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Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that often goes undiagnosed in schools. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that between 15 -20% of students may have dyslexia.

Students with dyslexia struggle with decoding skills, reading comprehension, writing and spelling. You may see signs of frustration in class and the inability to keep up with schoolwork. Essentially, students have a hard time processing information because their letters and words get jumbled up. If your student or child displays any of these signs below, you’ll want to explore assistive technologies to accommodate their reading and writing efforts:

  • Mixes up directional words
  • Difficulty with phonics and sounding words out and with spelling
  • Write letters backward, often mixes up d and b; and q and g
  • Hard to follow instructions with multiple steps
  • Struggles to keep pace
  • Declines from reading aloud

 

 

Dyslexia | Nichelle graphicRead Nichelle’s story, an inspiring teen whose reading levels jumped four grades.
Watch Nichelle's Story (4:20)

 

 

Dyslexia | Prentice School graphicStan Tom, an AT Specialist for Prentice Schools, CA designs first AT class for all 5th graders.
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Dyslexia | Kayla graphicKayla testifies to Congressional panel about the benefits of assistive technologies in schools.
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Research on Text-to-Speech

Research in psychology has shown the power of simultaneous, multiple modes of input to gain and hold a person's attention and to improve memory. Lewandowski and Montali (1996) conducted a study that compared the learning of poor readers and skilled readers who were both taught through a text-to-speech application with simultaneous onscreen highlighting of the spoken word. This study showed that experiencing the text bimodally (visually and aurally) enabled poor readers to perform as well as skilled readers in word recognition and retention.

Research by Alliner, Dunse, Brunken, and Obermiller-Krolikowski (2001) and Meyer and Felton (1999) confirm that highlighting text as it is spoken can help learners pay attention and remember more.

Text-to-speech also relieves the burden of decoding for struggling readers, allowing them to focus on comprehension (Wise, Ring, & Olson, 2000) and improving their endurance in completing reading assignments (Hecker, Burns, Elkind, Elkind, & Katz, 2002). Research has also shown that students with learning disabilities identify and correct more errors in their compositions when they use text-to-speech for proofreading (Higgins & Raskind, 1995). 


Dyslexia | SETP Article graphicARTICLE:
Text Readers Make Universal Access to Core Curriculum Possible for U.S. Schools; Timely for Students with Print Disabilities
SETP