Tuesday, August 25, 2009

To Learningdisabilities@nifl.gov April 29th, 2009

This might help, from one dyslexic to those who also have the gift of dyslexia.

This suggestion was posted a while back but with the inmates you have it may be a great reward system as they learn to read and hear and see words for the first time.

Three programs which have enabled me are www.readplease.com, www.rfbd.org and www.bookshare.org . Bookshare for the student and adult population is an excellent resource, you must qualify with a print disability in order to become a member. Newspapers from all over the country are available and Bookshare provide two text to speech software programs, Victor Soft reader and a Beta for Bookshare made by Read:Outloud.

Being able to read the newspaper is a character builder, this may help your students feel they are a part of the world outside because they have read it with text to speech. So it would be a simple clip and paste or have Read:Outloud read it to them. When I read I have to follow along for 90%+ comprehension, this in turn has improved my spelling by 60% to 70%, because I have a photographic memory, but also it is because I keep hearing and seeing the words over and over, so it is imprinted in my mind's eye.

Readplease enables the student to proofread their letters home or to a loved one and then they can also read letters if you have an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) program. Most recent printers to have the software embedded in the programs offered at the time of purchase.

Once I was lost now I am found, once was blind to the written word, now I read.

Tools to build your students confidence.

No comments:

Post a Comment