Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by dhfl143 on September 5, 2009 at 3:11pm

Have you considered using assistive technology to help him learn to compensate. Here are just a few suggestions:

Mapping can be helped along with Inspiration: http://www.inspiration.com/Freetrial

Here's a demo of Kurzweil: http://www.kurzweiledu.com/flash.aspx

Here's a demo of Dragon: http://www.nuance.com/talk/

Anyway, my daughter uses all three and has found each to be helpful in different environments.

Best wishes.

Permalink Reply by Diana on September 5, 2009 at 8:14pm

I agree with DHFL143 that assistive technology could be a real help for your son.

My son uses a product called WordQ for writing papers. It sits on top of Microsoft Word and helps him with spelling and with typing because it presents lists of words starting with or sounding like the letters he types in the document. It can figure out words from only a few letters. Like Dragon, you need to train it to understand your voice (it does voice to text as well as text to voice), but I hear that it is easier to train than Dragon. Here is a link:
http://www.wordq.com/

Kurzweil is used by the teacher to scan in tests for my son. It converts the scanned image to text. He types his answers into the area provided. Kurzweil reads the words to my son and reads back what he writes. His school is looking at getting Read and Write Gold for their dyslexic students, but I haven't seen what it can do yet. My son reads novels quite well, but skips words when he reads short passages, which can be a real problem for tests.

Permalink Reply by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on September 5, 2009 at 8:38pm

For older students who struggle with writing, we recommend a template-based writing program like Writing Trails or Step Up to Writing. The Paragraph book is another resource from EPS. We do not recommended practice writing lots of open-ended prompts. If you need outside help, there are online writing tutors who may also be helpful.

Re: Apologia - if I am not mistaken, I think there are 2 different cd / dvd programs - one cd is complete, while ther other is not. But if that is not for him, there are many different online options for biology - most of these have read-aloud. To encourage independence though, I would recommend the free www.rfbd.org downloadable books option that might help. I checked and saw for instance that the entire Exploring Creation Through Biology is available as a free downloadable book. This means your son can play a file of a person who reads the entire book aloud to him. Our son just started using this himself - and was happy to find that both his high school history book and AP psychology book have been read into rfbd.org by volunteers. You just need a doctor or learning specialist to certify that he has dyslexia or has some other reason to need books read to him. It is a quick process - if your doctor is available by email, you can get approved immediately.

There are also options for online courses (he attends online class, listens to lectures with other students, etc.) that may mean learning in an online group or learning independently. Some people join in with other homeschoolers to reduce prices (e.g. http://homeschoolbuyersco-op.org) on programs such as Plato Science.

Permalink Reply by Lynette Kreidler on September 9, 2009 at 9:05am

Check out www.bravewriter.com. There is a program called "The Writer's Jungle" which puts the whole writing process into babysteps, from brainstorming, to idea formation, to paragraph writing, to polished finished piece. This is a stand alone curriculum.

Secondarily, she has online writing classes, where she will assign work and critique it as well. Looks interesting, and she is a published writer herself. I haven't used her classes myself.

As for the sciences, a friend suggested getting some books from the National Chemistry Association, for the study of chemistry. I know you are looking for Biology, perhaps a similar organization publishes their own books. The chemistry program we used was very "Hands on", and my daughter still recalls lessons from 2.5 years ago. She enjoyed this type of program. I modified the "worksheets" so she could verbally tell me the answer and then write it out (which was far less detailed, than her oral response) but it worked for us.

Another consideration is something like "The Teaching Company." These are High School and College level lecture classes that are on DVD. There is often a study guide and some questions to consider alongside. There may even be a way to devise your own "final" test if that is what you wish to employ for understanding. The nice thing about these, are they can be viewed independently, or cooperatively. Conversations can stem from the video. They can be a bit lofty, yet my then 6 year old could follow some of the concepts too.

Just some thoughts. Goodness of fit is important. And not setting yourself up for a constant fight is also a good thing.

Lynette