Regarding the recommendation of Sat nav, I have assessed a student for the
DSA who had a diagnosis of dyscalculia, not dyslexia,  for whom a
recommendation of a sat nav system was made and successfully supplied by the
LEA.

She was in her second year of a social work course and was required to visit
clients in their home. she experienced severe difficulties with direction,
spatial awareness, time/distance relationships all of which was evidenced in
the Ed Psy report.she also had Merles/Irlen syndrome and wore green tinted
glasses as well as having diabetes.
she was obliged to have her tutor travel with her as she had not been able
to carry out her placement activities without him  in the car to direct her.
she requested a satnav system and we investigated all the options.

After careful consideration of all the evidence, in particular the scores
for perceptual organisation (which was very low) and working memory( which
was in line with her verbal comprehension index score, not atypical of
people with dyslexia) ,it was thought that she could cope with the task of
driving a car whilst using a Sat nav and it would not overload her.  Apart
from the test results both the Ed Psy and the student specifically stated
that map reading was an area of notable difficulty.
Considering the extensive hours she was required to complete visiting
clients as part of her course the recommendation was made to the LEA and
they approved it.

However this recommendation was based on a diagnosis of dyscalculia, not
dyslexia, and a rigorous analysis of the ed psy report, the course and the
student's comments,
Sue McKenna
CELT, University of Southampton
New College, The Avenue,
Southampton SO17 1BG
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Tel: 0787 6277507
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