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- Discover different programs used to combat learning difficulties
- Know which technologies are appropriate for your child
"The number one way to succeed on the job is to use technology."
Dr. Michael Ryan (DyslexiaHelp's contributing expert)
Today's technological age has brought forth a number of very good computer programs and tools to help individuals with:
- Listening & speaking
- Reading & spelling
- Writing & organization
Here at our Center, we have found the following software programs and assistive devices successful in helping to address the areas that affect dyslexic individuals. These technologies cannot replace direct intervention, but they can augment a therapy program. Training from a professional may be required to get the best results. These technologies help:
- Accommodate for challenges
- Increase self-confidence at home, in the classroom, or on the job
We update this page as new technologies are developed, so visit often!
- Listening & Notetaking
- Phonics
- Reading, Writing, & Study Support
- Text-to-Speech
- Writing & Spelling
- Online Tools
Listening & Notetaking
Livescribe Smartpen - Various Prices
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Video TutorialSchool age and up
The Livescribe Smartpen will record lectures that you're listening to while you take notes, so you won’t miss any information. You can go back and listen to the recording to fill in any hard-to-clarify areas.
For another great tool from Livescribe, check out the Sky Wi-fi Smartpen.
Other Features
- Good for people with poor handwriting
Note-taking pens: InfoScan 2, InfoScan TS, InfoScan TS Elite
School age and up
With these pens, you can scan up to 20,000 lines of text. Store the information on the device or transfer it to a word processor where the text can be edited. The InfoScan 2 is a simpler version, used only for text storage or transfer, while the TS and TS Elite have more functions. Both the TS and TS Elite have touch screens for easy navigation to find the stored text, while the TS Elite has text-to-speech capabilities, allowing the scanned text to be read out loud.
Reading pens: ReadingPen 2, ReadingPen TS
School age and up
Both of these reading pens have scanning capabilities, but they are designed for reading comprehension. They scan the text, enlarge the font to make it easier to read, read the text out loud, and display syllabic breakdown of the words. The TS has additional features, including games to improve vocabulary, a thesaurus for looking up synonyms, and more.
Vocalyze - Free
School age and up
Functioning as a kind of audio newspaper, Vocalyze is a text-to-speech web streaming technology that reads content from news, entertainment, and sports websites and blogs.
Other Features
- Users can create custom playlists of their favorite news sources
Phonics
Earobics - Various Prices
Ages 4-10
This software offers an individualized learning mechanism to help students with reading difficulties in early elementary school to catch up to their peers. The program focuses on:
- Phonemic awareness
- Phonics
- Vocabulary
- Fluency
- Comprehension
Other Features
- Printable progress reports for parents and teachers
- Customizable according to individual needs
Intensive Phonics at Home - Various Prices
Ages 4-9
Discover Intensive Phonics is a widely used Orton Gillingham approach to reading. It comes with both easily teachable instruction materials and student software.
Read, Write & Type! Learning System - Various Prices
Ages 6-9
This is a reading software program that utilizes a multi-sensory, interactive approach suitable to children with a variety of learning styles. Through the use of colorful games, animation, and music, the program targets a child's:
- Phonemic awareness & phonics
- Reading & writing
- Spelling & typing
Other Features
- Printable progress reports for parents and teachers
- Customizable according to individual needs
Simon S.I.O. (Sound It Out) - Various Prices
Ages 5-13
Simon S.I.O uses a personal tutor to deliver individualized instruction and corrective feedback to ensure students acquire the critical skills they need to become readers. Students practice their learning and increase fluency by:
- Building new words
- Recalling learned words
- Guided spelling
- Discriminating between words
- Reading controlled texts
Sortegories - Various Prices
School age and up
Sortegories, an Orton-based web supplement to the LANGUAGE! curriculum, is designed to help build vocabulary, literacy, and reading comprehension. The software has 36 different units, beginning with basic phonics, and progresses to word- and sentence-building. Sortegories meets The Common Core State Standards.
SPELL-Links - Various Prices
Ages 5-13
This unique program offers specific activities that are tied into a student’s curriculum and that assist students with spelling, reading, and writing. The program emphasizes the five categories of word study:
- Phonological awareness
- Phonics
- Vocabulary
- Word parts and related words
- Mental images of words
Talking Fingers - Various Prices
Ages 5-9
Talking Fingers is an approach to reading and writing in which the typed or written text children create with their fingers is speech made visible. The Talking Fingers method teaches children to link the sounds in words to the appropriate letters and their corresponding keystrokes.
Read more about this on our blog!
WordMaker - Various Prices
Ages 5-13
Students who lack proficient decoding skills struggle to achieve fluency and comprehension. Using varied activities, WordMaker provides a systematic and interactive approach to teaching spelling, reading, and writing skills.
Wordy Qwerty: Foundations for Reading & Writing Fluency - Various Prices
Ages 7-9
Wordy Qwerty, the sequel to Read, Write & Type! Learning System, is designed to refine the foundational phonemic awareness and phonics knowledge students gain while using Read, Write & Type! and increase students’ phonological and morphological sensitivity.
Reading, Writing, and Study Support
Barton Reading and Spelling System - Various Prices
School age and up
This is a one-on-one tutoring system that will improve the spelling, reading, and writing skills of children, teenagers, and adults with dyslexia or another reading disability. The system teaches people how to tutor people with dyslexia. It is a research-based tutoring system that contains all of the essential components of reading instruction required by the No Child Left Behind Act. It is based on Orton-Gillingham.
ClaroRead - Various Prices
School age and up
The ClaroRead line of educational software provides reading and writing support tools for struggling learners, or anyone looking to make the writing process easier. The software includes text to speech, word prediction, spell check, and more in one easy to use program. The software is available for both PC and Mac.
Fast ForWord - Various Prices
School age and up
This program targets the cognitive causes of difficulty for reading. Many people struggle with the ability to break up words into separate sounds, which is one of the basic foundations for reading fluency and comprehension. Fast ForWord targets the phonological basics, helping people improve from the bottom up.
Google Scribe - Free
School age and up
Google Scribe is a tool that will offer you word and phrase suggestions as you type. For example, as you start to type "This works sur-", Google Scribe will suggests "This works surprisingly well", which is hopefully exactly what you wanted. You can use it on any web page that includes text fields.
Other Features
- On-demand mode (only gives suggestions when you press a button)
GrammarCheck - Free
School age and up
This online grammar checker will show (and suggest corrections for) grammar errors in your essay or other written document.
iPad - Various Prices
School age and up
The iPad has several tools and features that can be helpful with learning, such as:
- Touch-screen technology in either portrait or landscape
- Built-in screen reader
- iBook application for reading, listening to, and buying new books
Other Features
- Note application for managing to-do lists
- Calendar application
Nook - Various Prices
School age and up
Barnes and Noble offers its Nook, which has a "read and record" feature that allows you to record your own narration to books. In addition, the Nook has its own set of interactive games.
Kurzweil 3000 - Various Prices
Ages 8 and up
Kurzweil 3000 allows struggling readers to learn the same content as their peers in different ways with this reading, writing and learning software solution. Kurzweil 3000 supports Universal Design for Learning, and offers:
- Fluency
- Vocabulary
- Comprehension
- Writing
- Study skills
- Test-taking support
Other Features
- Text-to-speech capabilities for documents and web pages
- Color highlighters
- Notes and bookmarking
STEPP eTextbooks - Various Prices
School age and up
eBooks are beneficial because of their text-to-speech capabilities. However, they are not always easy to access and can be costly. To overcome this challenge, STEPP: The Student E-Rent Pilot Program has created a rental program for etextbooks that make them affordable and less costly for students.
Text Summarizers for Mac & Windows - Free
School age and up
These text summarizers enable your computer to give you the gist of a body of text. Summarize Word documents, PDF files, and web pages.
Text-to-Speech
Amazon Kindle - Various Prices
School age and up
This portable electronic reading device allows you to electronically read books, newspapers, blogs, and magazines, all of which can be accessed and downloaded wirelessly through the Kindle device.
Classmate Reader - $299
School age and up
The Classmate Reader is a hand-held device that reads textbooks and study materials aloud.
Other Features
- Highlighting capabilities
- Bookmarking
- Customizable reading speed and font size
- Speaking dictionary
FlameReader - Various Prices
School age and up
FlameReader allows you to read text aloud in any computer with customized voice, speed, and pitch. It also converts text to mp3, reads text in other applications, and can translate between seven different languages.
Intel Reader - $599
School age and up
The Intel Reader is a hand-held, mobile text-to-speech device that highlights the words while reading aloud. The reader can:
- Take a picture of text to have read aloud
- Jump to specific pages
- See the actual document from which the text was scanned
Other Features
- Customizable voice speed
- Can play and produce mP3s to transfer to other devices
Narrator - Free
School age and up
Narrator is a screen reader that reads text on the screen aloud and describes events like error messages so you can use your PC without a display.
Natural Reader - Various Prices
School age and up
This text-to-speech program assists with reading by converting text on web pages, in e-mails, PDF files, and in applications like Microsoft Word to words spoken in a natural voice.
Other Features
- Can convert text into MP3 and WAV files
Read: OutLoud 6 - Various Prices
School age and up
This program makes it easy to provide access to the new electronic books required in IDEA, and the included web browser makes the internet fully accessible. It provides accessibility supports like text-to-speech and study tools that help you read with comprehension.
Universal Reader - $59.95
School age and up
This software can both read and translate any piece of text in a computer application. It can be used with Microsoft Word, email, and web pages.
Verbose - Various Prices
School age and up
Verbose is an easy and convenient text-to-speech converter that can read aloud or save spoken text to mp3 files.
Write Out Loud - Various Prices
School age and up
This text-to-speech program has the essential tools to help its users spell and choose words correctly. The program allows its users to easily create error-free word documents and easily integrates with CoWriter.
Writing & Spelling Software
CoWriter - Various Prices
School age and up
This simple-to-use software corrects and offers suggestions for basic spelling and grammar mistakes when its user inputs words into web pages, e-mails, and applications like Microsoft Word. This software easily integrates with Write Out Loud.
Draft:Builder - Various Prices
School age and up
Draft:Builder 6 helps struggling writers produce their best possible work by breaking down the writing process into three simple steps:
- Brainstorming ideas
- Jotting down notes
- Creating a first draft
Dragon Naturally Speaking - Various Prices
School age and up
This program allows its users to create documents up to three times faster than normal typists by using voice dictation technology. The program is compatible with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and AOL.
Franklin - Various Prices
School age and up
This handheld electronic device helps individuals with spelling, definitions, synonyms/antonyms, as well as a variety of other features. There is also a text-to-speech option.
Ghotit - Various Prices
School age and up
Ghotit Real-Writer Pro for Mac and Windows is a text editor and contextual spell checker geared towards users with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and English Language Learners (ELL).
Other Features
- Text-to-speech
- Grammar and punctuation corrector
- Word prediction and proofreading tools
- Built-in dictionary
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Ginger Software - Free
School age and up
Ginger Software is an advanced spell-check program. Instead of checking a document word by word, the program checks each sentence for clarity. It places the corrected sentence next to the original sentence, so the user can check them against each other. The product requires an internet connection and is compatible with Microsoft Word and Outlook.
Other Features
- Text-to-speech
Inspiration - Various Prices
Ages 11-18
Inspiration 9 allows its users to visually map out papers and presentations before the writing process begins. The program has tools to create notes, organize different facets of information into outlines, and ultimately, to use this information to create refined presentations that easily communicate ideas to an audience.
Kidspiration - Various Prices
Ages 5-8
Inspiration 3 is a tool that integrates thinking, literacy, and mathematical skills with visual learning. The student creates maps, diagrams, and webs in the “picture view” and then expands them into the “writing view” and adds to the outline. The “math view” allows the student to use visual tools to understand mathematical concepts, like fractions.
WordQ - Various Prices
School age and up
WordQ is a tool designed for students who have difficulty with writing. It suggests words while the user writes, creating easy word-flow. It also gives spoken feedback, which makes it easier for students to detect their mistakes and correct them.
Other Features
- Microphone function for dictation
- Clears up confusion between similar-sounding words such as their, there, and they're
- App available for the iPad
Online Tools
InstaGrok - Free
School age and up
InstaGrok is an interactive, visual way of learning about any topic imaginable. Search for what you want to learn about, and an interactive concept map pops up with your topic and related fields to create a comprehensive learning atmosphere. In addition, InstaGrok provides a scrolling list of definitions and examples of the topic, an annotated search guide for related subjects, and images and videos of the topic.
Keybr.com - Free
School age and up
Keybr.com can help you learn to type better and faster. It has three basic lessons (plus a "custom" mode), and the software keeps track of all of your mistakes and your words–per–minute (wpm). It even creates graphs of your day–by–day performance.
mySchoolNotebook.com - Free
School age and up
mySchoolNotebook.com is an online tool that lets you organize and share your class schedule. Sign in with your Facebook account, and begin sharing your class schedule and class notes with your friends.
Notes.io - Free
School age and up
Notes.io is an online tool designed for quick note-taking and sharing. You can quickly type, save, and archive any notes you take and share them via a shortened URL.
On Screen Ruler - Free
School age and up
This tool helps you follow a line of text on screen to help you with reading of following large tables and lists of data.
Shape Math - $200/year
School age and up
Shape Math uses pictures and shapes to help you do simple mathematic equations, calculate tips at a restaurant, or do mental math. The shape mathematical operations are worked around the base-10 number system, making it easy to do mental math — including more difficult multiplication and division — on the spot without times tables. Each shape represents a different number, and together, they add up to a square, the shape representative of the number 10. Shape Math was developed by a dyslexic.
Todo.ly - Free
School age and up
Todo.ly is an intuitive and easy-to-use online to-do list and task manager. Create to-do lists, organize them into projects, and manage them online, from anywhere.
