Where do you get your books on cd? Our library is pretty limited and the ones I checked out today are so scratched they started skipping the first chapter. Are they worth buying them or do you rent them? My daughter is really liking this concept and is able to “read” more on the level she should be. Invest in actually purchasing them or find another place to rent/check out? What are some good resources? I like having the book for her to read along with too, so looking for a kit or where I could check the book out at the library. Thanks for your suggestions!
Christi
Re: Books on cd.
Christi,
If your daughter has a learning disability you can get equipment and books, including textbooks, from the library for the blind and it is free. They provide you with the equipment and the books. The one nice thing about using the library for the blind is that the speed of the material being read can be adjusted. You can match the speed of the material being read to the speed that your daughter can follow.
Here we can do it through the school for free or we can pay a yearly fee and do it on our own. The school district has a form that is submitted to them and they submit it to the library for the blind. The problem with using the district is that they want all the books on one form turned in at the beginning of the year. I think that is because they get all the books for you and then they return them all at the end of the year. My sister who used the service in college (it was an accommodation provided by the university) was able to “check out” books throughout the year. She received a book in the mail and when she was finished put it in a return envelope and put it in the mail.
Check with your school, sometimes it takes a little work to find out who knows about it. I had to call the district offices for help once my oldest reached junior high school.
I looked and Arkansas has a library for the blind. It is free to qualifying individuals.
We use recorded books a lot. This is how my oldest “reads” books for the book reports required for school. The added benefit to starting to use recorded books is that they’ve gone a long way in replacing television at my house. All my children like them. They like them so much we’ve had to ban them at bedtime on school nights.
I hope you find recorded books as enjoyable and helpful as we have.
Re: Books on cd.
Thank you, Maja. I will keep that in mind. We’re still trying to get her “qualified” but we are doing books on cd at home. She is currently reading the Little House on the Prairie series and “aks” to read each night. She has such a better comprehension and says she feels like she’s “in” the book! HUGE deal to me and her. We enjoy nightly reading now. The books are about 1-2 years about her level as to expose her to vocabulary and fluency where she should be. If we do get an official diagnosis, I will pursue the library for the blind. Thanks for looking up Arkansas. We sure don’t have much!!
Christi
There are many resources for auditory books. If she has an MP3 player, there are books that can be downloaded or they can be saved to the computer. Text to Speech might be another option for her if she wants to follow along with the words. There are many demo programs to help you decide which would be best. Here are some resources:
Audio Books
http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/homepage/AnonHome.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes
http://www.soulmateaudio.com/player.asp
http://www.simplyaudiobooks.com/
http://www.audioeditions.com/
http://www.rfbd.org/
E-books
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/
http://promo.net/pg/
http://www.bookshare.org/web/Welcome.html
http://www.accessiblebookcollection.org/
Text to Speech Programs:
http://www.microsoft.com/reader/default.asp
http://www.naturalreaders.com/
http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/
http://www.zero2000.com/
http://www.readplease.com/
I hope these are helpful.