The Role of Technology

Technology in education today seems like such a divided bag of support. We have all of the information we need at our fingertips and that can be both good and bad when it comes to children. It’s another thing to manage and worry about as partents.
However, technology has an important and increasingly useful role in the lives of children with dyslexia and learning disablities. The use of word processing programs allows children the ability to text, take notes, correct spelling and use both speech to text and text to speech to adapt to the deficits they have in reading and spelling. The use of these programs now help students reading below grade level propel their abilities in other subjects to a more even playing field.
Studies support the use of word processing programs as early as 1st grade. Students who use these tools demonstrate a greater improvement in their writing over time compared to those who are only writing by hand. While students still need to know how to both print and write in cursive it is another important skill to introduce touch typing early as well. While we should have balance in our education and set appropriate expectations for growth for each child technology still has a very important role in lives of all of our children so embrace the accommodation.