Yes  yes .... lets hear it for voice input !   Pages and Notes on iPad barely make an error  (no training, no fuss just click on the mic icon to left of spacebar )  and the use of Alexa and Google home are letting young people see how to give good clear dictation! Make your starting points fun and short and then build on their dictation skills. This is a real way forward for the CYP who can use their voice.

Thank you for your positive comments, Maggie!

Where CYP can use Voice to Text it reduces, and eventually negates, the need for a scribe. CYP need initial support to use V2T but this is no different to any teaching and learning!

I love that, with such additions as Microsoft's Immersive Reader, Read&Write in Google Docs, plus the IOS and Android versions, support is available for anyone who has recording and reading difficulties/disabilities.

Microsoft and Google now offer great accessibility in their products which makes software and apps, such as the Cricksoft products, not less important but more specialist than even 18 months ago! In the current climate where schools struggling financially and are already in, or moving into, deficit budgets, access to inclusive software at no/low cost to support a range of disabilities is essential.

I agree voice software has a place, and I'm not saying touch typing is for everyone but it can certainly help an awful lot of children. Try dictating a letter, never mind an essay for a piece of coursework, and see how hard it is to learn to do dictation.  You don't stand up and give a presentation, you plan carefully what you are going to say (usually by making notes first).  Same with creating a document or letter, etc.

Lots of children with PD can learn to type by touch. Touch typing isn't really about whether you can all of your 8 fingers and thumbs on the space bar - it's about being able to type without looking down & using muscle memory instead of conscious cognitive resources and there are lots of variations in technique that can deliver that,  whatever the disability.  It is important to be consistent, so choose which hands and which fingers can do which keys, and then find a system that can deliver that.  Tabs of Velcro on the keyboard at certain points to make new "anchor" points (other than the standard F and J) can really help.

Please don't dismiss touch typing as something you must use all fingers "correctly" - we taught a child who had Cerebral Palsy and only very limited use of one hand but she was still able to still establish muscle memory.  Yes, voice recognition software has a place for some children but other options like typing can be a viable and preferable alternative offering more flexibility in the long term and will help spelling too.

I apologise if you thought I was being dogmatic about V2T, Sue! I wrote my post because I meet so many teachers who haven't considered this at all for their pupils!

As we know, there isn't 'one right way' and each CYP/adult will have a preference.

To be up to date with technology gives us the knowledge to provide the CYP with a range of options and tools and can support them in their decision making. We are then able to provide appropriate training and support to enable efficient and effective use of whatever works best for the CYP.

Effective use of V2T needs to be taught and the CYP will need to practice in the same way that the effective use of a scribe needs to be taught and requires practice. This is no different to the learning of any new skill, including typing and that is true whether it is touch typing or keyboard awareness.

Thanks for your reply Gillian, and I’m sorry too, I certainly didn’t mean to imply you were being dogmatic. It’s strange for me to hear you say you meet so many teachers who haven’t considered V2T, I find the opposite but for typing! V2T seems to be “the go to” solution for so many support staff & teachers I talk to, but without all you say about proper support and training. Typing seems to get dismissed as lots of people have such an old fashioned view about what it is, ie. using all your fingers including little fingers (a challenge for some people anyway!). When what’s it’s really about is muscle memory, changing the part of the brain that controls the skill, freeing up cognitive resource and reducing visual stress (not switching between keyboard & screen).  That’s the bit I’m passionate about trying to build understanding on as this can help so many CYP/adults.  It not many people are familiar with muscle memory and automaticity.

I sometimes V2T is seen as “easy”, give out the software and let the user get on with it. But nothing is that easy! I hope you will consider the benefits of muscle memory, although I appreciate with PD typing can need a much more individualised approach. But it can achieve amazing results.