Assistive Technology and Writing

Children's development as writers has been studied extenV__sively (Clay, 1979; Graves, 1983; Merchant, 2006; Tolchinsky, 2006). As a result, the research offers clear milestones for parents and teachers to observe a child's writing development and concepts of print. As summarized in Table 1, children's initial efforts to write involve learning to grasp writing instruments and scribbling. As children physically mature, they develop the fine-motor skills to properly hold a writing instrument and manipulate it with some control. Later, their cognitive development enables them to notice features of text, such as straight lines and curves, which they try to imitate as they work toward tracing and copying letters. During the preschool years, children develop to the point where they are able to print letters and numbers from memory (without a model to copy). Learning to write one's name is a significant milestone that typically occurs around ages 4 to 6. As children continue to learn to write and spell simple words, writing begins to provide a functional purpose.

Children with disabilities are likely to be developmentally delayed in achieving each of the milestones described above. For many children with significant disabilities, "developmental delays in communication, language, cognition, physical mobility, social skills, and play skills present challenges to becoming literate" (Sadao & Robinson, 2010, p. 123). As a result, it is important to be attentive to barriers that prevent any child from accessing and engaging in the emergent literacy activities appropriate for their peers. Assistive technology (AT) should be explored whenever a child encounters significant barriers that prevent him or her from accessing and engaging in developmentally appropriate learning activities.

The provision of AT devices and services is predicated on the need for interventions that overcome a performance problem encountered by an individual with a disability (Blackhurst, 2005; Cook, Polgar, & Hussey, 2008). For individuals with learning disabilities (LD), in the context of expectations for writing, AT may be sought to provide access to preliterate writing activities such as scribbling, copying letters, and writing one's name. Or, it may involve interventions that seek to compensate for poor handwriting by altering the task from writing by hand to keyboarding or dictation.

Table 2 illustrates a range of strategies and technology tools that might be used by students...