As we have mentioned in previous articles, the digital revolution has entered our classrooms. October is Dyslexia Awareness Month and Cassidy Education want to show support for this movement.
The use of apps has become common place in classrooms, especially in Special Needs Education. Not only do they keep children engaged in their learning, it also aids teachers and parents to have a greater understanding of an individual’s learning curves and patterns.
There are many apps out there and it can sometimes be a challenge finding a good one, mainly due to these technologies being somewhat a new phenomenon. So how can we tell if a new app will be relevant and useful? We hope our research will help, we have compiled 8 apps for you, we feel may help tackle the challenges dyslexia creates.
- Newsela is a writing prompt app that is also available on the web. It builds reading comprehension skills by delivering relevant, daily articles from trusted news sources with a choice of five reading levels. It has assessments and is aligned with the curriculum.
- Hang Art is based on the classic word game Hangman. Use spelling, writing and drawing to further vocabulary skills while having fun.
- Endless Learning Academy is an early learning app with the Endless Monsters! It is interactive, and prepares your preschool kids with ABCs, Phonics, Counting, Colours, etc.
- Claro Scan Pen a nifty app that has users take a photo of a printed text document, letter, or exam paper. Then they can then select text using a finger and hear it spoken aloud instantly.
- Co:Writer Universal for Google Chrome This is actually a browser extension rather than an app. It uses word prediction to help students express their ideas in writing with a built-in speech recognition aid. It has topic dictionaries which support writers by providing listings of specific vocabulary words.
- ModMath is virtual graph paper. This is really helpful for dyslexics with math problems. A new camera feature allows for pictures of math problems that can be inserted into the virtual paper and shared.
- Voice Dream Reader This app reads text aloud. It comes with a pronunciation dictionary so users can correct inaccuracies. A new setting can be used for word tracking/pacing by struggling readers.
- Easy Spelling Aid is a spelling, reading, dyslexia and translation helper to use when a user encounters problematic words. This is helpful when one is communicating in another language too.
We hope you found the above article interesting, please share on social media using the hashtag #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth.
If you are a teacher or teaching assistant and are looking for a fresh start or a new challenge use the form to contact us.
