USING TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE THE WRITING PROCESSES OF STUDENTS WITH LEARNING-DISABILITIES

This article reviews the ways that computers can support writing by st udents with learning disabilities, with an emphasis on applications th at go beyond word processing. Following an overview of research on wor d processing is a discussion of software that assists with the basic p rocesses of transcription and sentence generation, including spelling checkers, speech synthesis, word prediction, and grammar and style che ckers. Next, applications that support the cognitive processes oi plan ning are reviewed, including prompting programs, outlining and semanti c mapping software, and multimedia applications. Finally, the use of c omputer networks to support collaboration and communication with diver se audiences is addressed.