Kati’s opportunity arrived just as Graci began to really struggle towards the end of her third-grade year when a pandemic forced schools across the globe into a virtual learning format. “I preach to all of the assistive technology specialists, occupational therapists, and teachers that the second semester of third grade is when learning differences really come to the surface and things start to fall apart,” Kati says.
Just when Graci needed it the most, technology empowered her as a student. Her mother installed the assistive technology Co:Writer on her Chromebook. Working with Co:Writer, learning and writing online, typing practice, and self-paced assignments changed everything for Graci. Co:Writer is like a virtual writing assistant built for people who have trouble writing independently, with features like finely-tuned predictive text, themed topic dictionaries, and advanced speech-to-text capabilities. As Kati put it in a recent email that she wrote to her coworkers:
Graci was able to use Co:Writer to compose her book reports, summaries, short answer questions—it was life-changing for her. Graci became an independent learner. It was amazing!! She finished 3rd grade better than she started. Success!!