The SPELD Technology CentreSoftware can make a huge difference to students’ learning. The excellent software shown below has been carefully evaluated by the SPELD Computer Committee and can been seen and tried in the Technology Resource Centre by appointment or at a Taster Session or Hands-on Workshop.
The following information has been compiled by the SPELD Computer Committee.
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Tools to assist Literacy for older individuals
Texthelp R & W 9 Standard
Upper primary, Secondary and Adults.
For writing, reading and more.
Read & Write 9 is a discreet, integrated solution for any person with literacy needs. It has been designed as a “floating” toolbar that will help improve reading and writing skills, with features such as speech feedback, phonetic spell checking, word prediction and homophone support. It works within any Windows based application. Great support in all areas of the curriculum so students frequently improve their written work and then their overall learning when using this program.
Texthelp R & W 9 Gold
Upper primary, Secondary and Adults.
For reading, writing and more.
Read & Write Gold has the above plus “one touch” scanning, fact folder, fact finder, pronunciation tutor, scientific calculator, single word display, PDF Aloud and web highlighting. Scanned documents, pages from textbooks can all be read to students who read slowly.
ClaroRead
Upper primary, Secondary and Adults.
For reading, writing and more.
Another integrated solution to support older students with poor literacy. There is speech feedback, with speech enabled-spell checker, dictionary and homophone checker, word prediction saved speech output to WAV files. Can be set up for individual students’ preferences. Includes scanning.
Penfriend
Primary, secondary and some adults.
For predictive writing This provides word prediction, text to speech, an on-screen keyboard. Can customise with individual settings. Lexicons can be adapted to suit individual ability and style. Can be very effective as students do not have to spell the whole word, usually only the first 2 or 3 letters.
Wordbar
Primary, secondary and adults.
This is an always ready on screen vocabulary tool box which works with almost all Windows application, including word processors, web browsers and email. Words and phrases in the on screen grids can be read aloud and inserted by clicking on them. Comes with many grids covering many areas of the secondary curriculum but they are easy to make; many can also be downloaded free too. Students are encouraged as many of the difficult words used in the curriculum can be used by students without struggling to spell them.
Voice Recognition
Dragon Naturally Speaking V 10 Preferred
Secondary/Adult
For producing written text Includes Headset A Voice Recognition Program.
The most accurate speech recognition product available – delivering up to 99% accuracy! Turn speech into text at up to 160 words/min. Create email, instant messages, documents and spreadsheets by simply speaking. Again the use of this program has been found to help some students make significant improvements in their literacy.
Software for Sounds, Letters and Words
Word Shark 4
Primary, secondary and adults.
For reading and spellingThis is an extremely comprehensive multi-sensory spelling and reading program based on the widely used literacy programme, Alpha to Omega, by Hornsby and Shear. It provides the fun of computer games combined with serious learning so is extremely motivating. 36 carefully designed games with sound, graphics and text to teach and reinforce word recognition and spelling. A popular and successful program for all ages. New version includes teaching phonics.
Catch Up 1
Primary and possibly a few lower secondary.
For onset and rime, high frequency words.
This is the first part of a very well-liked intervention programme for children with literacy difficulties. Students who use it can concentrate better as well as improving reading and spelling. There are 5 clearly structured activities to support the learning of onset and rime, and also the first 150 make great progress when using this and they love 'playing ' on it. I feel this should be used by all prep students to prevent failure as well as by those who struggle.
Catch Up 2
Primary and possibly a few lower secondary.
For reading, spelling and comprehension.
This is a collection of graded reading and spelling games giving students the opportunity to learn many different spelling patterns. Covers consonant clusters, short and long vowel sounds, more high frequency words and some reading comprehension. Also excellent and also popular.
Word Wizard
Primary-Early Secondary.
For reading and spelling.
This is a comprehensive, spelling and vocabulary program. It uses sound, text and visual cues to teach and reinforce spelling and vocabulary skills including phonics, homophones, plurals, prefixes, suffixes and much more.
Letterland Living ABC
Primary.
For learning sounds and letters.
This is brilliant programme for teaching young children the sounds of letters, letter shapes and writing – and with a lot of language too. Lots of fun exploring the scenes and the children learn remarkably quickly at the same time.
Letterland Living Code Cards
Primary
For learning sounds of letters, digraphs and diphthongs.
This focuses on the phonic structure of words, language development (which underpins all written work), word building and spelling in a very enjoyable way with stories, songs and activities. Encourages children to use their imagination too. This is research based and so popular with the children.
Two Wise Owls
Primary, lower secondary
A spelling strategy.- has lots of useful mnemonics to support those who have difficulty mastering awkward spellings. Uses animations to provide motivating memory aids. Learners can choose to practise the spelling as much as is needed. In addition, pupils are further encouraged to make, record, and draw and print their own mnemonics. Very successful.
Clicker Phonics
Primary
For learning to listen and for learning sounds.
This is a very valuable and creative phonic scheme which is an addition to Clicker 5.
It is in 3 levels:
Sounds Around and Noisy Bears introduce sounds
Rhyme Time and Alphabet Animals use rhyme and alliteration
Sounds and Letters presents the major grapheme/phoneme correspondence as each letter and sound is introduced.
Read and Write is used to consolidate the previous skills
The Track Series
Primary, some secondary
Alphabet Track
Eye Track
Phoneme Track
Spell Track
Word Track
Idiom Track
For sounds, visual activities and spelling
Alphabet: An excellent program, with three levels, to help students learn and practice the names of the letters, alphabetica
Eye: This is designed to support all learners who have difficulty with visual perception
Phoneme: helps students understand that individual letters or groups of letters stand for specific sounds by giving them practice in segmenting, blending and manipulating the sounds in
Spell: encourages students to look and listen to words carefully, to select letters accurately and spell the words by giving them an opportunity to improve their phonemic awareness, left to right tracking, word recognition, sequencing, segmenting blending and proof reading.
Word: Reinforces the correct spelling of words in the context of sentences. Includes 180 sentences of increasing phonic complexity, with animated illustrations. The learner is required to correctly track the sentence as well as correctly typing it. Includes photocopiable extension activities.
Idiom: Fun graphics show the literal and real meaning of each idiom. Looks at over 40 idioms. Import your own photos to illustrate them, too.
• Builds confidence in the use of social language.
• With further activities and flash cards
Letter Olympics
Primary
For spelling and some reading
- has activities which cover recognition, discrimination and differentiation of lowercase letters b and d, with auditory and visual instructions emphasising accurate sound production of the b and d phonemes. Very popular and topical.
Software for Reading
Fitzroy Readers
Mainly Primary
For reading and word study The Fitzroy Readers are a popular series of books based on phonic system for learning to read. Especially useful for struggling readers as they are excellent for getting children started. Each book introduces a new English sound-and-spelling pattern, as well as a few sight words that do not conform to phonic principles. There are CDS to go with the books 1-20 and 1x-20x. Each story can be read, any word is repeated on request (in a different voice), the student can creatively rewrite any story and print it, and play word games with the vocabulary of each story- excellent practice.
Read On
Mainly upper primary, secondary and adults.
This is a comprehensive learning tool designed to assist people of all ages to overcome the reading problems associated with dyslexia. It incorporates specific learning strategies to help people overcome reading problems. Read On helps the user learn to read, as well as being an assistive tool to help develop learning strategies. Useful for school and home use.
Spin Out Stories
Upper Primary and Lower Secondary
These are collections of high interest stories and related activities especially designed to appeal to older struggling students. Each story is available at three levels of reading difficulty, to suit a wide range of students. Some stories are fictional, some are informative. Some are both. All are designed to grab the attention of reluctant readers. Also students can click on a word and a window pops up with more information. Activities are designed to give students practice in basic skills and also in writing.
Literacy Multimedia
Clicker5Primary/Early Secondary
For writing and also reading
Clicker 5 is a powerful yet easy-to-use writing support and multimedia tool that combines a talking word processor with on-screen grids. These enable children to write with whole words, phrases, pictures, multimedia and sound and can be used to support any area of the curriculum. There are many support discs eg animations, sound as well as topic discs eg the Greeks, Space Clicker 5 is a powerful yet easy-to-use writing support and multimedia tool that combines a talking word processor with on-screen grids. These enable children to write with whole words, phrases, pictures, multimedia and sound and can be used to support any area of the curriculum. There are many support discs of animations and sound as well as topic discs eg. the Greeks, Space
Textease CT
Primary
For writing, publishing and multimedia
Can be ordered through Edsoft. Please mention SPELD.
Textease is a highly versatile and powerful program with word processing, desktop publishing and multimedia capabilities all in one. Textease also speaks written work back to you - great for spell checking and a useful aid for children with visual impairment and those with literacy difficulties. It has extensive picture banks and word banks so providing much needed support for young children and those who struggle. You can insert digital images and video into documents plus record sound and create animations.
2Create A Story
Prep – Gr 2
Winner at BETT 2006!!
For imaginative writing
Young primary children can make talking stories in minutes and publish them anywhere! Combine words, pictures, sounds and animation in a storybook format to support Literacy and ICT. Help videos included. Children think it is magic!
Numeracy Skills
NumberShark
Primary or anyone needing to improve basic numeracy
NumberShark will address many difficulties that students have with basic maths including short-term memory and sequencing skills. Its bright colours, animations and choice of games will motivate students and provide them with a structured but enjoyable learning experience.
Number Track
Primary
Number Track is easy to use with audio support and configurable display options. It supports young students and those with specific numeracy and memory difficulties so they can count, read and write reliably number sequences forward and backwards to at least 20.
Ideal Resources Maths Pack
Primary, some lower secondary
The Maths Packs are a collection of innovative award winning resources designed for whole class teaching on interactive whiteboards. They contain numerous different resources to enable teachers to explain and develop key mathematical concepts with ease. Each resource is clear, colourful, engaging and truly interactive making them a popular with teachers and pupils alike.
2Calculate
Primary, some lower secondary
This is powerful program which can help students:
- Learn place value, fractions, decimals
- Explore number sequences & negative numbers
- Teach money, shape & space, data handling
- Use spreadsheets & graphing tools
- Assign values to 500 clipart images
- Videos & activities included
Integrated Software for literacy
Ideal-Resources
Primary
Engaging interactive resources for today’s classroom Literacy Pack – Over thirty activities designed for whole class teaching on an interactive whiteboard, projector as well as standalone computers
Lexion
Wide range from 6 years.
Literacy, spatial skills arithmetic
An extensive program designed for people with language related difficulties, such as dyslexia, to improve reading, writing, spatial and arithmetic skills. Provides all the tools needed for assessing areas of weakness, creating tailor made exercises and tracking the progress of individuals.
Nessy
Primary and lower secondary.
120 lessons following a structured, phonic approach printable card games, activity sheets, mnemonics and computer games. Nessy Learning Programme - follows a tried and tested approach of learning that combines structured incremental phonics linked with language, writing skills and vocabulary development, combining to create highly effective multi-sensory learning. Mind Mapping for developing ideas, planning and organisation
Inspiration
Upper Primary and Secondary
This is an ideal concept mapping program which builds a visual map of ideas using pictures, colours, shapes and relationships. Pictures can be built on the screen and then with a single key stroke, convert the image into a linear outline. Your own pictures can be used and background colours, fonts and sizes can be changed to suit the needs of the student.
2 Connect
Primary, some lower secondary
This is a concept mapping and planning tool which will help students organise their thoughts individually or collaboratively. It's a simple way to put ideas on a page! A very intuitive program so students can easily create a concept map by adding words, sounds and images. The student’s voice can be recorded and can be played back to help and guide his/her writing.
Suppliers
Not all suppliers sell all the software
SPELD (Vic) 9489 4344
The Specific Learning Difficulties (SPELD) Association of Victoria
