Dyslexia is the most widely known reading disorder worldwide, according to the Intertational Association Dyslexia, it is estimated that between 15% and 20% of the population has some symptoms of dyslexia.
The main symptoms are difficulty in recognizing words and affects fluency in reading, spelling and writing. This causes complications in schooling, relationships with others and self-perception, so it is necessary to address their special needs.
Today this is possible, thanks to the tools for students with dyslexia, which allow to transform their learning experiences and mediate a more successful teaching process. In this post we present some of the most valuable ones in 2024 and their features.
Students with dyslexia find it difficult to read, write and develop reading comprehension, tools for students with dyslexia facilitate the process of acquiring these knowledge and skills.
These tools can accompany students throughout their studies and later in the work or professional area, but they have a very special meaning in their first years of study: they give them independence.
For example, with text-to-speech tools, they will be able to work on their reading fluency and will not depend on teachers, specialists or family members to read to them.
And who doesn't have a smartphone or tablet? With word prediction and dictation all students will be able to improve spelling, or use mind mapping software to organize ideas.
To get more out of them it is necessary to know what the specific difficulties are and thus design personalized learning experiences, possibly a combination of the tools that we are going to present below.
There are many different tools, based on the learning needs of students, we have classified them into four different groups and identified a selection of the most useful ones, as shown below.
Also known as TTS, they are AI programs to convert almost any written material to speech, making it easier to listen and understand the content, they highlight in this group:
Natural Reader is designed to make it easier for students with dyslexia and other learning difficulties to read and understand content presented in spoken or written form.
It offers customizable, multilingual natural reading voices in over 40 languages and has word-by-word highlighting, enlarged font sizes and flexible speeds. It is free to use and has more advanced features starting at $9.99 per month.
Read&Write is a Google Chrome extension to listen to any text that appears on the screen. It has grammar check functions, writing prediction and a dictionary with images to learn the meaning of unknown words.
In addition, with its vocabulary function you can create glossaries and, with the underliners, extract important information from any text. It is a free-to-use tool.
It is a transcription platform and offers the opposite, i.e. conversion of audio files to text. It makes it easy for students to write content and they will be able to edit fonts, sizes and change colors.
Whit ScriptMe Lite you have access to unlimited transcription services in more than 30 languages.
This group of software allows the user to notice the mistakes made when writing, it is a very important help to write correctly. Among the most outstanding tools are:
Grammarly offers advanced grammar and spelling suggestions, makes it easy to rewrite complete sentences and write fluently in English.
Its error detection feature is very robust, offers suggestions and guidelines to correct errors in real time, and explains each error in detail to help you learn and improve your writing. It can be used for free, offering a Premium version with more features for $12 per month.
Ginger has a dyslexia-friendly interface, includes sentence rephrasing options and predicts possible errors.
It highlights its error correction function with more than 100 grammar checkpoints and offers useful explanations to learn from each error. It has a free version and plans starting at $4.99 per month.
QuillBot is one of the most useful tools for students with dyslexia, offering a paraphrasing tool to help rephrase complex sentences into simpler forms of language.
Additionally, QuillBot Flow makes it easy to do research, make citations, and generate ideas for writing and outlining. It has a free version and a Premium version for $4.17 per month.
These tools facilitate the acquisition and development of writing skills through a series of resources and functions that simplify the entire learning process, the most outstanding ones:
Co:Writer offers features such as predictive text, grammar checks and an interface adapted for people with dyslexia through color overlays and customizable fonts.
It has over 5 million thematic dictionaries, momentary dictionaries to extract vocabulary, and auditory feedback while typing and reviewing. It is an app and can be downloaded for free.
TextAid targets writers with dyslexia with features such as voice dictation, grammar suggestions, spelling suggestions and a thesaurus designed specifically for people with dyslexia.
It also has a text-as-you-read highlighter, marker to highlight content in different colors, select reading speed, font size and typeface (includes OpenDyslexic). It offers flexible and customized pricing starting at $4 per month.
Equatio is from Google Chrome and allows you to write mathematical equations using a pen-to-text interface, or by dictating any expression. It is particularly useful for students who have difficulty with written mathematical notation.
The tool has scientific calculator and also makes it easy to create and customize graphs, plot ordered pairs, point table and more. It is free to use for 30 days, after which you can choose to pay for a license.
These are other essentially useful tools for students with dyslexia, helping them to order their ideas and understand concepts better, as well as promoting long-term memory. In this group, the following stand out:
MindMeister provides an easy-to-use interface for creating mind maps with visual, text and audio notes.
It makes it easy to organize ideas, add icons and emojis, highlight important points and make connections between topics. It has a basic plan and education plans starting at $1.50.
Coggle makes it easy to study collaboratively and organize ideas. You can choose from a variety of ways to create flowcharts, process maps and other diagrams.
It is easy to use and you can drag and drop images onto diagrams, add text labels and much more. It is free for occasional use, more advanced options start at $5 per month.
XMind focuses on mind mapping and is feature-packed with various templates and customization options, it is suitable for more advanced users.
It has a variety of icons to identify priorities, assignment of tasks, inclusion of text in notes that can be expanded, labels for categorization, notation and more. It has a free basic plan and special prices for students.
Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs and many other relevant figures in the history of mankind have in common having been people with dyslexia. It means that dyslexia certainly implies difficulties in learning, but it does not prevent studying and achieving success.
Especially today, with all the tools for students with dyslexia that we have presented.. Selecting the most appropriate ones requires knowing the students' needs and taking into account their level of maturity, to ensure that they can learn to use them.
If you work in an educational context, always remember to make the appropriate adaptations to equalize learning and assessment conditions for these students, they require more flexible environments and the formation of a support network.
