Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Noelle Gibson on October 22, 2011 at 4:24am

My daughter's high school uses Kurzweil - I don't know if it's 3000.  My teenager refuses to use it so I don't know beneficial it is.  From what I see, the big problem with it is that it's not portable - my 16 year old can't use the Kurzweil texts at home, only at school.  I was hoping that it would be downloadable (say into an iPod) so this way she can look like she's reading her text and listening to music (like all her non-LD friends) but, at least for the version at her school, it doesn't seem to be the case.  Other parents I've spoken to say the same thng "It would be great if he/she would actually agree to USE it!". 

In our case, she's so tired of all the support services (she was classified at the end of 2nd grade) that she's actively rejecting the Kursweil and Dragon Naturally Speaking software (which they also have) so that she can feel "normal".  Of course, her grades reflect this so it's a continuing battle.  Now that she is a junior, she's starting to realize that she just can't read, analyze, take notes and provide intelligent answers all at once without her brain turning to jelly so we're going to give it another shot.  I haven't given up on the Dragon Naturally Speaking software either - particularly now that college essays are just around the corner. 

Depending on your daughter's needs/interests, I've found LibriVox on-line, which has recordings of open-source literature (like Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, etc) and it's free.  This worked really well for my daughter just this summer for her summer reading essay - she read Austen's "Emma" as well as listening to it on her iPod on the beach.  I'm also looking at Learning Ally (used to be Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic) to see what audio titles they have - they have an iPod App, which will be a HUGE improvement in terms of not feeling "different" and still getting the support.

 

Not sure how much help this was but good luck!

 

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by CelticMom on October 23, 2011 at 2:48pm

I can't help on the Kurzweil, though I have read some positive reports on other boards.

I was just going to reply to Noelle's comments. I think Learning Ally has definitely made a good move, creating an app for I-pod. My son (age 17) has it loaded on his I-pod & I'm hoping he'll try it more. One thing about Learning Ally is that the reading voices change every few pages or every chapter & my son finds that changing of voices to be very distracting. He just started attending a classroom school for the first time & this semester his reading load is not heavy. His English class has been reading The Great Gatsby. I ended up getting a subscription to Audible.com and getting an unabridged version of Gatsby on audiobook through Audible. Again, he can listen on his I-pod, so it is not so easily noticed by others that he is doing his assigned reading via audiobook.  

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by dhfl143 on November 20, 2011 at 4:15pm

My daughter has been using Kurzweil for over 6 years. Ask away and I'll help where I can.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Davis W. Graham on December 25, 2011 at 8:38pm

Dear Jamie:

Read:OutLoud is the best program I've ever used for read books, because you can data mine any word and then incorporate into your book;

Bookshare.org provides it free;

Accessible Books and Periodicals for Readers with Print Disabilities

• Bookshare® is free for all U.S. students with qualifying disabilities, thanks to an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).
• Bookshare dramatically increases the accessibility of books. People with disabilities deserve the same ease of access to books and periodicals that people without disabilities enjoy.
• A searchable online library. Bookshare offers approximately 127,000 digital books, textbooks, teacher-recommended reading, periodicals and assistive technology tools.
• Readers of all ages. Bookshare offers affordable membership, unlimited library privileges and a community of Members, Volunteers, parents, publishers and authors.

Bookshare News:

Bookshare Passes 150,000 Student Members & 125,000 Titles, Wins...

October 11, 2011 - Bookshare Wins New OSEP Award to Extend Innovative Tools and Content

Accessible e-Book Reader, Read2Go, First Update Now Available

September 8, 2011 - App for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch Allows Users to Read Bookshare Books

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on December 28, 2011 at 8:24am

Jamie, Because of the auditory processing part of dyslexia - some children and adults have a harder time with certain text-to-speech options. The problem with Learning Ally is that it's all volunteers - and the reading quality, foreign accents, etc. vary. Some people can stay with a long book only if there is fairly good reading - of professional quality. 

The early Kurzweill (3000) - can be difficult for many listeners - hopefully they will update their voice engine.

In the past 5 years there have been great strides in text-to-speech, but always it is best to check personally with your daughter. If it's a gadget, try out text-to-speech before buying (e.g. Kindle, iPad Voiceover, Nook, Intel Reader etc). There are also rental programs in most big cities for a try out period.

We found Neospeech Paul and Kate to be excellent voices. These were initially given out free for trials (then could be used with Bookshare books) - then then increased the price to around $2000 I think. If you search hard on the Internet, you can sometimes still find them available for about $29.95. Once you buy them, they can be installed on I think 3 computers.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Davis W. Graham on December 29, 2011 at 6:51am

Dear Jamie:
As a person with dyslexia, I use 4 programs on a day to day basis. Read:Outloud and Read2Go (Bookshare.org new apple application) are excellent for reading books from Bookshare.org they have 150k books in their library. Then I use Readplease.com  (free download windows based)for other such readings like an article on line or proofing an email before I send it out although sometimes I believe what I wrote is fine, but as to the post above, then I see my mistakes and know I need to proof before posting. Then Balaboka (free download windows based) I use when I need to read something which is long, like a lease, Balabolka reads very fast up to 510  words a minute and can record text into a MP3 file which I use for posting to my Blog titled "My Gift of Dyslexia" ( http://www.mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com/). When you see a click to listen it was done by Balabolka.

Microsoft Mary voice is the voice I use, I have picked her voice when ever she is available because I can understand her the best at 340 words per minute or higher.  The Gimmicks are out there but the above 4 should provide your son with what he needs.  One last program which I use is Xmind (free download and Mindjet for apple) for note-taking.  

Below are tutorials of sort for Read:OutLoud and Readplease:

Readplease:

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by jamie zucco on December 29, 2011 at 7:19am

thank you so much for responding..I bought eliza an ipad for xmas.so now im going to try to find the apps that will work for her!............thanks jamie

Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide said:

Jamie, Because of the auditory processing part of dyslexia - some children and adults have a harder time with certain text-to-speech options. The problem with Learning Ally is that it's all volunteers - and the reading quality, foreign accents, etc. vary. Some people can stay with a long book only if there is fairly good reading - of professional quality. 

The early Kurzweill (3000) - can be difficult for many listeners - hopefully they will update their voice engine.

In the past 5 years there have been great strides in text-to-speech, but always it is best to check personally with your daughter. If it's a gadget, try out text-to-speech before buying (e.g. Kindle, iPad Voiceover, Nook, Intel Reader etc). There are also rental programs in most big cities for a try out period.

We found Neospeech Paul and Kate to be excellent voices. These were initially given out free for trials (then could be used with Bookshare books) - then then increased the price to around $2000 I think. If you search hard on the Internet, you can sometimes still find them available for about $29.95. Once you buy them, they can be installed on I think 3 computers.

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion