Cerebral Palsy & The Writing Process

Overview	Physical Disabilities: Cerebral Palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a disorder that affects muscle tone, movement, and motor skills (the ability to move in a coordinated and purposeful way). Cerebral palsy can also lead to other health issues, including vision, hearing, and speech problems, and learning disabilities. CP is usually caused by brain damage that occurs before or during a child's birth, or during the first 3 to 5 years of a child's life. There is no cure for CP, but treatment, therapy, special equipment, and, in some cases, surgery can help a child who is living with the condition.
Writing Supports	∙Physical therapy - activities and education to improve flexibility, strength, mobility, and function. ∙Occupational therapy -maximum use of their communication skills in expressing their ideas and understanding those expressed by others as well as understanding written language ∙Slant boards- support to wrist for improved manipulation of pencil for grapho-motor skills and also imporves visual focus and tracking. ∙Kidspirations- allows students to use visual learning to express their thoughts and ideas through graphic organizers, webs, maps and organizers to convey and clarify their thoughts, apply new knowledge. ∙Natural Reader: Converts written text into spoken language (*See link in “More information”section- Naturalreaders.com)- this software allows the student to read their written output to any audience.  This is a free peice of software that has proven to be very helpful. ∙Wireless keyboard when using iPad- the ipad presents a difficult angle for students with CP to type. ∙iPad Keyguard-  All iPad keyguards are made from 1/8″ (0.3cm) thick clear acrylic and come with optional 1/16″ (0.15cm) bumpers which can raise the keyguard above the screen to prevent accidental touches. -Tablet stand for iPad- enables a more ergonomic approach to using the iPad for students with flexibility issues -Dragon Naturally Speaking- This program would be helpful for students that are not able to physically hold a pencil, but are able convey their ideas through vocals clearly.  The student will need to train their voice, which will take about an hour. A student that is using this program should be aware, that many errors could be made, depending on their articulation.  Students may use DNS to create and edit written documents or emails, launch applications, open files, control their mouse and much more. *Please view the video in our "Misc. Links" section to receive a sample of how the program works.*
Apps	∙A promising app that is coming soon (Not yet available): Overview:In looking for a project to tackle as part of a software-engineering class, a team of computer science and engineering students posed the question: What can we do to help people whose impaired motor movements make it difficult to manipulate touch-sensitive screens or press the small buttons on mobile keyboards? A University of Michigan team of engineering students and rehabilitation engineers is building an app to help people whose impaired motor movements make it hard to manipulate touch-sensitive screens or press the small buttons on iPads and other mobile devices. The student team expects to release the app on the Apple App Store within the next few weeks.  *See video posted in the “Video Links” section Price: No price available at this time Why it is good: Allows students who have difficulty pressing small iPad buttons more flexibility when using the devices ∙Granimator™ Overview:To get started the user simply selects from the choice of shapes, styles and backgrounds. They can then draw the selected assets onto the stage, and erase, move, scale and rotate them to create compositions Price: Free Why it is good: Promotes, reinforces and motivates the use of fine motor skills which would build muscles and enable students to produce better quality written output messages. -Predictable Overview:Predictable is a cost effective and unique communication aid solution for people with disabilities which result in speech impairment. Predictable may be a valuable communication aid for people with conditions such as cerebral palsy, motor neuron disease, acquired brain injury and other dysarthrias and motor speech disorders. Users can type a message more efficiently by using a sophisticated word prediction engine and speak the message using a range of voices.Price: $159.99 Why it's good:  Multiple access methods to cater for people with limited physical ability; 1) Direct Touch via typing for those who can access the iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone function as normal. 2) Switch Access users can continue to use existing switches. *Note you would need a Switch interface for this mode. 3) Touch Anywhere method turns the iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone screen into a switch while Predictable is in auto scan mode, thus allowing the user to tap anywhere on screen to select the scanned portion. This may be useful with some isolated movement or with reduced fine motor control.
For More Information	∙Handwriting Problem Solutions: http://www.handwriting-solutions.com/about.asp ∙Natural Reader: http://www.naturalreaders.com/index.htm ∙National Institute of Cerebral Palsy and Stroke: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/cerebral_palsy/cerebral_palsy.htm ∙Cerebral Palsy & Technology - http://www.computers-technology-cerebralpalsy.com/ -Sensory Processing Resource Center  http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/