WRITING Pencil Grips and Pencils There are a variety of grips to promote or correct position of fingers and hand placement on paper while writing. Always check with your Occupational Therapist first. Finger Spacers Finger Spacers help students keep spacing between letters and words. Spacers feature an arrow for directionality, a window for tracking when reading, a ruler, plus they re transparent for overhead projector use. Paper (highlighted, bold, raised line) A variety of specialty papers are available.
NCR paper NCR paper is an alternative to carbon paper, used to make a copy of an original, handwritten (or mechanically typed) document without the use of any electronics. Slant Boards Slant boards are for use by individuals of all ages in developing fine motor skills, in providing a distraction-free surface for writing or reading, and in addressing task-related postural problems. Back and neck pressure is reduced allowing more upright posture and minimizing fatigue in writing and drawing. Label Makers (Labels for pre-printed answers) The Label Maker is a portable label maker with a typewriter style keyboard and a great option for all your labeling needs. Use it to make answers for worksheets.
Page-Up (document holder) This innovative desktop document holder keeps sheets of paper upright reducing neck strain and eye fatigue at your computer workstation. The PageUp is the most compact and durable office paper holder of its kind.. Font Collection We have several different software programs available with a large variety of different fonts used in educational settings. The one featured below in from EFI (Educational Fonts, Inc.) It is no longer available for purchase as most fonts can be found for free on the internet. Dycem Dycem is a non-slip material that solves many of the stabilization and gripping problems encountered by people with limited dexterity, restricted mobility and reduced wrist or upper limb strength. It grips on both sides to prevent movement and is ideal for providing support, stability and confidence during everyday activities and exercise.
CoWriter CoWriter works in conjunction with any application you write in like MS Word, Online, Blogs, Email, etc. As you type, CoWriter interprets spelling and grammar mistakes and offers word suggestions in real time. For students with illegible handwriting, very poor phonetic or inventive spelling, a physical disability makes typing difficult, difficulty translating thoughts into writing. Write Out Loud Write:OutLoud is an easy-to-use talking word processor that can be made to speak letters, words, sentences, or any combination of the three. Listening to words encourages reluctant writers and eliminates frustration. Write:OutLoud gives students the satisfaction and success that motivates them to write more and want to write. When used with Overlay Maker and IntelliKeys (IntelliTools), Write:OutLoud becomes a powerful tool for communication. Writing skills improve further when used with Co-Writer, a word prediction program, for increased typing efficiency and vocabulary enhancement.
Writing With Symbols Writing with symbols 2000 is a picture (or text) word processing program that can display symbols or other graphics for each word you type. There are 3,800 Mayer-Johnson Picture Communication Symbols and over 4,000 Rebus symbols. It is no longer available but we continue to have copies for personnel that like to use it and are familiar with it. These programs encourage children and adults with speech or language impairments to express themselves. They provide an interactive environment for language exploration and communication exchange. Autism, developmental disabilities, language-learning disabilities, physical impairments, TBI, and aphasia can use this as well as candidates for augmentative communication systems. Pix Writer This software program allows you to write by selecting pictured buttons or typing. You can also make the buttons by just typing in the words and the pictures are found automatically.
SOLO SOLO is a literacy suite of the most popular assistive technology accommodations, including a text reader, graphic organizer, talking word processor, and word prediction. The new version (SOLO 6) was completely redesigned to be simple to use, yet powerful for students who struggle to read and write. For these students, SOLO 6 places all of the right tools at their fingertips. The accommodations in SOLO put students in charge of their own learning. Portable Word Processors A portable word processor is a lightweight device that is easy to transport (e.g., from classroom to home). It can be helpful to kids who may have trouble writing by hand and prefer to use a keyboard. Word processing allows the user to edit and correct his written work more efficiently than doing so by hand Neo/ Neo 2
Scanners A scanner is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting or an object, and converts it to a digital image. Common examples found in offices are variations of the desktop (or flatbed) scanner where the document is placed on a glass window for scanning. OCR Software PaperPort PaperPort is an OCR (optical character recognition) software program that scans and quickly turns paper into digital content, saves Web pages as PDF documents, creates and annotates PDF files, converts static form into fillable electronic form and provides thumbnail management for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files
Livescribe SmartPen We use pen and paper on a daily basis the same way we use our PC s, laptops and all the other i devices. It seems that, the paper world and the digital world are destined to live as two separate entities; at least until the Livescribe Echo smartpen was invented! So, what exactly does this smartpen do? The primary feature of this gadget is the ability to record handwriting using its three core elements; the pen s high-speed camera, an integrated pressure sensor and specialized dot paper Dragon Naturally Speaking This software is a voice-recognition program that benefits from new automation tools, improved hands-free navigation, updates to the interface, and most important increased accuracy and speed.
Microsoft Word Options Contact a member of your Local A.T. Team for more information or a demonstration on the different options available in Microsoft Word(version 2007, 2010 and 2012) to help students with organization and writing. Readability Formula Auto Summarize Spell Check and Thesaurus Background Color
MyStudy Bar There is a text to speech program under the Writing menu (Balabolka) for those that can edit materials when they hear what they write. A word prediction program is also under the Writing menu. First Author The First Author software guides teachers through the process of scoring student writing samples with the built-in Developmental Writing Scale and text-type diversity measures. Each writing sample is scored in just seconds and this helps educators identify changes in writing progressions from emergent writing to conventional paragraph writing. Together, the measures provide information on where each student stands as a writer and helps inform instruction.