Hello,
I am currently a junior in high school with a reading disability. I feel that I have been very successful. I take all honors courses and I am almost completely independent. I use assistive technology (primarily Dragon NaturallySpeaking and WYNN) for reading books and writing papers. I want to pass my success on to others in some way. I am thinking of integrating this into a year long project that have been assigned. For part of the project I would create a web site in which I will share my experiences. While a web site is nice, I don’t think it contributes a great deal. I’m wondering if there is some service I can provide, which would help students with learning disabilities succeed in school? I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.
Thank you,
Carson Smith
Re: How Can I Help?
Hi Victoria,
I appreciate your response. I think teaching a student is a great idea. Unfortunately my reading skills are not yet strong enough that I would feel comfortable teaching someone to read. Most my success has been in keeping up with rigorous academics with a learning disability by using assistive technology (which I am using right now). Although I am making good progress on my basic reading skills, what I really want to do is motivate students to pursue intellectual interests even though they may have a learning disability. Wile it may be necessary for a sixth grader to read “See Spot Run” to build basic reading skills, it is also necessary that he or she is able to listen to challenging books on tape to build that his or her intellectual capacity. I get frustrated when I see students so far behind everyone else because of a learning problem that can be so easily circumvented with assistive technology. Interestingly, using assistive technology has been much more beneficial to my basic reading skills that has any phonics program. When I say a word, I can see it. As you can imagine, this really helps tremendously with spelling. I guess what I’m getting at is that teachers want to put students in a uniform plan that they think works for every student with a learning disability and I think this rigidity inhibits their intellectual success. Probably more than you wanted to hear!
Again, thanks for responding
Carson
Re: How Can I Help?
I think a web site would potentially reach far more people than any other service you could provide.And it could answer questions like these.
What is WYNN? And however did you get your Dragon Naturally Speaking to work for you?
I’d be interested to know. Good luck with whatever you do.
Re: How Can I Help?
Thanks for your response. WYNN stands for “What You Need Now”. It’s a computer program which reads text that you scan in. It also reads text on the Internet. The voice is very easy to listen to, unlike many other programs. I can’t describe how much I like everything it does, so take a look at their Web site! http://www.freedomscientific.com/wynn/
As for Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the newer version (6) is greatly improved. Accuracy is about 90 percent. Although there is a significant amount of revising that must be done, I think it is still faster than the average typing speed. The program learns how you speak continuously, so the more you use it, the better it gets.
If it was not for these two programs, I would not be going to college. It is really amazing what technology can do!
Carson
Find a child to tutor in reading. Having had problems yourslef, you know about how it feels and can (we hope) be patient. Get a good phonics-based program and help the child learn to read independently. I’ll be happy to send you my teaching outlines if you want. You can find children who desperately need help through community organizations, schools, or fanily connections. As a school project, you can make a portfolio of the childs’s work as he improves over a few months or better a year, you can make a journal of your experiences, and you can videotape yourself and the child (with parents’ permission, in writing, of course!). This would all be of great value in and of itself. You could also put some of this on a website to educate and motivate others.