What is it?
- Specialist made literacy improvement software for children
- Computer programs designed to help teach children the most fundamental skills in learning to read
- Scientifically based
- Made by speech and language pathologist specialising in reading difficulties and reading development
- Recognised by educators as a major achievement in the field of literacy instruction and is being described by educators as a breakthrough in teaching children how to read.
- Officially endorsed and sold by a peak body advising South Australian schools on best practices in teaching literacy (SPELD SA)
- It is not a ‘magic pill’ that will teach children to read or 'cure' reading difficulties!
- It is not a computer game that children should play by themselves. Although there are arcade style games in the software, it is a teaching tool which requires supervision and guidance by a parent or a teacher.
Who is it for?
- Normally developing children aged 4-8
- Children with reading difficulties
Who can use it with children?
- Parents, teachers, reading specialists
- Classroom teachers
- Special education teachers
- School support staff (such as School Services Officers)
- Speech-language pathologists
- Educational consultants
- English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers
- Home schoolers
Which skills does it teach?
Teaches children to:
- Say the sounds that letters make
- Join sounds to read words
- Break words up into sounds
- Read the 200 most common sight words
- Improve reading and spelling skills
Targets skills found through research to be crucial in literacy acquisition:
- Letter-sound knowledge (Knowledge of the letters or groups of letters which represent the individual sounds in language)
- Phonemic awareness (Awareness of the individual sounds in words)
- Phonological awareness (Awareness of the sound structure of language)
- Blending (The ability to join sounds together to make words)
- Segmentation (The ability to break words up into separate sounds)
- Sight word recognition (The ability to recognise the most common words in written language)
- Auditory discrimination (The ability to tell the difference between similar sounds or words)
- Visual discrimination (The ability to tell the difference between visually similar letters or words)
- Word knowledge (Vocabulary)
- Articulatory awareness (Awareness of how sounds are made by the mouth and articulators)
How does ReadingDoctor® Software work?
- Powerful, unique, multisensory, patent pending teaching system
- Uses a unique system of adjusting visual and auditory memory cues (mnemonics) to help students learn
- Automatically adjusts the level of support and how much practice is required based on student performance
- In summary, the program uses the unique teaching method to
- Teach children to link the look of letters to the sounds they represent
- Blend those letter-sounds together to read words
- Break words apart into their separate sounds for spelling
- Recognise the 200 most frequent words that have unusual spellings
What makes ReadingDoctor® Software unique?
- The unique, powerful teaching method
- The program automatically identifies which learning targets students are having difficulty and provides extra support and more practice with those targets
- Automatically identifies and remediates auditory and visual discrimination errors
- Australian made (most software is American)
- Fun, arcade style games
- Easily assess and monitor student progress
- Research based
- Easy to use
- Made by a specialist Speech-Language Pathologist
- Self adjusting learning support adapts to student needs
- Huge library of learning targets for activities (6000+ multimedia files)
- Large library of pre-set games
- All games are fully customisable
- Testing facility allows for easy progress monitoring
- Flashcard printing feature includes 2500+ flashcards!!
- Flashcards are also unique, with adjustable memory cues (mnemonics) to help children remember the targets to be learnt
- Includes advanced features for literacy specialists
Who makes ReadingDoctor® Software?
ReadingDoctor® Software is made by LearningScience® Pty Ltd, a South Australian Educational Software company. The program was designed by its Managing Director:
- Speech and Language Pathologist
- Director, LearningScience® Pty Ltd
- Director, Adelaide Speech Pathology Services
- clinic specialising in the assessment, diagnosis and remediation of reading and writing difficulties since 2001
- PhD Graduate, Flinders University of South Australia
- investigating the underlying cause of literacy difficulties
- primary interest is in the relationship between speech, language, auditory processing and literacy skills
- Research suggests that many students struggle with learning to read due to phonological processing difficulties – difficulties in using information about the sound structure of language. Bartek’s PhD study is an investigation of the underlying phonological processing skills in children with Dyslexia and Auditory Processing Disorder (APD). Research suggests phonological processing weaknesses in children with reading and writing difficulties may stem from inadequately specified phonological representations – the brain’s neural representations of the sounds of language. Bartek has developed a model of phonological representations which may help to explain the range of skill deficits found in children with literacy difficulties.
- passionate about research driven, computer based approaches to literacy and language remediation
- determined to use his clinical experience and theoretical knowledge to develop more effective treatment methods for children with literacy difficulties, and to develop more effective teaching tools for children learning to read
- regularly presents training and development workshops on literacy development, literacy difficulties and ReadingDoctor®® Software to schools and other organizations (including SPELD) around Australia, with excellent feedback from participants.
Why did Bartek make ReadingDoctor® Software?
- he has a strong desire to ‘make a difference’ and help people!
- he received constant requests for recommendations for software to help children learning how to read from teachers and parents while working in his clinic
- he was frustrated with the lack of quality research based software designed to improve literacy skills in children learning to read
- children love playing computer games and he wanted a tool like this in his clinic
- he wanted to do something challenging, interesting and creative
- he is a computer nerd!
What have been some of the highlights for ReadingDoctor® Software?
- In 2007, after spending three years developing and testing a number of prototypes (including doing all coding, sound, program and graphic design himself!), Bartek’s company (LearningScience® Pty Ltd) received a prestigious Australian Government “Commercialising Emerging Technologies (COMET)” grant to assist in protecting the software’s highly innovative teaching system through a patent, and bringing ReadingDoctor®® Software to market.
- 2009 - Department of Trade and Economic Development grant from the Minister of Economic Development to assist with the production and marketing of ReadingDoctor®® Software.
- 2010 - Department of Trade and Economic Development grant from the Minister of Economic Development to assist with the production and marketing of ReadingDoctor®® Software.
- The company was a national finalist and was recognised as one of the top ten most innovative Australian companies through the global Dell “Excellence in Small Business Awards”
- The software is quickly being recognised as a major achievement in the field of literacy instruction and is being described by educators as a breakthrough in teaching children how to read.
- officially endorsed and sold by a peak body advising South Australian schools on best practices in teaching literacy (SPELD SA)
- was the subject of a Northern Territory Government project evaluating it as a key resource in strengthening literacy skills in indigenous children (it is now used widely throughout the NT).
- The software is being used internationally (in locations including the US, UK, NZ, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Egypt) and is about to be published and distributed in the US and UK!
- The software is being used in hundreds of schools, specialist clinics and homes around the country. The greatest highlight so far is the consistent excellent feedback regarding the effectiveness and ease of use of the program. Very rewarding! Here are some examples:
"Just to let you know, we had a meeting with Amy's teacher 2 weeks ago, and found out that Amy is in the top reading group in the class...we would never have dreamt that this was possible at the start of the year..."
"ReadingDoctor® Software is the best reading programme I have ever seen. I will ask the school to buy the software (more than one license). A really valuable session. An unbelievable programme. Well done Bartek. Worth the wait - 30 years!!!"
For more information, please contact:
ReadingDoctor® Pty Ltd
Fax:08 8312 3034 (Fax)
Address:PO Box 52 Blackwood SA 5051