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.

Grammar Gorillas: Parts of Speech—Still Important

Practice in reading, speaking, and writing is essential for today’s students, but have we forgotten to include the rules of grammar and word use in Grades 1-5? Often, when I review Reading and Language Arts programs for software awards, I find great practice in reading and writing, but almost never in grammar.  Students who come from families who speak correct English, start steps ahead of others, but all students seem to profit from elementary school lessons targeting parts of speech and sentence structure.  If you are looking for digital material emphasizing grammar for young students, you might want to try searching for links at 19pencils.com and learni.st.com. Funbrain includes Grammar Gorillas games for beginners (nouns and verbs) and advanced students of grammar (all parts of speech). The Texas Computer Education Association provides an iPad list of grammar and vocabulary apps for all grade levels. A few other places you may want to look for grammar lessons for your students are Thinkonline, Softschools, Appfinder, Funeducationalapps, and LearnEnglish Grammar.

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

A Reading Coach for Your Students

Mindplay’s Virtual Reading Coach, due out in July 2012, emphasizes reading, phonics, punctuation, pronunciation, grammar, and comprehension. This product puts the Orton-Gillingham method to work to help all students learn to read. The practices are both auditory and visual and provide for differentiated instruction. There are onscreen speech pathologists and coaches who patiently help students with the lessons and show them how to pronounce words correctly. Although My Reading Coach can be used by any student, it is also excellent for those students who are learning English, students who need remedial help and those who need enrichment in reading. The program, based on the Mindplay’s popular My Reading Coach, is not Web-based, but can be used on PC and Mac computers and Android tablets.

Online Speech Therapy—One-to-One Help

PresenceLearning offers a free download of its white paper, Can Online Speech Therapy Improve IEP Outcomes? Considering a shortage of speech therapists in schools, the paper shows how online therapy is effective and affordable. It helps to relieve high caseloads while giving students the individualized help and practice they need. If you would like to review case studies, academic studies, and success stories, go to the PresenceLearning site.

Digital Speech Therapy

Not every school has a speech therapist and not all students with speech and hearing difficulties can make it to sessions with speech therapists.  The answer is online speech therapy, and according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the technique is growing. The Association approves of what is sometimes called “teletherapy” if it is the same as in-person therapy. To enable teletherapy/online therapy, high speed Internet and Webcams are needed. The method enables the therapist to work from home, office, school, or other locations in order to reach students who need help.