ELR-News

September 2007

Newsletter of ELR Software Pty Ltd

ABN 67 090 738 702
http://www.elr.com.au
news@elr.com.au

ELR Software produces a range of computer programs designed by speech pathologists for speech, language & literacy intervention. Our programs may be used interactively within therapy sessions, to increase efficiency in service delivery, and to improve access to the Internet for people with special needs. We are also available as consultants to clinicians and research projects in the fields of literacy and accessibility issues associated with the Internet.

The aim of this newsletter is to inform you of developments and changes to our major products eLr (Extra Language Resources), Rude Readers, Word Meanings and EIA (Enhancing Internet Access). We welcome the opportunity for feedback and questions, and will be pleased to consider including reader contributions and announcements.

This Newsletter (and previous editions) as well as a "print-ready" PDF version of the current edition is available online at www.elr.com.au/news. An email version is also sent monthly to members of our mailing list (See Subscribing/Unsubscribing).

In this issue -

  1. New and Revised eLr Materials
  2. eLr to be Launched at the ASHA Convention in Boston
  3. Unsolved eLr -Offlinebug
  4. Other Independent Developers
  5. Free Downloads
  6. ELR 2007 Calendar

  1. New and Revised eLr Materials

    104 new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling - Diphthong Vowel Sounds". These additions are a continuation of the changes begun in January where we added 3 levels of difficulty in the Vowel Sound sections. This month the new tasks provide level 3 words (ie multisyllabic words) in the "Diphthong Vowel Sounds". The models used are Word Search, LookThenCover, SmileyMan, and ConnectWords. The models work well together to introduce and practice spelling patterns. Introduce the pattern using LookThenCover then practice recalling the spelling with SmileyMan, and provide repetition in a fun way using the WordSearch and ConnectWords models.

    Now, as long as suitable words exist, all the different spelling choices for short, long and diphthong vowel sounds have three levels of difficulty available. Level 1 words are predominantly consonant-vowel-consonant words. Level 2 words contain consonant digraphs and silent letters, and level 3 words are multisyllabic. Further tasks targeting discrimination between the different spellings for each vowel sound will be added soon.

    We have also made a small change to the listing of topics in "Reading and Spelling" so that all sections relating to "vowel sounds" are grouped together at the top of the list. This change will hopefully make the classifications in this section a little clearer.

  2. eLr to be Launched at the ASHA Convention in Boston

    We are excited to announce that plans are underway to launch eLr in the USA on the Mayer-Johnson stand at the ASHA conference (American Speech and Hearing Association) in Boston this November. eLr uses PCS pictographs in many tasks - these pictographs are well known to many people from the Mayer-Johnson Boardmaker program. We are very grateful for their support and are talking with them about further development of eLr.

    We will be in the USA for about 3 weeks and will be providing a series of free Introductory Workshops in other locations across the country. So if you're based in the USA, please contact us if you want more details, or would like to host a workshop. Our offer is that we will provide an Introductory Workshop free of charge, if a venue is arranged, and existing networks are used to publicize the event.

  3. Unsolved eLr-Offline bug

    We have been made aware of "bug" in eLr-Offline (the CD version of eLr) which can cause the program to "crash" and close prematurely. This happens when an attempt is made to load multiple tasks from the "Session Planner" or "Quick Loader" sections, and it seems only to happen on some computers using Windows XP-Pro with MS Internet Explorer v6 installed. Vista systems, and XP with MSIE v7 are OK as far as we can tell. Frustratingly this crash doesn't occur every time which makes locating and solving the problem difficult. We'll continue working on a fix, but if you have experienced the problem please let us know what versions of Windows and MSIE were on your computer.

  4. Other Independent Developers

    As an occasional feature of this Newsletter, we include simple, unpaid announcements of products developed by other small, independent developers, who, like ourselves, are practising clinicians who have put their ideas and experience into resource materials for general distribution. Links and brief information about these sites may be found at www.elr.com.au/links/developers.htm. To date we have listed -

    If you would like your materials listed on this page (at no charge), please contact us.

  5. Free Downloads

    ELR has a number of free or evaluation files available for downloading directly from our website. Please see www.elr.com.au/downloads.htm for specific details. For other supporting materials and documents available for free download, please see www.elr.com.au/support.htm.


     
  6. ELR 2007 Calendar



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Copyright ©2007 ELR Software Pty Ltd

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VIC 3875, Australia
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