An open trial assessment of "The Number Race", an adaptive computer game for remediation of dyscalculia (learning outcome 5)

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1744-9081-2-20.pdf

Open Access Research
An open trial assessment of "The Number Race", an adaptive
computer game for remediation of dyscalculia
Anna J Wilson*1, Susannah K Revkin1, David Cohen4, Laurent Cohen1,3 and
Stanislas Dehaene1,2

Abstract
Background: In a companion article [1], we described the development and evaluation of
software designed to remediate dyscalculia. This software is based on the hypothesis that
dyscalculia is due to a "core deficit" in number sense or in its access via symbolic information. Here
we review the evidence for this hypothesis, and present results from an initial open-trial test of the
software in a sample of nine 7–9 year old children with mathematical difficulties.
Methods: Children completed adaptive training on numerical comparison for half an hour a day,
four days a week over a period of five-weeks. They were tested before and after intervention on
their performance in core numerical tasks: counting, transcoding, base-10 comprehension,
enumeration, addition, subtraction, and symbolic and non-symbolic numerical comparison.
Results: Children showed specific increases in performance on core number sense tasks. Speed
of subitizing and numerical comparison increased by several hundred msec. Subtraction accuracy
increased by an average of 23%. Performance on addition and base-10 comprehension tasks did not
improve over the period of the study.
Conclusion: Initial open-trial testing showed promising results, and suggested that the software
was successful in increasing number sense over the short period of the study. However these
results need to be followed up with larger, controlled studies. The issues of transfer to higher-level
tasks, and of the best developmental time window for intervention also need to be addressed.

Chek out this url..just copy and paste

http://books.google.com.my/books?id=PS-0L-fRbbgC&lpg=PA105&ots=5ieQPKpHX3&dq=recent%20technologies%20in%20teaching%20maths%20for%20dyslexic&pg=PA105#v=onepage&q=&f=false


There's an article about a research on the effects of using a Computer Aided Learning program to dyslexic people.

Dyslexia and math / maths

Dyslexia and math / maths

Many dyslexic children and teens aften experience problems with math/s because of their difficulties with sequencing. Many have not yet learned the basics - how to count to 100 forwards and backwards, and do not understand any processes beyond addition. Jean Herold describes some techniques which will help.

Many dyslexic children and teens have problems in some ares of math/s, especially the multiplication tables, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio and statistics.

A dyslexic student usually needs extra instruction particularly as new concepts are introduced.

With this subject, it is particularly important to grasp each concept thoroughly before moving on. If not instructed properly in math/s, it will become yet another thing to weigh down their self-esteem.

Sequencing and short-term memory

Problems in math/s can arise from a dyslexic child's difficulties with sequencing. Getting numbers in the correct order, and being able to reverse that order is a challenge for the student.

A problem with short-term memory can make it particularly hard for the student to learn the multiplication tables.

To help a student with math/s the first thing that needs to be established is how much they know or understand about the subject. It cannot be assumed because of age or grade how much a student knows.

Small steps

Teach math/s concepts sequentially and in small steps. Do not move on to another concept until the student is ready and thoroughly understands the preceding concept.

For example, do not move on to counting backwards until basic counting has been mastered. The following exercises can be beneficial in reinforcing the relationship of numbers to actual quantities. They utilize the same multi-sensory approach used to teach dyslexic children to read. Introduce these methods as games, keeping them a fun activity. If the student becomes tired, seems distracted or bored at any point move on to another activity, or take a break for a while.

Counting to 100

Have a child with dyslexia arrange 100 counters in a long line on the floor. Have her place a marker after each ten. The child can then practice counting all the way through to 100. Teach tens by using a different colored counter in place of the tens number so that they easily stand out.

After that, they can learn to count by fives. The counting of numbers by ten and five will help the child immensely when it comes to multiplication and time telling skills.

Have the child count forwards until they can do so fluently, then they can start to count backwards. Practicing counting can be done in any situation, counting cars as they pass by, or stairs as they climb up them.

Another exercise that can be done anywhere - in the classroom by the teacher, or at home with a parent - is to call out a number and have the child call out the following one. At first the hardest numbers for the child to remember are usually where there is a change of tens, as in 29 to 30.

Multiplication and division

Multiplication and division are the most difficult for a child with dyslexia to master. It will make it easier for the child to learn if they actually understand the concept. The following may help: collect 5 pairs of items, gloves, shoes, toy animals, anything as long as the pairs are the same. Lay out the pairs in front of the child, show her that there are two items in each pair, one pair has two items, two pairs has four items, etc. When the child sees the five pairs have ten items, explain as you write it down, that is what 5 x 10 means.

This exercise can be repeated with each of the different pairs until she understands what the "2 times" means. Once the child is familiar with the 2 times table, they should begin to work on all the tables in the following order: 2x, 10x, 11x, 5x, 3x, 4x, 9x, 6x, 7x, 8x, then finally 12x, which they should know from the other tables.

When first using worksheets, use pictures of familiar animals or items for students to count. If a student has difficulty with one particular fact show them how to use the facts they do remember to help them.

An example of this is if a student knows 6 x 5 well, show them how to use that to figure out 7 x 5 by counting up by five.

Relate mathematical story problems to things they like and their friends or family, this way they have the added dimension of visualization to work with.

Games work particularly well

Games work particularly well with dyslexic children as they seem to have an aversion to plain work sheets. Children enjoy playing Bingo. This multiplication Bingo game is a big hit with most kids. Make a Bingo type card on a piece of paper, fill the squares with the answers to all the multiplication facts, up to 6 x 6 with regular dice, 9 x 9 and 12 x 12 (or with the polyhedral dice available at school supply stores). Take it in turns to roll the dice; multiply the two numbers rolled and mark it off on the players' Bingo sheets.

Without making it too obvious, let the child win any games to build up their self-confidence.

Teach the child to talk through math/s problems, saying it softly to themselves, without disturbing others. This will employ auditory as well as visual memory abilities. Explain to them how this will help because the brain can store different kinds of memories. Often a child will read a whole problem, remember some numbers and do any kind of math calculation that comes to mind! Show the student how to jot down the key facts and symbols in a problem as they come up.

Use a calculator

Show a child with dyslexia how to use a calculator. Students should not use the instrument to do all of their math/s work, but to check their calculations and make corrections where necessary.

Make individual worksheets for students. Structure worksheets to meet the students knowledge and ability; simplify word problems so they will not be an obstacle for dyslexics; customized sheets will allow for success, not failure.

Real coins

When teaching about money use real coins instead of plastic, this is far more fun and exciting for the children. It is not always necessary to spend a fortune on items for tactile use; change from your pocket, pieces of cereal, simple circles cut out of colored paper are great for whole number and fraction work.

Utilize the many resources available to construct a suitable curriculum for students.

Websites like www.dyslexia-teacher.com has many great suggestions for instruction ideas.

Many computer games such as Treasure Math Storm by Learning Company are fun and provide an excellent means of math practice. Commencing with basic multi-sensory instruction, sequential small steps, verbalization and visualization techniques, and review and practice, there is no reason for any child not to become a competent mathematician. !

Jean Herold
February 2003
Jean Herold was a student on the Dyslexia Certificate course.

Working Out Averages with Smarties

I recently worked alongside a student who was finding averages difficult to grasp. The topic had been covered for several weeks in class but my student was finding it frustrating and was fed up with the textbook questions she was expected to answer quickly. With permission from the math tutor I worked one to one with her on a practical task which involved covering averages by using a simple tube of chocolate Smarties! She put them in rows of colors and we discussed what the mode, median, mean and range were. She then produced two graphs on the computer (bar chart and pie chart). She was now more self confident having grasped the concept of averages using this alternative method of learning and could move onto the next topic with the rest of the group. (L.C.)

Related links

Dyslexia Teacher - Teaching Methods

Time Table Rhyme - tables testing activity - automatically marked.

www.multiplication.com - range of games and activities.

Voice Recognition Software Helping Dyslexics (learning outcome 5)

Voice Recognition Software Helping Dyslexics

by Ian Austen

ANDREW GANAT graduated from high school in May and is looking forward to college in the fall. While that is an important milestone in anyone's life, reaching it is especially sweet for Mr. Ganat, 18. In the second grade, he was found to have the learning disability dyslexia.

"My overall problem is memorizing the spelling of words," said Mr. Ganat, who is from Norwalk, Conn. "I can get all the letters down but I can't make them into the word."

Specialized schooling — including five years as a boarder at the Gow School near Buffalo, which specializes in teaching students with language-based learning problems — certainly helped take Mr. Ganat to the threshold of college. But for the last three years he has found another way to boost both his grades and his outlook. Mr. Ganat is one of a number of dyslexics, both students and adults, using voice recognition software to transfer their ideas into print.

"It's made my grades improve," Mr. Ganat said of the software. "I didn't think I was getting the right grades before. I'm not a dumb kid, so it was frustrating. But now I've kind of found a way to be even with everyone else."

Marshall H. Raskind, a learning disabilities researcher at the Frostig Center in Pasadena, Calif., said that voice recognition software could make a significant difference for many people with dyslexia. "It is a great equalizer," he said. "When someone feels they can express themselves in writing it can have positive implications for self- esteem. One guy told me, `For the first time in my life I can write love letters.' "

After studying the use of the software by dyslexic students for 10 years and publishing four joint papers on his findings, Dr. Raskind has concluded that speech recognition not only allows dyslexics to communicate more efficiently but may even help them overcome their condition.

"Children who wrote using speech recognition technology for as little as 10 1/2 hours showed significant improvement in reading, decoding, spelling and comprehension," Dr. Raskind said. "We were blown away by this. The results are preliminary. But it is very encouraging."

The use of voice recognition software by dyslexic students has largely taken software companies by surprise. "The focus is around driving larger business opportunities for voice recognition," said David Nahamoo, senior manager for human language technologies at IBM. (news/quote) Research. "But the last time I saw the letters from dyslexic users, I thought, it's wonderful."

While software companies have focused on developing voice recognition for common uses like controlling cell phones, making computers more accessible to non-typists and hands- free control of gadgets in automobiles, the technology is slowly making its way into a range of applications for people with disabilities.

Harnessed by determined researchers in what is almost an underground movement, it has helped people with impairments ranging from paralysis to repetitive stress injury that make typing painful or impossible. People with dyslexia are now beneficiaries, too.

Dyslexia is a broad term for language disabilities that cause a person to have trouble understanding written words, sentences or paragraphs. The International Dyslexia Association estimates that dyslexia is the most common source of reading, writing and spelling problems. Dyslexic students tend to have separate vocabularies for writing and speaking: even if they are highly articulate, they draw on a strictly limited selection of words when writing. When they were able to dictate their papers and examination responses to a computer, Dr. Raskind found, the students exploited their full language capabilities.

So far, the use of voice recognition by dyslexics is very limited. Dr. Raskind said he had been unprepared for the opposition he encountered from some people, including teachers.

"I don't want to make it sound like a panacea," he said of the software. "It can be very, very frustrating for some students. But many people view assistive technologies in general as a crutch, a way of avoiding a problem. It's weird: it's like seeing someone with a white cane and saying, `Rip that cane out of their hands and let them do it themselves.' "

Robert Follansbee, co-director of Speaking to Write, a project financed by the Department of Education that is examining the use of voice recognition in secondary schools, said: "Special educators are hip to it now. They get it. But often regular educators don't understand it. The comment I've heard many times from teachers is `They'll never learn to write.' "

Dr. Raskind first got the idea of having dyslexics rely on computers when he headed the learning disabilities program at California State University at Northridge. In 1991 he began developing a long-term research program with Eleanor L. Higgins, a senior research associate at the Frostig Center, a research and treatment center for people with learning disabilities. Together they focused on dyslexic California State students who were dictating reports and exam answers by using Dragon Dictate, a precursor to the popular L&H Dragon Naturally Speaking software.

"Often they'll be able to talk it out fine but they have difficulty translating it to the printed page," Dr. Raskind said.

Dragon Dictate's performance with what was then state-of-the-art computers was, Dr. Raskind recalls, not brilliant in technical terms. But the results generated by the 29 Northridge students who used it were impressive. "You could no longer differentiate their writing when they used speech recognition from writing by students without learning difficulties," he said. "The quality of their writing was far superior" to what it had been.

So were the students' marks. One factor was what might be called the 25-cent word effect. "If you use bigger words, a bigger vocabulary, you get graded higher," Dr. Raskind said.

It was some of Dr. Raskind's own subjects who first suggested that the software might even be having an effect on their reading or writing skills. "After using it over the course of a year, they started saying things like, `You know, I think my reading and spelling are getting better,' " he said. Two joint studies he has done since then tracking students ages 9 to 18 seem to confirm their impressions.

Dr. Raskind believes that the explanation may be fairly straightforward. "You say a word and then you see a word," he said of the programs. "That's an age-old approach that's used with kids who have dyslexia."

Mr. Ganat, the college-bound 18- year-old, began working on voice recognition in the 10th grade. Although he struggled at first, his main problem now, as he tells it, is dealing with others' disbelief. Using the IBM. speech recognition software Via Voice, he writes the first draft of most of his papers and even the answers to some examinations. Then he pastes his work into Microsoft (news/quote) Word for revisions and corrections.

This year he wrote a 15-page history paper on the construction of the Pentagon. "My history teacher didn't believe I wrote it at first because it had no spelling mistakes," said Mr. Ganat, who plans to attend Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I. "Now I feel like I'm ready to write at a college level."

Since switching to the software, Mr. Ganat said, his reading has improved "but my spelling is not up to par."

Certainly Mr. Ganat's mother, Elaine, has noticed a striking improvement in the e-mail he has sent home. "Before you had to figure out where the vowels went," she said. "Now you can read them."

Brett Jeremy didn't have the advantage of voice recognition in dealing with his dyslexia in school. He got through college by painstakingly writing and rewriting papers in longhand and then turning them over to a girlfriend "who could word process at 80 words per minute." After becoming vice president for production at Native Kjalii Foods, a maker of salsa and tortilla chips in San Francisco, it took "days of frustration and pressure" to produce a five-page technical document because he constantly transposed letters within words.

About four years ago Mr. Jeremy tried an early version of Dragon. "I thought it was the stupidest thing in the world," he said. "It took forever and I didn't understand it." But he gave a subsequent version of the software a chance a year later and became a believer. "Now I can push out a very technical five-page document in less than a day," he said.

That's not to say the program is perfect. "Try dictating a word like `dewatering granulator,' " he said. "The software just doesn't even try."

Paradoxically, some of the technological advances being made as IBM. and L&H chase a wider market may work against the interests of dyslexics. Early voice recognition programs demanded that users utter each word slowly and deliberately. The results, after a bit of delay, appeared on computer screens one word at a time. Current software, however, demands that users speak at a normal, conversational pace, with the words quickly flooding the screen.

"It depends on the student, but for some it can be too much information, too fast," Dr. Raskind said. He is one of many researchers who think that the answer may be a return to the past and are studying the features of voice recognition software to find which are most effective for dyslexic users.

The goal is to develop a stripped- down version of the software that won't overwhelm the user — a feeling that even the fully literate consumer knows only too well.

With thanks to the excellent and informative New York Times (July 19th 2001).

• Computing Out Loud - by Susan Fulton
• Dragon Dictate
• IBM Via Voice

Computer Game Helps Dyslexics (learning outcome 5)

Computer Game Helps Dyslexics

Psychologists in Finland have developed a computer game to help children with dyslexia.

They say it improves reading ability by training a specific part of the brain.

The Helsinki-based team hopes to make the software available worldwide.

The game is suitable for four-to seven-year-olds and could be used at home under parental supervision.

Team leader Teija Kujala of the Cognitive Brain Research Unit at the University of Helsinki, Finland, told BBC News Online: "This program is very simple and easy to use and it can be applied in any language. She said: "We observed improvement in reading generally. The brain started to process auditory information better."

Learning problems

People who are dyslexic may have difficulty with reading, spelling, understanding language they hear, or expressing themselves clearly in speaking or in writing. They are often gifted in other ways.

The underlying cause of dyslexia is largely unknown but it is thought to be due to a problem in processing auditory or visual information, or both.

To help dyslexic children improve their reading, the scientists developed a computer game based on matching shapes with sounds.

A group of seven-year-olds at a Finnish school took part in a pilot study.

The children were played sounds of different pitch, duration and intensity, which were represented on screen by a series of rectangles moving up and down with the music.

The subjects were asked to follow the pattern of sounds and press the space bar when the last element of the pattern was played. If they got it right, they were greeted with a smiling face.

The game led to a significant improvement in reading accuracy and some gain in reading speed in the 24 dyslexic children tested.

Underlying cause

Further tests showed the training had boosted brain activity in the auditory cortex.

This area of the brain is important in the processing of auditory signals or more particularly of speech and language.

The work, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also shed light on the roots of dyslexia.

It suggests that the condition arises from a general problem in the way the brain processes auditory information rather than a specific difficulty in discriminating between sounds used in language.

The British Dyslexia Association welcomed the new research.

Its policy and local services director Carol Orton said: "This study emphasizes the need for early identification of dyslexia.

"We are particularly interested in a strategy that develops pre-requisites for learning and avoids the sense of failure that even very young children experience when they find learning to read hard," she told BBC News Online.

By BBC News Online's Helen Briggs

With thanks to the consistently informative BBC (August 20th 2001).

"Annals of Dyslexia : An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Orton Dyslexia Society"

This is my first discovery on Dyslexia Journal and it can be reach using ProQuest login via Perpustakaan Tuanku Bainun portal. This journal is published by International Dyslexia Association. The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals with dyslexia, their families and the communities that support them.
www.interdys.org

Introduction

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