Looking for Dyslexia Software?
New and emerging technologies are helping students with dyslexia surmount learning obstacles and learn to read and write more easily and with less stress than ever before. These tools include dyslexia software and online applications, which can be used in addition to traditional therapeutic methods to help students stay engaged.
With all of the dyslexia software now available for students, parents, and teachers it would appear to be easy to find the right combination of instruments to help. Instead many parents and teachers find themselves overwhelmed trying to keep track of the available options.
Understanding dyslexia software is not difficult, but it’s important to become aware of the types of software available before choosing. From text-to-speech to word processors, these tools are the most common and easily accessible types of software available to dyslexic students today:
Text-to-speech:
This type of software for dyslexia reads back text using a computer generated voice and is especially helpful for dyslexics who have difficulty reading, focusing while reading, or are looking for direct feedback. Helpful features to look for in text-to-speech software include highlighting capabilities, local dialects or accents, spellchecker, and the potential to use on multiple devices. There are many text-to-speech programs currently available on the market and different programs may be helpful for different students.
Note-taking and speech-recognition:
Students with learning disabilities may have a hard time keeping up with note taking or even later on recognizing their handwriting. Tools such as the Livescribe smartpen allow student to record lectures, take pictures of all written notes during the lecture, and upload finished notes to a computer afterwards. In addition, speech-recognition aids such as Naturally Speaking for PC and Dragon Dictate for Mac allow users to dictate text directly to a computer.
Phonics and reading software:
A student who is just learning to read will get great assistance from phonics software such as Earobics. This type of reading software helps teach students basic phonics, from speech sounds all the way up to vocabulary and sentence-building. The programs are also highly customizable and suitable for a wide range of ages.
Spelling and writing software:
Word processing tools such as Franklin handheld devices and text editing software allows students to check their own writing for spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes. Many of these applications come with a built-in dictionary and thesaurus, while more sophisticated programs come with their own text-to-speech and note-taking abilities. Fonts 4 Dyslexia has created a fantastic toolkit to alleviate dyslexia in just months. See it here.
What is your favorite dyslexia software?
A simple program to make your own poster!
PosteRazor is a software that easily helps you make your own posters at school and at home. All that you need is a picture, the PosteRazor and a standard color printer.
Why is a poster so appealing? Maybe it’s because a poster is more than a photo. It is something that captures life in greater width and height. That’s why posters also easily become keepsakes.
The PosteRazor cuts an image or a picture into pieces which can afterwards be printed out and assembled to a poster. The resulting poster is saved as a multipage PDF document.
