Ebooks help dyslexics to read

[fjtorres]

From Today by NBC News:

http://www.today.com/health/e-reader...ily-4B11187917

An e-reader may make reading less of a struggle for some kids with dyslexia, a new study shows.

Researchers found that high-school students with dyslexia had an easier time reading sentences broken up into short segments — two to three words per line — displayed on an iPod than the same text printed in standard format on paper, according to the study published in PLOS ONE.

The researchers, from Harvard and the University of Massachusetts, suspect that in dyslexic people, the visual centers of the brain suffer from a kind of attention deficit disorder. When there are fewer words per line, the brain is less distracted and better able to focus.

“The brain should be paying attention to what the person is looking at straight ahead,” explains Matthew Schneps, the lead author of the new study and director of the laboratory for visual learning at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. But in kids with dyslexia, “the eyes are looking at the right part of the text, but the brain is distracted by the rest of the text."

[toddos]

There's also the OpenDyslexic font that you could load onto an ereader or embed in an ebook.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by toddos

There's also the OpenDyslexic font that you could load onto an ereader or embed in an ebook.

Current Kobo devices even come with this font as one of the pre-installed options.

[exscentric]

It also has to do with colored background from what I read years ago. The gray of kindle or a tan or slightly blue on android and other readers.

I hated reading, in fact haven't read a book since high school (73 now). I picked up a kindle keyboard and have been reading for pleasure like mad. I had read for college but only because I had to. Nothing for pleasure.

I had noticed I read on the computer by the hour on websites so thought a kindle might work for books - it did. I also read on Samsung player and kindle fire with light tan backgrounds.

[6charlong]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Current Kobo devices even come with this font as one of the pre-installed options.

The new 6-inch Kobo Auras have a second style of dyslexic font.

I have a bit of dyslexia and find that when my eyes get tired switching to OpenDyslexic rests my eyes and increases my reading speed. I do need to widen the spacing between paragraphs, bump the font size up a little and increase the light some, but I've never tried shortening the text lines. My Aura HD lets me widen the margins which should produce shorter line lengths; I'll have to give it a try.

[Bittybye]

First I'd like to say I am dyslexic, very, very badly dyslexic. So was is my mother, brother, sister, and uncle. So I say this as a person who struggled with reading.

With a little work you can overcome it. You don't need a ereader, a iPod, iPad, or anything else. Thousands if not millions of people have overcome their own trouble without any gadgets. Stop using this as a crutch or a excuse (as I have seen many people do)

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Bittybye

First I'd like to say I am dyslexic, very, very badly dyslexic. So was is my mother, brother, sister, and uncle. So I say this as a person who struggled with reading.

With a little work you can overcome it. You don't need a ereader, a iPod, iPad, or anything else. Thousands if not millions of people have overcome their own trouble without any gadgets. Stop using this as a crutch or a excuse (as I have seen many people do)

I have a very close friend who is *strongly* dyslexic and with a *lot* of hard work overcame it. Nonetheless, my friend adores Kindles both eink and tablets for facilitating reading so it doesn't *require* the intense concentration and focus of reading on print. My friend also adores audible ebooks and the Kindles' immersive reading feature.
Using technology to make life easier or more comfortable is not using it as a crutch or excuse but a simple quality of life choice.

To each their own, but not everybody delights in climbing a mountain just to read a novel.

[crich70]

Not everyone is equally successful in dealing with a problem, and some problems take longer than others to compensate for depending on the person affected. I had learning disability, motor skill problems and a speech impediment and I was still working on them when I got out of high school. I was fortunate not to have dyslexia though.

[Bittybye]

I don't mean to offend but people use it as a excuse. It takes work to overcome. If you keep on it your brain will eventually learn to read 'normally' and like I said mine was bad, so bad that before I went to a specialist some of my teachers thought I was mildly mentally retarded. Thankfully one teacher thought there might be something else and recommended I see a specialist who figured out what was really wrong.

I think the main problem with relying on ereaders or other gadgets is that you become too used to them. You won't have them in every situation. You need to train your brain to read 'normally.'

[Xanthe]

Not everyone is strong enough to overcome the curveballs that life throws at them, no matter how much they might desire it. For every person like you who's managed to overcome the problems dyslexia causes, how many people haven't - or who don't even realize that they might be dyslexic to some degree?

On-screen reading is not a crutch; it is a means to an end for a lot of us with visual problems. Now it is also one for folks with cognitive problems.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

Not everyone is strong enough to overcome the curveballs that life throws at them, no matter how much they might desire it. For every person like you who's managed to overcome the problems dyslexia causes, how many people haven't - or who don't even realize that they might be dyslexic to some degree?

On-screen reading is not a crutch; it is a means to an end for a lot of us with visual problems. Now it is also one for folks with cognitive problems.

As someone who is Dyslexic I agree with you. Saying it's a crutch it's just not correct. It is a tool for many who have these issues. Being Dyslexic isn't all about reading either. There are so many different types. No two Dyslexics have the same issues or see the same. So what might worked for Bittybye will not work for another. I know the dyslexics fonts out there do not work for me.

I can say reading on a eReader is so much easier for me than reading a regular book. Textbooks I have the hardest time because of the blinding white background. Paperbacks it depends on the font and background color. It seems I am font sensitive but white and black backgrounds are out. I have found a formula that works for me but I know it wouldn't work for others out there. When I buy a ebook I run it through Calibre to make it a more fun and comfortable reading time for me.

Before I got my eReader I read maybe 10 books a year and now I read 100 or more.
My family on my mom's side are pretty much Dyslexic. My Dyslexia kicks in when I am stressed, tired or excited or trying to read in the conditions mentioned above.

With that said. Easier reading using eReaders means more kids will grow up as book lovers and that's a priceless gift to give a child.

[Grace Elliot]

This is so interesting.
My son is dyslexic and struggles to read paperbacks but he's really taken to the Kindle.
He doesn't have any special programs on it, but for some reason he finds it easier to read. I put it down to the fact that he can change the background colour. A while back there was a theory that dyslexics could read better if they had coloured glasses and I wondered if changing the background to sepia, it made less of a contrast between the print and the page, and helped the words to stay still.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Grace Elliot

This is so interesting.
My son is dyslexic and struggles to read paperbacks but he's really taken to the Kindle.
He doesn't have any special programs on it, but for some reason he finds it easier to read. I put it down to the fact that he can change the background colour. A while back there was a theory that dyslexics could read better if they had coloured glasses and I wondered if changing the background to sepia, it made less of a contrast between the print and the page, and helped the words to stay still.

It depends on the person. I can read on Sepia but I still have some issues. Grey is good color for me to read on. Another one I do better on is blue but nothing too bright. I can't do white, black, yellow or red.

I have several Kindles and when my Dyslexia is acting up I am finding reading on my Kindle Basic works best for me. Just lately I've had a hard time reading on my Paperwhite or Kindle Fire and other tablets. So I loaded my special font into the Kindle Basic and wow what a difference it has made for me. I'm reading again! The background and font to me makes a huge difference. I also add spaces to every paragraph on the books I read so everything doesn't run together that and my special font makes reading soo much more comfortable for me.

[6charlong]

This thread got me to search for more. I found a similar study on using eReaders to make reading easier. I tried some of the ideas out and found it really did make it easier so I thought I'd share.

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012...for-dyslexics/

Once these skills have been brought up to speed, however, there still remains what one group of researchers calls a “vicious circle”: the most effective way to get better at reading is to read more. So scientists have turned their attention to a new question: Are there ways to make reading easier for dyslexics?

Surprisingly, the answer appears to be yes, and the methods experts are using to ease the act of reading are remarkably simple and concrete. With changes in the spacing, the size, and the appearance of text, studies are showing, children with dyslexia can read more quickly and accurately, allowing them to get the reading practice they need to improve.

I played around with the issues described on my Kobo and tried using the font Comic MS, a fixed-width font I've used 10 or 15 years ago on the PC. I also played with line width and font size. All this really did seem to make reading easier but best was when I tried it all on my Kobo Mini, a 5-inch eInk reader that really narrowed the reading area.

[toddos]

Originally Posted by 6charlong

I played around with the issues described on my Kobo and tried using the font Comic MS, a fixed-width font I've used 10 or 15 years ago on the PC. I also played with line width and font size. All this really did seem to make reading easier but best was when I tried it all on my Kobo Mini, a 5-inch eInk reader that really narrowed the reading area.

I just got my Kobo Aura last week, and it had two different dyslexic fonts pre-installed, Dyslexie and the OpenDyslexic font I linked earlier. I'm not dyslexic and have no real need for either font, but it's great to see that Kobo is now shipping both as standard.