ReadOn
by ReadOn Pty Ltd
Interactive software tool for people with reading difficulties including dyslexia
ReadOn is a comprehensive learning tool, designed to assist people of all ages, overcome reading problems associated with dyslexia.
Features
- Multi-user support
- Easily networkable
- Personalised settings
- Text highlighting
- Visual tracking exercises
- Comprehension support
- Auditory feedback
- Customised visual cues for problem words
- Create, load, edit and save stories and articles in electronic format
- Load text from books and magazines using optical character recognition (OCR)
Unlike other software packages that are purely assistive in nature, ReadOn incorporates specific learning strategies “Learning Vortex” to help people overcome reading problems. In other words ReadOn helps a person learn to read, as well as being an assistive tool.
Reading is a complex process and when this process is not mastered, students will struggle to become independent readers. Regardless of reading level, ReadOn allows the student to experience reading with minimal supervision and support. Mistakes can be made and risks taken, hopefully resulting in an increased willingness to read, as well as improved reading ability and a boost in self esteem.
Click here for a guided tour of ReadOn’s functions. (Opens in a new window and requires Macromedia Flash plug-in installed for your browser – If it does not work, you may need to download and install free Flash player at http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer)
Click here to view audio-visual tutorials of the features of ReadOn – (Requires Flash)
Award Winning Product
- Winner of the 2007 Community iAward for the most innovative ICT project demonstrating a commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility.
- Winner of the Product Category of the 15th WAITTA 2005 – Western Australian Information Technology and Telecommunications Awards.
Click here to read an article featured in The West Australian.
See ReadOn featured on Channel Seven’s Today Tonight TV show.
Click here to listen to an ABC Radio interview with Jane Mangano, one of ReadOn’s developers.
Who can benefit from ReadOn?
Used as the basis of a home or school reading program, ReadOn can benefit:
- Classroom teachers who would like to strengthen the reading skills of all young learners (including dyslexic students) in a computer lab environment.
- Parents who want an interactive learning tool to improve and monitor their child’s reading skills.
- Anyone (adult or child) who wants a dyslexic-friendly software program for improving reading and comprehension.
Features in detail:
- Multi-user and easily networkable
ReadOn’s configurable, multi-user support makes it an ideal addition to the computer lab or classroom. ReadOn can be customised to suit each student’s needs, and those settings saved for later use.
Click here to view multi-user screenshot. - Personalised settings
Personalised settings and individual progress are recorded on an ongoing basis. This personalised multi-user support, allows teachers, parents and facilitators to control which supports are available to each student at any time.
- Text highlighting
ReadOn uses word, phrase and paragraph highlighting to remove any distraction from the surrounding text while reading. Students can easily focus on the current word, phrase or paragraph, rather than being distracted by all the other text on the page.
When moving through the text, highlighting can be set to either the full word, phrase or paragraph, or can include a sweeping of the word where each letter is highlighted one at a time. ReadOn also offers a spell reading option, where each letter of a word is named and highlighted, before the whole word is read.
- Visual tracking exercises
The visual tracking exercises of spelling the word and reading, and sweeping the word and reading are detailed in ‘Three Steps to Easier Reading’ by Ron Davis, included in this package.
As well as being useful for people with dyslexia, these exercises can also assist people who constantly misread words, because they have not taken in the whole word. If this habit is not addressed, plurals and tenses in particular tend to be confused, making comprehension inaccurate. Most teachers will be aware of children in their classes who perform poorly in comprehension activities, even though they appear to be able to read. These students will also benefit from the visual tracking exercises included in ReadOn.
- Comprehension support
People with reading difficulties use up much of their mental energy struggling to decode text. As a result there is little energy left to comprehend what is read, which is, after all, why we read in the first place. Without comprehension, students are likely to be discouraged from reading as there is little satisfaction, but instead frustration. ReadOn’s auditory feedback relieves the student of this constant decoding struggle, allowing comprehension to take place, and with it the motivation to continue reading.
ReadOn can be customised to read words, phrases or paragraphs out loud.
Ron Davis’ ‘Three Steps to Easier Reading’, included with this package, details the ‘Picture at Punctuation’ strategy. The goal of this strategy is full and complete comprehension. This strategy can be performed on ReadOn, by using the up and down arrows on the keyboard, to go through the text, phrase at a time.
- Auditory feedback
Where a student has difficulty interpreting or decoding a word, ReadOn can simply read the word out loud using the “Word Assist” function. This is the default action for assistance with difficult words, however, ReadOn also allows you to set the Word Assist style to perform more advanced functions, to either perform a letter by letter sweep of the word, or to spell the word prior to reading the word out loud. The frequency of the sweep or spell can also be set.
ReadOn allows you to select from a number of voices for auditory feedback. If necessary, voice pitch, speed and volume can all be adjusted.
Click here to view screenshot of ReadOn’s Auditory Feedback. - Individualised word bank
ReadOn can also be used as a diagnostic tool. When the student requests auditory feedback, these words are automatically saved in an individualised word bank. Teachers, parents, tutors and other specialists may choose to include these words in the student’s language program. The words can be displayed with or without frequency. Words frequently appearing in the word bank, may require multi-sensory work in order to be mastered.
The contents of the word bank can be printed, or copied to another application, and used as a basis for multi-sensory exercises, flash cards or word charts.
Students often get a thrill from checking the word bank after a reading session, to see if they can decode the words. This kind of use encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning.
Click here to view screenshot of ReadOn’s Wordbank. - Customised visual cues for problem words
People with dyslexia are often visual thinkers. Despite hours of drilling high frequency words, many words remain difficult to decode and comprehend, due to the lack of visual meaning. ReadOn allows a parent, teacher or the student to enter picture cues for such words.
Discreet markers indicate where a visual image has been entered for a word, allowing the user to access the image. This will aid in decoding and comprehension. Clay models, drawings or pictures created by the student can be used, ensuring the image has relevance to the user.
Click here to view screenshot of ReadOn’s Visual Cue. - Multiple sources of text
ReadOn allows parents, teachers and helpers to upload, enter and customise texts for students to read. Texts can be typed directly into ReadOn, or texts can be copied from other files, or from the internet. Once the text is loaded into ReadOn, instructors can customise the material to suit the needs of the individual student. Instructors can substitute words or phrases and add/remove text where appropriate. Once the text is customised, it can be saved for later use. Texts saved under one student’s name, can also be easily accessed by other users. So in the classroom setting, teachers can quickly accumulate a variety of texts for a variety of students.
To get you started, ReadOn provides you with four sample classic fiction stories.
ReadOn also comes with an inbuilt spell checker. This ensures that typographical errors are not inadvertently included in the student’s text.
- Load text from books and magazines using optical character recognition (OCR)
Older students with reading difficulties are often frustrated at not being able to read age appropriate material. ReadOn’s scanning facility allows students to scan texts of interest. With ReadOn’s auditory support and customised visual cues, students can read and comprehend these texts independently. This is an invaluable option for reading and understanding subject specific text.
Click here to view screenshot of ReadOn’s OCR/Scan to Text. - “The Learning Vortex”
Click here to look at a simple overview of how ReadOn can be used to overcome the learning problems associated with Dyslexia.
- Audio-visual tutorials included
Included with ReadOn is a dyslexic-friendly audio-visual tutorial to assist students, parents, teachers and other specialists in the use of ReadOn. Click below to view a sample at the ReadOn Pty Ltd website (opens in a new window and requires Macromedia Flash player installed on your computer – Download and install free Flash player at http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer):
“Excellent! ReadOn is a powerful tool that will improve literacy skills for learners of all ages. I am totally impressed with the different reading styles and options which parallel and complement the Davis Reading Exercises and Davis Symbol Mastery.
The options for choosing different texts, colours, voice sounds, and fonts ensure that learners will have fun and stay motivated. The easy-to-use and detailed audio-visual tutorial allows independent learning. The ability to create a personal visual dictionary stimulates creativity and provides learners with ownership of the learning process.
ReadOn is a valuable tool for classroom teachers, tutors or parents who wish to strengthen the reading and comprehension skills of all types of learners, including dyslexic students.
I would recommend ReadOn to anyone who wants a user and dyslexic-friendly software program for improving reading fluency.” – Ronald D. Davis
Author of The Gift of Dyslexia: Why some of the smartest people can’t read and how they can learn and Founder of Davis Dyslexia Association International
Videos about ReadOn
System Requirements
- Windows
- Operating System: Windows Vista/XP/2000/Me/98 or NT4
- Minimum RAM: 64 MB RAM
- HD Space Required: 300 MB
- Minimum Processor: Pentium 300 MHz
- Minimum Display: 16 bit hi-colours 800×600
- TWAIN compliant scanner for Optical Character Recognition and scanning of documents
- CD-ROM: Required
- Sound Card and Speakers: Required
- Operating System: Windows Vista/XP/2000/Me/98 or NT4
View/Download Product Brochure
- for Australia (219 KB) | for New Zealand – (1.6 MB)
View Product Tutorials
- ReadOn audio-visual demo/tutorials – (Opens in a new window and requires Macromedia Flash plug-in installed for your browser – If it does not work, you may need to download and install free Flash player at http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer)
Download Software Updates
- ReadOn Version 1.1.3 Patch (2.7 MB)
This update contains a number of minor modifications to ensure ReadOn runs on machines using the Vista operating system. It also includes a number a small improvements to write mode functionality and image processing.
For more information on "ReadOn" read the following articles:
ReadOn is targeted at the following age ranges:
- All Ages
ReadOn is designed to foster development in the areas of:
- Literacy
Users can access ReadOn in the following ways:
- Mouse/ Trackball/ Joystick
- Keyboard
For answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and technical support visit:
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