A Silicon Bullet for Dyslexia

Mike Matvy
School Psychologist / Assistive Technology Specialist
Knox County Schools, Knoxville, TN
e-mail: matvym@k12.tn.net

Date: 11/22/2002

(also see STARTING TO USE ALTERNATIVE METHODS FOR READING, Mike Matvy, 9-8-95,and ENROLLING FOR TAPE RECORDED BOOKS, Mike Matvy, 6-10-96)

Materials Needed for Reading Books Using Audio Tapes:

1. Printed materials to be read (the textbook)
2. Talking books, tape player (on loan from the Tennessee Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped or purchased from Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, RFB&D, or another commercial source)
3. Headset for tape player
4. Set of tapes to match textbook being read (Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic RFB & D 1(800) 221-4792; Tennessee unit, 205 Badger Rd., Oak Ridge, TN 37830, (423) 482-3496)
5. Table of contents for tape recorded materials (the set of cards that identifies the contents of each cassette telling what page it starts and ends on for each of it's four sides or tracks.)

Step 1: Decide what needs to be read

Determine the assignment goal or material which is to be read and over what time intervals it will be read.

Step 2: Decide where the reading needs to start

Find the place in the textbook which is to be read.

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Step 3: Preview the material that is to be read

Thumb through the pages and see how many sections there are. Try to read the titles to the sections. Look at the pictures. Look over all of the material and try to guess what the material is going to be talking about; Look at the questions at the end of the section which is to be read. Read the questions, if possible, or perhaps ask someone to read the questions to you (optional). Attempt to read or ask someone to read the captions to diagrams or pictures (optional).

Step 4: Use the table of contents to find the cassette, side, and track which has your starting page.

From your assignment, find the page number for the place in the book where you are going to start. It is suggested that you write the page number you are looking for on the upper left of a card (or paper). Use the Table of Contents provided with the set of tapes for this book and find the page interval that contains that number and write that page interval on the card next. (e.g,. If you are looking for page 194 it might be in the page interval 187-200 on track 3 of cassette 5) Write the page interval on the card next (e.g, 187-200), followed by the track (e.g, 3), and tape number (e.g, 5). This list of numbers can help you keep from getting confused. You can use this list of numbers in reverse order when you are loading the cassettes in the tape player e.g, tape number (5), track number (3), page range (187-200), and target page (194)

Step 5: Load the tape and get side and track set to read the page interval.

Determine which side (front/label side or back/blank side) of the cassette your page begins on. Insert the cassette in the tape player. This is difficult to get correct at first. The reason is that standard cassettes have a front track and a back track, but these cassettes have 4 tracks on each cassette. How do they do that? The first 2 tracks are done like a regular cassette with the side switch set to 1-2. After track 2 (the unlabeled back side) is finished, where do you go for track 3? You go to the front, labeled side of the tape and change the track selector switch to 3-4. This will put you on track 3. When track 3 is finished turn the cassette over, and you will be on track 4 (the back side). It will take concentration to keep this straight so don't get in a hurry. It would be easier to keep straight if you always started with track 1 and then went to 2, 3, & 4. That is seldom the case. We usually start in the middle of one of the other tracks. One way of remembering this is that we start the side 1 and 2 like any cassette (with the switch set to 1-2) and after that (we change the switch to 3-4) and keep turning the tape over to do tracks 3 and 4. Another way to remember this is to see that the front side has the odd numbered tracks (1 & 3) and the back side has the even numbered tracks (2 & 4). Once you have your tape in the player (front or back) and the switch set (1-2 or 3-4) you are ready to look for your page on the track.

Step 6: Find your page on the tape once the side and track are selected.

Once you have the tape in the player and the track selected, you will either fast forward or rewind to get to where the first page will be on the tape. To do this follow these steps.

(Step A) Go to the first beep tone and stop Note: Beep tones are used to find page and chapter changes in the recorded book. They are inserted on the recording as the reader gives the page number and can be heard as high pitched beeps among the chattering voice sounds when the cassette player is played in fast forward or fast reverse. If you are using fast forward when you hear the beep, you have already passed the page announcement, so you need to rewind the tape just a little, over the beep, and then listen with the switch in the play position for the page number announcement to determine where you are in the recording. If you are using fast reverse to find the number you are in the right position after hearing the beep and can just listen using the "play" setting until the page number is given. Run the player at fast forward or fast reverse so you will hear chatter on the speaker. At this speed you will hear a beep after a few seconds (usually 15 to 30 seconds). Stop as soon as you hear that first beep.

(Step B) Find where the reader announces the page number. Once the first beep tone is heard and you have stopped, run the player at regular speed to hear the reader say the page number. You may need to go back and forth to find the page number announcement. This will tell you where the tape is in the book. Note: Don't skip this step (B). Even if you are going to have to rewind the tape entirely, you should first check a page number as soon as you insert the cassette so that you are sure that your plan is sound -- you could be on the wrong track or on the wrong cassette. It would be much quicker to correct an error now than after spending 1 or 2 minutes.rewinding this tape. But, after you check your first page number and you find that you are where you thought you would be then keep going. (Go to step C)

(Step C) Fast forward or fast reverse and get to your desired page. Caution: At this stage in the search only listen for beeps and page announcements. Do not stop and listen to the text being read and try to find where the person is reading in the book. This may seam like the thing to do but it is ineffective, time consuming, and may lead to interesting reading that is off-task. If you are within four or five pages of your first page, you can either advance or reverse at fast speed and count beeps. There will be one beep for each page. For longer distances, you may want to either advance or rewind without counting beeps and then stop at a beep tone and determine what page you are at then. Continue with this method until you find the page announcement for the first page of the section you are intending to read.

(Step D) Get the tape and player set up to read the first page. After hearing the page number announced, play the tape and look at the book to see that the tape is reading at the start of your section, chapter, or page. Once the player and tape is set to where you want to start reading, stop.

Step 7: Get yourself ready to read the first page.

Look over the material again to determine what it is you are going to learn and get yourself ready to learn it. Plan to stop your reading and question yourself about what you are learning. Plan to stop at the end of paragraphs and say "Did I understand that paragraph? Do I need to reread it?". Plan to occasionally stop and look over the sections read and say to yourself what it said; or, look back at diagrams and photos to think about what you are learning. Plan to monitor yourself for paying attention by occasionally saying "Was I paying attention? Do I need to reread that section?" Plan ways to enjoy the reading by asking yourself "What might be most interesting to me in this reading? How can I enjoy reading this book?" or with some required reading "How can I get through this reading without being bored to death?"

Step 8: Read the material in the way that will result in your learning the most.

Begin the tape recorder and keep the book in front of you for visual cues. Following along word for word in the book is optional depending on how you learn best. But, following the sections, headings pictures and other visual information in the book will provide important information that is not on the tape. Keep one hand on or near the pause button. If you read a sentence and don't understand, stop the recorder, rewind it, and read it again. There are tone, volume and speed controls on the player. Adjust those controls for the material you are reading. If it's easy to understand, you may want to speed the recording up. You will get a higher pitched voice (like Donald Duck), but it can be understood, and you can move through simpler material rather quickly. Beginners start by leaving the speed control on normal or only slightly accelerated. Read a paragraph and then stop the recorder. Ask yourself if you understood what was read. If the answer was yes, start the recorder again and read the next section. Use a prearranged plan to monitor comprehension, importance of details, fatigue and general learning rate.

Step 9: Practice these skills and others that you learn to become expert at reading and learning.

Newer tape players have a feature that lets you stay in the play position while hitting the rewind or fast forward buttons to "zip" up or back in the text with out coming out of play. This makes rereading a sentence quick. When you get good at using this feature you can use it to reread words and sentences over and over for memorizing and for studying. You can use it to zip past passages that you don't need to read. Practice doing this so that you will get comfortable with the idea of controlling how the material is read. Recognize that there are some parts of the book that work better when someone reads it in a tape recorder, and there some parts of the book that just don't make sense if you have someone read them in the tape recorder. For instance, many times descriptions of photos is of little use when you can look at the picture and understand what was intended. If this is the case use the fast forward to get past this description. As you read you can work on improving your ability to learn from taped text books and you can learn tricks on your own to make yourself an expert at reading this way.
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Copyright © 1996 Mike Matvy All rights reserved. The documents at this Web site are copyrighted by the author and may be used for non-commercial purposes only. You are encouraged to reproduce and use these documents as long as appropriate credit is given to the author.