ELR-News

November 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 eLr Materials
  2. eLr in the United States
  3. eLr in the United Kingdom
  4. Build-a-Sentence - Ready for Purchase
  5. Other Independent Developers
  6. Free Downloads
  7. ELR 2007 Calendar

  1. New eLr Materials

    This month there are 108 new tasks added to the "Reading and Spelling" section. The tasks are a continuation of the major review that was commenced in January 2007. The aim of the review was to provide a greater range of spelling options for each of the vowel sounds, and also to provide 3 levels of difficulty within each of the spelling options. eLr covers 18 vowel sounds (short, long, and diphthong vowel sounds), and 52 different spelling options. So, as an example, the /er/ vowel sound can be spelt with "er" (as in 'fern'), "ir" (as in 'fir'), "ear" (as in 'heard'), "ur" (as in 'hurt'), and "or" (as in 'world'). Within each of the spelling options there are 3 levels of difficulty. Level 1 contains words that are "consonant vowel consonant" words. Level 2 words contain consonant digraphs (eg sh, ch, and silent letters), and level 3 words are multisyllabic.

    The new tasks are in new subsections in each of the vowel sounds in the "Short vowel sounds - longer words" section. The subsections are called "assorted spellings of this sound". The aim of these new tasks is to provide material to help the student discriminate between the different spelling options. For example, in the /e/ short vowel sound, words like "bread/bred", "read/red" are often confused, and in the /oo/ short vowel sound, words like "would/wood" are difficult for the student to master. The new tasks provide activities that focus on reinforcing the spelling of individual words, and also models where the words are using in the context of sentences and word definitions. Eleven models are used in the new tasks, so there is a large range of different sorts of activities enabling repetition and the presentation of the same word sets in different contexts.

  2. eLr in the United States

    Our plans are pretty well complete for our visit to the United States in November. We are engaging in a cooperative venture with Mayer-Johnson LLC. We will be included on the Mayer-Johnson stand at the ASHA conference (Nov 15-17th), and we will be presenting eLr at about 8 workshops that have been organized by Mayer-Johnson reps. These workshops will see us in New York city, Pittsford and Binghamton in New York State, Columbus and Cincinnati in Ohio, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco. Please see the ELR 2007 Calendar below for further details.

    We are inviting speech pathologists who attend our workshops and who meet us at the ASHA conference to participate in a survey about eLr. The information we collect from this survey will inform us about ways to modify eLr so that it also suits the needs of speech pathologists and education staff who work in the US. We will have our work 'cut out' for us next year.

  3. eLr in the United Kingdom

    We are also planning to visit the UK in Feb/Mar 2008. This follows our very enjoyable visit in May this year where we presented free introductory workshops at 8 locations across the UK and Ireland. Our plan is to participate in the ASLTIP conference (Association of Speech Language Therapists in Independent Practice), on Saturday March 8th. We will be available to provide a series of free introductory workshops between mid February to mid March. We invite interested people to contact us if you would like to attend, or if you would like to host a workshop at your workplace. Our offer is that we will provide a free 2 hour introductory workshop, if a venue is provided and if you are able to use your existing networks to publicize the event.

  4. Build-a-Sentence - Ready for Purchase

    Build-a-Sentence is an interactive computer program that aims to strengthen labeling of nouns, verbs, and objects, and production of 2 and 3 part sentences. It has been developed speech pathologists, Helen Goltzoff and Virginia Long, and the ELR team, with graphics by Melinda Beacham and Bill Marron.

    This program is appropriate for a range of clients, including children with developmental delays, Autism Spectrum Disorder, hearing impairments, and for adults with aphasia. There are graded levels of difficulty, with use of high frequency and everyday vocabulary. The clinician is able to modify the vocabulary to suit client needs, and present the activities in a range of ways. For example, with "sound on" the client hears the sentence/word as a reinforcement. With "sound off", the client may be encouraged to produce the sentence/word, and then click on the sentence/word to hear the target sound as reinforcement. Literacy skills are reinforced as there is an option to have text as part of the activities. More information and a free trial is available from www.elr.com.au/sentence.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.


     
  7. ELR 2007 Calendar



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Copyright ©2007 ELR Software Pty Ltd

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