Last week I posted about the TNReady accessibility and accommodations that are being offered this year with the new testing. You can find those right here.

Today I want to dig a little deeper about two parts in the accommodations for children with IEP's or 504's, Text to speech and Word Prediction.

First let me talk about the easier of the two...word prediction. What is word prediction? From the SC Assistive Technology Program: Word prediction programs work with word processors. They predict the word a person wants to enter into the computer. The person types the first letter of a word, and the program offers a list of words beginning with that letter. If the right word appears on the list, it can be chosen and automatically inserted into the sentence. If the right word doesn’t appear, the student continues to type the next letter until it does appear. After the user chooses a word, the computer predicts the next word in the sentence. Again, it offers a list of possible words, even before the first letter is typed. Predictions are based upon the sentence content and spelling, as well as the number of times a word is used. Word prediction may be helpful to students who have trouble with spelling, grammar, or using a keyboard (by reducing the number of keystrokes needed). These programs may also help people who struggle to come up with the exact word they want to use in a sentence.

Knox County uses a program called Solo 6 which has word prediction so if your child is using Solo 6, your child is already familiar with word prediction. Sadly though, a memo dated October 14, 2015 stated that word prediction would not be live for the 2015/2016 school year. Here is the exact statement from the memo...

I am currently looking for clarification on this. This seems mean that a student can use their own assistive technology device to use for word prediction but would that also mean that the assistive technology accommodation would also need to be added to the IEP accommodation as well?

Next let's talk about Text to Speech which seems to be a bit controversial this year. In the same assessment accommodation memo it states the following...

The decision to provide the text-to-speech accommodation for both the TNReady English language arts assessment and the social studies assessment must be made based on a student’s ability to access text. Below are key questions to ask when determining the need for the text-to-speech accommodation.

504 Plans:

• •Does student have a documented decoding or fluency deficit which precludes access to printed text?
• •Is student engaged in intense Tier III intervention to address specific deficit?
• •Does student need supported reading in core academic instruction?

IEP's:

• •Does student have a documented decoding or fluency deficit which precludes access to printed text?
• •Does student have a goal to address deficit listed in the present level of educational performance?
• •Is student engaged in intense intervention to address specific deficit?
• •Is inability to access printed text included in the impact statement?
• •Does student need supported reading in core academic instruction?

Make sure when you go into your child's IEP that you aren't just being told that the state says we have to remove read aloud, now called text to speech. These questions must be asked before the IEP team, and that includes you as the parent, decides whether a child should have the text to speech accommodation. Don't just take no for an answer.

As I prepare for another IEP meeting I am once again reading Ben Foss' book, The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan. If you have not read this book, you really need to. It is one of the books I recommend for all parents of dyslexic children. Ben is a huge supporter of assistive technology and invented the Intel Reader, a mobile device that takes photos of text and recites it aloud.

One major draw back of AT is that as kids get older they don't want to look different than their classmates, and using an iPad, for example, might be the very thing that makes them look different. While reading his book this statement made an impact on me...

And...

So now you may be asking what kind of assistive technology is out there? The number one accommodation needed is a way to ear-read. In school kids learn to eye read but as we know that is not easy for dyslexics so listening to a book is very important for a child to build their vocabulary just like their classmates do when they eye-read. Bookshare and Learning Ally are get sites that you can get a membership to, with a documented reading disability, that have thousands of books that you or your child can listen to.

An iPad has many apps that can help a dyslexic, from reading to writing to memory and organization.

Solo 6 is used in the Knox County school district which is a great program that allows a student to type with word prediction software and also reads the sentences typed to the student as well. Dragon is also a good speech-to-text program.

There are many things out there, but you must do your research. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.