[blindkid] 4th Grade Math and introduction of technology

[Tene Gibson]

Thanks to NCLB, I am finding that my 9yo is getting caught up in the crunch to meet certain benchmarks with his sighted peers. Although I believe my child is an exceptionally bright child, I am sensing that he is stressed out by long division and multiplication (lining up problems on the Perkins being the main culprit). He is a type A personality so perfection is his goal and he gets caught up in the nuances of the problem set up instead of  getting the answer. From a sighted perspective, I can understand his angst when having to go up, down, left, right, and sideways on a Perkins just for one problem alone and sometimes having to start all over if not lined up correctly.  All we do with Math is erase with a pencil eraser.

My question I guess is when is the right to introduce technology into the classroom curriculum.  He is one and half years shy of being in middle school.  I have the Duxbury software, the screen reader, the notetaker, and the embosser.  When can we put Perkins down for limited use.

Tene