Anyone here know about the Readingpen?

I do have one. My child does not use it. She is in 6th grade. I am hoping she will use it later on with her text books, but so far have not had a teacher who used a textbook that we could also bring home. I won’t send it to school with her as is expensive and will probably loose it. Not a good record with library cards,retainers etc. It does take some getting used to and you do have to hold it right to scan. Sometimes with an unknown word it will pronounce a word wrong. Books on CD are better as they have someone read that is knowledgeable with the text. It does seem like a great tool, but as of yet my child has not put it to use.

I am guessing that this would not be a great tool for a kid who doesn’t have a fair reading level (at least 4th to begin with). Also it is just for the occassional word I think and not intended for every other word or something. THough I think that you should post this in the technology forum. There is a person that generally only posts there KJT or something. S/he is very knowledgeable on things like this.

—des

From the different things sI”ve heard about it over the past couple years, it’s great for some people, but frustrating for many. I’d want to have a no-obligation trial period to see whether it meets your needs.
Basically, the same things that make reading hard can also make using the stuff to make reading easier hard.

I agree with what has already been stated. But again, it’s worth a trial. As with any technology, making it available is the starting place and having a few different students try it makes it more engaging. The students who really need the tool, stick with it if they feel it will be of benefit.
Have the student try highlighting words on paper and observe if they have a steady, firm method. It is important to have this skill in place prior to trying the Reading Pen.
The benefits of this particular tool are very subjective in my experience.
(Thank you, Des, for the kind words)

Yer welcome. Hah! It’s KTJ not KJT. :-)
Anyway, I noticed an error that I meant to say that one would prob. need about a fourth grade level to benefit, there is a double negative or something that might make my statements questionable.

Anyway, I have noticed that a lot of tools require some degree of reading ability to get somethign out of them. Same goes for CoWriter, Speech to text, etc. From what I know on auditory mom’s kid, she just isn’t there (yet).

—des

Carolita,
I just went back and reread your original post. You have a motivated 11 year old who is reading at a second grade level and you are homeschooling. I homeschooled my son, who has a language based reading disability, when he was that age. We used and still use alot of technology. There are some inexpensive text-to-speech software programs that may help your son when the text is online or digitized. A great program to try is textaloud MP3 which is available at www.nextup.com. You can try it out for 30 days and I recommend trying the AT & T voices and the NeoSpeech voices as they are the best quality synthesized speech voices currently available.

This technology is an accommodation so that your son can read what he wants to read, while he is also receiving the remediation to help improve his reading skills. What the software does is empower him to be independent as he can listen to the text while it is being read to him. What is important is to set the speed at a rate that works best for him so that he can follow along as each word is highlighted.

There are a variety of other programs. Another inexpensive option that also allows you to try it out first are the programs available through Premier Assistive Technology at www.readingmadeeasy.com. They have an excellent collection of software tools for print disabled individuals - LD, blind or visually impaired or the at-risk student. Check them out as the products were developed by Steve Timmer, who lost his sight in his 20s from macular degeneration and he is especially aware of the accessiblity issues for all students.

“The benefits of this particular tool are very subjective in my experience. ”

Now that’s a useful description :-)

Sue,
Let me clarify - some of the students with whom I work find tools like this helpful depending upon their fine motor skills and perceived benefit and others do not find them helpful at all. That’s why trials are so important when determining the effectiveness of assistive technology for any student.

Is that better?

Hey, I was being serious, not sarcastic! That sentence and a clarification (though sometimes you just can’t pin down why something works for one person and doesn’t for another) is a keeper.