ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
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Assistive technology is the use of a device that may help a person accomplish a task. It can be any device like a motorized wheelchair or may be as simple as a pencil grip. In school, there are plenty of assistive technology tools that may be used to help students in accomplishing writing tasks while reducing cognitive load. Below are some of the tools students who struggle in writing may use to achieve independent writing.
Speech to Text In speech to text, a student is able to dictate what he/she is thinking on the device and the application translates it to text. This is a good tool to use for students who think quicker than their fine motor abilities. There is usually a free dictation application on a mobile or tablet device like Siri or a payed application like dragon dictate.
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This a great tool for students who struggle in spelling and for those students who can't benefit from the speech to text tool. When the student types the first few letters of the word, different words appear on the pop-up box for him/her to choose from minimizing spelling mistakes. Phones and tablets usually have a built-in word prediction software.
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This tool will be very helpful for students who have difficulty in using pen and paper when writing. The use of a keyboard decreases the cognitive load. When using an application like MS Word, there is a built-in grammar and spell check that a student may use in editing his/her work independently. An example of a payed application would be Grammarly.
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