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Microsoft Office: Word

Word is developed by Microsoft and comes bundled within Office. Many of the features of this software can be quite useful for those struggling with skills needed for writing, organization, reading skills, study skills and note taking. Individual components of the program can be used separately, allowing students to complete other portions of their assignments independently, drawing upon their own strengths. Features that may prove helpful include:

• AutoSummarizing
• Provides opportunity for the computer to highlight portions of a document that may contain the most pertinent information
• User determines which type of summary to provide
• User may opt to use or not use this feature
• Can be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Fluency
• Higher-order cognition
• Language
• Memory
• Processing speed
• .
• Bullets and outlining
• These features provide a means for students to quickly note important information and to structure it in a meaningful format
• Can be used for taking notes
• Can be used to develop a draft
• Can be easily modified to fit the needs of the individual student and project
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Fluency
• Graphomotor skills
• Higher-order cognition
• Memory
• Plannning
• Processing speed
• Spatial skills
• .
• Columns
• These can be used to help organize, compare and contrast, or structure information
• Can be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Comprehension
• Higher-order cognition
• Language
• Plannning
• Spatial skills
• .
• Dictionary
• A quick means for students to distinguish between words by their meanings
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Higher-order cognition
• Language
• Memory
• Phonology
• .
• Editing
• Words can be moved by simply double clicking and dragging them into a new position
• Cut, paste, copy, delete, and undo features are easy to access
• Toolbars can be customized to assist particular users
• Options can be set to note what was edited and by whom
• Can be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Graphomotor skills
• Plannning
• .
• Formatting
• Various options are available to automatically format documents
• The user can chose which of these options to use or what to do independently of the program
• Can be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Graphomotor skills
• Memory
• Plannning
• Spatial skills
• .
• Highlighting and colored fonts
• Helps in quickly noting important information
• Multiple color options provides an easy method for chunking or organizing information in drafts or while taking notes
• Provides a simple method for graphic organization
• Can be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Fluency
• Graphomotor skills
• Higher-order cognition
• Language
• Memory
• Phonology
• Processing speed
• .
• Hyperlinks
• These can be set to connect one document to another or one portion of a document to another portion
• Assists in chunking information and relating newly acquired knowledge with that previously attained
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Higher-order cognition
• Language
• Memory
• Plannning
• Spatial skills
• .
• Locating information
• The Find feature allows each occurrence of a word to be identified within a document
• Find and Replace can be used to locate and automatically replace a given word
• Built in features allow easy construction of indexes or tables of contents to organize and locate information within lengthy documents or notes
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Comprehension
• Graphomotor skills
• Higher-order cognition
• Language
• Memory
• Plannning
• .
• Mouse and keyboard
• Many of the features provide the option to use keyboard shortcuts or mouse clicks
• If used for the entire project, no pencil or pen is necessary
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Graphomotor skills
• Vision
• Visual processing skills
• .
• Spelling and grammar check
• Though a spell check feature is included, students should be taught how to correctly use it so that the correct words, not just ones spelled correctly, are selected
• Spell check features provide options for the user on types of words to check and how
• The grammar check can be set to notify the user of a large variety of options including word usage and punctuation
• The writing style can be set to reflect anything from casual to technical controlling how grammar is checked
• Both spelling and grammar can be set to check as one types, check only when asked, or turned off completely
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Language
• Memory
• Phonology
• .
• Templates
• Allows a means for the teacher to build a template for student use, demonstrating the type of information to include and in which order
• Also provides a quick method for students to organize their own information in a format that will be meaningful to them when note taking or completing written projects
• Can be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Higher-order cognition
• Language
• Plannning
• Processing speed
• Spatial skills
• .
• Thesaurus
• Provides a quick way for students to find synonyms to expand their vocabularies
• Helps to further distinguish the meaning of words
• Can be used to create more interesting, varied documents
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Language
• Memory
• Plannning
• .
• Toolbars
• Can be customized for the user
• Provides a quick way to use tools within the program
• May be turned on or off
• Can be placed on any portion of the screen for easy access
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Graphomotor skills
• Memory
• Plannning
• Spatial skills
• .
• Visual stimuli
• The Office Suite includes an extensive clipart gallery that can be personalized or expanded by the user. Matching pictures to words can be extremely beneficial for some students
• Photos and other graphics can be easily imported
• Drawing and painting tools are included
• Linking information easily demonstrated through use of arrow feature
• Themes and colors can be used for emphasis, grouping ideas, and consistency of topic
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Comprehension
• Higher-order cognition
• Language
• Phonology
• Plannning
• Processing speed
• Vision
• Visual processing skills
• .
• Wizards
• Students can opt to use these to guide through specific steps, such as formatting letters or charts
• The user is does not have to use these features if they do not need assistance
• Can be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Graphomotor skills
• Higher-order cognition
• Memory
• Plannning
• Spatial skills
• .
• Zooming
• Students can easily enlarge the view of the screen
• May be particularly helpful for students struggling with:
• Attention
• Vision
• Visual processing skills
• .