Headstrong Nation: Dyslexic Community

The site, Headstrong Nation, provides help to the world’s largest disability group—those with dyslexia. It includes videos, books, and other resources for those with dyslexia and those working with those with dyslexia. You’ll find information on classroom accommodation tools and mapping children’s dyslexia. The fact section features information such as: 35% of American entrepreneurs are dyslexic, there are many different ways to read, being dyslexic does not mean those who have it are slow learners or stupid, dyslexia is not something anyone outgrows, and boys and girls are just as likely to be dyslexic. The mapping feature encourages parents and teachers to assess children’s strengths and attitudes by using the assessment survey provided. Areas used for mapping are Visual, Kinesthetic, Spatial, Narrative, Social, Verbal, Musical, and Mathematical/Scientific.  Resources available on the site help parents and students learn to use technologies to help with learning, learn to understand the world of dyslexics and those with attention deficit disorders, and learn to understand how disabilities affect family dynamics.

textHelp: Lots of Great Resources for Reading, Writing, & Speech

Dedicated to the development of innovative software for those with reading, writing, speech, and language difficulties, textHelp provides excellent products that students can use with Macs, PCs, and mobile devices. The software is especially designed for students with literacy problems and those learning English as a second language. New to the textHelp library of resources is Read&Write for Google and the iPad app, Reading Champion. Read&Write for Google works with Google Drive in the Chrome browser making Google Docs, PDF files, and ePubs all available on PCs, Macs, and Chromebooks. The Reading Champion app gives students the impetus to practice and enjoy their reading. (You can try the $6.99 app free for 30 days.)  Other products offered by textHelp include Read&Write, Fluency Tutor, BrowseAloud, English Hero, Lexiflow, Read&Write app, and SpeechStream.

Super Duper Learning & Handouts

Super Duper Learning, Online Education for Kids, has a HearBuilder Series, which targets auditory memory, following directions, phonological awareness, and sequencing.  Aligned to Common Core Standards, Super Duper’s programs are fun and motivating and are presented in game format to help students with auditory processing, memory, and listening, comprehension, and sequencing skills. Demos of some of the lessons are available for preview on the site.  Coming soon will be Super Duper apps for tablet computers.

The company also provides teachers with free handouts at its Handy Handouts site. Educators are invited to download, but not alter, the handouts provided. You can use the Search area to find the handouts you want, inserting your own keywords or using popular topics such as articulation and phonology, autism, grammar and syntax, hearing and sign language, parent resources, phonics, vocabulary, and oral-motor and apraxia.

Should We Consider Autism, ADHD, & Dyslexia Neurodiverse?

Are students with special needs simply neurodiverse and, if so, how does this change how we work with them and try to help them? They may not learn and/or interact with others like most of the rest of us, but many have abilities associated with creativity and concentration. Aaron Rothstein in his article Mental Disorder or Neurodiversity in The New Atlantis discusses neurological conditions and the norm and calls on us not to worry about labels, but instead to learn how to help everyone do their best with what they have been given. This is a very interesting article in which you will discover that being “normal” is, as Rothstein says, “a fluid term.”

Digital Storyboards

The ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) book Serious Comix: Engaging Students with Digital Storyboards, by Eydie Wilson, shows how struggling learners progress by creating their own comic books. Wilson used the technique when teaching students with special needs in New York City; her book details how it helped them improve in reading, writing, and analytical skills. “Illustrating a story,” according to Wilson, “helps students with visual literacy, which in turn helps them express their thoughts” and create their storyline.

iPads in Special Education

iPads in Neil Virani’s Special Education classroom at the Mulholland Middle School in Los Angeles are helping disabled students find success in learning.  Called his “secret weapon of accessibility”, iPads give his students the individualization they need. Virani’s using apps such as Day On (journaling), Popplet (mindmapping), and Toontastic (animation and storyboarding). For recording and sharing his lessons, he use Aver’s document camera software. To Virani, the iPad is a powerful classroom tool which helps his students “believe in themselves.”

Apps for Non-Verbal Students

The Tech & Learning Advisor Blog piece by Vicki Windman, Best Speech and Language Apps, offers suggestions for iPad apps, which will help students who are unable to speak, have speech disorders and/or have other communication problems. The apps are available at prices from $4.99 to $99.99. Examples of the apps are:  Avaz for Autism, with picture and text options; Speech Flipbook, designed to help children with Apraxia (problems saying what they want to say), and those who have difficulty with articulation, phonological awareness, and reading; and Is That Silly?, which helps children understand spoken and written word meanings.  Other apps appropriate for students with speech and language disorders include: URtalker Pro, Voice4u, and Speech Therapy Apraxia Words. All of these apps can be customized for specific student needs

Brain Parade for Children with Special Needs

Brain Parade’s See. Touch. Learn ™ garnered the “Mostly Likely to Succeed” award at Ed Tech Summit 2013. According to Karen Billings, vice president of SIAA (Software and Information Industry Association) Education Division, “Brain Parade shows tremendous promise for shaping the future of technology in education, especially for those with special needs.”  This innovative app gives those working with children the ability to create “personalized” lessons, which will help them with communication skills. Students use iPads to learn from high-quality images and lessons created by a behavioral analyst. You can download a free copy from iTunes, but if you’d like the full version with advanced features and over 4400 images and 2200 exercises, you’ll want the Pro version, which is priced at $34.99.

Stereotyping Our Students

He’s a professor in Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, but he was a high school drop-out.  Todd Rose believes that his problem and the problem of many others in our schools, is that school wasn’t for him, and isn’t for them, a good fit. That’s why so many children who have special needs, are overly active, and/or are very bright and highly creative, have difficulty in traditional educational programs.  

Rose’s book “Square Peg: My Story and What It Means for Raising Innovators, Visionaries, & Out-of-the-Box Thinkers” tells us about his journey from being a misfit in the classroom to a college professor who is a leader in the field of educational neuroscience.  Technologies, which have the ability to individualize learning for students can save us from teaching to the average. Rose says that we are in a “self-imposed death spiral” brought on by the myth of the average.

Learn Smart: An Adaptive Engine for Better Grades

McGraw-Hill’s LearnSmart is a personal digital tutor, which detects what students need to know in order to help them achieve their best. Called the “smartest adaptive engine in the industry”, this interactive product has been used in colleges and is now ready for high school use.  With it, students increase the effectiveness of their studies outside of class which will help them be better prepared for classes and improve retention, grades, and engagement in their studies.  Launched in February 2013, LearnSmart currently offers biology, U.S. History, Spanish, and A.P. and honors subjects; additional study areas will be available in the months after the launch.

A study of community college students using Learn Smart showed significant improvement in retention and pass rates. So far, no studies have targeted high school students, but expectations for success of the product are high.