ELR Software produces 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) and Word Meanings. 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 -
This month we've created eight tasks in a new "Progress monitoring" tool to provide a quick and simple assessment/review of SSP phonics skills. They are in a new sub-category in "Reading & Spelling - Early Skills" in the subsection "Systematic synthetic phonics - Common spelling of the main sounds". These new tasks use only nonwords because the aim is monitor progress of letter-sound knowledge and decoding accuracy. In subsequent updates, we'll complete similar such assessment tasks for the rest of this area, and then add further tasks of this type (which will include real words) to the existing therapy/training materials already in the "Reading & Spelling" sections.
The nonwords selected for these new SSP "Progress monitoring" tasks are drawn from the ARC Nonword Database https://www.elr.com.au/links/CVFJB, and as such are "legal:" nonwords; that is the spelling patterns are consistent with the English orthography (for example, "ck" never appears at the start of a word). They have been grouped so that all items at a particular level include at least 2 graphemes from that level plus additional graphemes from any previous level(s). Nonword lists have been specifically arranged so that each list is unique, but equivalent to the others at the same level. The first level "s,a,t,p,i,n" has 3 lists of 10 items, and in the second level "c|k|ck, e, h, r, m, d'" there 5 lists with 12 items in each.
All these new tasks use a new model SingleWord Slideshow which is a simple activity for displaying/reading a single word at a time. Each item (word or nonword) appears on the screen and the client attempts to decode and read it. To move between words, click the [Forward] or [Back] buttons. The clinician/helper provides appropriate verbal response and records results as necessary. We have placed response forms to facillitate delivery of these assessments at www.elr.com.au/links/NLBHY
We welcome your feedback about these tasks and any aspect of eLr, as well as your suggestions about additions and modifications to eLr.
eLr for Coviu is a "plugin tool" which will let you interactively use any of the more than 15,000 activities on the Coviu teleplatform, You can find out more about Coviu at www.coviu.com. We're happy to let you know that with assistance from Coviu team members we've recently greatly improved the reliability and interactivity of eLr on that platform. Four issues in particular have been addressed:
eLr activities are fully interactive in a Coviu session - actions such as click, touch, and drag on the host screen are automatically synchronized on the guest screen, and vice versa. An error in the internal handling of this process has been located and fixed. If you sometimes find an activity is "out of synch" (perhaps due to a temporary internet transmission problem), click on eLr logo in the top left to refresh the screen and this will usually re-start the synchronization.
Coviu has options for adding a tool to a current session, as well as switching between or closing current session tools. Only a single "eLr for Coviu" tool may be opened within a session, but an error that could prevent closing and re-opening this tool has been fixed.
Drag actions for participants using touchscreen laptops or tablets will now synchronize (previously only mouse controlled dragging was synchronized).
Coviu plugin tools have an "X" button in the top right corner to close that tool and return to the video session. eLr activities also have an "X" button in the top right to close just that activity. To reduce user confusion, there is now more on-screen separation between these 2 buttons.
We'd appreciate feedback about these changes, or any other questions, either directly to support@elr.com.au or via Coviu support mechanisms. And we apologize if delays in implementing these improvements have caused previous frustrations for existing users.
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.
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.
ELR Software offers free eLr tutorials over the web. We can provide this sort of support to individuals, or to groups who would like to have an overview of eLr. We are also offering free Coviu sessions to allow clinicians to get a feel for teletherapy, and in particular the advantages of using eLr for Coviu. Please contact us for details.
For a current listing and to register for one of our available, scheduled webinars, please see www.elr.com.au/support/events.htm
You are receiving ELR-News because you are an eLr subscriber, or have expressed an interest in either eLr, Build-a-Sentence or Word Meanings. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send an e-mail with details to news@elr.com.au
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