iPad Apps and integrative workflows to support learners with literacy difficulties/dyslexia

Posted by Craig Mill on the 22nd August, 2012

If you are interested in using the iPad to support your pupils then you will probably be familiar with the large number of websites that have appeared over the past year offering ‘lists of Apps’ to support a range of difficulties including communication, literacy, numeracy etc. Some examples include Apps to support AAC, Apps to support literacy as well as Apps to support magnification and vision. 

While these are useful resources, particularly if you’re new to the iPad and unsure which Apps to download (and feeling a bit overwhelmed with so many Apps to choose from), lists of endless Apps have their limitations. 

As Apps become increasingly more sophisticated and offer improved features and options, I think there is much to be gained from using the built-in sharing and export features to create ‘integrative workflows’ for pupils. Using integrative workflows is about exploiting what an App has to offer or making the most of its main features. For example, there are a number of ‘literacy support’ Apps which have a ‘Send to App’ option, allowing learners to plan an essay using a mind map, export the mind map to a text-to-speech App for proof reading and finally sending the text to a word processor for formatting, final spell checking and submission. 

This is a similar approach for pupils with dyslexia when writing an essay or project – use a visual mind map to get down the main points, use nodes and notes to expand on ideas and finally export the mind map to a word processing program such as Word. Additional support in the form of word prediction or text-to-speech, is often provided via programs such as TextHelp Read&Gold, Co:Writer or even Penfriend. 

If you would like to find out more I’ve written a short article which explains this process in 4 simple steps. You can download the article by selecting this link.