Fire Up Dyslexic Reading: Use Kindle Fire for Tracking

Kindle Fire + Dyslexia

The new version of the Kindle Fire tablet comes with Immersion Reading.
“Fire tablets can synchronize Kindle text with companion Audible audiobooks with real-time highlighting to create a more immersive reading experience, as well as deepen learning and comprehension. More than 60,000 Kindle books and companion Audible audiobooks are available across a wide array of genres.” This is game-changing for dyslexic readers! They benefit dramatically from tracking, which means hearing and seeing the text simultaneously.

Why Tracking is an Important Dyslexia Tool

Dyslexic learners exhibit a reading difficulty when taught by standard methods, but also come with outstanding learning strengths. Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide detail these strengths in their book, The Dyslexic Advantage. One of the dyslexic MIND strengths is Interconnected Reasoning, or pattern-finding. Dyslexic learners often pick up on patterns that others miss. They connect things others didn’t know were connected. They rejoice in complex patterns, like mathematics and music theory, that make linear thinkers cringe. Great teachers know that the best learning occurs when teachers emphasize strengths rather than focus on weaknesses.

Audiobooks: The Ultimate Reading Tool

So how do you help a dyslexic reader get a big picture perspective on the text? You give them an audiobook PAIRED with a printed book and show them how to track along. This allows them to focus on the important ideas and flow of language while letting their pattern-finding brain start to sort those pesky words into place by seeing them and hearing them IN CONTEXT. Meaning is everything to a dyslexic learner, so separating the words into bits can actually backfire. Ron Davis, author of The Gift of Dyslexia, found meaning was crucial for dyslexic learners. He used clay modeling as a way to visualize the meanings of words. That’s an amazingly effective tool. So is tracking. Use both with your dyslexic reader!

No more Dumbing Down Books for Dyslexics!

Because dyslexic readers often test low in reading speed and comprehension (slow speed destroys comprehension) they commonly get low-level books to read. Big mistake! Since most dyslexic learners are intellectually advanced — years beyond their peers perhaps — easy reader books do not motivate them to love reading! Audiobooks paired with text allow dyslexic readers to delve into any subject that fascinates them.

Do Audio Books Make “Lazy” Readers?

No! This myth has been repeatedly debunked by research. For a great discussion see Why ‘Tyrannosaurus’ But Not ‘If’? by Richard Whitehead. He explains that the dyslexic reader will “form a direct cognitive link from what words look like to what they mean.” (p. 14)  This bypasses sound. It bypasses phonics, the bogeyman of the dyslexic reader. This uses the dyslexic strength of pattern-finding! In the past, only dyslexics with parents who had time to read aloud for years while the student followed along would make the leap to fast silent reading. Paired audio and print books open this door for any reader with a Kindle Fire or a local library that checks out paired audio and print books. Many libraries do this now because of the demand for English Language Learning, so ask! It works for ELL, AND it’s a powerful tool for a dyslexic reader.

by Yvonna Graham, M.Ed.
www.dyslexiakit.net

@GrahamYvonna