We are in Libertyville, Illinois.
Our son has been in a special needs school (COVE) for dyslexia for the past 3 years (3rd, 4th, 5th grade).
We are transitioning him back to public school for middle school in August (6th grade).
My husband just took a local course on Kurzweil. (He is dyslexic too, with ADHD). We like it, our son likes it, now we are at the point of buying it ourselves (very expensive).
Our school system does not have Kurzweil in the classroom.
The schoold district has been very supportive of our son; however, the district does not have Kurzweil.
What advice do you have about advocating to get Kurzweil.
What experiences has everyone out there had with advocating to get assistive technology in a school system? Especially middle school?
For a dyslexic middle school student, do you recommend Kruzwel, WYNNT, alpha smarts or all three at the same time?
I also, hear of schools having kurzweil, and either not using it at all, or not using it as intended. Your thoughts?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Re: Advocating For Assistive Technology: Kurzweil, etc.
Karen, thank you very much for your advice. I will follow-up with my son’s current teacher and the schoold district about an AT assessment. Have a great week ! Lybb
Re: Advocating For Assistive Technology: Kurzweil, etc.
I got Kurzweil for my former middle school and it was definitely under used - hard to find the time to teach ourselves and our students. I want it for my son, but there again I think of the cost and time to use it properly. What I did find was some inexpensive programs for him to try out to get a feel for text to speech. I copied this comment for you from another site and it has the website for Premiere Assistive Technology. We downloaded some trial and some free programs and are happy with them.
“…might also check in to a software company called Premiere Assistive Technology. They offer a scan and read program that brings just about any text in print to life in a word processor format and is able to read the text to you. The cost of that program is about $160.00 including shipping and handling.
http://www.readingmadeeasy.com
Lynn,
The first thing that I would do is request an Assistive Technology Assessment if it hasn’t already been completed. As you know, every student on an IEP must be considered for AT per IDEA ‘97 and the reauthorization. If it hasn’t been considered or has been considered incompletely, you need some information that can only be gathered from an AT assessment.
A good AT eval uses the SETT framework and makes recommendations based upon what the student must be able to do to be successful and identifies areas of difficulty and recommends the features of software and hardware that may be of assistance. It is best to try a trial period of different programs to see how he responds after appropriate training has been provided.
This is a start. Hope this helps. (I don’t recommend buying the Kurzweil without the opportunity to trial it first. You can get a 30 day demo disc to try first.)
Karen