Overview
No parent wants their child to feel excluded or left behind at school. Yet too often this is how students with learning differences are made to feel due to a lack of understanding or support. For Rachel and her son Owen, this was a daily reality.
That all changed when Owen’s school provided him with Read&Write, a toolbar that supports literacy and study skills. Rachel wanted to share how Read&Write had made a difference to Owen's learning.
Diagnosed with dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD, Owen was given access to Read&Write at school. The toolbar has supported Owen's learning needs by giving him tools to help him to read, write and engage with learning. Now Owen is better able to focus and display his understanding.
Read&WriteAssistive software has opened up possibilities for Owen. He’s better able now to demonstrate his knowledge and present his work in the way he would like."
Meet Rachel
Her son Owen is in high school and has a diagnosis of dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD. This means he faces challenges when it comes to reading, writing and maintaining focus on tasks. Despite this, Owen is a creative student who enjoys maths, science and art.
In this video, Rachel shares some of the ways that Owen’s learning differences have affected his engagement and self-esteem at school, especially as he progressed from primary to secondary.
Finding support in assistive tools
Traditional reading and writing tools can be inaccessible to students with dyslexia and dysgraphia. They may be overwhelmed by the volume or layout of words in a physical book, or find gripping a pen difficult for writing long passages of text. In these cases, students can benefit from the flexibility offered by assistive tools.
For the past two years, Owen has received a laptop and specialist software to assist him with literacy tasks. What made the biggest impact on Owen’s learning was receiving Read&Write, a toolbar that provides discreet support with literacy and study skills.
Introducing Read&Write
What was it like introducing the toolbar into Owen's learning support toolkit? In this video, Rachel describes her son's first impressions of using Read&Write and how easy it was to pick up.
He was really surprised at all the things he could do in just one tool."
Until now, Owen had been overwhelmed by the texts he was assigned. Read&Write gave Owen a new approach to reading, with tools to help him decode the texts in front of him and stay focused to engage with them fully.
In this video, Rachel explains how Owen adapted to a new way of learning.
How Read&Write supports students like Owen
Read&Write acts as a literacy partner, providing tools which help students to understand texts and articulate their own ideas.
Among Read&Write's most popular features are text-to-speech and dictation. Text-to-speech lets students hear text read aloud in a voice and pace of their choice, with dual-highlighting to help them follow along. With the dictation feature, students can transcribe their speech into text. This is a great way to help students like Owen demonstrate their learning without being held back by their literacy skills.
Some more ways that Owen uses Read&Write:
- Acquire new words with picture dictionaries and personalised vocabulary lists
- Boost writing flow with smart word prediction
- Improve reading focus with an adjustable screen-mask
Lasting impact
Before Read&Write, Owen struggled to stay motivated at school. His lack of confidence led him to disengage from tasks that centred on reading and writing. But by giving him tools to help him understand and be understood, he's now realising his potential.
Read&Write has become an integral part of Owen's day-to-day learning. It offers tools to support him with reading, writing, focus and study. Rachel has noticed that Owen is now much more persistent with written tasks and has a newfound curiosity with learning. She explains more in this video.
We've seen such huge improvements in his results at school as a result of using Read&Write."
As Read&Write is compatible across different devices, Owen can use it for the work he does at school as well as his homework. This continuous support helps Owen to progress his learning without the need for constant supervision from an adult.
Owen is flourishing with this independence. "It's given him the power to take control over his learning," says Rachel. "All those tasks which he found so overwhelming and challenging to the point that he had really started to dislike learning - they were made so much easier by using Read&Write."
Being able to access learning and keep up with his friends has made a huge difference to Owen's school performance and confidence. Rachel talks about the lasting impact Read&Write has had on her son.
Read&Write has given Owen the power to take control over his learning. It's transformative."
What makes Read&Write so useful is the range of features it offers. It helps students not just with reading and writing, but also with comprehension, vocabulary building, study skills and focus. Its features are customisable and suitable for all age groups - meaning it will continue to support Owen throughout secondary school.
“I was really fearful about how Owen would manage heading into high school next year," admits Rachel. "But I just feel so much more confident now that he's got a tool like this that will help him do the work he needs to do and really enhance his learning.”
