Sentences, Keep Them Short!

Long sentences take more energy to process than shorter ones. So, why put unnecessary burden? Just like words, sentence length and rhythm are linguistic tools at the disposal of a writer.

Long and convoluted sentences affect comprehension and readability.

Period. Without careful crafting, they can be hard to understand.

Still, too short sentences produce choppy writing, flawless and simplistic . Over-shortened sentences hinder the expression of complex ideas.

A set of short sentences convey complex information much more effectively than a single, overloaded, sentence. They break the information into smaller, easier-to-process units.

Sentences overburdened  with dependent clauses and exceptions confuse the audience,  You can’t see the forest from the trees..

Examples:

Original text:

The highways were covered with ice therefore school was canceled.

Corrected by Ghotit:

The highways were covered with ice; therefore, school was canceled.

Original text:

It is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth actually it is the first time in my life and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind.

Corrected by Ghotit:

It is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth; actually, it is the first time in my life, and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind.

Original text:

I was in my bedroom on my computer doing my homework then suddenly my computer started doing funny things.

Corrected by Ghotit:

I was in my bedroom on my computer doing my homework; then suddenly, my computer started doing funny things.

Original text:

I fell in my room then, my sister took my candy.

Corrected by Ghotit:

I fell in my room; then, my sister took my candy.

Original text:

Being jet lagged is no fun, it can cause people to not function properly.

Corrected by Ghotit:

Being jet lagged is no fun. It can cause people to not function properly.

Original text:

It can in fact serve for educational purposes that is why it should be up to the administrators.

Corrected by Ghotit:

It can, in fact, serve for educational purposes; that is why, it should be up to the administrators.

Original text:

I can indeed confirm that the app will be downloaded on a school iPad we are really looking forward to testing your different products.

Corrected by Ghotit:

I can indeed confirm that the app will be downloaded on a school iPad. We are really looking forward to testing your different products.

Original text:

During sixth and seventh grade I went to the middle school they had an after school activity called the Club.

Corrected by Ghotit:

During sixth and seventh grade, I went to middle school. They had an after school activity called the Club.

Original text:

When I get home, i won’t have to do it i can just go outside and play and don’t have to stay.

Corrected by Ghotit:

When I get home, I won’t have to do it. I can just go outside and play and don’t have to stay.

Original text:

In conclusion working in groups is not a good idea, let the students work by themselves and get the work done much easier.

Corrected by Ghotit:

In conclusion, working in groups is not a good idea. Let the students work by themselves and get the work done much easier.

Overcome fused sentence mistakes

Many dysgraphics handle purely fused sentences.

What is a fused sentence?

In a fused sentence the author mistakenly joins two independent clauses without assigning a punctuation sign. Consequently, the reader can’t acknowledge where one idea ends and another begins.

Ghotit replaces fused sentences with a simpler and a more straightforward form.

Examples:

Original: The roads were covered with snow therefore school was canceled.
Corrected: The roads were covered with snow; therefore, school was canceled.

Original: I went to school although I was feeling bad in fact I had bronchial pneumonia.
Corrected: I went to school although I was feeling bad; in fact, I had bronchial pneumonia.

Original: You will receive from a good friend of mine credentials to his account please use the info confidently.
Corrected: You will receive from a good friend of mine credentials to his account. Please use the info confidently.

Original: You are right it does get very hot.
Corrected: You are right. It does get very hot.

How come fluent speakers write poorly?

Quite frequently you meet impressive people, ideal partners for discussions, who manage to expressive their views using rich vocabulary, who know how to fit the exact terms to their views, best partners for exchanging views. You send them an email and, and, surprise, surprise, their response exhibits poor choice of words, misspelled terms, awkward syntax. You ask yourself, how come? Was I misled by his or her discourse? Well, the answer is no, your first impression was right. He or she is not dumb. He or she suffer from a common disability, dyslexia and/or dysgraphia.

Quite frequently dyslexics show a blunt mismatch between written and verbal abilities.

What explains this mismatch? This selective retrieval? The main reason for this phenomenon is quite trivial, this person uses a subset of his vocabulary, those words he or she spells correctly.

By offering a set of alternative terms Ghotit assists you, the dyslexic or dysgraphic, to expand your writing vocabulary and thereby demonstrate your real capabilities.

 

Repeated Words Replacement

In the above example the writer is using the word problem 3 times. Ghotit offers five terms to the term “problem” helping you replace it in fit with text context.

Ghotit Statistics/Analytics

All educational software in the market claim effectivity. All provide promises. Most of them fail to let you, the user, ways to check it. We are the exception, we do it!

Our mission at Ghotit is to help dyslectics and dysgraphics to read and write freely. The new version, Ghotit 10, provides any user with a new tool, a statistical method to measure our effectivity, our usefulness for you, not just for an abstract “average user”.

In the new version, Ghotit 10, we introduced Ghotit Analytics (usage statistics) which allows you to see how effective we are for you. This analytic tool can, for example, track how many words you have checked in a given period and what is the percentage of words that needed correction.

 

From the above graph, we learn that in a very short time the user is checking more and more text, indicating expansion of writing volume.  In the beginning, the frequency of words needing correction is quite small, around 750 words. The figure is rapidly growing to 4000, probably since he or she is using wider vocabulary and/or writing more pieces of text.

With Ghotit Real Writer & Reader 10 you will be able to track all aspects of you writing and reading skills.

 

Dyslexia Keyboard App – Added Dictation and Correction by Paragraphs.

Dyslexia Keyboard App is an iOS/iPadOS custom software keyboard helping users with dyslexia and dysgraphia to write, proofread and correct texts.

An important feature of the Dyslexia Keyboard App is its unique Quick-Spell Word-Prediction that increases writing speed by successfully predicting intended words and providing instant correction upon the first typed misspelled letters.

After writing an essay or an email using Word-Prediction or Dictation, text correction is still required mainly to fix possible confused words and to add punctuation. The keyboard corrects texts by using the patented Ghotit Text Correction Engine. It fixes misspelled and confused words, homophones, grammar and punctuation errors.

The new feature added to the Dyslexia Keyboard App is Text Correction by Paragraphs. It corrects several sentences by a single run and increases productivity of fixing issues.

Text Correction

Another newly added feature is Dictation you can now activate directly from the Dyslexia Keyboard. Long tap the microphone image at the space-bar, and the dictation page appears. Dictate there and insert the dictated text to your original app by tapping on the “Apply the Dictated Text” button.

Dyslexia Keyboard

Floating Keyboard is a great feature added by Apple to iPadOS-13 (iOS-13) for the iPad-Pro and new iPad devices, and it’s now supported by Dyslexia Keyboard app. Positioning keyboard with predicted words close to the point of writing has advantages for many writers since it helps them to focus their attention on a writing area on screen and not to cope with breaking line of sight by looking at predictions located far below.

Floating Keyboard
Order Dyslexia Keyboard at iTunes:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dyslexia-keyboard/id1160080528

Another option is to order “Dyslexia and Dysgraphia App Kit for iPad” bundle that includes two apps: Dyslexia Keyboard App and Ghotit Real Writer App, our Dyslexia-friendly editor:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app-bundle/dyslexia-and-dysgraphia-app-kit/id1342134715

Both Ghotit apps are Educational Apps with bulk educational pricing available for schools, districts and colleges.

Ghotit iPad Apps Bundle – Dyslexia and Dysgraphia App Kit

Ghotit offers two iPad dedicated apps for dyslexia and dysgraphia:

We keep receiving many questions on the difference between these two applications. Most inquiries are as follows, “My son/daughter/etc. is a dyslexic. Which tool fits him/her best, Ghotit Real Writer or Dyslexia Keyboard?”

Both apps use Ghotit’s core high-tech assistive technology features such as Ghotit Text Correction, Ghotit Quick Spell Word-Prediction, Ghotit Talking Dictionary etc., and both are recommended by Michigan University / Understood.

Ghotit Real Writer App (“Dyslexia Editor”) is a text editor. It provides simple word-processing functions applying the same set of assistive features as Dyslexia Keyboard. Ghotit Real Writer has the benefits of an attention concentrating environment. It is particularly helpful and recommended for children and adults with severe dyslexia/dysgraphia. The app works with Apple’s default software keyboard as well as with external (Bluetooth or wireless) hardware keyboards.

Dyslexia Keyboard is a custom software keyboard that was created for the more advanced users, for those who mastered the basic skills needed for routine use of Ghotit Real Writer. When the initial barrier of using an editor is acquired and those experiencing a dyslexia/dysgraphia disability have gained enough confidence, they may start writing directly to Google Docs, Pages, Word, Outlook, Mail, social networks, browsers etc. This is the context where Dyslexia Keyboard comes to help. On iPad Pro and iPad 2019 devices, Dyslexia keyboard app supports newest iPadOS Floating Keyboard Mode where keyboard could be moved near to cursor and help to write smoothly without breaking the line of sight. Note, that software keyboards, including Dyslexia Keyboard, cannot work with external (Bluetooth or wireless) hardware keyboards – this is the area where Ghotit Real Writer App could be used instead.

Thus, the correct answer to the question about the most appropriate Ghotit app is, “You need both: one app for the start and the other for the days to come.”

That’s why Ghotit recommends a bundle of Ghotit Apps for iPad containing both apps for a reduced price.

The bundle is available from Apple’s iTunes Store

 

Dysgraphia Treatments

Dysgraphia is a difficulty in handwriting and in the ability to produce a coherent piece of handwriting. Even though the handwriting of all dysgraphics is impaired, symptoms aren’t necessarily identical. Some perform copying tasks successfully, but their spelling is flawed, other express physical difficulties in writing letters indicated by the investment of exceptional efforts in accomplishing simple writing tasks. Still, other spread their texts in an unordered ways making it chaotic and illegible.

Scientists classified dysgraphia into the following three main types:

  • Motor Dysgraphia
  • Dyslexic Dysgraphia
  • Spatial Dysgraphia

The causes of motor dysgraphia are poor dexterity, deficient motor skills or poor muscle tone. People with motor dysgraphia need very much time and a huge effort to form letters. The writing in this case is illegible or poor at its best, and drawing is difficult. The finger tapping of these people is below normal, and though the spelling is normal, many times the writing is slanted because of holding the pen incorrectly.

In the case of dyslexic dysgraphia, people’s spelling is poor and their spontaneous writing is illegible, but their copied work is pretty good. The normal finger tapping of the people with dyslexic dysgraphia indicates the deficit does not stem from cerebellar damage.

People with spatial dysgraphia have a problem understanding the space. Both their spontaneous work and copied work will be illegible in most cases, and their abilities to write suffer as well. This disability is not fine motor based as the finger tapping sped, and the spelling is normal in people with spatial dysgraphia.

These three analytical types serve as gross description of real life people. Many dysgraphics, though, exhibit mixed symptoms, a bit of motor dysgraphia mixed with a bit of dyslexic dysgraphia, etc.

Each of these pure types deserves a different approach, but since these distinctions in practice are not clear-cut, the outcomes are frequently disappointing.

The treatment of Motor Dysgraphia is a frustrating experience since affected individuals exhibit deficient fine motor skills or muscle issues vulnerabilities. For these people writing is a very difficult task, and it requires lots of time and efforts. For motor dysgraphics, dictation is helpful, and they can be assisted by using the excellent Siri on Mac/iOS, Google dictation on Android as well as fast improving Microsoft dictation available on Windows-10. The text after dictation should be further corrected to fix all confused words, possible homophones and punctuation errors.

Yet another option in certain cases of Motor Dysgraphia is to try Word-Prediction techniques. In general, Word-Prediction is supposed to decrease writing efforts and to make typing a more pleasant experience. However, standard tools fail to provide useful predictions on typing or spelling errors.

Proofreading of the written text, particularly with dual highlighting of the currently read phrase and the word, could make a real difference in the case of Dyslexic Dysgraphia and help to spot and fix the errors. But the best and most proven assistance could be a combination of proofreading with Text Correction.

And last, Spatial Dysgraphia. People with Spatial Dysgraphia, where keeping writing in lines and organizing text on a page are the major issues of handwriting, are normally spelling good and expressing well using computer keyboard. The remaining punctuation issues as well as splitting long phrases to short sentences require fixing.

In conclusion: Consider Ghotit Real Writer & Reader software and Ghotit Apps that provide full writing, reading and text correction support for all types of dysgraphia and dyslexia (see the video on Ghotit Home page).

Dyslexia and Google Docs

With the increase in the number of schools and colleges using Google Docs web-based application, it becomes critical to ask the following question, “What is the impact of this shift on pupils and students with dyslexia and/or dysgraphia?”

The question could be further narrowed, “What impact does this move from the use of MS-Word have on the ability of a dyslexic student to read/write/edit/dictate text documents?”
 
For making basic editing tasks and creating good looking rich-text documents, Google Docs has a very simple and clear interface. There are many good fonts, including Serif family fonts, and font color as well as background color could be easily adapted. When a user enables Screen Reader in Accessibility Preferences of the user’s Google Account Preferences, several screenshot readers (e.g. ChromeVox) are available. Screenshot Readers are available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc., but these browser-dependent addins provide different sets of features and qualities. Another accessibility related option is, however available, the use of a generic Screenshot Reader working with any application on screen.
 
Texts should preferably be formatted and adapted to each student’s individual needs. Documents should take a visually comfortable size, fonts and colors. It could be much easier to comprehend a text if a Read Aloud option is also available. All these reading facilitators are absent when the document is provided in a read-only format, without editing privileges, or when a student is hesitant about making changes to an original document.

For students without learning disabilities, writing in Google Docs is a smooth experience. However, since many students with dyslexia and dysgraphia are slow typists and need Word-Prediction, using Google Docs AS IS could be a frustrating experience. Google Docs does not offer a Word-Prediction option (while an Autocomplete option is available in MS-Word). Ghotit’s Quick-Spell Word Prediction is specifically designed for those with dyslexia and dysgraphia and predicts text with instant correction of misspellings.
 

A great feature of Google Docs is Voice Typing. Student can dictate a text of a reasonable quality and format it by Voice Typing Commands. (This feature is only available in Chrome browser). Normally, microphones of smartphones and tablets are appropriate for dictation, whereas laptops and desktops require a purchase of an external high-quality dictation microphone. Dictation comes nowadays also as a platform feature of Mac (Siri), iOS, Windows and Android. Thus, there is a choice between these two good dictation options, Google Docs Voice Typing or platform-specific dictation, and there is no need to spend money on extra dictation software packages.

Text created by Word-Prediction or Dictation is supposed to be free of misspelled words, but it still comes with confused words, homophones, grammar and punctuation errors. When students write directly to a Google Docs document, misspellings are inevitable. Google Docs is doing a great job of flagging misspelled words as well as some confused words and grammar errors with a level of text correction being good enough for a non-dyslexic user. This service is far from sufficiency, though, for students with dyslexia and dysgraphia, and this is where Ghotit complements Google Docs by solving most complex cases.

In conclusion: Overall, Google Docs is a welcomed step forward towards simplicity in creating text documents and through its embedded assistive technology. When equipped with an appropriate and individually tailor-made additional assistive technology, Google Docs could make a positive impact on success of pupils and students with dyslexia and dysgraphia in educational systems.
 

Ghotit Dyslexia App for Windows 10S Is in Windows Store.

Finally, it is coming…

Windows 10S, the streamlined version of Windows for education, makes its way to schools being:

– Budget friendly with laptops priced starting from $189;

– Secure where all software is coming only from Microsoft Windows Store;

– Controlled system with all software installed only by admins;

– Energy efficient saving battery and allowing a full school day for the laptops.

 

When it comes to the pupils and students with dyslexia and dysgraphia, remind to their teachers that those children need assistive software, and Ghotit App is already ready in Microsoft Windows Store.

Ghotit Real Writer and Reader App in Windows Store is the result of the joined work of Microsoft Bridge and Ghotit R&D teams and includes all features of the Ghotit Standard Desktop software combined with the known security and efficiency of Windows Store Apps.

 

Dyslexic Summer Break

Finally, the summer vacation is here and if you are a parent to a child who suffers from dyslexia, you might have a break from your routine, day-to-day helping chores .
Can you expect to accomplish Paul McCartney’s Summer’s Day Song?

Someone’s sleeping
Through a bad dream
Tomorrow it will be over
For the world will soon be waking
To the summer’s day

I doubt it.

I really don’t know what’s the best way you, a parent to a dyslexic child, should choose for the Summer vacation. If you do know the answer, please share it with us. The only thing I do know is that you should opt for a balance, on the one hand, not to let hard work altogether, but, on the other hand, letting your child enjoy vacation. We all need some rest, but as is the case with dyslexic children, we can’t allow ourselves the leisure of a total vacation.

We all know that dyslexia is not like pimples where there is a chance that your child will start next year without them. Your child will suffer from dyslexia next year and helping him or her is, unfortunately, a multi-year cruise.