ELR Software combines the skills of speech pathologists and software designers to create software for speech, language and literacy intervention. Our programs may be used within therapy, to increase efficiency in service delivery using the Internet and CD based materials, 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 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) is available online at www.elr.com.au/news and an email version is sent monthly to members of our mailing list (See Subscribing/Unsubscribing).
In this issue -
Here's your chance to win a Rude Reader CD. Rude Readers are new to the ELR product line. We have developed them jointly with John Fisher, Speech Pathologist who up until last year, was the Deputy Chief Speech Patholgoist at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. Over the many years working with children who have speech, language, literacy and interaction problems, he had written short stories to be used to strengthen various aspects of language development. These have been illustrated by Anna Breakell, and the first 2 volumes (10 stories in all) are published on CD.
How to win? We would like you to write a short (or long) comment on any aspect of eLr. You could let us know areas you have found useful, or those which have not been so useful. Let us know how it may have changed your work practice, or how your clients have responded to the activities. Maybe you would like to send us a "wish list", complete with ideas for new games and activities. We are continually developing eLr, and our vision is that it should provide speech pathologists with a large range of activities covering as broad a range of target areas as we can.
Send us your comments. Entries will close on August 31st. We will choose the winning entry based on its value to our review and development processes. Good luck and we look forward to hearing from you.
This month we have added 260 new tasks to "Phonology - Skills and Early Sounds". In the last couple of months we have been adding the early sounds to phonology. So this month the new sounds are the /m, n, ng, h, w/ sounds. The sub-sections follow a similar format to "Phonology - Later Sounds" (eg Initial, Medial, Final position etc).
We have used the PicCards, Slide show, TicTacPic, MemoryPics, MouthSounds and SpinPic models. This enables you to use a variety of activities when practising the production of sounds in words, eg naming the picture, playing memory games, tic tac toe, or using a game with a spinner and game board. All of the activities are suitable for the paediatric population, while with adults the best models would be Slide show and PicCards (naming the picture), MouthSounds (producing CV or VC syllables), and some adults may enjoy memory games. The SpinPic model has also been added to the /p, b, t, d/ sounds (as these were not included in the previous edition).
There have been a few minor changes to some tasks to correct errors which have been brought to our attention. Some are spelling errors, but one of the tasks would have presented quite a perplexing situation! The client was to say the /v/ sound each time they saw a "van". However, there were no vans to be seen! This has now been corrected, so you can /v v v v v v v v/ to your hearts content.
We have also added a couple of picture based tasks to the /v/ sound (CVC) in Phonology. This was quite a difficult as there are not many /v/ CVC words which can be pictured.
This is just a reminder about the Help feature which have been added to all the tasks in eLr. This was added some months ago, but some people may not have seen the April 2003 Newsletter which announced this addition. At the top right corner of each task is a small button with a "question mark" on it. Clicking the button shows/hides a "popup" box with 3 tabbed sections - Using this Model, Controls, and Tips.
Describes how the model operates, and outlines the way it is used in the different sections of eLr.
Describes the function of each of the the small buttons, check boxes and option buttons at the top of each task screen. These perform such actions as changing the colors used, navigating between items in the same task, and setting tasks to random item sequences and so on.
This a section which provides the user with extra ideas on how to get the most out of each model. If you have feedback and ideas to add to this information, please email or phone us.
ELR now 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.
We will have a stand and display at this workshop at Macquarie University.
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Copyright ©2003 ELR Software Pty Ltd
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