Critique of Take the Pencil out of the Process

“Fair is not giving everyone the same thing, fair is giving people what they need.” 

The article titled Take the Pencil Out of the Process written by Leslie Broun discusses the difficulties that children that have been diagnosed with ASD may face when it comes to written output, especially with printing and writing. It goes on to discuss that it is not unusual to go into a classroom and see students who struggle to produce legible print. Broun states that many children have difficulties with the physical printing and writing process.  The article goes into detail about the concerns of motor impairment with children who have autism.  Some of these concerns include hypotonia and apraxia. Although motor dysfunction is not required for a diagnosis but is considered a “soft” sign by many researchers.  According to Broun, studies have shown that for a student with ASD, difficulties with handwriting can underscore all areas of academic participation and that early substitution of the keyboard for students experiencing difficulty will help with graphomotor skills. Broun’s article continued to discuss the importance of the use of computers in the classroom, not just for students with ASD  as a UDL tool; the implications for using a keyboard for nonverbal students and strategies for using a keyboard. 

I really connected with the article because it was a conversation that I had had with several colleagues in the last several years.  My first experience with handwriting difficulties and a child diagnosed with ASD was when I taught in a Kindergarten classroom last year.  The little boy would have major meltdowns when it came to printing on paper with any type of writing utensil.  I had many conversations with his mom, IRTS and the guidance counselor to try to come up with a solution.  The guidance counselor had told me that she had also experienced this in other children diagnosed with ASD but did not have a reason for it. We had discussed using technology but being in a small school with little resources, it was hard to come up with an actual plan on how to implement it. This article answered so many questions and supports a lot of the observations that I have relating to the correlation between ASD and handwriting.  I will definitely be using the information provided by Broun to implement various technology in my classroom and not be so concerned with the fact that children have to learn to write with a pencil and paper.  Her suggestions were very straight forward and put me at ease in implementing a keyboard in the class.