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Technology to Help with Learning Disabilities?
Posted by
Cliff
on Mon Feb 14, 2005 04:54 PM
from the education-without-condescension dept.
from the education-without-condescension dept.
GotSanity asks: "I have a little brother who is now 18 and still can not read or do basic math. At an early age he was diagnosed with a level 10 mental handicap. I am curious as to what technology is available to help teach him to read. The major problems with most educational software I have found is that they both cater to younger minds (even though he has a learning disability he still is involved with everyday teenager activities like video games and music) and are often far to expensive for a working class family. I originally got him a copy of Typing of the Dead, and through it he has been learning to read and spell better. What novel education ideas can the Slashdot community suggest?"
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Video-game related material (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Video-game related material (Score:5, Interesting)
Based on advice, her parents encouraged her to play video games - especially Tetris - to help increase her coordination. Whether or not it was the cause, today she is about as coordinated as your average person (and can beat my socks off at Tetris, to boot!
Parent
Re:Video-game related material (Score:5, Insightful)
What do healthy 18 year olds like?
Pr0n of course!!
So make a webpage with math problems, and if he gets it right, he gets a pr0n pic. This would take all of 15 minutes to write the html for (okay maybe 45minutes if you get distracted by the Pr0n), and would be a simple incentive system.
Okay, okay, so it doesn't have to be nudie pics, but seriously, some sort of quickly made webpage with multiple problems that have an appealing reward might be useful (mp3 plays, or if he gets a high enough score you'll take him to dinner or something... if it's a fun outcome, it should be a positive experience for him, and he just might learn something too.
If you take my advice on the MP3, just promise not to tell the RIAA it was my idea! *adjusts his foil hat*
Parent
Re:Video-game related material (Score:4, Funny)
==>Lazn
Parent
Re:Video-game related material (Score:3, Funny)
Question: Jenny has a bust size of 28 inches. She gets them enlarged to 47 inches. How much larger are they?
Answer: Who gives a shit!
Re:Video-game related material (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Video-game related material (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course, that was largely because I figured out that, assuming that the final message you entered was correct, the algorithm counted the number of times you pressed the space bar. So, you just had to simply hold down the space bar, delete the line, hold down the space bar, etc, and then after several tries type in the correct message.
Parent
Re:Video-game related material (Score:3, Informative)
Not only that, but what person who is writing software for touch typing would not know that a "word" used in calculating the wpm is in fact any five characters, including space and punctuations.
Hands-on and human interaction (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hands-on and human interaction (Score:2)
Human Relations. Well.
CC.
agreed (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
How about this: (Score:5, Informative)
ReadSay PROnounce (Score:3, Interesting)
Write your own tools (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Write your own tools (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Write your own tools (Score:3, Insightful)
He's into video games eh? Crack open a remedial read
Re:Write your own tools (Score:3, Insightful)
If only that was the case. Most "educational" software I have had the displeasure of looking at was a mess put together by well meaning but otherwise useless hacks. One of the underlying problems is a poor understanding of computers, and how computers can relate to learning.
Re:Write your own tools (Score:4, Insightful)
Get a copy of perl/tk or something and start hacking.
I'd add: get a copy of Logo* and start hacking with him.
* (and, ideally, a "turtle" or some other fun drawing robot - you could even DIY)
Parent
Re:Write your own tools (Score:4, Interesting)
Or, if you do suck at programming, hook up with someone who doesn't. Necessity being the mother of invention and all , you may just build yourself a wildly successful product. Or, you might only have a fun time and help out your brother. Either way it's a win.
Parent
Re:Write your own tools (Score:4, Interesting)
The program worked in its unrefined form and now my son is off learning more advanced things. So I'm done with the program. Still, I wish that the open source development model would have worked here.
Parent
Re:Write your own tools (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Write your own tools (Score:3, Informative)
DSM Diagnosis? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:DSM Diagnosis? (Score:3, Insightful)
"He can't read or write very well" is a perfectly adequate description.
Perfectly adequate if you want to toss a dart at the neurological dartboard and hope it hits something useful. I suspect the original poster is hoping for something a bit more precise. I would also presume that said poster would probably have a good idea of a diagnosis if his brother's impairment was observed as long ago as his post indicates.
I listed 5 separate potential barriers to learning, several with a pronounced physiolog
Just curious (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Just curious (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Just curious (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Wild guess (Score:5, Interesting)
A advice (Score:5, Insightful)
Read as many books as posible - start with the really easy and move on. In the beginning your brother will properly need someone to read the words to him - he will then reconise them later. A good tool might be festival [ed.ac.uk]
As for natual selection post above:
Our society is rich - it can afford (and should) aford to help everybody, how wish to be helped
Re:A advice (Score:3, Interesting)
I may suggest... (Score:5, Informative)
What do his teachers say? (Score:3, Informative)
I agree with another poster who said that human interaction in a hands-on environment would probably be best. I'm sure you've already explored that route though and I doubt you're trying to circumvent that, but rather are trying to augment his learning.
Have you done any extensive googling? A search for "handicapped education technology disabled" might turn up alot. I did a search on those exact terms and ended up with
http://www.assis-tech.com/
Which I got off of this page here:
http://www.eskimo.com/~jlubin/disabled/all.htm
Perhaps some good searching is in order? Maybe you know about these things already. It wouldn't hurt to look around though.
Kurzweil Educational Systems (Score:5, Informative)
It will OCR the documents and then read it outloud, giving you help along the way. I gather it was designed with Special Ed teachers' advice.
Windows and Mac
This is a very common problem, sadly. (Score:5, Insightful)
It just isn't right to have a 22 year old man putting colored blocks into the right shape holes -- no matter how severe the handicap. I think that technology can be useful (but most likely you, or someone with programming ability) are going to have to create it yourself. In a similar manner, it is often up to the family to be creative and create age-appropriate activities for their handicapped family member.
The schools, at least my program, are seriously working on approaching this issue and designing activites for people like your brother. But they fail as often as they succeed.
[Don't ask how I ended up in this major from computer engineering. I'm not sure myself.]
Re:This is a very common problem, sadly. (Score:3, Insightful)
No idea (Score:4, Insightful)
What's the scale?
How about watching TV with the closed captions turned on? I think it's standard in every television now. Poke around the on-screen menus. Start with really easy kids shows and progress from there. I think with a lot of DVDs you can turn on English subtitles even with the English sound track. Maybe it'll help tie the written words to the spoken ones, and some sort of connection will result.
Education (Score:3, Informative)
Starts here http://gcompris.free.fr/ [gcompris.free.fr] and works up, you may get here http://wims.unice.fr/wims/wims.cgi [unice.fr] before you know it.
It doesn't require money. It does require a desire to help. You help your brother, you help others, others help you.
Helpful software (Score:5, Informative)
Every LD child (and LD adult) is different, every one of us has different needs and different learning styles. Does he learn better by hearing something, by seeing it, or by touch. In most cases the best bet is to mix all three.
Video games are an excellent resource for this and best bet is to find something he will actually do and then stick with it. Games that require basic reading and simple math skills are very helpful. (We found several Gamecube games work well for this as most do not "speak". Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing are good examples.)
I have found that there are a wide variety of free games on-line that aren't to "childish" but are helpful in reinforcing skills being worked on. A few are http://www.dositey.com/ [dositey.com], http://www.internet4classrooms.com/index.htm [internet4classrooms.com], http://www.literacycenter.net/literacycenter_net/
The best relatively cheap learning software we have found, that is at least tolerable for adults (not too cutesy) are the http://www.helpme2learn.com/ [helpme2learn.com] "Help Me 2 Learn" programs. My husband and I have both used the Spanish software for ourselves and found it one of the few that eaither of us could really learn from. My kids love all the other software and we have found that the style it is taught works for all 3 children, who each have very different learning styles.
May I suggest checking out some home schooling websites, you will find many resources for a variety of learning disabilities and types.
ATTN: Trolls on Slashdot (Score:4, Insightful)
Some restaint by the usual trolls would be in order. If you have nothing worth saying to help the poster of the original article then just keep quiet and wait for the next KDE/Linspire/Mac Mini mod/Windows is taking over the world thread etc.
Re:ATTN: Trolls on Slashdot (Score:3, Insightful)
Reading through the replys on this thread i am disgusted with the majority of them.
For the trolls that posted to this story i just have this to say... how about i come over to your house (ignoring time/distance/not knowing you personally etc) beat you about the head with a baseball bat (im a Brit but to fit in i'll use Baseball instead of Cricket).. until you have level 10 mental disability. How would you feel then having a bunch of ignorant idiots post crap
Turn on Closed Captioning (Score:4, Informative)
Koskinen, P.; Wilson, R. M.; Gambrell, L. B.; and Jensema, C. (1986). Using closed captioned television to enhance reading skills of learning disabled students. National Reading Conference Yearbook, 35, 61-65.
2 Cents (Score:4, Insightful)
Read and Write Gold [texthelp.com] is the app that is used most often to help students with reading disabilities.
From my point of view though, I've seen the use of this technology actually lower testing scores when tests are given and the technology isn't used. This is compared to how the student would have done after several weeks of non-use.
Software, and computers in general tend to cause mental dependency on the part of the learner. I have actually seen something that looks like withdrawl symptoms when the software isn't available to the student. It's scary. I used to spell words very well, but these days I find that I have to keep OpenOffice open all the time just for a real quick spell check! I'm thoroughly dependent on the technology.
I whole heartedly agree with most of the closed captioning posts. Whatever you do please make sure that most of the work is done by your "student" and not technology. People are A LOT like pop corn, the only way to get the good stuff out of a kernel of corn is to apply heat, steam, and pressure.
Dyslexia & attitute (Score:3, Informative)
You didn't specify what kind of learning disability your brother had. The most common kind of disability that affects reading is Dyslexia. It could also cause problems with math since if you don't perceive the digits and symbols in the same order they appear on the page, you are going to have trouble with math. Dyslexia is itself a rather vague diagnosis.
I can't really recommend specific software but I can share some observations from personal experience. Attitudes towards disability can make a huge difference. Expectations of failure can be self fulfilling prophacies.
A friend of mine was diagnosed as Dyslexic when he was young. His parents were told by doctors that he would never learn to read. Fortunately, his parents did not listen. They spent time tutoring him and enrolled him in a special school. My friend not only reads better than the vast majority of the population, he is extremely well read and has a Ph. D. in astrophysics.
I myself was diagnosed in high school as having dyslexia though that came as quite a surprise since I was reading at a 12th grade level in the 6th grade. When I was a kid, my mother read to me a lot.
Another friend has dyslexia. His parents took the attitute of steering him away from activities that he would be likely to fail at. As a result, he is functionally illiterate but slowly making progress on his own. It may have helped that I was able to counter some of the defeatist non-sense.
Your brother might benefit from using the English subtitles availible on most DVD players. As long as he tries to read them rather than just relying on the audio, the effect could be similar to being read to. He could choose content that was interesting to him. An interesting technological twist would be to modify an open source software DVD player such as Ogle to deliberately desynchronize the audio so the words would be spoken only after he had a chance to try and read them himself. Neurologically, being forced to make the attempt and then being corrected or reinforced immediately thereafter is important to the learning process. Of course, he may not be far enough along that he can follow the subtitles. He might be able to try to get the first word out of each subtitle, then work up to the first two words. It is important to be aware that sometimes the subtitles and the dialog do not match (subtitles having been copied from the script not transcribed from the actual performance) but they match often enough that if you take this into consideration it could be useful. Another variation would be to make the DVD player software automatically pause after each new subtitle is displayed.
Similarly, text to speech can be integrated with applications such as instant messaging and slight modification would create a delay between presenting the written words and speaking them. Of course, he would need to be litterate enough to be able to write something back in the case of instant messaging unless he is just lurking in some chat rooms. In the latter case, logs could be used so he doesn't have to keep up with the frantic pace in many chat rooms.
Dyslexic.com [dyslexic.com] has some information on technological aids for dyslexia. Hierarchical Program Tree [freshmeat.net] is a package listed at freshmeat that is intended for dyslexics. There is probably some more stuff out there.
I think there is a lot of potential for educational software that is designed to take particular learning disabilities into consideration that may not have been realized yet. As an example, a dyslexic may be able to make out the individual letters in a word but have difficulty perceiving them in the order they appear. So, "tea" and "ate" might be hard to distinguish. A program could sort through the dictionary finding words that are different morphologies of the same letters and speak a word and present similar words as a multiple choice test. Educational softw
You don't want a "novel education idea" (Score:3, Interesting)
Hi!
With respect and regard, you don't want a "novel education idea." You really want to focus on your brother's specific features, and try to find successful strategies that other people have used with similar disabilities. That's not a novel approach--and it doesn't involve any more technology than ordering a book or five from a good publisher's web site. [woodbinehouse.com]
My youngest daughter has Down syndrome--and we've found that kids with Down syndrome learn to read in a radically different way than kids with, for example, ADHD. The strategies that work for the ADHD kids in the class probably won't be successful for Annie--the strategies that work for Annie won't do much for others in the class. That's part of the reason that--despite the best intentions in the world--special ed classes don't do as much for kids with disabilities as they should. They can't be everything to everyone.
Here's where you come in.
You have a major advantage over your brother's teachers: you do not have to be all things to all people. You already are his big brother--and he's your only student. Practically anything you do will succeed--to some extent. What you need to do is identify successful strategies to use with your brother--and learn a lot more about language and learning than you probably ever thought possible. While you learn about his particular disability and how to teach to him, you should also learn a LOT about English. You should learn about the "core" of 8000 Anglo-Saxon words that form the vast bulk of our daily conversation. You should learn the difference between the active and passive voices, the detailed specifics of each of the tenses, and you should learn how to identify reading materials that include the parts of language you want--and do not include the parts you don't. Focus on simple sentences of Anglo-Saxon words in the present tense and the active voice: I eat food. Sandy is my dog. I ride horses. You are my friend. I like you. My brother loves me.
For an example of the kind of thing to avoid, look at any memo that comes home from the administration of your brother's (or your) school.
What you'll need most...
This will come as no surprise, right? The most important thing you'll need is patience. Applaud his successes--give genuine praise for genuine accomplishment. Give encouragement when he has trouble--and be critical when he blows you off. Be "real"--don't be yet another I'm-so-proud-of-you syncophant.
And when he can read--know that you have probably done the most important thing you will do in your life.
NLP (Score:3, Interesting)
There's a lot of books that have been written on learning using NLP, but I've never read any of them so I would recommend googling for that. One big thing about reading and spelling is that it's important to do it visually, not auditorily. I'm sure there are things that can help a whole lot.
As a sidenote, many slashdotters might like NLP. It was created/discovered by a mathematician/computer programmer turned psychologist, and is all about programming your brain. His name is Richard Bandler, I've so far read two of his seminar-based books, "Using Your Brain -- For a Change" and "Frogs Into Princes".
Re:If he really can't do that at that age (Score:3, Insightful)
Almost agreed; I would have said psychology & friends instead.
CC.
Better idea (Score:4, Funny)
Get him a slashdot account, he will fit right in.
Parent
Re:If he really can't do that at that age (Score:5, Informative)
First, to the parent poster: Often, the issue isn't psychology but neurology. Besides, technology can solve some psychological problems (after all, a psychiatrist is a physician who applies pharmaceutical technologies to psychological problems).
To the submitter: I suspect you'd be better off talking to a support group of families with similar issues than the /. crowd. But failing that, you might try combining screen-reading software with level-appropriate reading that's also age appropriate (perhaps sports or gaming articles on websites), or try combining books on tape/audible with print copies of the same books.
Parent
Perspective: Need process changes not technology (Score:3, Interesting)
What would have helped *me* more than anything (aside from an earlier diagnosis) would have been a few very simple process changes.
Re:If he really can't do that at that age (Score:2)