My 12 year old daughter has dyslexia/ learning disabilities. She has progressed through the Orton -Gillingham curriculum with a private tutor and has made strides. However, we homeschool and are finding it difficult to get support from our local school district. We know that public school students are getting aid with the multitude of technology aids out there. How do we determine what to purchase for her at home? Her biggest struggle is writing and spelling currently. She requires a parent to be her scribe when writing an essay. She has the thoughts, but is unable to put the words on paper on her own and her efforts to spell the words makes this a daunting task. I would like to see her able to write “independently” and not feel incapable and frustrated. I would love to hear your recommendations.

Dr. Pierson’s Response:

It is not unusual for our students with dyslexia, who have great ideas, to struggle to get those ideas onto paper (or computer screen). Writing is a very complex process. https://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/professionals/dyslexia-and-intervention/writing/ You can find many free resources for writing here https://thinksrsd.com/. Another good resource is the book, From Talking to Writing: Strategies for Supporting Narrative and Expository Writing (Jennings and Haynes, 2018). The ideal way to go about figuring out what is best for your daughter is to meet with a professional who has experience with assessing writing skills and knows the various software programs and apps to help her decide which ones best meet her needs. 

Dictation software is the go-to for writing to help students get their thoughts on paper. Luckily, speech-to-text software is ubiquitous on our devices today. But students need to learn how to use it. Inspiration is a great app to help students get their thoughts down and organize their thinking when writing. I have a lot of information about assistive tech here: https://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/tools/apps/ Inspiration is the first one on this page.

Spelling is so laborious for most of our students with dyslexia, so being able to dictate their thoughts and not get hung up on trying to spell the word is a great help. I work with students all the time on spelling and for some students (dare I say most) our goal, realistically, is that they can spell words well enough that 1) spellcheck can identify the word they were going for and 2) the student can know which is the correct choice  (i.e., think there/their/they’re or edition/addition). Your daughter might benefit from some work in morphology, although O-G training does attend to this, to help with spelling (and reading). https://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/professionals/dyslexia-and-intervention/morphological-awareness/ Words by Marcia Henry is a good resource. 

The other go-to accommodation in order to ensure that your daughter is being exposed to the same texts (and information) as her typical-reading peers is text-to-speech technology. We know that beginning in 4th grade the words in texts become much more complex, and the amount of text students are required to read really begins to increase. The curriculum has transitioned from teachers presenting much of the content verbally and students learning to read to requiring that students use their reading to learn. For our students with dyslexia, this transition can be challenging. We want them accessing the same text as their peers so they learn vocabulary, content, and literate forms of language. Audiobooks are key. Learning Ally  and Bookshare are good choices. You can find more tools here: https://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/tools/software-assistive-technology/

Hopefully, these suggestions will get you headed in the right direction. I wish your daughter great success.