Dictation Empowers Children With Disabilities

Funded Nov 15, 2013

Thank you, thank you!! The iPad and microphone have already had a HUGE impact for our learning disabled students. So much so, they are literally lining up to use the device. Although the dictation was the initial purpose for the iPad, it has so many other functions and educational applications that we are able to use it for so much more. The first project we did on the iPad was to dictate a report that a student was struggling with. He had been working on it for a week with very little progress unless the teacher or a parent was working one on one with him. In just ONE sitting, this same student was able to dictate his entire report with only the prompt of staff asking a question. It was amazing! This child realized he still had time at the end of the class period to print and cut the dictated portions in order to paste them to his final draft, an accordion timeline. Spell check had underscored misspelled words and highlighted poor grammar to help him with the final draft. The things that usually took this student so much extra time on a writing assignment, were aided by the iPad and ability to dictate into it. This "leveled the playing field", so to speak, so that he was able to participate in the same assignment as non learning disabled students. He was doing the same work as his peers! Although we have had the iPad for less than a month, he doesn't dread writing assignments any more. He just asks if he may use the iPad in which to dictate; and when the answer is yes, he does a little fist pump and excitedly whispers, "YES!" This is just one student example of the impact of your gift. Each one of them is different, but they all are well worth it. Thank you!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Hann