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Bookshare: A Free Resource for Kids with Dyslexia

Sunday, December 4th, 2011

If your child struggles with reading, you must check out Bookshare, the free service that provides electronic audible versions of books to students with reading disabilities and vision problems.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, this member-based service turns traditional books from print into speech allowing children to access the content via listening. In addition, Bookshare can reformat text to increase the font size and adjust spacing for easier reading.

In an article appearing in the Nov 1 online edition of Education Week, Bookshares’s V.P. of Literacy and General Manager, Betsy Beaumon, explained that the 10-year-old service has agreements with approximately 160 publishers. “We get an electronic feed from our publishers the same time a book is hitting Amazon, the same time it’s hitting iTunes.”

In addition to receiving books from their stable of publishers, Bookshare also gets electronic copies of textbooks from the National Instructional Materials Access Center, a federal repository created under special education law. To date the company has more than 125,000 titles and is open to suggestions for others

To learn more about Bookshare go to http://www.bookshare.org.

Posted in AT Bytes, Hot Topics, Resources | 3 Comments »

There’s an App for Your Child with LD

Friday, June 17th, 2011

by Shelley Lacey-Castelot, ATACP, M.S.

Kids with dyslexia and other learning disabilities are finding that the iPad helps level the academic playing field. Below is a list of iPad apps that students find most helpful. While the list is not comprehensive—and new apps are introduced daily—it’s a starting point for young iPad users that are struggling with schoolwork.

Books

Free Books

23,469 free classic books can be downloaded and read with the app’s e-reader.

Short Stories e-reader

Download modern and classic short stories and read them on your iPad and/or iPhone. Adjust text size, font, background colors. Browse by genre, author, rating, age rating, length and more. No e-reader included; need to use Voice-Over.

ICDL

Free books for children. The International Children’s Digital Library brings a worldwide collection of children’s books to the iPad. All books have summaries in English. No e-reader included; need to use Voice-Over.

Reading

Blio

An electronic e-reader that allows any book to be read to you, with Blio highlighting each word as it goes. You can look up words or get more information on a topic by searching Google, Bing, and more without ever leaving your book.

Read2me

Imports your own text file (even from the web) into the iPod or iPad, and reads the text aloud. Helpful for students who are weak readers but can understand the meaning of text through listening.

Read2Go

Coming soon from Bookshare, the most full-featured, accessible DAISY reader for Apple devices. This easy-to-use app connects to Bookshare for immediate, on-the-go reading. Individuals and schools supporting students can search, download, and read Bookshare books and periodicals, and manage their books in a bookshelf. Read2Go reads DAISY 2.02 and 3.0 materials.

Reading — Phonics

Word Families

Uses rhyme patterns in word families to help students learn to decode and spell. Good for supplemental practice.

WordFamilies

More advanced rhyme patterns than in Word Families (above).

Reading — Text to Speech

Speak It!

Paste text into the app’s window to have it read to you; high quality voice.

ReadToMe

Import documents, HTML files and have the app read the text to you, line by line (but no word by word highlighting). Four voices to choose from, all good quality.

TalkToMe

Paste text into the app’s window to have it read to you; high quality voice.

Math

Freddy Fraction

Use Freddy, an alien, to determine the equivalence among fractions, decimals and percents.

Algebra Pro (iPad only)

Interactive workbook with over 100 practice questions and instant “show me” lessons.

Math — Calculators

MyCalculator Pro

Graphic calculator in 2D and 3D with one-touch graphing and memory to store and recall answers.

NoteCalc

Shows complete calculation formula as you would write it.

Math – Money Skills and Telling Time

Coin Math

Helps with identifying and counting coins, and making change. It can also be used to learn or reinforce counting by 5s, 10s and 25s. Varying levels of difficulty.

Make Change – Counting Coins

Uses realistic coins to make change and solve making-change problems.

Telling time HD

App includes activities and a chance to win virtual prizes. Move clock hands anywhere to hear time spoken. Solve time-change problems, and see times on digital & analog clocks.

Writing — Dictation — Handwriting

Dragon Dictation

Speech recognition that allows you to see and edit your text to share on clipboard, SMS, and email.

Writing — Graphic Organizers

iThoughts

Can import from and export to MindManager and other desktop graphic organizers. Best for semantic mapping.

MindJet

Works with iThoughts or MindManager for Mac and Windows, so work can continue there.

Note-taking

Notability

Note-taker that captures everything. Type notes, add pictures, draw figures, insert web clips, make audio recordings, organize notes by subjects, backup to Cloud, and share notes with others.

SoundNote

Take notes in meetings, lectures, and interviews. It tracks what you type and draw while recording audio. During playback, just tap a word and SoundNote will jump to the proper time in the audio. Share text, drawings, and audio notes via email, or transfer them to your computer.

Synchronize Documents and Files On-the Go

DocsToGo (Documents To Go)

Edit, create and view Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and iWork files. Carry documents with you and edit and/or create; then save to the Cloud or transfer to your computer via iTunes.

DropBox

Access to DropBox, a free service that allows access to files from anywhere. After installation, any file saved to your DropBox folder will automatically sync with your iPad.

Organization and Homework Organizer

MyHomework – good

Effective for students who need to keep better track of homework.

iHomework (requires OS 10.5 on Mac)

Keep up-to-date with school work, grades, to-do’s, teacher’s information and other information in this school organizer. Can set alarms for assignments/tests.

iStudiez Pro – better

A sophisticated planner that organizes your schedule and assignments.

Reminders — Calendar

TextMinder

Schedule SMS text reminders to be sent to you at the times you specify, repeating as often as you choose.

VoCal

A voice calendar reminder app that offers repeats, choice of alert tones, and voice reminders. Instead of typing into your device, record a voice message and have it alert you at the right time.

Study Help

Stacks Pro

Make your own study note cards, import flashcards from other websites and applications, and copy and paste flashcards from Excel, Word and Text Files.

Science & Geography

A Life Cycle App

Interactive and narrated information on 10 lifecycles.

Planets

Touch the planets to learn more about them, spin them and zoom in. Also a popular fidget tool.

United States Map Game

Learn the names and locations of the 50 states with this interactive map quiz.

Research — News

Dragon Search

Speech recognition used to search on Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, iTunes, and Twitter.

Print from iPad

HPiPrint

Capture and edit photos, then print to HP e-printers over wifi. Also print documents and other files. Works well.

Print n Share

Print to all printers over wifi or remotely over 3G.

Scan and Read

Prizmo

Take a picture of text and the app converts it to readable text for the e-reader. Continuing development will improve accuracy.

Posted in AT Bytes, School Wise | 13 Comments »

Assistive Technology: Low-Tech Has Its Place

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

When we hear the term Assistive Technology (AT), we likely imagine kids with LD (and other disabilities) mastering previously challenging assignments with the help of the latest and greatest in high-tech gadgetry.

In fact, we may be doing our children a disservice by thinking of AT in such narrow terms. As defined by the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, AT is “any item, piece of equipment, or product that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.”


Yes, that means a yellow highlighter is AT—and it may be just the item your child needs to help her organize the information that will be on her history test next week.


Choosing appropriate AT solutions—whether high tech or low tech—depends on a number of factors: What is impeding success? How is it getting in the way? And how can a student best compensate are the first questions to consider. Other factors might include level of fatigue, strain, physical limitations, and how long it would take to complete work (e.g., to write a paper) without the use of technology.

If your child has language learning disabilities, read High Tech Help for Reading and Writing, but don’t dismiss these low-tech suggestions entirely. Alone or combined with high-tech solutions, these may help your child gain access to appropriate grade-level curriculum. Whether low-tech or high-tech, AT enables students to perform at a higher level than would be possible without the technology.


Low-Tech Help for Reading

  • Tachistoscopes (e.g., an index card with a cut-out showing a few words)
  • Highlighters
  • Colored overlays
  • Changes in lighting
  • Highlighting tapes
  • Dictionary pens
  • Audio tapes and CDs.


Low-Tech Help for Writing

  • Slant boards
  • Pencil grips
  • Adapted paper (e.g., colored, raised line, and with portions highlighted)
  • Word banks
  • Dictionaries/thesauruses,
  • Alternative keyboards,
  • Tape/digital recorders,
  • Spelling devices, and even computers with word processing software.

Posted in AT Bytes, School Wise | No Comments »