Assistive Technology for Visual-Spatial or Motor Control

                   Chapter 5

Tools you can use to address visual-spatial or motor control difficulties

This blog will continue to address how to use technology to meet your needs in math instruction, specifically we will investigate how to use technology to address visual-spatial or motor control difficulties. Now that we have addressed math automaticity, we need to address what to do when the student has gained confidence in their math facts, but their fine motor skills prevent them from either copying work correctly or recording their computation correctly. Knowing this, today's blog will present technology resources that address theses needs. Again, I will be accessing the material presented in the text, Assistive Technology in the Classroom (Dell, et. al, pages 124-130).

* Math Pad (Cambrium Learning) - Allows a student to use the mouse or keyboard to enter dat after solving a math problem (eliminates the mistakes of recording with pencil with paper). This is a talking math worksheet. Teachers can generate customized worksheets to meet students needs, and review work. 

* Math Pad Plus (Cambrium Learning) -  Extends all of the features of Math Pad and extends to include fractions and ratios.

* Virtual Pencil (VP)   & VP Algebra allow students to solve mathematical problems with the logic of paper and pencil, but by using speech feedback. Password protection is available to prevent students from altering VP Algebra files.

If you don't have the budget for additional software, but you already have MICROSOFT Word, check out this You Tube video of a fantastic feature, Equation Editor!

Resource:

Assistive Technology In the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with Disabilities, Second Edition 2012 by Amy G. Dell, Deborah A. Newton, Jerry G. Petroff,  Pearson