Taking Macintosh to the next level in Literacy and Learning for Dyslexics

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Macintosh as a company has positioned itself as a company committed to providing solutions for people with disabilities, offering innovative solutions in the area of accessibility.

Over the year Macintosh has invested in delivering a set of built-in features focused in assisting the learning disabled. These features include:

-          Advanced text to speech: Mac is equipped with Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology that can read aloud a selection of text or an entire document. Mac TTS includes various male and female voices.

-          Word completion feature: After typing a few characters, a user can access a list of words beginning with those characters.

-          Built-in Spelling and Grammar Checking: Every Mac provides students with the benefits of resources such as the New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus, Apple Dictionary, Wikipedia, scientific reference materials, and grammar and pronunciation guides.

Ghotit has recently released the Real-Writer Pro for Macintosh. This solution takes Macintosh dyslexic users to the next level in assistive writing solutions. The Ghotit solution for Macintosh has incorporated and optimized Macintosh’s core services for a solution dedicated for dyslexics. The Ghotit solution includes the following optimized features:

-          Severe spelling error correction: based on advanced context spell checking algorithms, the context of the sentence is analyze to determine the correctly spelled word.

-          Misused, confused word correction: Without appropriate context knowledge, the spell checker does not have any information to provide for a misused word, and will leave such words as unmarked. Ghotit context spell checking algorithms have been targeted to effectively identify misused words.

-          Grammar checker: Ghotit performs grammar and punctuation corrections. The corrections are performed using both grammar rules definitions and contextual spell checking algorithms.

-          Split & merge word correction: Many times users accidentally or not knowingly split words (e.g. “birth day” instead of “birthday”) or merge words (“oneday” instead of “one day”). Ghotit detects these errors and makes the appropriate suggestions.

-          Intelligent word prediction: Ghotit helps a user in his writing by “predicting” a word the user intended to type. Predictions are based on spelling, context, grammar syntax, and frequently/recently used words.

-          Text to Speech: Ghotit leverages Macintosh’s built-in text-to-speech feature to enable dyslexic users to have their written text read out loud. This way, users with dyslexia can act as their own gatekeepers to ensure that what they have written is exactly what they intended to communicate.

For more information go to: http://www.ghotit.com/dyslexia-software-demo-for-mac/

Autocomplete, or Word completion

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Original purpose:

The original purpose of word prediction software was to help people with physical disabilities increase their typing speed as well as to help them decrease the number of keystrokes needed in order to complete a word or a sentence. The need to increase speed is noted by the fact that people who use speech generating devices generally produce speech at a rate that is less than 10% as fast as people who use oral speech. But the function is also very useful for anybody who writes text, and especially useful for people who often use long and hard to spell technical or medical terms, like medical doctors.

Description:

Autocomplete or word completion works so that when the writer writes the first letter or letters of a word, the program predicts one or more possible words as choices. If the word he intends to write is included in the list he can select it, for example by using the number keys. If the word that the user wants is not predicted, the writer must enter the next letter of the word. At this time, the word choice(s) is altered so that the words provided begin with the same letters as those that have been selected. When the word that the user wants appears it is selected, and the word is inserted into the text. In another form of word prediction, words most likely to follow the just written one are predicted, based on recent word pairs used. Word prediction uses language modeling, where within a set vocabulary the words are most likely to occur are calculated.Along with language modeling, basic word prediction on AAC devices is often coupled with a recency model, where words that are used more frequently by the AAC user are more likely to be predicted.Word prediction software often also allows the user to enter their own words into the word prediction dictionaries either directly, or by “learning” words that have been written.

Context completion

Context completion is a text editor feature, similar to word completion, which completes words (or entire phrases) based on the current context and context of other similar words within the same document, or within some training data set. The main advantage of context completion is the ability to predict anticipated words more precisely and even with no initial letters. The main disadvantage is the need of a training data set, which is typically larger for context completion than for simpler word completion. Most common use of context completion is seen in advanced programming language editors and IDEs, where training data set is inherently available and context completion makes more sense to the user than broad word completion would.

From Wikipedia

 

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Diagnosing Dyslexia

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The earlier a child with dyslexia is diagnosed, the more effective his/her treatment could be.

Identifying dyslexia

In practice, identifying dyslexia in younger children can be very difficult for both parents and teachers because the signs and symptoms are often subtle. However, early continuing difficulties with differentiating sounds, particularly at the beginning or end of a word, can be a sign of possible difficulties in the future.

Many children, including younger children, also develop ways to compensate for their dyslexia, such as relying on their long-term memory more than usual or by ‘picturing’ the whole word.

Signs and symptoms of dyslexia you need to be looking for:

  1. Directional confusion- for example, writing 69 instead of 96
  2. Sequencing difficulties- for example, reading the letters in a word in a wrong sequence
  3. Difficulties with small words- for example, replacing “a” for “and”
  4. Late talking
  5. Difficulties with handwriting

This is a partial list of dyslexia signs. In any case you think there is a problem with your child,  take him/her to a professional diagnostics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Famous Adults with Learning Disabilities.

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Nelson Rockefeller – at the age of 9 he did not know the letters of the alphabet.

He was thought of as dull and backward.  He entered Davidson College, but he had to withdraw because of illness.  Later he went to Princeton, but his grades were mediocre.

Thomas Edison – His head was large at birth.  His mother did not agree with those who felt that the child was abnormal. He was sent to school, but the teacher thought him to be mentally ill.

The mother withdrew the child from school and taught him herself.

As it turned out, he might have done well in vocational education.

Frank W. Woolworth – was labeled slow as a child.  He clerked in a village grocery store.

He suggested putting slow-merchandise on a counter and selling it at a reduced rate.  It turned out to be an excellent idea.

Greg Luganis – had extreme difficulty in reading; some people used to say that he was clumsy.

He has been high up in his field for many years.  Because of his background, he might be labeled both learning disabled and disadvantaged.

George Patton – When he was twelve years old, he could not read, and he remained deficient in reading all his life.  However, he could memorize entire lectures, which was how he got through school.  That never stopped him from marching ahead.

Walt Disney – as a child he was slow in school work.  About the only thing this apparently right-brained individual had gone for him was his vivid imagination, which used to bother his teachers, especially when he doodled.

Winston Churchill – failed grade eight, did terrible in math, and generally hated school.  Still, he was upset by people who were “inebriated by the exuberance of their own verbosity”.

Woodrow Wilson -  had great difficulty in reading; in fact, throughout his life, he was unable to read well.  Despite this, he was extremely successful in politics.

Albert Einstein – did not learn to read until he was nine.  His teachers considered him mentally slow, unsociable and a dreamer.  He failed the entrance examinations to college but finally passed them after an additional year of preparation.  He lost three teaching positions and then became a patent clerk.

Hans Christian Anderson – had difficulty in reading and writing, but for years people have cherished his wonderful stories, all of which had to be dictated to a scribe.

Tom Cruise – despite being a success in his chosen field, this entertainer can learn lines only by listening to a tape.  He is formally diagnosed dyslexic.

Agatha Christie – had a learning disability called dysgraphia, which prevented any understood or legible written work.  As a result, all material had to be dictated to a typist/transcriptionist.
 

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Dysgraphia Signs and Symptoms

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In many cases Dysgraphia symptoms are overlooked or diagnosed as “being lazy”.

To diagnose Dysgraphia, one must have more than one of the following symptoms:

  1. Cramping of fingers while writing short entries
  2. Odd wrist, arm, body, or paper orientations such as creating an L-shape with your arm
  3. Excessive erasures
  4. Mixed upper case and lower case letters
  5. Inconsistent form and size of letters, or unfinished letters
  6. Misuse of lines and margins
  7. Inefficient speed of copying
  8. Inattentiveness over details when writing
  9. Frequent need of verbal cues
  10. Referring heavily on vision to write
  11. Poor legibility
  12. Handwriting abilities that may interfere with spelling and written composition
  13. Having a hard time translating ideas to writing, sometimes using the wrong words altogether
  14. May feel pain while writing

It’s very difficult to diagnose Dysgraphia; therefore, parents and educators need to be aware of Dysgraphia signs and symptoms and ask for professional diagnosis if they find the above Dysgraphia signs and symptoms.

 

 

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Importance of Finding Out The Cause Of Dyslexia and What Indications are Present Among Affected Persons

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By: Joseph Butcher
Essentially, there are several types of learning disability and it is important to know them prior to determining what causes dyslexia. First is the trauma dyslexia which normally takes place as a result of some form of damage in the area of the brain that manages reading and writing. Second is the primary dyslexia, a hereditary malfunction on the left side within the human brain and causes affected person to have trouble with reading, spelling and writing. The final kind is the developmental dyslexia that is normally caused by hormonal development during the initial phases of fetal development.

Causes of the Ailment

Although finding out the cause of dyslexia is not specified, here are the different theories about this disease.

Human brain development – It is believed that dyslexia is the consequence of improper neuronal migration whereby the nerve cells that constitute the human brain progress far from where they are supposed to be.

Young age hearing problem – This issue causes the brain to fail in making the link between words along with their accurate sound.

Neurobiological and genes – It is believed that dyslexia could be handed down and if you have this condition, it is most likely that either of his parents, grandfather and grandmother or relatives has the very same condition.

Signs and Symptoms of the Dysfunction

Character and figure reversals – They are the most frequent symptoms of dyslexia in children which are typically noticeable up to seven or eight years old and progressively decreases as the youngster gets older.

Issue with spatial connections – This stretches beyond the class room and can be also observed in the play area where the kid may seem to be mismatched.

Auditory problems – This implies trouble in recalling or being aware of what the kid hears or understanding what to convey but has hardship picking out the exact words and phrases to show it.

Determining the Condition

The truth is, this disorder is fairly challenging to identify although identifying what causes dyslexia are considerably easier to identify. Analyzing this sickness involves evaluating the child’s functional reading stage and compares it to reading potential, that is assessed by an brain examination. The assessments further assess whether your kid understands better by means of auditory, visual, and kinesthetic.

Treating Dyslexia

A direct strategy of managing symptoms of dyslexia include a systematic study of phonics along with the utilization of strategies to enable all the senses work effectively. Slingerland Method, the Orton-Gillingham Method, or Project READ are reading techniques which is often utilized to help the little one hear, see, say, and do something.

Though there are many theories concerning the successful solution for dyslexia, there’s no actual remedy for it. Consequently, knowing what causes dyslexia continues to be the solution to completely understand and be able to overcome this disease. Additionally it is anticipated that the institution with all the mother and father construct a plan to satisfy the child’s needs and to pay attention to strengthening the kid’s weak points.

Finding out what causes dyslexia is very important to determine how you will likely guide your child. Be informed of the symptoms of dyslexia in children now.

Article Courtesy of health-articles.co.uk

 

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Quotations from Famous People that Suffer from Dyslexia

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I had noticed that many people are looking for quotations of famous dyslexics; therefore I have gathered many of those quotations.

On a personal note,  I want to say that as a person that suffers from dyslexia it makes me feel good to see so many people with dyslexia that made it. However, I think that most of us (dyslexics) need to work hard and to take advantage of assistive technologies which are available today, such as the Ghotit spell and grammar checker for people with dyslexia.

 

Albert Einstein

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds”

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

“If, at first, an idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it.”

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

“Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.”

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
“He did not speak until the age of three and teachers labeled him mentally slow: “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”

“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”

“Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.”

“Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.”

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.”

“Never lose a holy curiosity.”

“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”

“Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another; it is the only means”

Thomas Edison

When Thomas Edison was six years old his teacher sent the following note – “He is too stupid to learn.”

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

“My teachers say I’m addled . . . my father thought I was stupid, and I almost decided I must be a dunce.”

“My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me and I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint.”

“If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”

“I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”

“What you are will show in what you do.”

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. ”

“What you are will show in what you do.”

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. ”

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

“I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.”

“I start where the last man left off.”

“Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward! ”

“Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

“There is far more opportunity than there is ability.”

“There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.”

“They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.”

George Washington

 “When a man does all he can, though it succeeds not well, blame not him that did it.”

“Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation. It is better be alone than in bad company. ”

“We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.”

“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her. ”

“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.”

“When a man does all he can, though it succeeds not well, blame not him that did it.”

“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.”

Benjamin Franklin

 “Tell me and I forget.

Teach me and I learn.

Involve me and I remember.”

General George Patton

 “Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.”

 Leonardo da Vinci

“You should prefer a good scientist without literary abilities than a literate one without scientific skills.”

“Your brain is much better than you think; just use it!”

 “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”

“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.”

 Nelson Rockefeller

“I was one of the ‘puzzle children’ myself — a dyslexic . . . And I still have a hard time reading today. Accept the fact that you have a problem. Refuse to feel sorry for yourself. You have a challenge; never quit! ”

Charles Schwab

“I couldn’t read. I just scraped by. My solution back then was to read classic comic books because I could figure them out from the context of the pictures. Now I listen to books on tape. ”

“Passion is the great slayer of adversity. Focus on strengths and what you enjoy.”

“Many times I can see a solution to something differently and quicker than other people. I see the end zone and say ‘This is where I want to go.”

“Passion is the great slayer of adversity. Focus on strengths and what you enjoy.”

Henry Winkler (actor)

 

“As a child, I was called stupid and lazy. On the SAT I got 159 out of 800 in math. My parents had no idea that I had a learning disability.”

Walt Disney

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

Thomas Jefferson

“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. ”

“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.”

Winston Churchill

“Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.”

“I was, on the whole, considerably discouraged by my school days. It was not pleasant to feel oneself so completely outclassed and left behind at the beginning of the race.”

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

“History is written by the victors.”

“I never worry about action, but only inaction.”

Magic Johnson

“The looks, the stares, the giggles . . . I wanted to show everybody that I could do better and also that I could read.”

William Butler Yeats

“By logic and reason we die hourly. By imagination we live.”

Tom Cruise

“I had to train myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read.”

Henry Ford

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal”

“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”

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Dyslexia Friendly Schools

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“If a child does not learn in the way in which we teach then we must teach him in the way in which he learns. Let dyslexia be looked at from a different angle, not as a learning disability but a different learning ability.”  (Pollack, J.,Waller)

Dyslexia friendly schools are schools that recognize a specific learning difficulty as a learning difference. These schools make an effort to include and support dyslexic students. These schools recognize that a dyslexic student learns in a different manner, and places an effort in empowering the child to deal with his writing difficulties. In non-friendly dyslexia schools, dyslexic children are seen as having something “wrong” that requires special treatment.

A dyslexia friendly school invests in educating their staff regarding on how to identify a dyslexic child’s specific learning challenges, and how to empower such a child with a learning environment supportive of his learning capabilities. The staff is guided to demonstrate sensitivity to the emotional state and self-esteem of the dyslexic student. For example, if a dyslexic child demonstrates confidence in his oral capabilities, the teacher is guided to provide the dyslexic child opportunities to regularly demonstrate this strength. If a dyslexic child begins to fall behind, then the teacher is guided to recommend special tutoring to minimize the learning gap.

A dyslexia friendly school also invests in building a close channel of communication with the child’s parents, actively communicating to them the progress and difficulties encountered by the child. The staff guides the parents regarding how to receive additional support and help.

In a dyslexia friendly school, teachers are guided to adopt a set of practices that if observed on a regular basis will alleviate the day-to-day struggle of the dyslexia child. These include:

  • Always write things on the board early, as dyslexic are slower in copying assignments to their notebooks. This problem becomes more severe if the student is under stress.
  • Make sure the student was successful in copying all his assignments to his notebook.
  • Don’t force the student to read out loud, unless you are sure that he wants to.
  • Place the student near the front and next to a good sitting student “neighbor”, so that distractions are reduced to a minimum.
  • Allow and encourage dyslexic students to use computers, so that their can correct their writing with advanced writing assistive programs (such as Ghotit)
  • Make sure that the dyslexic student understands what his is reading. Constant discussion of the meaning of the text is important, and should be performed regularly.
  • If required give the dyslexic child additional exam time, as dyslexic children tend to read and write more slowly than their peers.
  • … And most importantly, never laugh at the mistakes of a dyslexic child, or allow other students to do so. On the contrary, make an effort to praise their efforts and successes.

Comments with additional recommendations for a dyslexic friendly school would be appreciated …

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Are Certain Jobs Particularly Suited to Dyslexics?

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Ghotit will host from time to time guest blog posts about dyslexia.

The writers of these posts may be dyslexics, dyslexic family members, dyslexic tutors, teachers, assistive technology specialists or any other writer as long as the post provides quality information about dyslexia.

This hosted post by The Tutor Pages

My dyslexic librarian – are certain jobs particularly suited to dyslexics?

Despite being a dyslexia specialist, even I was surprised when my local librarian told me she was dyslexic. As my mother said “I bet she left that off her application form”.  Being dyslexic definitely makes me a better tutor; I imagine it makes her a more knowledgeable and sensitive librarian.  I was just a little shocked, which made me realise that deep down I’m still a bit insecure about my own dyslexia.  I personally know lots of teachers who are closet dyslexics, but dare we tell anyone?

Society seems to be content with the notion that the creativity of many dyslexics leads them to become successful artists, musicians, actors, designers and filmmakers.  We also find it understandable that many seek fulfilment far from the world of books, a few becoming elite athletes, famous sports people or military heroes.   With bullying rife, maybe we can all identify with fellow dyslexic Mohammed Ali sometimes.   However, not all children are destined for physical or artistic excellence.

Lots of people talk about dyslexia as a gift, but do many people honestly believe this?  I think that one of the biggest difficulties facing dyslexics is nothing to do with reading, writing or memory, but instead low expectations.  If the 2003 Tulip Financial Research findings are accurate that 40% of self-made millionaires are dyslexic, then low expectations may be ill-founded.  The ability to see the big picture and come up with innovative solutions to problems has produced billionaires like Richard Branson and a string of powerful U.S. presidents.

If you have this dyslexic mind, do particular doors open and others clang shut?  Maybe.  Because of their lateral thinking and spatial awareness, one famous practice of architects actually prefers to employ dyslexics.  Should we all be architects?  My drawing skills aren’t going to feed my cat, let alone me.

Whilst most dyslexics find school challenging and often are happier later in life when they can pursue the things they are good at, there are always exceptions.  Counter-intuitively, it’s possible to find famous dyslexic role models in heavily paper-based careers like the law or that require many years of arduous study, such as doctors.

If you imagine one of the few careers you’d never get dyslexics in would be writing, guess again!  Whether you’re more interested in the critical acclaim of WB Yeats, or the wealth of Agatha Christie, I guess the lesson is not to write people off.  With the right help in the right ways, dyslexia doesn’t have to stop you achieving your dreams, whatever they are, and it might even be a benefit!

Some food for thought: if the rumours of a possible cure for dyslexia become a reality, should we want it?  Would the world be a better place without the achievements  of Leonardo da Vinci, the films of Walt Disney, the stories of Hans Christian Anderson, the music of Lennon or Mozart, the art of Picasso, the buildings of Lord Rogers, the discoveries of Thomas Edison, the victory of Winston Churchill, or the genius of Albert Einstein?

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Dyslexics suffer not only from bad spelling, but also from grammar mistakes

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Ghotit is a leading dyslexia writing solutions company. When we launched our first product release in 2007, we focused solely in deciphering dyslexic text and offering correct spelling suggestions. However, four years later, I can tell you that Ghotit is heavily invested in complementing its spell correction algorithms with grammar correction algorithms.

In the past 4 years Ghotit has been overwhelmed with requests to complement the Ghotit solution with grammar correction capabilities. In many cases dyslexics suffer not only from bad spelling, but also from problematic grammar and punctuation. Grammar problems in writing may result from dyslexics focusing so much on getting their spelling correct, that they tend to overlook their grammar.

Today, Ghotit offers a single context-based text-analysis engine to perform both spelling and grammar correction. The corrected spelling mistakes are leveraged to assist in grammar corrections and vice versa.

The following are 2 sentences written by a person with dyslexia that combine both spelling and grammar mistakes:

Example #1:

Dyslexic text: “Win it come to fashion she dos not cere if she ends up on the werst dress list.”

Text corrected by Ghotit: “When it comes to fashion she does not care if she ends up on the worst dress list”

As you can see, the dyslexic writer not only wrote misspelled words, but also made a grammar mistakes (he wrote “come” instead of “comes”) that Ghotit identified and corrected.

Example #2:

Dyslexic text: “If he choose corecly, the user receive the following opshen”

Text corrected by Ghotit: “If he chooses correctly, the user receives the following option.”

Here too, the dyslexic writer not only misspelled words, but also made 2 grammar mistakes  (he wrote “choose” instead of “chooses” ; and “receive” instead of “receives”)

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