Need for Support , Supervision and Follow-Up

Through experience over 10 years of working with students and adults using speech recognition, it is clear that one of the most under estimated aspects in terms of learning how to use speech recognition, is the amount of time and work involved and becoming proficient in the use of this technology. Over time, as the technology has improved, hardware has become faster, the software has become increasingly more accurate, and the amount of effort involved has actually decreased. Students are experiencing greater levels of success and accuracy with the newer versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking nowadays. More and more students with speech difficulties, reading problems and lower cognitive levels are managing to cope with speech recognition now as opposed to previous years. This is due to the latest advances in speech recognition hardware and software tools. However, the amount of time and investment on the part of student and parents as well as the educational team cannot be underestimated. Students require extensive, structured training and support during all stages of the training process. Students should not be expected to produce good levels of independent work using speech recognition early on in the training process. During all five stages of training, students require support and supervision to ensure good dictation techniques and ongoing improvement of voice files and accurate use of correction strategies. Teachers and parents should not expect high levels of independence until all stages of formal training have been completed.

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The action plan should include:

WHAT:
The tasks involved in initial evaluation of the student's potential for using speech recognition, team meetings discussing implementation of assistive technology, training sessions, supports and follow-up evaluations.

WHO:
It is essential to document the people who will be involved in all aspects of speech recognition implementation and training. Successful use of speech recognition by the student is highly dependent on the amount of support and training the student receives from support stuff and parents. The successful integration of a technology such as speech recognition is integrally dependent on a strong action plan which is carried out by a number of key people in the student's educational environment and home environment. The action plan should document exactly who would be responsible for each part of the evaluation, training and follow up.

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WHEN:
An important question regarding implementation of use of assistive technology is 'when' training periods can be carried out during the day, and how this would fit into the students schedule. Most students who are candidates for using speech recognition are already involved in a structured and demanding academic curriculum. Deciding how to integrate this into an already packed day is often difficult. Some students do very well with a period of intensive training over the summer or short breaks such as spring break or winter break. Others are able to make use of resource time. In some cases school districts have been able to provide students with academic classes for credit during which time the students have been able to work on learning how to use certain types of assistive technology systems.

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WHERE:
The educational team, together with input from the student and parents would need to make decisions in terms of where the student would be able to use speech recognition. This relates to location within the educational environment and school building. Currently, the technology is good enough that a student really does not need to be in a quiet environment in order to be successful with using speech recognition. As long as the student is able to concentrate on the work at hand and dictate without becoming distracted in a busy environment, the quantity of speech recognition, given the use of a good noise canceling microphone, will be just as accurate as if working in a quiet environment. As long as the noise canceling microphone is used correctly and also that the audio set up has been run to set microphone volume depending on the type of environment and amount of ambient noise, a student should be successful in most environments with in a school building. It stands to reason that in the last majority of cases, students would not be able to use speech recognition within a regular classroom environment as a teacher is teaching. However, there are many other times and places in which students would be able to complete work using speech recognition.

EXAMPLES:

Below you'll find a couple of examples of action plans for the training period as well as for the time that speech recognition will be integrated into the student's daily educational curriculum. Obviously, all action plans are highly individualized according to the needs of the student and the academic demands of the educational environment and daily schedule. These are just basic examples but they show what type of information should be included as well as given indication of the importance of documenting not only what will be done and he will do it but also giving an indication of timelines which would be involved in a training period.

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Example of an action plan for EVALUATION and TRAINING (Stages 1 - 4 of curriculum):

Remember that the student's performance and progress through each stage of training can be recorded on the online forms provided with this curriculum.

Example of an action plan FOR INTEGRATING SPEECH RECOGNITION INTO THE CURRICULUM
(Stage 5 of curriculum):