Skip to main content

100 Powerful Learning Specialist and Educational Therapy Materials

This week I wanted to tell you about my online store, Good Sensory Learning. I’m Dr. Erica Warren, and I established this site so I could share all the materials that I have created over the last 20+ years as a learning specialist and educational therapist. When I first began my private practice, Learning to Learn, I had great difficulty finding fun and multisensory materials for my students that were effective and engaging. So back in 2005, I made it my mission to design and distribute high-end, remedial products as well as memorable, motivating lessons that bring delight to learning. If you would like to try a free sampling of my activities , CLICK HERE . How Are the Products Organized at Good Sensory Learning? You can download my Free Printable Catalog or you can browse the site using the grey “search all products” bar in the top right of any page with keywords such as dyslexia, working memory, and executive functioning. What’s more, drop down menus in the red banner allow you t

Dyslexia and Voice Dream Reader: Discussion and Demonstration with Winston Chen

This blog shares my most recent video podcast featuring Winston Chen, the author of my favorite app for readers with dyslexia. This is the first of many free video podcasts for Go Dyslexia!

Winston founded Voice Dream while on sabbatical on an island north of the Arctic Circle and his flagship product Voice Dream Reader is an amazing technology device that offers text-to-voice for audiobooks, PDFs, and more. This top-selling iOS app has a recent, free, comprehensive update with some new extraordinary features. Come learn about this creation and view a demonstration of this amazing tool that is changing the accessibility of text for individuals with dyslexia around the world.
Voice Dream Reader and audiobooks
Mentioned Resource Links:
Voice Dream Reader: http://www.voicedream.com/reader/
Voice Dream Writer: http://www.voicedream.com/writer/
Abbyy Fine Reader: http://www.abbyy.com/finereader/
Cam Scanner: https://www.camscanner.com/user/download
Snap to PDF: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snap2pdf-scan-documents-share/id472940721?mt=8

Best New Features:
1) Pac-man reading mode: The latest research at MIT and Harvard shows that anyone can double their reading speed with no loss of comprehension. This new technique combines audio, visual, and attention propulsion. The words disappear from the page slightly before they're spoken by text-to-speech, forcing the reader to read ahead visually with audio arriving a fraction of a second later. With practice, the results can be staggering.
2) Finger reading: Some readers struggle to follow even at the slowest speed, which also becomes distorted. With finger reading, the reader runs their finger under the words on the screen to hear each word.
3) Quickly browse text: On an iPhone 6s or 6s plus, you can press firmly on the fast forward button while the app is reading -- also called Force Touch -- to double the reading speed. Release it slightly to return to normal speed.

What’s New in 4.0.0 release of Voice Dream Reader?

• A brilliant new user interface
• Grid view and book cover images in the library.
• Improved library organization: filters, flags, and sort order.
• Visual appearance of the entire app uses the current color theme.
• Experimental rich text
• Support for images/illustrations for all documents.

Library Synchronization:
• Your entire library, including folders, reading locations, bookmarks and annotations are synchronized across all your devices using iCloud Drive.

New Reading Modes:
• Finger reading allows beginning reads to control the speed by running a finger under each word.
• Pac-Man mode. Harvard and MIT developed speed-reading method for everyone to read at 2x speed with no loss of comprehension.
• Sentence mode. Speech pauses at every sentence. Useful for beginning readers.
• Repeat mode.
• Option to rewind to beginning of the last sentence when you pause.

New Voices:
• Alex, free, high-quality voice in iOS 9.
• New premium child voices from Acapela in US, UK, Australian English, US Spanish, and German.
• Acapela's new flagship German voice: Claudia.
• Emotive variations of Jeroen, Antoine, Margaux, Dimitris and Will.
Other New Features:
• Set PDF margins to exclude text in header and footer.
• Up to 4X speed for recorded audio.
• Support for 3D Touch, split-screen multitasking, and Spotlight search.
• Safari extension to save Web pages and Web addresses.
• Evernote file attachments.
• Background download for files and voices.
• More accurate language detection.
• Option to hide header and footer in full-screen mode.

What do you think of Voice Dream Reader? Share your comments and stories below!
Cheers, Dr. Erica Warren
Dr. Erica Warren is the author, illustrator, and publisher of multisensory educational materials at Good Sensory Learning and Dyslexia Materials. She is also the director of Learning to Learn and Learning Specialist Courses.

· Blog: https://learningspecialistmaterials.blogspot.com/
· YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/warrenerica1
· Podcast: https://godyslexia.com/
· Store: http://www.Goodsensorylearning.com/ & www.dyslexiamaterials.com
· Courses: http://www.learningspecialistcourses.com/
· Newsletter Sign-up: https://app.convertkit.com/landing_pages/69400

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

88 Assistive Technology Tools for Struggling Learners

Making sense of the complex weave of assistive technology devices and applications for struggling learners can be a confusing and frustrating chore. This blog talks about 15 different types of assistive technology that can benefit struggling learners with links to my favorite tools. For a more comprehensive discussion of these technologies  CLICK HERE Comprehensive Technologies: Don Johnston Inc. - $. Kurzweil 3000 - $   TextHelp - $ ClaroRead - $ Planning, Time Management, and Organization: iStudies Pro - Free/$ - Remember the Milk - Free - RescueTime - $ Strict Workflow  - Free - Wunderlist - Free - Text to Speech: AnyBook Personal Reader - $ Audible.com - $ IntoWords - $ NaturalReaders - Free/$ Project Gutenberg & Librivox - Free Raz-Kids - $ Read & Write for Google Chrome - Free/$ Read OutLoud - $ Snap&Read Universal - $ Voice Dream Reader - Free/$ Voice Typing - Free Speech to Text: Co-writer Un

10 Free Ways to Improving Visual Tracking for Weak Readers

While reading, tracking across the page from one line to the next can be tricky when the text is small, but for students with dyslexia or weak reading skills, it can be a problem regardless of the font size.  So why is this the case?  Perhaps one of the problems is poor tracking skills. What Exactly is Tracking? Tracking is the ability for one's eyes to move smoothly across the page from one line of text to another. Tracking difficulties happen when eyes jump backward and forward and struggle to stay on a single line of text.  This results in problems such as word omissions, reversals, eye fatigue, losing your place while reading and most importantly it can impact normal reading development.   Can Tracking be Improved? Tracking can be improved by strengthening eye muscles as well as getting your eyes and brain to work cooperatively.  There are three eye movements that need to be developed:   Fixations: The ability to hold one's eyes steady without moving

Do I have dyslexia - Explaining Symptoms and Myths for Kids

What do you do when you learn that your child has dyslexia? Should you hide this diagnosis to protect them from labels and misunderstandings, or should you tell them? If you do decide to tell them, how do you do this? Can you help them to overcome any potential fears or misunderstandings? These are the questions that I will answer in this blog that includes kid-friendly graphics. What are the Benefits of Telling Your Child That He or She Has Dyslexia? Educating your child with dyslexia about the common signs and misconceptions can help them to: understand that they learn in a different way than other kids that don’t have dyslexia.  shed negative labels such as stupid, careless, unmotivated and lazy. correct any misunderstandings. identify with other successful people that have or had dyslexia. acquire the needed intervention and instruction in school. learn that many people with dyslexia have strengths that others do not have. Individuals with dyslexia are often: great