Category Archives: sources of information / support

ICT, sources of information / support

L’il Mouth

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We have recently come across a great piece of software aimed at helping anyone who has difficulty reading text on a computer screen by reading the text aloud.  L’il Mouth is a  text to speech application that can be downloaded and installed for free.  L’il Mouth will read out any text that you can ‘copy’, whether it is on a Word document, PDF file or website.

The great thing about L’il Mouth is that it is very simple to use – all you need to do is highlight and copy the text you want it to read out then click on the mouth icon on your screen.  L’il Mouth will work with whatever voice is set as default in the ’speech’ options and can be used with the Scottish Voices mentioned in the recent post ‘Text to Speech’.

Click  here to find out more about L’il Mouth and how to download it.

ICT, sources of information / support

Books for All

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Just because you have difficulty reading or turning a page doesn’t mean that you can’t share in the enjoyment of books.

Children and young people may have difficulty reading ordinary printed books for a number of reasons.  The technology that is available to us today makes it easier than ever before for everyone to access books irrespective of their difficulties. By getting hold of a book in digital format, readers can enlarge text, change background colours or even convert books to speech by means of a few simple key strokes on a computer.  CALL Scotland have created the excellent Books for All website which contains a wealth of information on accessible books and provides links on how you can obtain these for your child.

ICT, sources of information / support

Text to Speech

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Did you know that with the right software your computer can turn text into the spoken voice? 

Children who find reading difficult can often benefit from having text reinforced by hearing it read aloud. 

 If you have Microsoft Word installed on your computer you can download WordTalk which is a free text-to-speech plugin.  It will speak the text of the document and will highlight it as it goes. It also contains a talking dictionary to help decide which  spelling is most appropriate.  Word Talk can be used to save Word documents as sound files and transferred to phones or mp3 players allowing the user to hear a document read out.  For more information on WordTalk and how to download it click here.

Read Out Loud is a feature that comes with the free Adobe Reader (Version 6.0 or later) which reads aloud the text in a PDF document.  To read out a document simply select View / Read Out Loud / Read to End of Document.  For more information on the feature  click here.

The quality of synthetic voices varies considerable and we would highly recommend that before using any text to speech software you download one of the Scottish voices that have been created by CereProc in Edinburgh.   The Scottish Government has funded CALL Scotland to provide a Scotland-wide schools licence for 2 Scottish voices ‘Heather‘ and ‘Stuart’ which can also be downloaded by pupils for home use.  Click here for a link to download both voices.

ICT, sources of information / support

Free Typing Tutors

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ICT can be one of the most powerful tools available for supporting pupils with additional support needs.  Children may find writing difficult for a number of reasons and for such children the use of technology can provide a vital tool in supporting their learning both within school and at home.  In order for children to become competent and confident in the use of technology it is important for them to be encouraged to develop good keyboarding skills from an early age.

Click here for links to a wide range of free online keyboarding tutors and fun typing games.

Legislation, sources of information / support

Enquire – the Scottish advice service for additional support for learning

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Operated by Children in Scotland, Enquire offers independent, confidential advice amd information on additional support for learning through:

a telephone helpline – 0845 123 2303

an email enquiry service – info@enquire.org.uk

an online enquiry service

two websites – www.enquire.org.uk  (for parents/carers and practitioners) and www.enquire.org.uk/yp  (for children and young people)

Enquire also provide a range of clear and easy to read guides and factsheets explaining everything from ‘additional support in the early years’ to ‘what planning should take place for moving on from school’