Using Dictation in KG

I recently explored the features of speech to text with Siri in 2 kindergarten classes. It seemed like an easy way to get students to write more.  They speak, siri listens, words appear on their page.  I talked with the first teacher and we decided they could recreate some of their Thanksgiving "thankful" sentences.  The students knew what they were thankful for, they could simply say "I am thankful for friends" or "school" or "candy".  Whatever they wanted to be thankful for was fine with me.  In the end, they had a lot of problems.  To begin, I assumed they were mechanical problems, i.e. they didn't speak into the mic, or they didn't start the recording.

However, as time went on and I moved into a 2nd class to do a similar activity, I was more explicit in my instructions and found they still had difficulties.  Which led me to theorize that they probably aren't ready to use the dictation feature.

The speech milestones for a developing child (according to Sander) are listed below:

Age Level

http://www.merrittspeech.com/newsite/index.php/services/early-intervention-for-the-young

Speech patterns and ability are still relatively new in the KG student.  I obviously don't have the expertise nor background to explain how all this works, but suffice to say when I heard a student say "I like Fwozen." and it translating to "I like closing."  It seemed to indicate a readiness that we don't have in KG for dictation.