“New learning and recall of the information relies on the efficient electronic activity of the neuron and the chemical transfer of impulses at the synapse” (B. Welsford, 2010).
17 centers of the brain contribute to reading. Reading involves attention to the task, visual processing, auditory processing, orthographic processing, phonological processing, meaning processing and context processing. What an incredibly complex process. For students who are struggling with reading there are any number of reasons or break downs in the processes.
If learning is like a remodelling of the brain, the child’s brain is often described as plastic.
When reflecting on my students I can see how many of them struggle with learning for reasons of attention, auditory disabilities, visual disabilities, learning disabilities. All these issues and others contribute to break downs in their learning to read text. These issues can make text inaccessible. Following our demonstration of the assistive technology software (Earobics, Start to finish books, Word Maker, Kurzweil) I can think of students who would benefit from each of these technologies.
As a Math and PDR teacher I know that Kurzweil is effective software for supporting student success. Reading, writing text, as well as assessment and testing are some of the practical features for students. There are a number of features that support students who may be unable to access text in traditional ways. There are many features that increase engagement and interaction with text which helps students build vocabulary, word recognition, enhance comprehension and enables students to be successful with text that may have been previously inaccessible.
