Tablet for school?

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My aspie son starts grade 4 this week and his psychologist has suggested because of his lack of motor skills etc (he writes with his shoulder not hand and it wears him out quickly) that he types or has a scribe for his work/homework. Would a tablet be a good idea do you think? Teaching him to type?

My daughter got a laptop at school in grade 5 and it has made a world of difference. In grade 4 I don't think she passed a single test. By the end of grade 5 she was passing everything. Now, in grade 7 she is regularly bringing home marks in the 80s.

The use of technology has allowed her true ability to be more evident at school where the teachers need product as proof. I don't know if a tablet would do the same as we haven't tried one.

I think teaching him to type would be a good idea. I just don't know if a tablet would be the best option. If you child would need to work on documents and print them out, the word processing software on tablets is not the same as you get on a laptop. But tablets are great for internet connection to look things up. My sons use tablets in school for research and stuff, but don't word process or print from them.

For instance, I myself have an iPad, and purchased Pages and Numbers and Keynote apps for the iPad ($20 each US$). I ended up finding that they are not easy to work with, and have much fewer features than the laptop software. So I defaulted back to producing documents, spreadsheets and presentations on my laptop.

I think teaching him to type would be a good idea. I just don't know if a tablet would be the best option. If you child would need to work on documents and print them out, the word processing software on tablets is not the same as you get on a laptop. But tablets are great for internet connection to look things up. My sons use tablets in school for research and stuff, but don't word process or print from them.

For instance, I myself have an iPad, and purchased Pages and Numbers and Keynote apps for the iPad ($20 each US$). I ended up finding that they are not easy to work with, and have much fewer features than the laptop software. So I defaulted back to producing documents, spreadsheets and presentations on my laptop.

Thanks, he has a laptop at home that he shares with his sister, so I'll talk to his teacher.
What concerns me with that though is he won't be writing as much, so mob developing the skills he's lacking in. Or do I just leave that for his OT to handle?
God I wish his AS has been picked up sooner so he wouldn't be so far behind!

I would see the use of a laptop/tablet as assistive technology to help him with his education, and the leave the OT for elsewhere. It that makes any sense.

You can request (in writing) that the school do an assistive technology evaluation -- if they find there is a need the school will pay for the device. Many schools prefer to use something like AlphaSmart -- it's basically a small, portable keyboard and word processor. It's cheaper than a tablet, and no chance of playing games like you have with a tablet or laptop.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart

Some kids never really develop the fine motor skills to write well. Look at how many adults you know who have deplorable handwriting. The important thing to remember is that you want his grades to reflect his level of mastery of the subject matter, not his difficulty writing. I'd say let him use technology.

Back when I was in grade school, I found that I could type much faster than I could write, and I also found that typing was less exhausting. Because of this, for much of my school career, I was allowed to type my assignments and exams rather than writing them. I believe that I first learned to type when I was in 3rd grade, and I started typing assignments on a somewhat regular basis some time around 4th or 5th grade.

If you get your child a tablet, make sure it can support some sort of an external keyboard with physical keys. Better yet, get them an actual laptop, as they come with physical keyboards by default, and unlike tablets they are actually designed for content creation, not just content consumption, so they can utilize things like printers, external storage devices like USB drives and writable CDs, and of course much more fully-featured software.