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Is Writing A Burden? Maybe You Need a Friendly Dragon
by Dr. Marion Blank
For many children, and for many adults as well, the physical act of writing is quite onerous. The difficulties can stem from a number of sources. Problems in sustaining the fine motor movements that writing requires and problems in accurate spelling are just a few of the possibilities. Regardless of the cause, you might find that you can take advantage of a friendly dragon who has been designed to assist you.The dragon's habitat is in a voice recognition software program. These are the programs which allow the "writer" to say what is on his or her mind and then sit back while the computer turns the spoken words into written form.
These programs have existed for quite a while. However, they were often difficult to use. Now via Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.0 the performance is amazingly accurate.
It is, of course, not a solution for all writing problems. For example, it cannot come up with good ideas. That is still the responsibility and privilege of the speaker. And before it can be put to use, it has to hear long segments of text read aloud so it can. recognize and adjust to the speech patterns it will be processing. Children with significant reading difficulties may not be willing or able to go through the process. But if your child, or anyone else you know, would like a friendly dragon to take over the task of getting words into print, you might find it very worthwhile to look into this tool.
Dr. Marion Blank is a world-renowned authority on how children learn to read with over 40 years experience in the field. She is the creator of the Phonics Plus Five reading & wrting program available for sale on her site. To read more articles by Dr. Blank, please visit her blog and join her newsletter.