Reading Accommodations, Assistive Technology, and Apps
Dyslexia
A specific learning disability that affects reading and related language-based processing skills. The severity can differ in each individual but can affect reading fluency decoding, reading comprehension, recall, writing, spelling, and sometimes speech and can exist along with other related disorders. Dyslexia is sometimes referred to as a Language-Based Learning Disability.
Signs and Symptoms
Quick simulation-active participation
There are many different kinds of learning disabilities and they can range from mild to severe problems.
Activity 1 gives a general idea what it is like to have to struggle against what your brain may be telling you: Dyslexia can cause a person to see letters switched around when they read (seeing “bule” instead of “blue”, for example).
Activity 2 will give you an idea of what this is like.
Write a number of different sentences backwards on a piece of paper. Giving them very little time, ask different students to read them correctly. Keep interrupting the student by urging them to hurry or tell them “This should be easy for you.”
Example:
Discuss:
What were the difficulties faced in deciphering the sentence?
Did being told to hurry help or make it harder?
What would have helped?
Accommodations - Apps
Provide a peer reader for school materials
Allow the use of a laptop or other computer for in-class essays
A specific learning disability that affects reading and related language-based processing skills. The severity can differ in each individual but can affect reading fluency decoding, reading comprehension, recall, writing, spelling, and sometimes speech and can exist along with other related disorders. Dyslexia is sometimes referred to as a Language-Based Learning Disability.
Signs and Symptoms
- Reads slowly and painfully
- Experiences decoding errors, especially with the order of letters
- Shows wide disparity between listening comprehension and reading comprehension of some text
- Has trouble with spelling
- May have difficulty with handwriting
- Exhibits difficulty recalling known words
- Has difficulty with written language
- May experience difficulty with math computations
- Decoding real words is better than nonsense words
- Substitutes one small sight word for another: a, I, he, the, there, was
Quick simulation-active participation
There are many different kinds of learning disabilities and they can range from mild to severe problems.
Activity 1 gives a general idea what it is like to have to struggle against what your brain may be telling you: Dyslexia can cause a person to see letters switched around when they read (seeing “bule” instead of “blue”, for example).
Activity 2 will give you an idea of what this is like.
Write a number of different sentences backwards on a piece of paper. Giving them very little time, ask different students to read them correctly. Keep interrupting the student by urging them to hurry or tell them “This should be easy for you.”
Example:
Discuss:
What were the difficulties faced in deciphering the sentence?
Did being told to hurry help or make it harder?
What would have helped?
Accommodations - Apps
Provide a peer reader for school materials
- TextGrabber + Translator: OCR recognize, translate and save editable text from any printed material https://appsto.re/us/9JPiA.i
- Prizmo - Scanning, OCR, and Speech https://appsto.re/us/yZm3v.i
- Create a free account at BookShare for students with print disabilities. Pair with: Voice Dream Reader https://appsto.re/us/kiXKD.i
- iBooks
- Evernote Scannablehttps://appsto.re/us/mVQP0.i
- Evernote https://appsto.re/us/m49Yq.i
- Speller - Free https://appsto.re/us/_wsps.i
- Kids Book Report Can be used with speech to text https://appsto.re/us/_Isix.i
Allow the use of a laptop or other computer for in-class essays
- Write to the Core Lite - sentence prompts and paragraph starters for beginning students https://appsto.re/us/XtDT4.i
- Notability https://appsto.re/us/6HJFv.i
- Showbie – Paperless Classroom https://appsto.re/us/Lu4TG.i
- Bitsboard - Education, Games, and Flashcards for Learning Reading, Spelling, and more https://appsto.re/us/IlMZE.i
- Liner - Mobile Web Highlighter & Annotator and Bookmarker for Safari https://appsto.re/us/-XI84.i
- Use accessibility features in the iPad settings to listen to electronic versions of textbooks. Text book makers provide free online textbooks if you register.
- Handwriting Without Tears: Wet-Dry-Try for Capitals, Lowercase and Numbers https://appsto.re/us/0LZjL.i