Newsletter 12 Dyslexia Courses Ireland: Update on digital copies of textbooks from educational publishers
Newsletter No 12 January 2022
· Dyslexia Association of Ireland Study Skills webinars.
· Educational textbooks available on Bookshare Ireland.
· NEPs Booklet on Effective Interventions for Struggling Readers.
· OAKA - Additional Science Revision packs.
· OAKA – Games to help with learning key facts in Map Skills and Science
· Reading Progress in Microsoft Teams to improve student reading fluency.
· Teaching Science to Dyslexic Children and Teens: a new book.
· TTRS Touch type, Read and Spell - available for free in Library system.
· Courses for Teachers, both in-service for whole school staff and through the Education Centres.
Dyslexia Association of Ireland Study Skills Webinars
The DAI have uploaded webinars onto Youtube at this link https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UUbySl72M3zig6qxZRWTNw0w.
They include:
· 6 webinars on Study Skills with very practical advice for students with dyslexia.
· Self Esteem and Well Being in our Young People with Dyslexia.
· Transition to Secondary School.
· Preparing and Writing assignments.
· Webinars on aspects of Assistive Technology such as the C PEN Reader Pen, Text to Speech, Speech to text, My Study Bar, etc.
Educational textbooks available on Bookshare Ireland
Bookshare Ireland is the largest accessible library in the country available for all people with visual impairment or print disabilities. The service is available to students with dyslexia. Launched in November 2019, it is a partnership between the National Council of the Blind and the Department of Education and Skills. It is a free service for those who qualify with over half a million books, which are available in a range of formats including audio, digital Braille, Word, and PDF. For the student with dyslexia, the EasyReaderApp facilitates dyslexia friendly fonts, increased size of font, highlighting text etc. it is also possible to access audio recordings of books. CJ Fallon and Edco have their books available on Bookshare and Folens are in the processing of making them available. The other publishers are likely to follow.
NEPs Booklet on Effective Interventions for Struggling Readers
The 2019 version of the Booklet on Effective Interventions for Struggling Readers is available at https://assets.gov.ie/24811/6899cf6091fb4c3c8c7fce50b6252ec2.pdf. It aims to help teachers by sharing information about evidence-based approaches to teaching reading to struggling readers. It also encompasses all students with reading difficulties, including those who have dyslexia (specific learning difficulties), as well as those who have made poor progress in reading and may or may not have additional general learning difficulties.
There is a section that describes the different approaches that have been found to work in Irish schools including links to seeing them in action in schools. They include:
· Reading Recovery
· Literacy Lift-Off
· Edmark
· Acceleread/ Accelewrite
· Paired Reading
· Toe by Toe & Toe by Toe with Oral Guided Reading
· Precision Teaching and SNIP
· Wordsworth
· ARROW
· The Wilson Reading System
· Catch-Up Literacy
· Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies
· Accelerated Reader
· SRA Reading Labs
· Data-informed Intervention
OAKA - Additional Science Revision packs www.oakabooks.co.uk
I have mentioned Oaka revision packs before. Bambi Gardiner and her husband set up Oaka Books because there were no text books that their dyslexic daughter could work with. Written by experienced science teachers and SEN experts, they are perfect for visual learners; designed for dyslexics (complete with phonetic spellings and packed with illustrations) but are effective for all pupils. Topic packs include a topic booklet, workbook and Q&A cards for effective active learning.
The revision packs cover Science, Geography and French.
They have just published more revision packs. Topics in Science now are:
· Cell Biology
· Cardiovascular and Respiratory Systems
· Rates of Reaction
· Enzymes
· Osmosis
· Kidney functions
· Chemical Analysis
· Electrolytic Processes
· Electroplating and Purifying with Electrolysis
· Writing word Equations
· The Periodic Table
· Preparing insoluble Salts
· Momentum and Collisions
· Thermal Energy Processes
· Chemical Titration
OAKA – Games to help with learning key facts in Map Skills and Science
Oaka have also developed games to help with learning key facts. They include
· Pairs Card games https://www.oakabooks.co.uk/collections/pairs-games in Physics, Biology and Chemistry. Simple matching games to help in memorising key definitions and facts.
· Board games https://www.oakabooks.co.uk/collections/board-games which include:
o A Map Skills board game
o Board games for Physics, Biology and Chemistry.
Reading Progress in Microsoft Teams to improve student reading fluency
Reading Progress is a free tool designed to support educators in creating personalized reading experiences that build confidence and reading fluency in their students. Built into Assignments in Teams, Reading Progress passages are easy to create and differentiate for impactful instruction.
Reading Progress is free and built-in to Microsoft Teams Assignments and works on all platforms, including Desktop, Mac, web, iOS and Android. Educators upload a single reading fluency passage or differentiate for their class’ many levels. Students read their passages out loud, creating a recording teachers can access and review at their convenience. Creating recordings allows educators to check students’ progress more regularly while also freeing up time for active instruction. By empowering students to complete their reading fluency assignments regularly and independently, Reading Progress keeps the focus on practice and growth, not performing under pressure.
Teaching Science to Dyslexic Children and Teens: a new book
Hudson D. Exploring Science with Dyslexic Children and Teens: Creative multi sensory ideas, games, and activities to support learning. Jessica Kingsley Publishers (2021)
The writer Diana Hudson says ‘The book begins by describing the strengths and weaknesses of creative thinkers who have dyslexia. It outlines the reasons that they may struggle in science and gives examples of specific areas of the school science curriculum that are often very challenging for them…It is, however, possible for them to learn and excel in science if a more creative and multi-sensory approach is taken…” Diana has an added advantage as a teacher of dyslexic students (and teacher of teachers who teach dyslexic students!) because she is dyslexic herself.
This book is a collection of ideas, activities and approaches for science learning, to support kids with learning differences aged 9+ to grow in confidence, recall and understanding. The multi-sensory and fun ideas and activities can be adapted to suit individual students’ needs and skills, and curriculum stage. Written by an experienced science teacher, the book includes mnemonics, art, drama and poetry activities, board games, card games, and more. All of these strategies will aid neurodiverse students’ science learning and memory through boosting their creative thinking, encouraging a play-based and exploratory approach to science.
TTRS Touch Type, Read And Spell https://www.readandspell.com/us/about
For over 25 years, TTRS has offered a comprehensive, multi-sensory, touch-typing course based on a structured program of phonics with word lists based on the Alpha to Omega Programme. The program aims to build literacy skills and increase confidence and self-esteem in users as they master the art of keyboarding. In addition to developing typing skills, TTRS is designed to benefit students of all ages who experience spelling, reading or writing difficulties. Learners with dyslexia or literacy issues have found it helpful. The course has a user-friendly interface and, from the very start of the course, students are prompted and talked through what to do, for example: where to place their fingers on the keyboard etc.
It is now available for free through the Libraries across the county. All that is needed is that the user is a member of a library. They then get a username and password and can use it on a computer at home or in school.
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Courses for Teachers: both in-service for whole school staff and through the Education Centres.
We continue to offer schools in-service for the whole school staff. At the moment it is offered as a zoom webinar. It is an hour in length and costs €200.
In January/February we are presenting some courses on dyslexia through the Education Support Centres.
Wyn McCormack
Dyslexia Courses Ireland
www.dyslexiacourses.ie; Email:
Dyslexia Courses Ireland
W: www.dyslexiacourses.ie E:
Update on how to access digital copies of textbooks January 2022
Wyn McCormack
Digital copies of books are very useful for students with dyslexia as it enables them to see and hear the text. The educational publishers make digital copies of textbooks available. It may be the PDF file of the book with images and graphics stripped out or the eBook version.
There is a problem with the integration of iPad assistive technology software with some eBook versions of textbooks. This may mean the book cannot be read aloud on the device. However the educational publishers are working to overcome this incompatibility. This article describes the situation as of January 2022.
Bookshare Ireland is the largest accessible library in the country available for all people with visual impairment or print disabilities. The service is available to students with dyslexia. Launched in November 2019, it is a partnership between the National Council of the Blind and the Department of Education and Skills. It is a free service for those who qualify with over half a million books, which are available in a range of formats including audio, digital Braille, Word, and PDF. For the student with dyslexia, the EasyReaderApp facilitates dyslexia friendly fonts, increased size of font, highlighting text etc. it is also possible to access audio recordings of books. CJ Fallon and Edco have their books available on Bookshare and Folens and Gill are in the processing of making them available. The other publishers are likely to follow.
If the student would benefit from having the book read aloud, an alternative solution is the use of a scanning pen/reading pen. There are two types of reading pen, the C Pen and the Exam Reader. The C Pen Reader reads text aloud or through headphones. It can also scan and store text and has a dictionary feature. The Exam Reader is a reading pen with only the scan and read facility. The Exam Reader has been accepted by the SEC as a reasonable accommodation in State exams in 2018. Both are available from Ed Tech in Ireland (www.edtech.ie/details.asp?id=16331&ptid=20151). Schools can request a 30 day free trial of the pens from Scanningpens www.scanningpens.co.uk.
The Irish Educational Publishers Association (IEPA) have a Special Needs Access Request Form (SNAR) for students who require access to digital versions of textbooks. This form must be submitted to IEPA members via the following email addresses:
· Edco –
· Educate.ie –
· Fallons –
· Folens –
· Forum –
· Foras na Gaeilge –
· Gill Education –
· Mentor –
· Prim-Ed –
· Veritas –
This form lists the book titles and the format requested, for example, eBook or PDF. It needs to be signed by the school principal and parent/guardian. Some publishers also send an educational agreement to be signed.
CJ Fallon
The process for accessing digital copies of textbooks is outlined below. However their books are also available through Bookshare Ireland.
· If contacted by teacher or parent, CJ Fallon will create and assign an eBook account free of charge for textbooks used in the classroom. If they feel it is being abused, they can revoke the access. The books are same as the printed version.
· The full range of books is accessible, so it is possible to buy revision eBooks.
· They are working on integration with the iPad assistive technology. Access presently is as follows:
On iPad, go to Setting >General>Accessibility>Speech> Turn on Speak Selection. Next open a title in your CJFallonReader app, go to a page you want to read, next click the settings icon on the top right of screen and click on ‘Text Only’, select the text you want read aloud and from the menu provided click speak.
EDCO
Edco offers students a free eBook with their printed textbooks. It comes with a bank of free digital resources allows students to access their e-book both at school or at home. Ebooks must first be redeemed on www.edcolearning.ie/code using the code on the inside of the physical book before they can be downloaded into the Edco Learning app. Full instructions are located above the code in the physical textbook and additional support can be found on www.edcolearning.ie/support.
Books can be accessed through the Edco Learning app which is available to download free of charge download from the App Store for iPad, Google Playstore for Android and Windows Store for Windows 8 and Windows 10. Users who want to access the books on a different operating system can do so through the Edco Learning web app which is available at www.edcolearning.ie. Both the Edco Learning iPad app and the Edco Learning Web App include text-to-speech functionality within the platform itself, a first for any Irish educational publisher’s platform.
Educate.ie
Free eBooks are supplied with the printed version of their books but these do not read the text aloud.
Educate.ie does provide PDF versions of textbooks via download for the benefit of pupils with reading difficulties. The format of the PDF is a full text copy of the book, in the same layout as printed book. Due to copyright, these files are solely for use by the pupil for whom they are authorised. The pupil should have an original printed copy of the book being used in this way.
There is an application form (SNAR) to be completed, which can be returned to Educate.ie via email. There is no additional charge for this service.
Folens
Folens are more than happy to assist students that have special educational requirements, and are very proud to be working with Bookshare Ireland in providing this service.
This is available for all students with special educational requirements. This includes visual impairments, learning difficulties or a physical disability that limits a person's ability to read standard print, and is compatible with smartphones, tablets, Chromebooks computers, and assistive technologies devices.
For Primary books, click here to get started: NCBI Bookshare
For Post-Primary books, please reply to this email with your full name and the names of books that you require. We are still working with NCBI in making post-primary content available via Bookshare Ireland, and we are hoping to have this ready soon.
Gill
Gill ask that a “Gill Education Agreement and SNAR Form” be filled up and signed. They will then make the PDF versions or eBook versions of their textbooks available.
PROCESS FOR REQUESTING A PDF
If a student is using read-aloud software or other assistive technologies, a PDF copy is provided free of charge. PDFs are compatible with most read-aloud software including ReadWriteGold, Dragon Naturally Speaking and Claroread. A link to the PDF files for the books requested will be emailed or the PDF's will be will be posted out. To arrange a free PDF, please complete and sign the “Gill Education Agreement and SNAR Form” and send the completed forms to Anne Sophie Blytmann by email or by post:
· Email:
· Post: Anne Sophie Blytmann, Production Department, Gill Education, Hume Avenue, Park West, D12 YV96
PROCESS FOR REQUESTING AN EBOOK
Our eBooks are compatible with PC, Android and iOS devices. Please note these are not read-aloud and cannot be used with read-aloud software (unlike the PDF version).
To arrange a free eBook, please complete and sign the “Gill Education Agreement and SNAR Form” and send the completed forms to the Digital Support Team at
Mentor
There is an application form (SNAR) to be completed, which can be returned to Mentor Books.ie (Educate.ie via email). There is no additional charge for this service.
At present the eBooks cannot be read aloud on iPad/Tablet unless the student has installed such software themselves. To access reading aloud, Mentor will provide a pdf and, if the student has software on their laptop, it can be read back.