Ghotit thanks Mark Miller for this great video
Overcome Dyslexia with Modern Technology
By Melody Cleo
Dyslexia is a medical term that implies that the affected person is unable to read, spell, write or speak properly. It is a condition in which the normal day to day functioning ability of an individual is hampered due to dyslexic tendencies and is caused when the brain is impaired in a way that it is unable to transmit images into languages that are understandable. It is a common perception that dyslexia is similar to retardation of brain or low intelligence quotient, but researches over the years have shown that it is just caused by learning and reading disability and has little to do with individual intelligence.
Causes of Dyslexia:
There are three reasons that might cause Dyslexia in a person. Let us go through them one by one:
· It can be caused due to trauma that affects the brain and hampers the ability to read and learn.
· Dysfunction of the cerebral cortex on the brains’ left side may lead to dyslexia
· Dyslexia may also be a reason of hormonal development that crops up at the time of birth, but ceases with age. This particular type of dyslexia is more common among boys than in girls.
Dyslexia can be recognized among children at an early age. Their inability to learn, read, speak or write may not necessarily be a reason to worry, but it is always advisable to consult a doctor.
Overcoming Dyslexia with modern technology:
Gone are the days when dyslexic people were made to do sky contact and then undergo therapy. In the current scenario, modern technology has started playing a major role in treating dyslexia. With modern infrastructure, hi-fi technology and a need for newer and more efficient treatments, some of the technologies used are:
· Various audio devices are constantly used to let patients hear the content and then retain it. Tape recorders, mobile phones, camcorders and other such devices are being utilized to record voice and then are repeated so that dyslexic patients can retain them in their mind.
· Mind exercises, especially devised for dyslexic patients can be played on computers and laptops. This gives the opportunity to think and retain various thoughts. Various reading games can hone the reading skills as well.
· Electronic dictionaries that are voice enabled are extremely helpful since one can listen to end number of words, learn their pronunciation as well as meanings and learn their synonym and antonym words at the same time.
· Various spelling and grammar tools are out in the market that require an active internet connection and can easily correct any wrong grammar or spelling.
· There are many text to speech converting software programs available on the internet that can read texts of various formats n the computer and then change it to audio files. These programs are specifically made keeping the needs of dyslexic patients in mind and hence they have great sound quality.
These are just some of the modern technologies that have been put to use to pave a way for better treatment of Dyslexia. In the time to come, science is expecting even more development in the field of technology for the same purpose.
Melody Cleo is a passionate blogger from Manchester, UK. In is free time, she writes articles on various topics such as technology, gadgets, travel…Etc. As of now she is focusing on sky contact number, which provides information regarding broadband services, radio services and television services.
Connection Between Dyslexia and ADHD
By Tammy Mahan
Approximately 60 to 100 percent of children diagnosed with ADHD also have two or more other related conditions and one of the most notable conditions is dyslexia.
According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health,” dyslexia is a learning disability that can hinder a person’s ability to read, write, spell, and sometimes speak. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability in children and persists throughout life. The severity of dyslexia can vary from mild to severe.”
Often time’s doctors miss the signs of dyslexia in children with ADHD because the signs and symptoms are similar in many aspects of both conditions.
Dyslexia is a condition in which the brain cannot translate images such as letters and numbers. The brain transposes the letters so a child with dyslexia may see the word winter as “inwter” this obviously causes problems with reading and comprehension. The same thing is true for math, if a child is given the following math problem 345 + 821 they may see it as 435+ 128 and of course, their answer is going to be incorrect because the numbers they are adding together is not the correct set of numbers.
Some children have difficulty speaking because what they hear is not what is being said. Children learn to talk by hearing words and sentences and eventually they learn what the word means and repeat it. Such as young children who are just starting to learn to talk, if they hear “Mommy loves you” every night before bed and then they are given a hug or kiss they will eventually realize that “Mommy” is the person talking to them and putting them to bed so they will start to say part of the word such as “mama” and then “mommy.”
Children who have dyslexia often hear more of a mumbling instead of clear words. Therefore, it takes them longer to learn to talk and they usually will pronounce the words incorrectly such as “ommy” instead of “mommy.” Depending on the severity of the speech disability, they may need speech therapy to learn to talk.
So, what is the connection between dyslexia and ADHD? Scientists have done genetic testing on children with ADHD and found that dyslexia and ADHD share the same genetic background. Both conditions also have been found to share some of the same chromosome differences making the two conditions more likely to accompany each other. In other words if a child is diagnosed with either ADHD or dyslexia there is a very good chance the child has both conditions and should be tested for the condition that has not already been diagnosed.
While children who have ADHD without dyslexia still have learning disabilities, when you toss the dyslexia in to the mix, it makes the learning disabilities even more severe. Not only does the child have a learning disability but also they are faced with moderate to severe cases of loss of concentration and an inability to focus on anything for more than a few minutes and sometimes only seconds.
Children who fall into the ADHD/ dyslexia category cannot generally be taught by the traditional means used in the school systems. Luckily, there are special tools called motor sensory tools that are very beneficial in helping children with ADHD and dyslexia learn to read, write and do math problems.
Tammy Mahan has worked in the healthcare field for over 20 years. In her free time, she enjoys writing articles for Healthline.com.
I have looked for new research for the connection between Dyslexia and ADHD and was unable to find any new explanations to the statistics.
Taking Apple’s Macintosh to the Next Level in Literacy and Learning for Dyslexics
Apple is a company has positioned itself as a company committed to providing solutions for people with disabilities, offering innovative solutions in the area of accessibility.
Over the year Apple’s computer Macintosh has invested in delivering a set of built-in features focused in assisting the learning disabled. These features include:
– Advanced text to speech: Mac is equipped with Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology that can read aloud a selection of text or an entire document. Mac TTS includes various male and female voices.
– Word completion feature: After typing a few characters, a user can access a list of words beginning with those characters.
– Built-in Spelling and Grammar Checking: Every Mac provides students with the benefits of resources such as the New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus, Apple Dictionary, Wikipedia, scientific reference materials, and grammar and pronunciation guides.
Ghotit has recently released the Real-Writer Pro for Macintosh. This solution takes Macintosh dyslexic users to the next level in assistive writing solutions. The Ghotit solution for Macintosh has incorporated and optimized Macintosh’s core services for a solution dedicated for dyslexics. The Ghotit solution includes the following optimized features:
– Severe spelling error correction: based on advanced context spell checking algorithms, the context of the sentence is analyze to determine the correctly spelled word.
– Misused, confused word correction: Without appropriate context knowledge, the spell checker does not have any information to provide for a misused word, and will leave such words as unmarked. Ghotit context spell checking algorithms have been targeted to effectively identify misused words.
– Grammar checker: Ghotit performs grammar and punctuation corrections. The corrections are performed using both grammar rules definitions and contextual spell checking algorithms.
– Split & merge word correction: Many times users accidentally or not knowingly split words (e.g. “birth day” instead of “birthday”) or merge words (“oneday” instead of “one day”). Ghotit detects these errors and makes the appropriate suggestions.
– Intelligent word prediction: Ghotit helps a user in his writing by “predicting” a word the user intended to type. Predictions are based on spelling, context, grammar syntax, and frequently/recently used words.
– Text to Speech: Ghotit leverages Macintosh’s built-in text-to-speech feature to enable dyslexic users to have their written text read out loud. This way, users with dyslexia can act as their own gatekeepers to ensure that what they have written is exactly what they intended to communicate.
For more information go to: https://www.ghotit.com/dyslexia-software-demo-for-mac/
Can assistive technology for people with dyslexia be cheap?
Ghotit offers it’s Microsoft integrated Assistive Technology plug-in for just 9 cents a day…
According to Wikipedia “Assistive technology or adaptive technology (AT) is an umbrella term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and also includes the process used in selecting”.
From this definition it is clear that assistive technology is a technology which aims to help a targeted group of people (this technology might never be adopted by the general population).
The costs of Assistive Technologies, specifically those targeting people with dyslexia, can reach hundreds of dollars. If a guarantee can be given that an assistive technology solution would result in dramatic writing improvements– than even such a high price of several hundreds of dollars would be worth it. As a person with dyslexia, I know that dramatically improving ones’ writing is an invaluable benefit. But the truth of the matter is that not all assistive technologies are the same, and not all dyslexics are the same. Therefore not all writing assistive technology solutions can deliver on their promise to all dyslexics.
As a dyslexic who has spent in the past thousands of dollars trying to obtain the “right” solution that will improve my terrible writing and spelling, I am familiar with the disappointment when a writing assistive solution that costs close to a thousand dollars, simply does not deliver any real value.
Ghotit writing assistive technology was developed by dyslexics, for dyslexics. As one of the founders of Ghotit, I can confidently say that I have seen no other product in the market that delivers the writing improvements to dyslexics as does Ghotit. However, as stated above, not all dyslexics are the same. Ghotit understands that and is offering Microsoft integrated plug-in for extremely reasonable prices…
So can assistive technology for people with dyslexia be cheap? Yes, go to Ghotit and see how you can purchase Ghotit for only 9 cents a day…
Dyslexia, Writing Assistive Technology and Grammar Correction
English grammar is not straightforward. As in many languages, English too has a long list of grammar rules and a long list of exceptions to these rules. Now take a person with dyslexia. A dyslexic has to exert his full concentration on subduing the words from dancing up and down, backwards and forwards, and therefore does not have a very wide concentration span on writing correct grammar too.
Writing is harder for people with dyslexia. This is a well-known fact. As they struggle with their spelling, they often ignore their grammar. I am a dyslexic myself. My verbal English is quite good. Rarely do I make grammatical errors when I speak. However, many times when I review some text of mine, I am surprised by the grammatical errors that I have produced. Sometimes I ask myself “Did I really write this?”
Regular spell checkers usually have some grammar checking capabilities. But as with the other features of regular spell checkers, they are not optimized to the needs of a person with dyslexia. The algorithm for spell checkers for people with dyslexia must be much more intelligent as they must deal with much more severe and un-identifiable spelling errors mixed together with some grammar confusion.
As understood from the title itself, Writing Assistive Technology comes to assist people that have special writing disabilities. In order to support a dyslexic in producing legible and high quality written text, a writing assistive technology must also address grammar mistakes. The grammar checker must be integrated together with the spell checker, enabling a maximum secure writing experience for the dyslexic. The grammar checking for dyslexics must be intelligent enough so that even though a written sentence may be completely jumbled it will still be able to offer the correct grammar corrections.
Ghotit leverages its Intelligent Context Correction (ICC) patent-pending technology to correct grammar errors uncorrectable by regular spell checkers. Using this technology, Ghotit is able to find and correct grammar errors also when they are well camouflaged amidst text full of heavily misspelled words.
