Assistive Technology Evaluation?

[Minnie M6]

I got a notice from school that it's time for DS's annual IEP meeting. I called and spoke to his counselor to talk about the meeting time, and asked her about the possibility of allowing DS to turn in some of his assignments typed instead of handwritten. This is because his handwriting is SO atrocious. He struggles with it quite a bit and it's very hard to read. I got a note home today from his Gifted teacher asking whether I want to schedule an evaluation for Assistive Technology. Um, I don't know....I'm not sure what that involves?

I mentioned in my previous thread that I am becoming convinced through my own reading and observations that DS may have Asperger's. I have not had him evaluated and have not decided whether to involve the school in the process at all. He functions pretty well at school and I want to think about whether it makes sense to have a diagnosis in his records.

Can anyone enlighten me about this type of evaluation?

 

[koolaidmoms]

All the evaluation was for our DS (5) was the teacher and parent reports that schoolwork and homework was focusing more on the motor skills of writing or if the actual act of writing becomes the primary focus vs. the critical thinking component being taught.

For our DS he can not form the letters and numbers "properly." He is in K but reading at almost 4th grade and doing almost 2nd grade math in his head but because he could not "write" the numbers or answers down properly due to his OT and being in K they were not letting him advance to where he should be to challenge him mentally. They were having him color the one pig pink! They are now going to allow him assistive tech.

 

[bookwormde]

Typically this is done as an adjunct to another classification or condition, but if the difficulty is causing him not to be able to pace appropriate progress they may allow it. Do not be surprised if the issues of spectrum characteristics do not come up since the profile the person doing the assistive technology evaluation will see will be very farmiliar if they are experienced.

bookwormde

 

[Minnie M6]

Thanks to both of you for explaining it to me. I guess I will talk to his teacher and the gifted teacher (who sees him just one day a week) at the IEP meeting and get their opinions as to whether the handwriting is actually a hindrance to his performance/ progress in the classroom.

In the meantime, I asked DS how he would feel about typing instead of writing sometimes, and he wasn't too excited about the idea. He said it takes him too long to type and hurts his hands.

 

[bookwormde]

My son still has a lot of scribing done for him since he thinks much faster than he can type (even the scribes can not keep up a lot of the time)

bookwormde

 

[BeckyScott]

My DS has keyboarding on his IEP, in preparation for this sort of thing, because his writing is so bad. I don't know that they did any particular evaluation for it (he already had an autism diagnosis) or if it was considered a life skill or just some standard track they do with all ASD kids. They already have "computer class" at school so this was over and above.

I do want to talk to his teacher (and keep forgetting) because I think it's about the time they start teaching cursive. I remember oldest DS started cursive in 3rd grade. I don't think DS needs to learn cursive right now, he still needs to work on printing. Honestly, in real life, the only time you need cursive is for a signature, and you could even work around that if you had to. My only concern is that this would be considered "modified curriculum" and the school might balk, since he doesn't have any modified curriculum right now, and they do graded worksheets on penmanship. Along with that, at what point to let him start using the computer for word processing for his homework. I did do it once, just as an experiment, and the teacher took the work no problem, but I'd like for it to be official.