No, there's no server connection. It's stand alone. When it's used in a school setting, sometimes the student has to be logged in to the school server to use their computer software ... but in a home setting, no.

We tried it. We found the SpeakQ portion a little clunky, but maybe we hadn't trained it enough. I'm just wondering how it compares to using dragon before I plunge in and spend the money. The word prediction is excellent - it predicts by context really well compared to some others we've tried.

Have any of you used WordQ/ SpeakQ? It's similar to Cowriter - word prediction where you type or speak the word and then select it from a list of suggestions. I'm considering this over dragon as my son really struggles with spelling - nothing seems to stick. I'm wondering if that connection of having to select the word would support the process of learning to spell the words. Or if I should just go straight to dragon. He does stutter a bit, repeats phrases and self edits a lot, so I'm not sure if that will hold him back with dragon as well.

Our ped suspects my son has PANDAS - although we didn't experience sudden onset. Like your daughter, my son was always different - definite sensory issues, needing to be on me all the time, extreme tantrums, issues with perseveration. We've been searching for a LONG time for answers. PANDAS is not a perfect fit (for example, I have a lot of the same symptoms as my ds, but I obviously can't be said to have a pediatric illness lol), but my son and I both have tested positive for strep antibodies in our blood stream. What I think is that we both have some under-lying auto-immune problem, mixed in with genetic learning disabilities (or maybe the ld's are just part and parcle of the auto-immune) and when strep was added to the mix, it just made things worse. He's doing his second PANDAS treatment - a strong antibiotic for 7 days and then 3 times a week until we're well past the winter/strep season. We'll likely have to do this until he hits puberty. The antibiotic he's on is azithromycin. My son's symptoms are: extreme sensitivity to weather changes (muscle knots - like fibromyalgia - up and down his back and shoulders, headaches, foggy brain, fatigue, inability to focus or manage, some ocd (can't get thoughts out of his head) and some stuttering. I can deal with most of it, but the feeling like junk every other day is wearing - really hard to address the learning issues when he can't think clearly 3 out of 5 days. I have the same symptoms, so I'm kind of hoping that my blood work shows elevated strep - might point to some answers. We're lucky that his symptoms are mild compared to other children I've read about who suffer from PANDAS or Lyme. We've done a lot with diet over the years and supplements and, although definitely far from a cure, I think it's helped some. I would find a DAN (defeat autism now) doctor - a doctor who treats autism spectrum disorders with alternative methods. We chose to go this route, not because our son is autistic, but because he's somewhere on that spectrum and a lot of the issues that autistic kids struggle with are similar to kids who struggle with learning disabilities, autoimmune disorders, etc. Our DAN doctor is really open to naturopathy. She uses vitamins, alternative treatments (some of it I even find way out there), but also medication. Kind of the best of both worlds. Sorry, no definitive answers for you, just commiseration. Hugs and all the best to you on this journey.

I'm wondering, though, if you aren't teaching printing, if the child will struggle to connect the words/letters he's reading to the words/letters he's writing. My 11 year old can read above grade level, but struggles a lot with writing. Our behavioural optometrist suggested going back to the basics of printing ot solidify that connection - he can see that a word is mispelled, recognize the correct spelling, but reproducing it is difficult. I've gone back to hwt to try to re-enforce that connection.

Hmmm....I think I'm confusing proprioceptive and vestibular. I can never keep the two straight. Thanks for the explanation. That's the first time I've really understood vestibular. I think he has issues with both. I haven't received her report yet. I'll have to wait and see wether she was commenting on vestibular or proprioception. She threw so much information at me that my mind is swimming with details.

Hi there, I recently took ds to a behavioural optometrist to check his vision. She felt that there were few issues with his vision, but that she noted major issues with his vestibular system (his sense of where he is in space and where he is in relation to others). She suggested brain gym type exercises. I'm curious if those of you who have done brain gym or OT for vestibular issues found it beneficial over the long term.

There is also Word Q/ Speach Q. Quite a bit less expensive, I think, and they offer a 30 day free trial. We've been working with the Word Q and I'm quite pleased with it. The draw back for these kids is that they often have such difficulty with phonics that they can't identify the first letters, particularly vowels. I'm hoping the speachQ feature will help with that (the user speak the word into the microphone and the word prediction list appears.

I find whenever the weather shifts, both my ds and I get really sluggish...our brains literally slow down and it feels like we're working through a fog. It's really hard to think clearly. I figure it's something to do with inflammation but I don't know. One day all his letters are backwards and the next day they go the right way again.

A few things that has helped with my ds... - Understand that the anger isn't directed at you ... there is a hurricane going on inside his body that he's having difficulty controlling. Talk to him about it when he's calm ... talk about sometimes feeling overwhelmed by emotion, hormones, etc ... be understanding, but also be clear that directing the anger at you isn't appropriate - Don't punish the behaviour. I give time outs, but always make it clear that time outs are an opportunity to calm down. He needs to learn to walk away from the situation, calm himself down. I tell my kids 'go upstairs and come down when you are calm enough to talk' - Think about whether or not the curriculum is appropriate. Generally, when my ds really freaks out about a task, it's simply too difficult for him. Sometimes it's just anxiety and the next day he's OK with. Sometimes it's because the curriculum isn't suited to his needs. Consider whether his behaviour is an honest expression that he can't manage the task that day. I really struggle with this one... because kids being kids, he does sometimes try to play me...but sometimes it's me being stubborn and trying to get him to fit into my agenda. - my ds is exactly the same ... one minute he's yelling about how much he hates us and how horrible his life is ... and the next he's chatting away and joking around...and of course I'm stilll steaming. The storms are intense, but they pass quickly thank goodness.

Your the first person I've found to mention weather!!! I've asked so many people if weather changes are an issue and never found anyone who had experienced that. Both my ds and I have severe anxiety, aches and pains, muscle knots, foggy brain and fatigue with weather changes. HEre in Ontario, the weather has been changing daily. I signed up for migraine alerts on my computer (which follows weather patterns) and over the last 2 months, they've been daily, sometimes twice a day. It's so frustrating. It makes a huge difference -- ds can write his letters in the right direction one day, then the weather changes and they're all backwards the next. We've done a lot with diet, but haven't found the magic bullet yet. For me, a candida diet helped a lot, but it's a long term thing - I was on it for a year and then, as soon as I went off it, all my symptoms came back. So ... not just candida. I just had ds do igg blood work for allergies .. we'll see if we can pin down some more exact information.

Your the first person I've found to mention weather!!! I've asked so many people if weather changes are an issue and never found anyone who had experienced that. Both my ds and I have severe anxiety, aches and pains, muscle knots, foggy brain and fatigue with weather changes. HEre in Ontario, the weather has been changing daily. I signed up for migraine alerts on my computer (which follows weather patterns) and over the last 2 months, they've been daily, sometimes twice a day. It's so frustrating. It makes a huge difference -- ds can write his letters in the right direction one day, then the weather changes and they're all backwards the next. We've done a lot with diet, but haven't found the magic bullet yet. For me, a candida diet helped a lot, but it's a long term thing - I was on it for a year and then, as soon as I went off it, all my symptoms came back. So ... not just candida. I just had ds do igg blood work for allergies .. we'll see if we can pin down some more exact information.

Your the first person I've found to mention weather!!! I've asked so many people if weather changes are an issue and never found anyone who had experienced that. Both my ds and I have severe anxiety, aches and pains, muscle knots, foggy brain and fatigue with weather changes. HEre in Ontario, the weather has been changing daily. I signed up for migraine alerts on my computer (which follows weather patterns) and over the last 2 months, they've been daily, sometimes twice a day. It's so frustrating. It makes a huge difference -- ds can write his letters in the right direction one day, then the weather changes and they're all backwards the next. We've done a lot with diet, but haven't found the magic bullet yet. For me, a candida diet helped a lot, but it's a long term thing - I was on it for a year and then, as soon as I went off it, all my symptoms came back. So ... not just candida. I just had ds do igg blood work for allergies .. we'll see if we can pin down some more exact information.

Darn, thought there must be a catch there somewhere... looks like such a great resource.

Just saw this link for an downloadable audiobook service that looks really neat called Learning Ally - apparently a really good selection of current titles - $100 for the year. Sounds great if your kids have difficulty with reading! http://www.learningally.org/Membership/Individuals-and-Families/24/

I've heard a few people mention using handwriting without tears for these kids ... what's the thinking behind this? have you found that they can write more easily/independently? Is this more for motor control than the spelling and fluency issues?

This is one of the things that I find so intensely frustrating about this journey. So many professions seem to have 'the answer' for your child ... but the cost is exhorbitant and, in the end, the results are only a maybe. It puts a huge burden on us to research and try to understand complicated information and to make decisions about family finances vs benefit for the child. It's what wakes me up in the middle of the night in a panic.

Coffee is my little 'dirty' secret. Both my ds and I have some sort of auto-immune thing - achey muscles, joints, foggy brain - with weather changes. I find a tiny bit of coffee (what we call grandma coffee - tons of goat milk adn a little palm sugar) works miracles for him - clears the fog and deals with the aches. I started giving it to him right before his karate lesson and he went from doing 2 moves a lesson to four or five. Now....we're getting allergies tested next week and I have this nasty feeling that coffee will be on the list. Not sure what we'll do then......

There is also a product called word q and speak q which is quite good - and they offer a 30 day trial (the others just offer 30 day refund guarantee). I think this is important. I've trained kids on various assistive techs and I think it's really tricky to figure out which one will click for them without trying them out first. One note - assistive tech is only useful if well supported. In ONtario, the school boards threw tons of money on software and gave the kids a few hours of training and then seemed to expect it to solve the kids' learning issues. They need a lot of support. For my ds (11) I've stuck to scribing for now. I'm going to try word prediction for really small tasks this year, but the bulk of his writing will still be scribed. I likely won't introduce dragon until he's older (he has a stutter and self-edits a lot --- I have a hard time keeping up, let alone a machine lol). That all being said, he has almost no written language at all.

No idea - but I wonder if the link is because of yeast levels in the body. My ds and I both have high levels of yeast. I went on a very strict Candida diet and felt so much better - slept better, calmer, clearer thinking, fewer headaches and muscle pains. Less successful with ds, but then it's a lot harder to keep him on diet. I went off diet a few months ago and I'm back to where I started. :( I'm going back on diet, doing a sugar cleanse for my ds and I'm also checking for food allergies.

Thanks! lots to think about here. What is EF survey? np eval? Acronyms!! lol Looks like I'm going back to the ped. btw ... PANDAS is pediatric autoimmune disorder associated with strep :)

There's definitely a health component that I've never quite been able to solve -- looks a lot like fibromyalgia - every weather change causes headaches, fatigue, achiness, tender points on the muscle. I have it as well - candida diet has helped a lot and I'm having both of us tested for allergies in the next few weeks.

He's 11. Numbers aren't as troublesome, but still lots of reversals. He can dictate beautifully, so getting his thoughts out isn't an issue, it's getting the words on paper - spelling and handwriting (and typing -we're working on that, but it's a long haul - after a month of daily practice he's still at 7 wpm and def can't produce anything typewritten independently). The pediatrician was helpful to a point - she's a DAN doc, so lots of advice on diet, supplements, etc. But where we live, any referals of this type aren't done through a doc, but through school - so they'd just give me a phone number to call. I've dropped off her list, so I'd have to get re-referred (not sure she'll take us as her focus is strictly autism now) and there really aren't any other peds in the area I'd trust. Only medical diagnosis we got was PANDAS (autoimmune).

So I'm trying to decide next steps for my ds. Up to this point, I've been teaching him gently and working within his natural development, but now I feel like we've hit a wall and I need to investigate options for him. I believe he's dysgraphic - reading is excellent, but writing is almost non-existent. Writing more than 4 or 5 words is physically uncomfortable for him - he goes pale, gets a headache and circles under his eyes. What would be more valuable for him .... a vision assesment or an educational assesment? I've always been leery of ed assesments --- this area isn't very homeschool friendly and my fear is that it will be a long day of tasks he won't be able to manage and it will negatively impact his self-confidence (which is quite high - he is very open about his inability to write). I don't want to go through that only to be told I should put him in school, kwim? What would an ed assess get us? Will they just recommend accomodations or give practical advice for handling specific problems?

Looks like you can buy a school version (K-12) here for $45.00. The regular verion is around $300 I thinkl http://www.rocoeducational.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=41