Colleagues,
This discussion focuses on digital assistive and universal design technologies for those with reading and writing disabilities. I have been interested in the topic for some time, but both the recent Defining Reading discussion on LINCS, in which some believe our definition of reading needs to be broadened to include getting meaning from text using technology, and this Wired article by writer Lisa Wood Shapiro, The End of Dyslexia, have prompted me to post the topic now.
In the article, Shapiro talks about her experiences as a writer who is also dyslexic and what has enabled her to have a writing career. The answer, in a word, is "technology." She has included a short video with the article that covers some of what she has written about, and that might be a good way of introducing her story to adult learners who may not be able to easily read her article. Including the video, incidentally, is a great example of universal design. I watched it after reading the article, and it reinforced what I had read and also gave me more visual information about the environments she had described in words. Someone else might watch it to get meaning they could not get by reading it in traditional ways. In an early part of the article she writes about her liberating experience with grammarly, a free spell checking and grammar checking software that I am familiar with, but not in the way that dyslexic adults have used it.
I am interested, and I hope you are, too, in learning about other assistive or universal design technologies that have enabled adults with reading or writing disabilities to read and communicate in writing.
Please share examples of software you have used yourself as an adult learner or teacher of adults with reading or writing disabilities, that you believe have been helpful. If you read about these and have questions, ask them, and I hope whoever has posted information, or someone with Internet search skills and a little time, might answer your questions.
I am posting this to several LINCS groups because, if the discussion proceeds, it could be useful to others who are not working primarily with people who have reading and writing disabilities, but who may have some students who could benefit.
David J. Rosen, Moderator
LINCS CoP Integrating Technology group
Comments
A new study shows that for English reading learners any kind of phonics lessons is better than none. http://bit.ly/2K64uB6 Phonetic awareness is critical. I claim that truespel phonetics is actually simpler and better than phonics. https://justpaste.it/truespeleasy Truespel is based on phonics but with only one spelling per sound. It can be learned in an hour by literates with fluency in a few hours. It's free with tutorials and converter at http://truespel.com Phonetics isn't difficult anymore.
Thanks for sharing this article. Please note that the article is talking about children, not adults. Phonics is not appropriate for low-level adult ESL. The underlying principle is that students 1) have phonemic awareness in the target language (not true for most adult ELLs) and 2) have a vocabulary to associate the words with (not true of literacy level and low-beginning adult ELLs).
This is one of my pet peeves in adult education, by the way. I see a lot of really good K-5 ESL teachers come to adult ESL and try to employ phonics with adult learners, which only frustrates the learners and fails to help them develop the ability to discriminate between sounds in English that may be allophones, or non-existent, in their native language.
As far as Truespel, I don't really have an opinion. I have my own system for helping learners start to identify sounds. I typically use a simple version of IPA since that is what many of the international dictionaries (in print and online) use. I think that is more useful since it is an internationally-agreed-upon system.
Thanks,
Glenda
Colleagues,
To clarify for those who read these posts in their email and not as part of a discussion thread on a LINCS community webpage, I believe the article you are referring to, Glenda, is the one cited by Thomas Zurinskas in his posted comment, not the article I cited in the original post. Thanks Thomas and Glenda for your posted comments.
Everyone, I am interested in learning about other assistive or universal design technologies that have enabled adults with reading or writing disabilities to read and communicate in writing. I am especially interested in text-to-speech software that enables adults to get meaning by auding digital text, or to improve their traditional reading skills, for example by being able to click on a word and hear its pronunciation or get a definition.
Please share examples that you believe have been helpful of software you have used as an adult learner, or as teacher of adults with reading or writing disabilities.
Thanks,
David J. Rosen, Moderator
LINCS CoP Integrating Technology group
David et al, I have a condition whose treatment requires that I lose my voice for a few weeks in the year. Since I develop a great deal of curriculum for low-level readers, I often like to match sound clips to content. In order to do that when I am without a voice, I have used Natural Reader, an application that can be downloaded or used online. The free version has limited choices on male and female voices. The paid version, which I use, adds a number of additional voices both in US and UK accents. I can also determine how fast and how slow I want the text read. Sometimes I offer both choices. Yes, the voices are more mechanical than natural voices, but for grasping meaning, they do just fine. Of course, I have found that sometimes I have to "unspell" a word so that the reader will get the correct pronunciation, but it's worth the effort to edit!
If you want a sample of this app, you can access two units that I created many years ago using it: Handling Money and Culture Units. They are written at about the 4th-5th-grade reading level. By request, they targeted beginning readers in a Native American tribe in my area. BTW, although many adult Native Americans in more economically-challenge tribes speak English with a native English accent, their vocabulary often consists of very few words compared to other adult native speakers. Someone in this area claimed 600 words as their "repository." NOTE: I distributed this particular content in PDF files. If you click on the online version, the sounds won't open. You must download the file and open it offline for the sound clips to work. (I was experimenting with Acrobat at the time!)
I also use Voki, which allows you to create cartoon characters that talk. You can record the speech or have the application read it. You can then share the clips in many forms, including email. For a couple of simple samples, check out "Marisela, an ESL Student," and "Voki for Reading and Writing Dog."
All to say that we don't often discuss the challenges faced by people who can't talk or talk well enough to be understood. We need to consider that speech is a preferred communication vehicle, which many people with disabilities can't enjoy! Leecy
Thanks, Denis, for this description of various kinds of reading and learning disabilities. You wrote, "Another type of cognitive limitation leading to difficulty with reading is 'specific learning disorder'. While there are now somewhat more specific definitions of specific learning disorder, the translation of them boils down to the person has difficulty with some specific aspect of learning, and we don't know why." I have heard the term "specific reading disabilities," generally associated with dyslexia. Is this another name for these learning disorders, or are they different? Also, what specific reading disabilities are there besides dyslexia? Finally, are there useful technologies to help people with these specific reading disabilities to get meaning from text?
Thanks,
David J. Rosen
Hi, Denis -
Thanks for your post. I was struck by your comment that “it is arguable the dyselexia is part of the autism spectrum disorder”. I’ve never heard this before, and would be curious to read more about what those in the field are saying in support of this theory. Can you point us in the direction of any of the research being done to support this claim?
Best,
Mike Cruse
Denis, thanks for your fascinating exploration of how different conditions require different types of technology and approaches to meet reading needs.I really appreciate your description of "voice catching." I will be exploring the process using AAC devices with great interest! If you have specific links to share on that approach, I will be even more obliged! Leecy
I teach literacy adult education. My students range from 0.5 - 3.5 grade levels. Two of them are non readers. I am using Reading Horizon program. It teaches phonics, phonetic rules, and decoding rules in a non-juvenile way. All my students have made gains in reading. I feel it helps fill the gaps in decoding words which make it harder for the adult reader to comprehend materials. If they cannot read the material fluently, they cannot comprehend. With the tools to "figure out" words as they read, they can retain the context meaning better.
Thanks, Glenda, for your words of caution regarding phonics instruction and English learners. While for many years we had virtually no research on addressing the needs of adult language learners with no or limited formal schooling, the LESLLA (the acronym now refers to Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults) has been conducting research and holding annual meetings for many years, so our understanding of how to address the needs of this unique population is increasing. The link I've included above takes you to the teacher resource page on the website.
This is a side issue in this thread, but definitely a worthwhile conversation to have in the Reading and Writing group as well as the English Language Acquisition community on LINCS. I'll begin a thread there.
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP
I agree whole-heartedly that we should not uncritically apply phonics-based approaches used with children to the teaching of adult ESL learners. However, that needn't mean that phonics is never appropriate for low-level adult ESL. I had been meaning to reply to this for a few days but Susan Finn-Miller has beaten me to it and added a new thread on it elsewhere, so I might try to add something there when I have time :-)
We'll look forward to hearing from you, Jo!
Cheers, Susan
Jo, I've added a couple of responses in Teaching Phonics to Adult ELs discussion. I certainly agree that children and adults need different materials through which to acquire phonics or anything else, but in my experience, adult ELLs who don't read in their native languages will all benefit from phonics instruction in a balanced reading program, as I noted in that forum. "Different strokes for different folks," no doubt, as long as everyone is stoked! :) I would love to hear the reasoning for opposing views by others. Leecy
David, Thank you for posting this utterly fascinating article. I have little knowledge about dyslexia and the brain, so it was so encouraging to learn that brain science in combination with innovative technologies has real solutions to this problem.
It would be great to hear from members who have struggled with dyslexia themselves as well as teachers who work with learners with this challenge.
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, Teaching & Learning CoP