Teachers' Institute for Special Education

"Keyboarding by Ability is a great way to teach children how to type using one hand.  It has worked great for children with decreased hand function due to fluctuating muscle tone and children with birth defects affecting one hand."

                    Jennifer

                    Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant

                    EC - 12th grade school therapist 

Thank you for this typing program, I am using it with great success with my students. My school has now bought the LD edition program and site license having seen how good it was.

I would like to buy the Elementary Edition Typing Book and am also interested in upgrading my pack to include the Dyslexic level if that contributes another learning angle to the LD program since I have a student with Dyslexia.

The students really like this subject, enjoy the activity and are stimulated by the opportunity for demonstrated success at each small step. It is also a very relevant life skill. The students remained focused throughout and were eager to continue.

Tom has shown remarkable improvement. Previously, he was easily distracted, slouched at the keyboard and slowly picked keys with one index finger. He is now focused, uses correct posture and types with both hands and returns fingers to the home keys.

Jane is of short stature and would always fold her legs under the chair and would prefer to self instruct than accept guidance. Now she obtains her footrest and works independently and follows instructions assiduously. She is progressing very rapidly.

Phoebe, Mark and Kate are more advanced students and this course has helped them to develop great pride in their achievements. This boost in self-esteem is spurring them to set and achieve higher goals for themselves. They are now eager to move ahead and learn independently.

At the other end of the class spectrum, students are learning valuable skills. They are learning to remain on task, follow instructions, ask for help and improve manual dexterity while improving their ability to rapidly locate letters on the keyboard.

Teaching these lessons has been a rewarding experience.

regards,

Marie R.

"I just received the keyboarding program for special needs children with visual impairments, and it looks very good.  Other typing programs that I have tried, such as ------- and -------, were visually overstimulating, consisted of distracting games, and did not appear to follow a logical progression." 

"I looked at some descriptions of ------ on the web.  I would say that the difference between the two programs is that the one I purchased contains far less visual clutter, provides verbal and physical prompts so the user knows exactly what to do, and uses a straight-forward approach to typing instruction without distracting games." 

I provide school-based O.T. services for elementary and middle school students.  Many of the children I work with have difficulty with handwriting and will need to depend on keyboarding to complete written assignments.  Several of them also have visual impairments.  As an itinerant therapist, I do not have an office at the school sites I visit.  Therefore, I have loaded your program onto my laptop and have been trying it with several students.  Needless to say, the large fonts and verbal directions are extremely helpful for the children with visual impairments.  I have found that it simplifies things for the children without visual impairments as well. 

My plan is to recommend that the teachers, principals, or special education coordinators at the schools purchase a site license so their students can use this program. 

Marc H., OTR/L