Dear Yoletta:
Consider cutting your district some slack, their concern is legitimate. You
do
voice important concerns because assistive technology should be considered
from the
assessment/qualifying level and beyond into the IEP.
I think we sometimes forget that schools are not responsible for addressing
a
medical diagnosis without completing the steps from IDEA used to qualify
children
as having a disability. The concern of your school district is that medical
diagnoses alone, do not necessarily indicate disability under IDEA. And, a
medical
diagnosis alone does not determine that a student will have an
"educational need"
which ultimately requires FAPE . Without going through the guaranteed IDEA
process,
including procedural safeguards, a medical diagnosis alone does not stand
in for
appropriate assessment.
Have you considered using some comparative data from a random sample of his
peers
writing levels for short and protracted periods of time as a way to get
data? You
would need to give randomly selected same grade peers and your target
student the
same writing task, and then analyze rate of speed, readability, length of
sentences, paragraphs and quality of words (grade level, above, or below).
This is
not normed data, but it gives some real data related to the writing
concerns you
voice.
An additional piece I am becoming more aware of is one of writing over
extended
periods of time. and determining whether the productivity of the student
and the
quality of sentences and words written alters over longer periods of time.
On our
standardized Texas assessment, kids need to be able to continue sustained
writing,
after they have read the prompt. In assessment we usually just get a few
minutes of
writing and call it done. We also need to be looking at the writing across
the day
as the student fatigues, and NO I don't know of a standardized test which
will do
this at an "eligibility" level. My 2 cents worth and 48 more will buy a
canned
soda! Take care and hang in there! Kids need you.
spk2wrt@phoenix.edc.org wrote:
> This is a little off the topic, but I'll go ahead anyway. I was told by
a
> compliance person in my district that we are not allowed to use the term
> dysgraphia. The school district has decided that this is a medical term
> and
> can only be diagnosed by a physician. How do you suggest I counter this?
> I've also been told that the IEP team can no longer suggest adaptive or
> assistive technology without a full consult from the district AT team
(and
> they don't make housecalls). I'm still looking for a good instrument
that
> will identify dysgraphia. A student can score in the average range on
the
> Woodcock Johnson written language subtests, but still be unable to write
a
> simple 3 or 4 sentence paragraph. That makes it even more difficult to
> sell
> the idea of dysgraphia and AT.
> Yoletta
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <spk2wrt@phoenix.edc.org>
> Sent: Monday, December 04, 2000 1:17 PM
> Subject: Re: Request for good resesources on Voice Recognition Research
>
> > Dear Maddie:
> >
> > I have some case studies on my web site, if you would like to read them
> > (http://www.the-literacy-center.com/StudentsLDSpeechRec.htm ). I also
> have
> > a book with more case studies in it, along with implementation
> suggestions.
> > I also have a 7 minute video (MPEG) that I am working on uploading to
my
> > web
> > site. It shows a young lady using SR with a helpful companion program.
> > The
> > young lady is a sixth grade student. I also have anecdotal notes on
many
> > other cases.
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Shelley
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > Shelley Lacey-Castelot
> > President
> > Innovative Solutions Group, LLC, home of:
> > The Literacy Center, LLC
> > SpeaktoWrite
> > netTranscribe
> > www.innosolu.com
> > slc@innosolu.com
> > PO Box 821, Huntington, CT 06484 USA
> > Tel: (01) 203.929.1199 Fax: (01) 203.925.8666
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-spk2wrt@phoenix.edc.org
> > [mailto:owner-spk2wrt@phoenix.edc.org]On Behalf Of
> > spk2wrt@phoenix.edc.org
> > Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2000 12:41 PM
> > Subject: Request for good resesources on Voice Recogniton Research
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi!
> >
> > I am currently working on a graduate paper in which I am using research
> to
> > support the use of voice recognition by an eleven year old with
learning
> > disabilities. Does anyone have any suggestions as to resources,
aritcles
> > and websites that contain research documentation supporting the use of
> > vooice recogniton with students with learning disabilities. I am not
> > looking for sites that advertise their products. I am looking for true
> > research and documentation that justifies my use of the software for
this
> > student. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions!
> >
> > Maddie Gold
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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