Dystonia+and+Google+Docs

One year ago, my friend’s daughter Grace, was diagnosed with Dystonia. ** Dystonia ** is a [|neurological] [|movement disorder], in which sustained muscle contractions cause twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal postures. The first symptom was a weakness in her pencil grip and she began having trouble writing and drawing. As the condition progressed, she was unable to use her right hand at all. This was a stressful and confusing time, and especially difficult to be a teenage girl and face this disability. Grace takes her work seriously, and her grades and school participation are very important to her. In addition, this was the time when she was getting ready to write essays and take the SSAT for entrance into high school. She gradually taught herself to use her left hand, but it was difficult for her to keep up. She was missing class for doctor appointments and this bothered her as well. Luckily, we live in a time of amazing technology, and her teachers were able to utilize various Web 2.0 techniques so that she did not get behind or become too frustrated with this change in her life. Google Docs in particular, was very helpful because it allowed her to work on homework and papers with a friend who had been in class taking notes and was more familiar with the assignment and had a clearer understanding of the lesson. An amazing thing happened for the student who was helping my friend’s daughter through this time. The student, because she was able to “teach” Grace through GoogleDoc collaboration, gained a deeper, more meaningful understanding of what they were being taught. The teachers discovered that this was valuable for all of the students because they could go back and teach and possibly pick up ideas that they might not have noticed in class. The main barrier for my friend’s daughter was the fact that she could not use her right hand to write anymore, and was learning to type with her non-dominant left hand. It was fabulous to have a classmate join in and type with her so that she did not become frustrated with the slowness. Her voice app on her phone was also helpful for her to overcome the barrier of hand weakness. If she needed to take a break, she could record her thoughts on her iPhone voice recorder app and her friend could take a turn typing on their Google Document. The inability of this one student became an enriching experience for all of the students in the class. They were able to see things through a different lens thanks to GoogleDocs and other Web 2.0 techniques. My friend’s daughter has recently had DBS surgery, Deep Brain Stimulation. Gradually, she will regain use of her arm and hand, but the discovery of the Web 2.0 tools has shed a much more hopeful light on her future, and she is looking forward to high school now, armed with the knowledge that she does not have to fight her disability alone.
 * __ Dystonia (Movement Disorder) + Google Docs __**