At 5:29 AM 4/16/5, Frederick Sparber wrote: >Hi All. > >Joey is a great little guy (adopted at age 3 in 1995) who can see an >exploded-view picture of a Swiss Watch or a Toyota Transmission, and if >the parts are in front of him, can put one together in working order even >if it takes a week of patient trial and error. He has an excellent >speaking vocabulary. > >On the other hand if you give him an instruction sheet, even for the >simplest gadget with no pictures he cannot read the words no matter how >hard he tries. But, if you read out the words to him he can pick up on it >and retain/apply it. > >When he listens to a pre-recorded digital voice story he can retain it >quite well. Also he can do A+ work on science exams at school, if someone >reads the questions to him. :-) > >I had purchased Dragon 8.0 Voice to Print software, with the thought that >it might help him >in visual-auditory development, but it is too selective in voice recognition. > >Is there software available that allows point-and-click word with >pronunciation, >that could help Joey learn to read?
Not what you are asking for, but I saw on the local news recently a segment on software in the form of point and click audio-visual games that are designed to train the brain to overcome severe dyslexia. It is apparently very effective, more effective and individualized than personal therapy because the software adjusts as progress is made and many more hours and more effective hours can be experienced than is possible for individual therapy. According to the newscast, some kids that can not even read at all learn very rapidly with the software, and apparently really enjoy the games, though the kids in the clips were younger than Joey. Biofeedback combined with computerized training algorithms can be very effective in training the brain to overcome wiring problems. My wife lost her balance capabilites this past year, becoming seriously dizzy. It is a terrible affliction. Her problem was diagnosed as a loss of brain function and balance was regained over a period of 6 weeks through biofeedback training using a computer with balance sensing pads. The news clips showed the dyslexia training software running on Macs. Another thought is print-to-voice software may be of use, and there is probably a lot of very specialized stuff, including scanners and software for the partially visually impaired, available from the Association for the Blind, and which is not available anywhere else. Joey's problem might be considered a visual impairment, because it is an eye-brain disfunction. Regards, Horace Heffner
