Read to Learn Lite vs Switch Access Training

Read to Learn is an introductory literacy and life skills program for adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities, including autism. It features three heavily illustrated, interactive books with age-appropriate themes: Safety Skills Reader, Life Skills Reader, and Focus on Feelings. These books each contain 1 story, each with a comprehension exercise. All text is spoken by professional narrators and highlighted as it’s read. Readers can touch any word at any time to hear it pronounced, and are given a definition for especially pertinent vocabulary. Safety Skills Reader explores important home, community, personal, and recreational safety issues. Contemporary, graphic novel style drawings illustrate a story about pedestrian travel. Life Skills Reader features a story about reading facial expressions. Realistic photos show expected behaviors and step-by-step procedures. Focus on Feelings features a photo-illustrated story that helps readers recognize how people feel during common life experiences, such as a birthday. Portrait style photos with matching icons illustrate emotions like annoyed, excited, proud, and disappointed. Comprehension exercises with an optional hint feature assess the reader's understanding of each story. Test results are stored and can be printed. Optional automatic page reading and turning aid readers who have difficulty navigating the app. Read to Learn scans, and is accessible with one or two switches. Features: Stresses independent living skills Supports nonreaders Written in simplified, concise language Illustrated with realistic photos and drawings Narrated professionally Highlights text by word, sentence, or line Allows user to touch any word to hear it pronounced Includes hint feature for tests Stores and prints test results Attainment has been developing curricula and assistive technology products for people with disabilities for over 30 years. We are well known for our topnotch customer service. Please email us with questions and comments. And yes, we’re happy to talk to you on the telephone. Read to Learn supports Retina displays!

"Switch Access Training with Music" is the app version of a switch-accessible cd or cassette tape player with a latch timer (that can be randomized). Such preferred reward systems can help to familiarize a student with cause-and-effect relationships, perhaps on the way to their using switch access for an augmentative and alternative communication device (AAC); in fact, that AAC might even be provided on the same sort of device on which the switch-access training occurred. SATwM uses a playlist of audio files that you collect from your Media Library (which might include preferred songs, sound effects, conversations, and the like). Each file then plays back as a sequence of switch-activated clips (with a prominent count-up display). You choose the clip length that will play out before the switch needs to be triggered again, including any random variation in that timing. The Play/Pause switch can be the Play button, the entire Switchscreen, a switch installed with a wired or wireless interface (sending a 'space' or '1'), or a keyboard (similarly). Skip to the beginning of the next song with 'enter' or '2'. Onscreen sliders control the volume, the position in the song (i.e., rewind and fast forward), and the playback rate (up to 3 times normal － without pitch bending － just for fun). You can select themes (color sets) to more closely match a trainee's individual access profile, including a choice of the OpenDyslexic font. For the main screen, themes are restricted to those color sets that provide the best chance of optimizing perception, while the Switchscreen maximizes a whole range of complementary color and brightness contrasts. Setup and other instructions are included. Known Issues: Sometimes the media picker takes a few seconds to return you to the main screen after the "Done" button is tapped. (But not often.) Sometimes the "next song" dropdown selector does not cause the next song to change. (But not often.) And sometimes just the first installation or run of the app behaves strangely. (But not often.) Still trying to figure out why.