Computers and software can provide flexible, supportive models and environments for all writers, and are a must for emergent and early writers who have disabilities. Technology can support and prompt young authors to engage and increase their writing productivity, and can help them to produce attractive, sophisticated products in print or digital formats. The following are suggested tools for supporting emergent and early writers.
Typical programs can be very useful for many student writers with or without support (e.g., a white board or word bank), changes in setting (e.g., large fonts), or to be used with other special software (e.g., word prediction or screen readers). Teachers can create templates and students or teachers can add graphics, photos, and for some, sounds and animations.
As students type, the computer reads each letter, then each word and then each sentence aloud.
As students type, computer software "guesses" the word they are attempting to spell (using syntactic and spelling clues). A list of possible words is offered. Students can scan the list and click on the whole word or enter its list number and the complete word will be entered into the text. Some programs include a read aloud feature so that students can "hear" each word read to them. (Or a screen reader that is enabled can read words aloud as well.)
These programs allow the writer to create graphic organizers (which can switch to outline format with a click) to organize and recall ideas before writing (or speaking). Some include graphics libraries and can also import graphics or photos. Graphic organizers, outlines and text can be exported to a word processing program.
Students can compose sentences by entering whole words with one click on a word or graphic rather than entering words letter-by-letter.