Dictation - Part Two (Dictation in the Speech Room)

If you do not know how to use the dictation feature on the iPad, check out part one of this post.  If I could I would shout it from the rooftops.  Every special ed teacher should know and use constantly all the accessibility features, our technological age offers us.

When we got the iPads through the special education grant, I made sure Lady A and I both had an iPad for the speech room (after all what good is writing a grant if you don't get to enjoy the fruits of your labor!)  Like most teachers we first turned to apps specifically designed for speech.  However, we "evolved" as the Princess would say.  Princess believes true technology integration comes when you start using apps and devices in ways that are not part of their original intent.  Since most of my teachers were overwhelmed at the sight of an iPad, I often was the one who taught my speech kiddos how to use the dictation feature.  What Lady A and I learned is that speech errors and dictation result in unusual text.  The dictation feature when faced with an incorrect phoneme tries to process it intelligently.  Therefore it doesn't just write the incorrect phoneme, but often attempts to guess at what the word was supposed to be.  The dictation feature especially has a lot of trouble with r.

The sentences above are supposed to say:  I pulled my red wagon. My alarm rings every morning. Babies suck their thumbs. I like lions.  I dictated with typical speech errors.

Lady A and I have realized that our students at best think we are crazy when we tell them they did not say their sound correctly..at worst they think we are big old nags.  What I have found is the speech game tends to make passive learners out of students.  My constant immediate feedback is a given so they don't even think about their speech until I remind them.  We have started handing them the iPad and tell them to dictate so the iPad gets it right.  They love it. (who doesn't love playing with a piece of technology.)  Now they will try all sorts of things to get the sound right.  Their willingness to say a word over and over again increases tenfold.  Suddenly we are coaches instead of teachers.

We also use dictation with our language kiddos.  We have them dictate and then compare their responses to the correct ones.  We have also had our students videotape themselves and score their productions using a rubric. 

Self monitoring meets the technological age.  I love it!