Electronic devices

Pookybear66

New Member
Hi all,
Things have settled down a bit again and I will try to just enjoy the summer. I hope you all will too!
Now, have a question-my mom was talking today about a device for typing up notes and stuff at school. I am wondering if she meant the AlphaSmart or something else. I don't know enough about it to say yes or no. So my question is, could anyone provide me with a bit more info about this device and also is there anything else out there to help with note-taking and writing assignments at school that would not be a laptop I had to buy myself?
Thanks so much!
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
It probably was the Alpha Smart.

It's about the size of a computer keyboard, or maybe a portable DVD player, and it's just a very simple word processor. It has a very small display screen so you can see about one line of what you've typed. It comes with a cable that lets you upload your file into Word so that you can edit the document further if needed, and then print it out.

Many school districts have these for use by students. My difficult child 2 had one at the beginning of the year to use because of fine motor problems he was having. My easy child got to use one in her reading class as part of a class project.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Wiz used an alphasmart for about 3 years. It was AWESOME! It is designed to be used by students in school settings. The alpha is incredibly durable. Wiz could, and did, break almost everything. But this stoo dup to even him.

The school district should already own some of these. Even if they don't, it is an adaptive technology device that school needs to pay for. It took a while to get one for Wiz, and so my mom offered to buy one for him to use. We were told he couldn't use one that we bought, it had to be paid for by the school or he couldn't have it at school. Never did understand that.

If your difficult child has any Occupational Therapist (OT) issues or has dysgraphia then this may be an awesome thing.

I would go check out the website for alphasmarts and then request that the school provide one. If difficult child has an IEP this can be put into it. And it is ILLEGAL for school to tell you that your difficult child can't have it because it is too expensive. Funding is the school's problem, it should not be yours (in a perfect world, that is!)

Check on the Special Education forum for more info on getting school to help with this. They really know the ins and outs of this kind of thing.
 
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