Is the iPad Good or Bad for Dyslexic Children?

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Will the new iPad help or hinder dyslexic children to improve their literacy skills?

This is a good question – a bit of a tricky one to answer – but a good one nevertheless.

At Dyslexic Brian we love any technology that encourages dyslexic children to develop their literacy skills whilst having fun – and we feel that the iPad will do this job nicely.

A great feature on the iPad is its onscreen keypad that looks so, so, sooooo touchable – who wouldn’t want to tap away all day on those gorgeous looking keys?!

We are going to check out if any touch typing tutorial type applications are available for the iPad – we’re guessing that there are – in which case if you’re dyslexic and lucky enough to have an iPad already, then download a touch typing Application and start learning to touch type in style!

[N.B. from Antonio’s experience as a dyslexia support tutor, and from his experience of overcoming his own dyslexia, he has noticed just how quickly dyslexic people start making significant improvements with their spellings once they have learnt to touch type.]

We feel that every opportunity should be taken to encourage dyslexic children to improve their literacy skills using tools that are up to date and relevant within modern society. Why teach children, dyslexic and non-dyslexic alike, to learn to write using pen and paper anyway, when they most probably will never come into contact with these antiquated tools again by the time they leave school?

Shouldn’t we, within the context of the supper charged IT era that we live in, be teaching children to read and write using cutting edge technology (i.e. on iPad’s and/or anything else that is equivalent to it)?

In fact, there have been some suggestions that ‘rather than view the iPad as something between a laptop and a smartphone–something people have potentially little need for–Apple should position its new device as ‘the actual replacement for paper.’  Click here to view source

Unfortunately, we can’t see pen and paper being replaced by advance technology for a very long time to come.

Ok that’s enough of a rant about current educational practices for now!

Let’s get back to the question in hand…

We believe that using an iPad will, without a doubt, help dyslexic children to improve their literacy skills – providing – that they are encouraged to play an equal amount of literacy type games to the fun type games that we are sure the iPad has in store for us.

And, one of the great features of the iPad is the iBook application where you can buy books, read them and then put them away on your very own bookshelf – it looks really good and will hopeful encourage children to read more – well that is if the books aren’t to expensive to download.

All in all we love the iPad and hope, now that we have sang lot’s of praise for it, that Apple will send Dyslexic Brian one in the post tomorrow – please Apple please!!!!!!!

Click here to watch a good video review that we came across on Youtube – its funny!