Schools Test E-Reader Devices With Dyslexic Students

Educators seeking new ways to personalize instruction for students with dyslexia and other reading disabilities are turning more and more to e-readers such as Amazon's Kindle, Apple's iPad, Barnes & Noble's Nook, and the Intel Reader. But the jury is still out on just how effective those digital tools are in helping struggling readers. And that's largely because educators only recently began testing the tools with students with reading disabilities. "It's beginning to be looked at very closely," says Alan E. Farstrup, the past executive director of the Newark, Del.-based International Reading Association. "But regardless of what the preliminary research says, and much of it is inconclusive, kids are growing up as digital natives, and we're really thinking about literacy in a different way now."

E-Reader Tips

1. Changing the font size of the text and the number of words on the e-reader screen can help students customize the text to their preferences, which can be especially helpful for struggling readers.

2. Using the built-in dictionary function of some e-readers may help students quickly define words they don't know and provide pronunciation information that can help them sound out unfamiliar words.

3. Having students record their thoughts or respond to specific questions with the "notes" feature of some e-readers provides individualized insight to their comprehension of the text for teachers.

4. The text-to-speech feature of some e-readers could provide the scaffolding for struggling readers to better understand a text by reading aloud the words that cause them the most difficulty.

5. Most e-readers can convert books into audio files quickly for students who struggle with reading, a process that previously was more cumbersome and time-consuming.

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Assistive technology changes lives

Many different tools can assist individuals with disabilities to perform functions that might otherwise be difficult or impossible. Most often in special education, we use the term "assistive technology" to include a wide range of low-tech to high-tech items such as walkers, wheelchairs, hardware, and software. No matter where the technology falls in terms of complexity, it can dramatically change the lives of Worcester County Public School students.

Assistive technology can assist students in accessing all aspects of the learning environment. For example, students with limited use of hand function may use a keyboard with large keys or a special mouse to operate a computer, while students with low vision may use software that enlarges screen content. Students with speech/language impairments may use a device that speaks as they enter text via a keyboard. Assistive technology could also be as simple as using picture symbols to represent language or an adapted pencil to assist with handwriting.

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