The brain of a person with dyslexia is not unique in the sense that it is fundamentally different from the brains of people without dyslexia. However, brain imaging studies have shown that people with dyslexia have differences in the way their brain processes language compared to people without dyslexia. These differences are thought to be the underlying cause of the reading and language difficulties experienced by people with dyslexia.
Ghotit Approved for Windows 11 SE, School Edition
Windows 11 SE is an edition of Windows designed for education as a competitor to Chromebooks.
Windows SE runs on devices that use essential educational apps.
Ghotit Real Writer & Reader is one of a handful of approved applications for this unique version.
About Windows 11 SE – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/education/windows/windows-11-se-overview
FAQs about Windows 11 SE educational program – https://edudownloads.azureedge.net/msdownloads/FAQ_Windows_11_SE_EDU_V04.pdf
Polysyndeton Writing
Polysyndeton is a literary device that uses multiple repetitions of the same conjunction (and, but, if, etc), most commonly the word “and.”
Polysyndeton is usually grammatically correct.
Reading Polysyndeton sentences slows the reading pace and is not recommended.
Example of a Polysyndeton sentence and Ghotit corrections:
Original sentence:
Dana invited her new boyfriend to her party with all her friends and they all brought gifts and they played computer games and it was a nice party.
Ghotit Corrected sentence:
Dana invited her new boyfriend to her party with all her friends. They all brought gifts. They played computer games. It was a nice party.
Original sentence:
Erica threw her boyfriend a party and all his friends came, and they all brought presents and they ate a cake and they played video games and they made a mess and no one helped her clean it up and it was a really long day.
Ghotit Corrected sentence:
Erica threw her boyfriend a party. All his friends came. They all brought presents and ate a cake and played video games. They made a mess. No one helped her clean it up. It was a long day.
Additional information regarding Ghotit writing assistance can be found at:
Ghotit spelling corrections
Ghotit grammar corrections
Ghotit punctuation corrections
Ghotit style & clarity
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).