Tag:

dyslexia

Digital Tools for Dyslexic Students

by Diana Benner August 28, 2023

written by Diana Benner

Dyslexia is a learning disorder affecting a person’s reading, writing, and spelling ability. There are many ways teachers can support dyslexic students, including allowing them to use digital tools. Many digital tools and assistive technologies have emerged, making it easier than ever for dyslexic students to succeed in school.

Let’s look at some of the most effective digital tools tailored for dyslexic students.

1. Text-to-Speech Tools

Natural Reader is a text-to-speech tool that can convert any written text, such as MS Word, a website, PDF files, and emails, into spoken words. It offers a range of natural-sounding voices, allowing dyslexic students to listen to content rather than solely relying on reading.

Image of ReachDeck's homepage showing the ReachDeck toolbar for accessibility.

ReachDeck Toolbar is a web page navigation software available for most versions of Windows that is designed to help those with dyslexia and second-language learners browse the internet. The software strips the web page down to its essential text so the user can focus on the text alone. Its text-to-speech feature also comes with a magnifying glass icon that follows the text as it is read aloud.

For more text-to-speech tools, check out this blog post.

2. Speech-to-Text Tools

Google Docs has a feature called “voice typing.” To use voice typing, your computer microphone needs to be on and working. Open a document in Google Docs. Click Tools and then Voice typing. A microphone box appears. When you’re ready to speak, click the microphone.

Image of Speechnotes home page explaining this to be a speech-to-text, voice typing, and transcription digital accessibility tool.

Speechnotes is a web-based speech-to-text tool that allows students to quickly dictate their notes instead of typing them. This will save them time and effort. Some additional features of the tool include transcribing and adding punctuation.

3. Dyslexia-friendly Fonts

OpenDyslexic for Chrome is a chrome extension that overrides all fonts on web pages with the OpenDyslexic font. It formats pages to make them more readable. It was created to increase readability for students with dyslexia.

BeeLine Reader is a tool that uses color gradients to guide the student’s eyes from one line to the next. This can help with reading speed and comprehension. BeeLine Reader also includes a setting option for an Open Dyslexic Font, allowing students with dyslexia to read in an adjusted font.

4. Mind Mapping Tools

Image of MindMeister's home page explaining this to be a collaborative mind mapping tool.

MindMeister is an online tool that enables collaborative mind mapping. It’s excellent for group projects or brainstorming sessions. For dyslexic students, visualizing information can be an effective way of understanding and retaining what they are learning.

Google Drawings is one of my favorite tools. It’s so easy to create a mind map in Google Drawing. Google Drawing allows you to draw shapes, write text, and then connect them. You can add color, images, and even share your mindmap.

5. Audio Books & Bookshare Services

Bookshare is a site that offers text-to-speech audiobooks for students with dyslexia. Students can listen to books, follow along with highlighting, read in braille or large font, and customize their reading experience.

Learning Ally is an excellent resource. It offers text-to-speech audiobooks for students with dyslexia. It offers a plethora of educational texts and literature.

6. Note-taking Apps with Audio Integration

OneNote with Learning Tools offers an ‘Immersive Reader’ mode, which reads out text and highlights it simultaneously, aiding comprehension.

Notability is an app that is beneficial for iPad users. Students can take notes, annotate PDFs, and even record lectures for playback.

These tools can not only offer support for dyslexic students, but they can also help instill a love for learning. Accessibility tools help every student be successful in the classroom. Remember, the effectiveness of these tools may vary from person to person. Therefore, finding which ones work best for each student is essential.

August 28, 2023 0 comment

Accessibility

Six Ways Teachers Can Support Dyslexic Students

by Diana Benner July 31, 2023

written by Diana Benner

There are many ways in which teachers can support dyslexic students. Dyslexia is a learning disorder that affects a person’s ability to read, write, and spell. Many students with dyslexia face challenges in reading, spelling, writing, and pronouncing words. They often struggle with processing and understanding written text as the brain’s neural pathways for language processing function differently for them. Let’s look at how teachers can support dyslexic learners.

1. Provide Clear and Concise Instructions

Students with dyslexia often have difficulty processing written language, which can make it difficult for them to follow directions. Therefore, they often need clear and concise instructions in order to understand what is expected of them. It’s important to use simple language and avoid using jargon or complex language that the students might not understand. In addition, it’s important to be specific with your directions. Let students know exactly what you want them to do. Lastly, you’ll want to check for understanding. After giving the instructions, you might ask the students to repeat them back to you. This way you know they understand what they are supposed to do.

2. Break Down Tasks into Smaller Steps

Dyslexic students may have difficulty understanding and completing complex tasks. They might not understand the overall task or may have difficulty remembering the steps of a task. Therefore, it’s important to break tasks down into smaller steps. Start by identifying the overall task and then break the task down into individual steps. Each step should be clear and specific. You might even want to create a visual aid to help students stay on track and remember the steps. In addition, breaking down tasks into smaller steps will help students from getting overwhelmed.

3. Provide Multisensory Instruction

Multisensory instruction is an educational approach that engages more than one sense at a time, such as sight, hearing, movement, and touch. This method helps students, particularly those with dyslexia, connect and understand concepts more effectively. Multisensory techniques aim at providing a variety of ways for learners to access, engage, and retain knowledge. For example, teachers can use visual aids, such as colored overlays or background colors to help students while they read. Another example includes having students listen to audio recordings or verbal instructions in order to help students process the information being given.

4. Utilize Assistive Technology

Assistive technology can be a valuable tool for helping dyslexic students succeed in school. It can provide dyslexic students with many benefits such as accessing information that would otherwise be difficult or impossible for them to read or understand. For example, text-to-speech tools can help read text aloud. This is very important for students who are struggling to read. It will help them stay focused and keep them from getting overwhelmed.

Some other examples of assistive technology that can be helpful for dyslexic students include tools for word prediction, speech-to-text, dictation, magnification, note-taking, and color coding. However, it’s important to remember the individual student’s needs and preferences when choosing a tool. In addition, you will want to collaborate with others at your school, such as those that work in the special education department and/or instructional technology department.

5. Provide Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is a powerful tool that can help dyslexic students stay motivated and engaged in learning. When students are rewarded for their efforts, they are more likely to continue working hard and trying new things. In fact, dyslexic students may need more encouragement than other students. It is important to provide positive reinforcement for their efforts, even if they do not always achieve perfect scores. This will help them stay motivated so they can continue to learn. In addition, the positive atmosphere will help them feel more comfortable asking for help and seeking support.

6. Work with Parents and Guardians

Maintain open lines of communication with parents or guardians. When students know that the teacher and the parents are working together, they are more likely to feel supported and understood. Let the parents know that you are interested in working with them and that you value their input. If parents have concerns about their child’s dyslexia, take the time to listen to them. Be patient and understanding and offer support and encouragement.

There are many ways we can support and encourage students who are dyslexic. By utilizing some of these tips, you can help your dyslexic students succeed in school.

July 31, 2023 0 comment

Special Needs

Supporting Students with Learning Disabilities

by Andrew Roush April 21, 2021

written by Andrew Roush

Learning how to support students with learning disabilities is a central skill for all educators. Very few teachers will go through their career without being responsible for the education of at least a few students with learning differences or disabilities.

The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics reports that 14 percent of American students, or about one in seven, have some form of learning disability. That number more than doubles for students receiving special education services.

How do we create learning environments that are responsive to the needs of these students? Let’s explore the research and some compelling ideas on the topic.

Understanding Learning Disabilities

The term “learning disabilities” includes several specific conditions that can negatively affect learning. These include:

Dyscalculia: Which “affects a person’s ability to understand numbers and learn math facts.”
Dysgraphia: A condition that affects “a person’s handwriting ability and fine motor skills.”
Dyslexia: Perhaps the most commonly-known condition, affecting “reading and related language-based processing skills.”
Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities: These students may have “trouble interpreting nonverbal cues like facial expressions or body language and may have poor coordination.”
Oral / Written Language Disorder and Specific Reading Comprehension Deficit: A set of conditions which can “affect an individual’s understanding of what they read or of spoken language.”

Related disorders may also include ADHD, dyspraxia, and issues with executive functioning.

In addition to defining learning disabilities, that is, what they are, it’s also important to note what they are not. Learning disabilities are an intentionally separate category from mental and physical handicaps or disabilities.

According to the Learning Disabilities Association of America, learning disabilities don’t include a number of conditions and constraints that may also affect learning.

Learning disabilities should not be confused with learning problems which are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor handicaps; of intellectual disability; of emotional disturbance; or of environmental, cultural or economic disadvantages.
LDA. “Types of Learning Disabilities“

Resources for Support

Guiding students with learning disabilities may be a challenge, but best practices can help each educator in their quest to support every student, regardless of their physical, intellectual, or learning disabilities.

Distance Learning

In episode 45 of TCEA’s Ed Tech Club podcast, we spoke with Meghan Whittaker of the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD). She shared NCLD’s insights and data regarding the effectiveness of remote learning during COVID-19 for students with learning disabilities. You can hear our conversation below.

Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen.

Whittaker also shared NCLD’s newly created toolkit for remote teaching and learning disabilities in episode 79. Listen below, and check out the toolkit here.

Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen.

Racial Disparities

In episode 58, we talked about NCLD’s data regarding disproportionate effects across racial groups. You can see the Center’s report here, learning disabilities checklist here, and listen to the podcast below to go in depth.

Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen.

More Resources on Learning Disabilities from TechNotes

Photo by Pragyan Bezbaruah from Pexels

April 21, 2021 0 comment

Good Teaching Special Needs

Multi-Sensory Literacy Activities

by Andrew Roush April 9, 2021

written by Andrew Roush

This post is part of a series celebrating National Library Week. Learn more about NLW events, activities, and resources here.

The idea behind multi-sensory learning is fairly simple. These learning/teaching techniques allow students to use multiple senses, not just sight and sound, to convey knowledge. This can have obvious benefits for students with learning disabilities and special needs. In particular, multi-sensory literacy approaches can help many students improve reading and writing skills.

Let’s look into multi-sensory teaching and learning, and check out some suggestions and activities that can boost language learning in your school or classroom.

Defining Multi-Sensory Learning

In a world that has connected digitally for so long, we can sometimes need a reminder that human minds are built to exist in a physical environment. For many learners, finding ways to engage the senses of touch, and even smell and taste, can bolster learning.

The approach involves consciously including sensory ways to engage learners.

For example, let’s say a class is studying apples. Kids might have the chance to visually examine, touch, smell, and taste apples — instead of just reading and listening to their teacher speak about how they grow. Then they might hold a halved apple and count the number of seeds inside, one by one.
That’s multisensory teaching. It conveys information through things like touch and movement — called tactile and kinesthetic elements — as well as sight and hearing.
Amanda Morin. “Multisensory instruction: What you need to know.” Understood.org

The idea has been discussed and practiced since at least the 1930s, and studies suggest that this practice works well with how human brains are wired to process information.

These results indicate that multisensory training promotes more effective learning of the information than unisensory training. Although these findings span a large range of processing levels and might be mediated by different mechanisms, it nonetheless seems that the multisensory benefit to learning is an overarching phenomenon.
Shams L, Seitz AR. Benefits of multisensory learning. Trends Cogn Sci. 2008 Nov;12(11):411-7. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2008.07.006. PMID: 18805039.

Further, these practices are endorsed by groups like International Dyslexia Association (IDA) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD), and can be used in particular to teaching reading and literacy.

Multi-Sensory Literacy Techniques and Strategies

Here are a few suggestions and ideas for putting multi-sensory learning into practice.

Understood.org, a nonprofit focused on students with learning disabilities, recommends these eight multi-sensory activities for teaching literacy:

Sand or shaving cream writing
Air writing (or “sky writing”)
Sandpaper letters
Word building (color-coded tiles or letters)
A “Read it, build it, write it” mat
“Tapping out” sounds
“Story sticks” (color-coded popsicle sticks)
Shared reading

The Literacy Nest suggests the use of phonogram cards to help students’ literacy skills, as well as several other activities and practices.

Activities and Classroom Approaches

The Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE) recommends “Blending Board” activities in addition to those recommended by Understood.org, as well as links to other resources.

Creators of the Touch-type Read & Spell course outline the background behind the multi-sensory approach to reading and provide three reading-and-writing strategies here.

The Center for Effective Reading Instruction and International Dyslexia Association also promote a multi-sensory approach specifically for phonics instruction.

You can find an in-depth exploration of the multi-sensory approach, as well as several literacy activities, in this document from the Minnesota Literacy Council (PDF).

Do you use multi-sensory techniques to teach reading, writing, and literacy? Share your experiences in the comments!

Photo by Tatiana Syrikova from Pexels

April 9, 2021 0 comment

Content Areas Special Needs

What You Might Not Know About Comic Sans

by Andrew Roush July 8, 2020

written by Andrew Roush

Comic Sans is a controversial typeface. You may recognize the hand drawn-looking letters, perhaps you’ve even used them. In fact, the font is commonly used by teachers. But it’s also been lambasted, mocked, and outright hated. So what makes this common font so interesting — and what might you not know about these buzzed-about bubble letters?

A Font of Creativity

Comic Sans was designed by Vincent Connare in 1994 while he was a typographic engineer at Microsoft. The font was packaged with Microsoft programs and operating systems. Connare felt the typeface used in developing the early Microsoft Bob system, Times New Roman, was a little too boring, and wanted something friendlier, making the user interface more approachable to students and people not used to working on computers.

Connare was a fan of the graphic novel, and was inspired by the speech bubbles to create something simple and rounded, letters that might have been created by cutting with blunt scissors (the truth is he used a popular font-making software package).
“What’s so wrong with Comic Sans?” BBC

Though it didn’t fit into the grids of early Microsoft systems, it eventually found its way into Microsoft Movie Maker and Windows 95. From there, its popularity — and infamy — grew.

Comic Sans

Comics Sans in Education and Beyond

From the beginning, Comic Sans, inspired by comic books, was designed to be used for children. “My original idea was it was going to be used for kids. It wasn’t made for everybody to like it,” Connare told LiveScience in 2019.

Connare himself believes the typeface was quickly adopted in the 1990s because people were, for the first time, able to pick what their documents looked like, and gravitated to fun and unique fonts, as they “were picking crazy things because they could do anything.” Teachers began using computers and printouts heavily in the 1990s, and it’s little surprise that educators, armed with new PCs that allowed them to make their own handouts, chose to use the playful, childlike look of Comic Sans.

When people ask him at dinner parties what he does, he tells them he designs type. ‘You might have heard of Comic Sans,’ he suggests. And everybody says yes.
“What’s so wrong with Comic Sans?” BBC

But popularity often comes with a backlash. Perceived as a silly or unserious font, its ubiquity quickly became the source of ridicule, especially when used in somber circumstances like memorials and letters.

Defenders have come to the font’s aid over the years, even launching a “Comic Sans Day” on the first Friday of July. In 2017, Connare summed up the polarizing effect of the font, one he admitted to The Guardian that he’s only used once.

“The basic theory is that typography should not shout — but Comic Sans shouts,” he said.

Potential Hidden Benefits

While Comic Sans is an obvious choice for young learners, recent arguments suggest that it might also have hidden benefits. The wide-set, uniquely-shaped letters may assist dyslexic people in reading. According to the British Dyslexia Association, “sans serif fonts, such as Arial and Comic Sans,” are best for dyslexic workers. In 2016, AIGA, an association of designers, claimed that Comic Sans “might just be the best font for people with dyslexia.”

Further, Comic Sans may be useful for the youngest learners, as it’s one of few fonts that style the lowercase letter “a” in the manner that most people write it.

The evidence of Comic Sans effectiveness, however, is scant, mostly because very little research has been done, and what has been done may depend on the expertise or research focus of the researcher (think design expert versus a language expert). In 2018, Jon Severs, editor for the educational company Tes put it this way:

Comic Sans use should not be justified by claims of increased readability or benefits to dyslexic students or indeed for handwriting, but if you just like it, and your pupils like it, there is no good reason you should not use it.
“Does Comic Sans help dyslexic learners?” Jon Severs, Tes blog

For those looking for typeface custom-made for dyslexic learners, check out Dyslexie and Open Dyslexic.

Photo via PickPik

July 8, 2020 1 comment

English Language Arts Special Needs Writing

Assistive Writing Features in Google Docs

by Diana Benner July 7, 2020

written by Diana Benner

Did you know that Google Docs contains assistive writing features? Writing can be a complex task for all students, and particularly for students with learning disabilities. The Google Docs assistive writing features will assist students to write more quickly and efficiently. Check out the features below and see how they can help your students.

Autocorrect

Autocorrect will automatically correct misspelled words as you continue to type. If you have a misspelled word, you will notice that it will briefly contain a grey dashed underline. The dashed line will disappear once autocorrect fixes the spelling. The autocorrect feature can be found by going to your Google Doc and clicking on Tools > Preferences and placing a check mark next to “Automatically correct spelling.” The rollout of this feature started on June 1, 2020 and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2020.

Autocorrect can help students with disabilities, like dyslexia. It will help them not worry over every word and ultimately save them time so they can focus on the bigger picture of their writing.

Smart Compose

Smart Compose is a feature that uses artificial intelligence to help you create content faster by suggesting relevant phrases. It also reduces the chance of spelling and grammatical errors. If a suggestion is correct, all you do is press the tab key or the right arrow key and a suggestion will appear. The Smart Compose feature can be found by going to your Google Doc and clicking on Tools > Preferences and placing a check mark next to “Show Smart Compose Suggestions.” Smart Compose has been in beta since last year, but will be officially rolled out by June 30, 2020.

The Smart Compose feature will help students by coming up with words or phrases to help them complete their sentences. By suggesting phrases, students can come up with a more coherent flow in whatever it is they are writing. It will also reduce the number of spelling and grammar mistakes that might be made as well. I can really see this benefiting English Language Learners, too.

Good writing skills are essential, and assistive writing features, like those mentioned above, will help our students. If you are looking for more ways to help your students with writing, be sure to check out even more writing tools for them.

July 7, 2020 0 comment

Chromebooks Microsoft Tips and Tricks

Protect Your Eyes with Chrome Extensions

by Miguel Guhlin February 6, 2019

written by Miguel Guhlin

“A high percentage of learners with Dyslexia are complaining about the white background in the new look Google Classroom – is there any way this can be changed?” asks United Kingdom educator, Scott H. There are several ways to “dim” the brightness of a screen and to protect your eyes. How do you accomplish this? You use a Chrome extension.

An example of “Care Your Eyes” extension effects applied to your Chrome browser

Why Adjust the White Background?

“Dyslexia is a learning disability that impairs a person’s fluency or accuracy in being able to read, write, and spell,” says Anthony (Source). Anthony points out that putting black text on a white background, or white text on a black background can result in a “blur” effect. He puts it this way:

Another kind of visual distortion effect that can occur among dyslexic users is the blur effect [1]. This is when dyslexic readers see their text blurring or swirling or together [5]. This can significantly affect a dyslexic user’s reading ability, and make reading tiring for them [7]. You can lessen this effect by avoiding a couple of bad practices.

Contrast sensitivity comes into play, as you can see in the image below:

To avoid the blur effect that comes from a white background on a website like Google Classroom, you have several options to minimize the impact on dyslexic students. Let’s review them.

Option #1 – Use Care Your Eyes

The Care Your Eyes Chrome browser extension, available for free, allows for several options. You can see them in the screenshot below:

You have the choice to “Disable at this site,” which turns it off for certain websites. That means, that you could enable Care Your Eyes for Google Classroom but leave Care Your Eyes extension off for others.

Option #2 – Visor

Visor describes itself as a “screen dimmer and reading aid.” It suggests that the extension may help with fluency and eye-strain. What’s more, during reading, Visor improves concentration and comprehension. Per its website:

Visor’s overlays and point of focus feature may be assistive to users with visual perceptual difficulties such as Dyslexia, Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome and Visual Stress. Whilst research shows results vary from person to person, some users may find that the use of overlays can help with fluency, eye-strain, concentration and comprehension whilst reading.

The options it has appear as a simple slider color scale:

The focus feature reminds me of OneNote’s Immersive Reader, which has a similar feature. You can see Visor’s in action below, focusing the reader on a line of content:

As you can see, a line of content appears in normal colors while the rest of the visible screen is dimmed. You can see OneNote’s Immersive Reader, which works just fine in the Chrome browser with content in a OneNote notebook, below:

The only reason I share OneNote’s Immersive Reader is that it is the gold standard for accessibility right now. Watch this video to learn more.Read this blog entry for updates announced January, 2019.

Option #3 – Eye Protection

Boasting similar features as Care Your Eyes and Visor, Eye Protection makes it a simple affair to replace the white background that leads to blur effect. You can see the options available via its Chrome extension drop-down:

And this is what a web page looks like. The light green color fills the white space of the background.

Option #4 – High Contrast

Like the other solutions, the High Contrast Chrome extension makes it a simple matter to “invert the color scheme to make web pages easier to read.” All that is black becomes white, and white becomes black. Only photos are not inverted. You can see the options available:

Here’s what a web page looks like with High Contrast enabled:

Protect Your Eyes with Chrome Extensions

You don’t have to be dyslexic to seek to minimize brightness and improve readability on websites. These Chrome extensions should provide you with some options.

February 6, 2019 0 comment