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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Parents of kids with Dysgraphia,
At what age did your child begin to use word prediction software? Did you find it very helpful? How did you decide how much to use it versus regular typing? Do you recommend one specific product?

My son (severe dysgraphia and adhd) is finishing second grade. He has started keyboarding and enjoys it but it is still such a slow process. At this point, scribing for him is the only productive and efficient way for him to write. He loves to read and has a lot to say -- if I scribe for him he comes up with amazing things. I am trying to encourage more independence ... and thinking about some of these programs.

Thanks so much for advice![/quote]

DC has profound dyslexia, dysgraphia and dual type ADHD.  He used Co-writer primarily in elementary school and started Kurzweil for MS and HS.  He is a rising sophomore in HS now.  In third grade he used an Alphasmart.  I think they introduced Co-writer around 4th grade.  We used summer to work on keyboarding skills.  He started with Kurzweil at the end of 6th grade to prepare for HS.  Between 7th and 8th he was trained by the county in Dragon Naturally Speaking and he tired in throughout 8th grade, but it added more frustration than it helped.  Now he primarily uses the Kurzweil but he will still use Co-writer when he is in Word.

All the extra software has been provided by the county.  We are in Fairfax County.  We bought him a laptop for 7th grade and it has lasted until now- end of 9th grade.  It is beat up, so we are planning to buy another one for 10th-12th.  When he goes to college, we will probably buy the Co-Writer in addition to the Kurzweil and we may try Dragon again at some point in the future.

Until he got better at keyboarding, he would dictate most of his longer homework assignments to me or DH.  It has only been in the last year or so that his keyboarding has been fast/good enough for him to do most of it himself.  Propects look good for him to be on his own by the time he goes to college.   He does have the additional issue with dyslexia which impacts his ability for keyboarding successfully just as much as his dysgraphia- if not more.

Good luck![/quote]

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