Jessica Sergio

SPE 303: Dyslexia Assignment

Professor McConville
October 8th 2014

Summary #1 --- Schools Test E-Reader Devices with Dyslexic Students

Educators are trying to meet all students needs. The question is if the
technology helping students with reading difficulties is effective. Technology is
increasing in todays society and children are using technology every day. There are
many educators that say e-book readers are helpful. Many students are
comfortable with technology and may prefer to read text on an e-reader rather than
from a printed book (Ash 2010). One research study found that a small group
increased their word meaning and increased in word reading in kindergarten/ 1st
grade when using digital readers. A program specialist also used e- book readers
with an 8th and 9th grade special education students and found that it allowed the
students to be independent and read without receiving help from an adult. Many
like the idea of students with dyslexia using E-books to help them with
comprehension of text, fluency, and vocabulary. There are many other features on
the e-book that are beneficial as well to students. E- books are part of the technology
increasing in schools. However, a possible drawback of e-books is that students
cannot skim the book to get headings for their organization of thoughts.

Summary #2 ----Technology Integration for Students with Dyslexia

This article described the plan of a Texas committee on technology, which
created a plan that demonstrated the benefits of technology in the classroom,

different technology that can be used to assist students and methodology for the
technology. The author discussed how technology played a major role in students
education. Section 1 discussed decision teams to help provide the correct assistive
technology to students with disabilities. Technology such as computer-mediated
instruction and synthesized speech helped many students with disabilities. The
technology was supposed to aid students but not take place of instruction. A
decision team had to remember what they want a student to learn and if the
technology useful for learning. Educators had to determine if technology is the
correct approach for certain students. Therefore, educators used framework such as
SET, Matching Person and Technology and TechMatrix. Technology was used to help
students with dyslexia and other disabilities become successful in academic subjects
and become successful in the future. Section 2 had to deal with technology that will
help students such as auto summary, readability and speech recognition. Section 3
mentioned how teachers should attend training such as online courses; wiki/blogs
to help students with dyslexia operate technological devices and support them. The
article also stated how teachers have to plan ahead and organize what was
happening so they could implementation the technology nicely.

Summary #3------ Computer Assisted Instruction to Prevent Early Reading

Difficulties in Students at Risk for Dyslexia: Outcomes from Two Instructional
Approaches
In this article they compared two computer assisted instructional programs
with first grade students who had poor reading skills. Research showed that there
was no difference between intervention conditions but combined intervention was a

little bit better for the experimental groups than for the control group. There were
differences in topics such as phonemic awareness, decoding and reading
comprehension. Research showed that 100 or more sessions (25-173 hours) of
instruction could help students with reading difficulties. There were positive
benefits of computer technology for students with dyslexia and other disabilities
because it provided highly specialized instruction for low cost. The two programs in
this research were Read, Write, and Type and The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing
Program for Reading, Spelling, and Speech. Each program had to do with reading
and comprehending text. The students in 1st grade who scored in the bottom 35%
of a letter- sound knowledge test were in these groups, 36 in each computer
program group and 40 in the control group. Students spent about 80 hours in a year
in their group. The RWT program focused on beginning alphabetic reading skills
through engaging in writing and spelling activities (Torgesen, Wagner, Rashotte,
Herron, & Lindamood, 2010, p. [Page 4]). and touch-typing. With the LIPS program,
students worked on leading children to discover and label the articulatory gestures
associated with each phoneme. There were three teachers for each group that
received 12 students each in 2 years. Teachers needed to complete training to run
these intervention programs.
Some of the major results were that the students who received the
interventions continued to do better than those in the control group on all the
variables (Torgesen, Wagner, Rashotte, Herron, & Lindamood, 2010, p. [Page 6]).
It showed that students that were in the LIPS intervention did a little bit better in
reading. Students in these interventions did better than control groups at the end of

2nd grade in all areas. The researchers were still not sure if computer based or
teacher based intervention played an impact on being successful because all
students received both types of instruction. They were not sure if the computer
programs would work by themselves as an intervention to improve reading skills
(Torgesen, Wagner, Rashotte, Herron, & Lindamood, 2010, p. [Page 7]).

Class Description

The classroom is a first grade inclusion classroom in the Bridgewater-Raritan School

District at Adamsville School. In the classroom, there are 20 students, 11 girls and 9
boys. There is one general education teacher, one special education teacher, and an
aide. The aide assists a boy with cerebral palsy all day. There are five other students
with IEPs in the classroom as well. Three students have dyslexia. One student has
behavioral problems and another student has ADHD. This is a very diverse class
with all different cultural backgrounds, there are Hispanic, Chinese, Asian, Caucasian
and Indian students in the group. The strengths of the whole class are the students
are very friendly towards one another and they are all excellent problem solvers.
The challenges of this class are they are very talkative at times and often call out.

Objective #1

Students with dyslexia will be able to operate technology (e-book readers)

independently to aid them with reading and writing tasks.

1. Using e-book readers to help students with dyslexia with word meanings and
word readings.
2. Using e-book readers will help students with dyslexia comprehension skills.

Objective #2

Students with dyslexia will able to write about what they read by using a writing
technology application.
1. Use Dragon Dictation to write about what is being read
2. Make a concept map (kidspiration) to help them gather their ideas about a
book they read.
3. Use audio recorder in order to facilitate note taking.

CEC Standard #1 and #5

Special education teachers have CEC Standards to follow. The CEC standards
focus on learner development and individual Learning Differences, learning
environments, curricular content knowledge, assessment, instructional planning
and strategies, professional learning and practice, and collaboration.

The two ones station I am going to focus on are learner development and
individual learning differences and instructional planning and strategies. First, I
started off by looking at the class description I made and noticing that I have six
students with IEPs in my classroom. Then I decided to make objectives that would
help my three students with dyslexia. I choose objectives that I thought the students
could achieve and find helpful. I gave the students with dyslexia a chance to use all
different kinds of technology. One student with dyslexia may find one piece of
technology, such as LIPs, that works for them while another student may find
another technology such as RWT works better for them. E-readers might benefit
students because it promotes independence and sometimes increasing word
meaning. As a special educator, I have to accommodate individual learning
differences and find something that works for each child with special needs. I also
need to understand a childs family background and see how parents support and
encourage their child to use technology.
Not only is CEC standard #1 important but CEC standard #5 is important as
well. I have to take into consideration what the childs abilities are when choosing a
technology device that I think they should use to assist them every day. I will adjust
the technology I give based on the students needs. As another part of CEC standard
#5 it talks about how beginning special education professional using technologies to
support instructional assessment, planning, and delivery for individuals. I will work
with the students and see if they understand how to use it, work with them and
show them how to use it. If the technology is too hard for them to operate on their
own, I may switch what technology they are using. There are many listed in the
Technology Integration for Students with Dyslexia article such as auto summary,
contrast or color display, speed of the keystrokes, text to speech, learning ally and

many more. If one technology application does not work, there is probably another
application that will help a student. I will work with the students to find a program
that meet their needs. A variety of assistive technology will help students with
dyslexia. As a special educator, I will make sure I know about many different types,
and if I do not know some assistive technology, I will do research on technology to
see if I can the technology that will benefit my students.

References
Ash, K. (2010, October 15). Schools Test E-Reader Devices With Dyslexic Students.
Retrieved October 5, 2014, from
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2010/10/20/01dyslexia.h04.html
Technology Integration for Students with Dyslexia. (2013, May 13). Retrieved October 5,
2014, from http://www.region10.org/dyslexia/techplan/
Torgesen, J. K., Wagner, R. K., Rashotte, C. A., Herron, J., & Lindamood, P. (2010).
Computer Assisted Instruction to Prevent Early Reading Difficulties in Students
at Risk for Dyslexia: Outcomes from Two Instructional Approaches. Annals of
Dyslexia, 60(1). Retrieved from EBSCO Full Text database.