Device for Year 3 pupil

[Ketlane]

This is a personal request, rather than a whole-school question, as this is well outside my experience. After an assessment, my grandson in Year 2 has been advised to "use a laptop" in class, specifically for typing his work. In discussion with the school, they want to delay this a bit to get his handwriting better first: this seems wise, so we have until September to think things through. They have some AlphaSmart Neo devices, which are a bit ederly in terms of technology, but which they advocate for younger children. We haven't yet opened a BYOD discussion with the school. I would welcome advice and experience:

1. Any comments on how we could help with the AlphaSmart device?

2. At what stage is it sensible to move from handwriting to keyboard, given his dyslexia?

3. My prejudice is that if you are using the devise to write with, you need a keyboard not just a touch screen: comments?

4. If we went the BYOD rout - dependent on school IT policy - what sort of device for a Year 3 child? Needs to be simple and bombproof?

Many, many thanks!

[elsiegee40]

A few years ago (4?) we had to investigate a laptop recommendation for a year 2 pupil. In his case they recommended a standard laptop with keyboard stickers to make the keyboard more readable. Their logic was that the sooner he learned to use a standard computer the better. This was the path taken. Obviously every child's needs are different and the technology has moved on since then.