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 have added a new "Placement task", and moved all 48 of the recently added "Progress monitoring" assessment tasks, to a new subsection called "SSP nonword assessments" in the "Systematic synthetic phonics" section of "Reading & Spelling - Early Skills".
This placement task may be used prior to commencement of intervention to establish the level of grapheme-phoneme knowledge; thus identifying the starting point for intervention. Following a placement assessment, use of the SSP Progress Monitoring assessments will provide a more detailed baseline at that level. For example, if the results of the placement test suggest that the student has mastered the first three levels but struggles at level 4, administration of set 1 of the level 4 progress monitoring nonword assessments will provide more precise information of grapheme-phoneme knowledge at level 4. After a couple of weeks of intervention, administration of Level 4 set 2 nonword assessment provides feedback about response to intervention.
The tasks use the model SingleWord Slideshow which is a simple activity for displaying/reading a single word at a time. Each item (nonword in these tasks) appears on the screen and the client attempts to decode and read it. To move between items, click the [Forward] or [Back] buttons. The clinician/helper provides appropriate verbal response and records results as necessary. We have placed response forms, and printable sets of the stimulus items, to facilitate delivery of these assessments at www.elr.com.au/links/NLBHY
The items selected for all these tasks are drawn from the ARC Nonword Database www.elr.com.au/links/CVFJB, and are single-syllable, "legal" nonwords; that is, the spelling patterns are consistent with the English orthography (for example, "ck" never appears at the start of a word). We welcome your feedback about these tasks as well as your suggestions about additions and modifications to eLr.
The National Speech Pathology Australia conference in Hobart was a resounding success at all levels. This year ELR Software was pleased to share a trade stand with Coviu (www.coviu.com), the Australian telehealth platform that supports video consultations, group therapy rooms, phone telehealth capabilities, and a number of clinical tools and assessments that are commonly used by speech pathologists. A plugin tool allowing shared eLr interaction with clients is also available for Coviu users.
During the conference we also caught up with many of our existing subscribers and enjoyed demonstrating our software to clinicians, new to eLr. Toni attended many informative sessions and presented on her recent research which has just been published in the Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties: Antonette Seiler & Suze Leitao, 2023 "Targeting phonological recoding to support orthographic learning: effectiveness of WordDriver delivered via telehealth". This article is open access and now available at www.elr.com.au/links/BNJKD
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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