Wouldn't this be the ultimate goal for most of our students working with
speech recognition? Students who once struggled so much with written work,
who were repeatedly misunderstood by teachers, parents or worse, their
classmates; students that experience such frustration and failure may
eventually give up. And no one needs to be told what these experiences can
do to self-esteem. I realize it's not as simple as "learn SR and the
world is all roses," but I do know that there are a great many people,
both young and some not so young, whose lives have, or did, take on a
drastically different shape because they could not write.
As a elementary educator, and part time tutor, I work with and meet people
every week who struggle with written language, but are bright, capable, and
verbally proficient. My children's father is one who it is too late for.
My 20 yr old is struggling in college, determined to do it alone because
with an I.Q. of 133, he thinks he should be able to do "it;" he believes
it's not right for just him to receive "help." And then,.......... there
is my 14 yr old son, who is the primary reason for the paradigm shift in my
educational philosophy today. His learning problems lead me to SR, and
are the reason I came to haunted this list-serve just over a year ago. And
finally, he is the reason I turn to this listserve today for
help!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Using speech recognition [DNS] in the classroom environment, I know it is a
goal he has been working towards; from the Big Picture-ever since he
"wasn't quite ready for first grade," to the Smaller-much darker Picture he
has lived these last two years in middle school. Hardworking and
determined beyond his 14 years he has with minimal training, and many hours
of his own time, after school, at home, begun using speech recognition
....DNS......[I love the word naturally] to produce written assignments,
and short essays After several(5) years advocating for him in another
district/state, we moved across the country to California to be closer to
my family and entered a new district in 6th gr. I entered Mediation/Due
Process last April '01 over AT for reading, writing, spelling, and
processing issues. We entered 7th grade in August, and after watching my
bright, ADHD, sometimes multi-tasked child turn into Demon Boy/ Space
Cadet, I purchased the appropriate hardware and for DNS & Kurzweil, some
training and walked into the new world of Technology. We both still have
much to learn, but we've also come a long way. Especially since in order
to keep peace between demon child and teacher mom, I am not allowed to
teach him, unless he asks.
This brings me to my point [ I knew it would force it's way to the top
eventually!] of question. My son and I were blessed to be able to
work/train for 5-6 hours with Shelly Lacey-Castelot this past March, during
the week of C-SUN after she did a complete AT evaluation. My son's
school district is attempting to settle with us now, and we are differing
mainly over the place where my son will use Dragon. My son wants to be
able to take a computer with him from class to class, and be able to use
DNS there, of course using common sense regarding testing times or when the
teacher is teaching. They propose a station, somewhere.......leaving the
class IS NOT AN OPTION THE WAY JEFF SEES IT. He learns through auditory
and visually modalities best [incidentally he does NOT like to leave class,
knowing full well he will miss something, and catching up doesn't work when
you already take extra time for many things. Also he is only Demon Boy at
home or in the company of family.....[he has never been a behavior problem
at school]
Shelly and I need / graciously request / ASAP to hear from anyone anywhere
who is using DNS in the classroom. We know it's happening, but we need
specifics to document . We need to know the city and state, districts if
willing, and ages would be nice and the particulars. This is completely
new to this district, and .........................................well you
get the drift
I want to make this happen, not only for my son, but for the other students
we will pave the path for as well. It is also my hope to bring the
instruction of speech recognition into the school in a small class setting
where the students will get credit for all their efforts. I know this has
come up ion the listserve before, if anyone would like to respond to that
it would be appreciated too
Change and New things are often resisted at first, but it is also the
nature of progress--------Thank Goodness!
Shelly requested that you email your responses to her at the following;
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shelley Lacey-Castelot
Innovative Solutions Group, LLC
The Literacy Center
Email: slc@innosolu.com [mailto:slc@innosolu.com]
www.innosolu.com
www.the-literacy-center.com
Tel: 203-929-1199, X 203 Fax: 203-925-8666
*************************
Respectfully;
I am,
Constance Hastings-Clapp <iam.constant@verizon.net>
"Use the Talents that you possess,
for the woods would be very silent
if no birds sang except the very best."
Anonymous
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