tutoring
Illustration Assistance
X Picture/art work
X Drawing tools/coloration
Computer Features Summary
1. Would the student benefit from auditory
feedback on individual letters, words, sentences, entire documents?
Yes.
2. Would computer feedback be most
helpful during the writing process or following completion of student's
writing? Both.
3. Are the student's spelling skills
good enough that the spell checker generates the appropriate choices?
Most of the time.
4. would the student prefer on-line
(immediate) or end-of-document spelling error feedback? Would he
or she benefit from spelling suggestions? Would he or she benefit
from print or auditory feedback? At the end so as not to interrupt
student's train of thought.
5. Would the student benefit from
prompts cueing particular organizational structures? Not at this
time.
6. How severe are the student's
grammatical needs? What level of feedback can he or she handle?
Feedback sometimes interrupts writing process, depending on the task.
7. Does the student need to improve
his or her keyboarding skills? Yes, but motor ability may impede
functional keyboarding.
8. Does the student need to produce
writing products paired with illustrations? Does the student have
motoric difficulty when illustrating? Would an illustraitons program
be motivating or provide the student with writing topics? Yes, yes.
Reference: Sturm, J. (1997).
Decision making for software selection. Intervention in School and
Clinic, 32 (3).
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