8 Reasons Why Software Can Help People With Dyslexia

On a recent blog by Dyslexia Action ( click here for article) it is clear that the UK Government is taking steps to really support people with special needs as they go to work.

A recent conversation with The Dyslexia Foundation in Liverpool, UK highlighted that there is increased support for adults with funding for 'tools' that will assist them as they work.
Sadly in the case of children the resources available at school can be a post code lottery.

For someone with Dyslexia the range of tools available is vast.

One such tool is SprintPlus.  A piece of software from the Belgium company, Jabbla.  This software tool is useful for those people that can type but perhaps have problems with accuracy of their reading and writing skills.  The benefits of using this software are illustrated well with the 8 comments below from users of the software;

•         Parent of a Sprint-user: “Now that my 11 year old son uses SprintPlus, he is more independent and I don’t need to stay next to him the whole time when he is doing his homework, which gives me more time for the other family members…”

•          Jules (17): “I am more self-confident now. When I hand in a paper, I know that it contains less mistakes than before I used SprintPlus."

•       Max (17): “…I also use Sprint to read out loud my e-mails… And when I need     information from the internet, SprintPlus can read that out loud for me, which saves me a lot of time: when I have to read myself, it takes three times more time than someone without dyslexia…”

•           Dries (13): “I know that this program will not only be useful to help me through secondary school and my highschool years, but also once I have a job, I know SprintPlus will be valuable. Nowadays almost all communication goes through written language… “

•       Alex (14):” My biggest problem is reading the questions on my exams. When I am stressed, it is even more difficult for me to concentrate when reading (especially when I get multiple-choice questions). At school, my teachers use SprintPlus to save the exam questions as MP3-files. Like that, I can listen to the questions with an MP-3-player without having to read them myself. I can listen to the questions as much as I want and I don’t need to ask my teacher to help me read the questions for me, which makes me feel more comfortable."

•       Silke (12): “I like SprintPlus because I can easily make a summary of a longer text. I use the summaries to study  afterwards: SprintPlus reads them out loud, and I listen and repeat.”

•       Warren (18): “I’m sure I wouldn’t have made it through secondary school without SprintPlus. I’m very grateful that it exists."

•       Phil (20): ”My tutors provide a PDF-version of the course material, so that I can use Sprint PDf to read the texts out loud and to add notes where necessary.”       

The above are 8 great reasons why using software to manage Dyslexia is useful and creates real advantages for people that experience challenges with their reading, writing and spelling.

Within schools support from a Special Educational Needs Coordinator is also very important which is why there is a special competition to reward one in the UK.  To find out more click here.