NCIP Profile: Writing with Word Prediction Software

NCIP Staff, 1994

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Students with disabilities have trouble writing when their ability to generate text cannot keep pace with the flow of their ideas. Some students simply cannot retain ideas in their memory long enough to express them coherently in writing. Others have difficulty with spelling or with the motor demands of handwriting and keystroking. Some students with more significant motor impairments use adaptive methods for writing that can also slow down the process.

Many students with disabilities who confront these obstacles can be assisted by word prediction, software that reduces the number of keystrokes necessary for typing words.

• How word prediction works
• Skills Needed to Use Word Prediction
• Stories of two students successfully using word prediction
  • Jeff, a high-school freshman with speech and learning disabilities who has developed independent writing skills using word prediction
  • Tony, a young adult with cerebral palsy who uses word prediction software to write more quickly
• Features of different word prediction software programs

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