1. New Apps in Action for LD:
Enhancing Input and Output.
EDUC 5163 P4
Karen Dumay dumay7@gmail.com
Emily Gabriel egabreil@staff.ednet.ns.ca
Mary MacDonald marmacdo@staff.ednet.ns.ca
Melanie O’Leary moleary31@yahoo.com
2. Learning Disabilities refer to a variety of disorders that
Learning affect the acquisition, retention, understanding or use of
verbal and/or non-verbal information. These disorders
Disabilities result from impairments in one or more psychological
processes related to “learning” in combination with
otherwise average abilities essential for thinking and
reasoning.
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=VdIyC48iXEY
Learning disabilities range in severity, interfere with
acquisition and use of one or more of the following skills:
•Oral language (eg., listening, speaking,
understanding).
•Reading (e.g., decoding, comprehension)
•Written language (e.g., spelling, written
expression)
•Mathematics
(Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario, 2001 )
3. New Apps in Action for LD: Enhancing
Input and Output.
Emily – Reading Comprehension
Karen – 7 Notes Premium
Mary – Tools4Students
Melanie – AppWriter US
4. Reading Comprehension
Different levels of reading
for students
Can use it for reading
groups as well.
Speech selection works
with this
◦ Makes it especially useful
for students who may have
difficulty reading
independently.
Use it as an assessment
tool.
Versatile, lots of different
subjects.
5. Mastering Sight Words
Teaching sight
words in context and
through repetition
App maximizes
word exposure
Level 1 and Level 2
6. 7 Notes Premium
By: 7knowledge International Corporation
Technology is here to stay.
However, it is not present in
all of Nova Scotia schools.
The traditional way of
teaching (pen, paper and
heavy textbooks) is not
meeting the needs of all
learners. Students
regardless of their learning
abilities need to have the
chance to be successful in
their learning.
This APP can be
downloaded on one’s iPod at
a minimum cost of $4.99 or
on one’s iPad for $8.99.
7. Strengths Weaknesses
- Word prediction - Does not have text to
- Spell Check speech
- Edit text - Does not recognize
- Add visuals personal handwriting (?)
- Stylus (optional) - Cannot transfer data from
Word document
LD students who have limited writing skills will benefit a great deal from using
the 7 Notes Premium. The App can help LD students keep up with note taking
while allowing them to add some visual aids. The more personalized students’
notes are the easier it is to review them at a later date. Students with severe
LD will need assistance using this App as it requires some prior
knowledge/skills:
1) Research skills
2) Effective Grammar skills (sentence structure)
3) Dexterity (need to use stylus or finger)
8. • Tools 4 Students is an incredibly useful iPod Touch /
iPad App.
• Supports students written output.
• 25 different editable graphic organisers to organise
students thinking and comprehend new information.
99¢ • Supports organization, story preplanning by covering
common comprehension skills: cause /effect, main
idea/detail, sequence events, pro/con, story
elements, characterization, word meaning, plot, KWL
and much more.
• Students can save their work on their iPad, or email
completed organisers to their teacher, who can share
them via Google Docs, or print them off. The app can
also be projected onto an whiteboard for whole-class
demonstrations and activities. An added bonus is that
this App doesn’t require the WiFi to work.
10. Features of AppWriter US
• Only for iPad with i0S5
AppWriter US • Costs $19.99 (but well worth the money).
• Supports both reading (input) and writing
(output) through:
Below is a demonstration showing
many of the features offered. 1. Text to speech
http://www.youtube.com/ 2. Best to date word prediction supports
watch?v=KEi0l5Tyrfk students with
3. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) –
scan text and make it machine readable
Below is a demonstration showing how supports
the feature Dyslexie works.
4. Highlights text as reads aloud
http://www.joachim-
5. Special dyslexie font
scholz.com/academipad/
6. Can email, send to drop box and import
2012/05/09/appwriter-
into an APP
learning-disabilities/
11. AppWriter Us supports students with:
•ADD,
• ADHD,
•Asperger’s Syndrome,
•Central Auditory Processing Disorder
(would need to use ear buds),
•Dysgraphia,
•Dyslexia,
•Dyspraxia,
•Visual Discrimination,
•Visual Figure-Ground Discrimination,
•Visual Memory,
•Visual Motor Processing,
•Visual Spatial Difficulties
•Visual Sequencing.
