In order to effectively recommend adaptive technology software to individuals with reading and writing challenges it is essential to understand the nature and complexity of the leaning difficulty. Here are four case studies to illustrate how to assess learning difficulties and match them to adaptive technology to accommodate for specific learning needs.
Raveen is a 42 year old man with a learning disability. He has difficulty with decoding and reading comprehension. He also has difficulty transferring learned information in new situations. Raveen is most challenged when he is faced with a lot of print material and seems to be easily overwhelmed.
Raveen could not visually distinguish the difference between “p” and “q”, He would lose his place frequently and had difficulty with sound/ symbol relationships. In this case, Raveen could understand text read aloud when he was not under pressure.
An individual, like Raveen who is able to understand text read aloud can use screen readers or text to speech software to read text. (A person who can’t process aural information may benefit from tools that present information in a more graphic manner such as Inspiration and others.)
Raveen was introduced to Kurzweil 3000 as an accommodation for his reading difficulties. Kurzweil quickly became a well-used tool for large volumes of text that Raveen wanted to read. He would go online to access electronic text documents to read and brought in magazines and books to scan in for future reading. Raveen really benefited from Kurzweil 3000, because it uses a multi-sensory approach by providing information both visually and aurally. Raveen was able to highlight and save difficult text, so that he could read it over several times before moving on. Over time Raveen’s reading comprehension improved along with his spelling and grammar skills.
Tracy is a 26 year old woman with a developmental disability. She lives with her parents and attends a local literacy program two times a week. Tracy is interested in writing about her life, but finds it daunting to put pen to paper. Tracy struggles with the proper use of grammar and syntax, punctuation, spelling, organizational skills, and initiating writing. She is easily overwhelmed by the task of writing.
Some of Tracy’s misspellings not only come from lack of knowledge of the word but she often replaces one letter for another such as a “b” for a “d”. Individuals like Tracy who have to work extremely hard to put words down on paper often lose comprehension, fluency, and their ideas when writing.