Reading Buddy Plus

Reading Buddy is an intuitive app designed to help people with dyslexia / reading challenges improve their reading skills.

A detailed video can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB2ncKXvEEI

The word “dyslexia” means “trouble with words”. Research has shown that people with dyslexia sense the word visually. Instead of perceiving a word in its sequence – for example, TREE: T-R-E-E – they perceive the word visually – TREE: roots, trunk, branches, and leaves. They also tend to be good at understanding things they can see in pictures. Additionally, like many visually-impaired users, many dyslexics now rely on computer devices to read the text to them.

Reading Buddy intuitively combines pictures and speech with the text (text to speech) that is being read to help improve their reading skills.

While reading any content on your device, you can:
1. Select a word or two, and see the pictures to perceive the word visually. The pictures are kid friendly and filtered thru Safe-Search technology. They are presented in a clip-art format which provides simple association with the words.
2. Hear the words while they are being highlighted
3. Get definitions for the words to see the meaning
4. Select a paragraph or two and hear it while each word is highlighted as being spoken. The fonts used for this feature are specially designed to increase readability for readers with dyslexia (opendyslexic.org)
5. Personalize settings such as Reading Speed, Text Size, Fonts, etc. by going to the Settings.

Reading Buddy works with virtually all other reading apps on your device including:

o Amazon Kindle® App
o Nook App
o Google Reader App
o All the browsers on your device
o Any app that allows you to highlight and copy text!

How does it work?

It’s very simple. Once you start the Reading Buddy App, it runs in the background. If you can copy text, you can use the Reading Buddy! Here is how it works:

While using any app on your device:
• Highlight and copy the text you want to explore
• That's it! The Reading Buddy toolbar will appear
• Explore it - You can:
o Picture It – see the pictures for the words you have just copied. The pictures are kid friendly and filtered thru Safe-Search technology. They are presented in a clip-art format which provides simple association with the words.
o Hear It – copy an entire paragraph (or two), and hear it, with each word highlighted as being spoken!
You can pause/resume by tapping any word that is being played!
You can also replay the entire paragraph by tapping the speaker again.
You can press the speaker for 2-3 seconds to just hear the speech without the highlighting
o Define It - copy a word or two and tap the magnifying glass icon - you can get the definition for it!