11 Must-Have Apps and Tools for Dyslexic Students
Dyslexic students can benefit greatly from using technology. There are apps and tools available that can help dyslexic students read, write, and more. Using these 11 apps and tools with dyslexic students will ensure they can keep up in your 21st century classroom.
Learning Ally is a great resource for audiobooks. This app has hundreds of books for kids and teens available with a monthly subscription. Users can follow along and adjust the size or type of text to make it easier for dyslexic students.
Reading webpages, emails, and texts can be hard for dyslexic students. However, many text-to-speech apps sound mechanical and feel clunky. Natural Reader has a nice, natural-sounding voice that can read a variety of documents.
Dyslexia Quest is an app that looks and feels like a game, but is designed to help dyslexic kids and teens work on memory skills, phonics, and sequencing—all skills that dyslexic students typically struggle with.
For younger students with dyslexia, working with phonics is especially important. Sound Literacy is a fun app with game-like activities designed to help students learn to recognize letter sounds.
Dyslexic students often have trouble with spelling. Software with autocorrect or spellcheck sometimes can’t figure out what a dyslexic student is trying to spell. Ginger Page is a more sophisticated word processor that can help dyslexic students write flawlessly.
Many text-to-speech apps are unable to convert PDF documents into speech. vBooks PDF Voice Reader can, and it can also change the font to one designed for dyslexic readers.
OpenWeb is a web browser that converts text into a dyslexic-friendly font, allowing dyslexic students to read with less difficulty. It’s useful for times when text-to-speech is unnecessary or disruptive.
Another great app for young students with dyslexia, Reading Intro by Oz Phonics helps kids learn to recognize letter sounds. The tasks are fun and simple enough for kids to play on their own.
This app isn’t necessarily just for students with dyslexia, but it’s a great tool. It has a quiz that may help determine if a child is dyslexic or needs further screening. It also has information for teachers, parents, and other students to help them understand dyslexia.
Text-to-speech apps are great for online content, but what about books or worksheets? OCR Instantly Pro allows users to snap a photo of any page and convert it to text, which can then be read aloud by a number of apps.
For dyslexic students, traditional note-taking is difficult. This app allows users to create graphic organizers or mind maps to jot down their thoughts quickly and easily.
