Reading Comprehension and Processing Time When People With Aphasia Use Text-to-Speech Technology With Personalized Supports and Features

Background: Person-centered approaches promote consistent use of supportive technology and feelings of empowerment for people with disabilities. Feature personalization is an aspect of person-centered approaches that can affect the benefit people with aphasia (PWA) derive from using text-to-speech (TTS) technology as a reading support. Aims: This study's primary purpose was to compare the comprehension and processing time of PWA when performing TTS-supported reading with preferred settings for voice, speech output rate, highlighting type, and highlighting color versus unsupported reading. A secondary aim was to examine initial support and feature preference selections, preference changes following TTS exposure, and anticipated functional reading activities for utilizing TTS technology. Method and Procedure: Twenty PWA read passages either via written text or text combined with TTS output using personally selected supports and features. Participants answered comprehension questions, reevaluated their preference selections, and provided feedback both about feature selections and possible future TTS technology uses. Outcomes and Results: Comprehension accuracy did not vary significantly between reading conditions; however, processing time was significantly less in the TTS-supported condition, thus suggesting TTS support promoted greater reading speed without compromising comprehension. Most participants preferred the TTS condition and several anticipated benefits when reading lengthy and difficult materials. Alterations to initial settings were relatively rare. Conclusions: Personalizing TTS systems is relevant to person-centered interventions. Reading with desired TTS system supports and features promotes improved reading efficiency by PWA compared with reading without TTS support. Attending to client preferences is important when customizing and implementing TTS technology as a reading support.

Influence of TTS Systems Performance on Reaction Times in People with Aphasia

Text-to-speech (TTS) systems provide fundamental reading support for people with aphasia and reading difficulties. However, artificial voices are more difficult to process than natural voices. The current study is an extended analysis of the results of a clinical experiment investigating which, among three artificial voices and a digitised human voice, is more suitable for people with aphasia and reading impairments. Such results show that the voice synthesised with Ogmios TTS, a concatenative speech synthesis system, caused significantly slower reaction times than the other three voices used in the experiment. The present study explores whether and what voice quality metrics are linked to delayed reaction times. For this purpose, the voices were analysed using an automatic assessment of intelligibility, naturalness, and jitter and shimmer voice quality parameters. This analysis revealed that Ogmios TTS, in general, performed worse than the other voices in all parameters. These observations could explain the significantly delayed reaction times in people with aphasia and reading impairments when listening to Ogmios TTS and could open up consideration about which TTS to choose for compensative devices for these patients based on the voice analysis of these parameters.

Digitally Assessing Text Comprehension in Grades 3-4: Test Development and Validation

A prerequisite for child reading support at school is adequate assessment. Embedding (repeated) assessment into daily teaching routine is often challenging for teachers in terms of time and organization. The use of digital tools can help teachers in the assessment process (in preparation, evaluation, documentation, etc.). A digital assessment tool (Graz Reading Comprehension test: GraLeV), focusing on assessing reading comprehension skills in Grades 3 and 4 is currently being developed in Austria. This reading assessment covers reading comprehension at the word, sentence, and text level. Text level is assessed via two subtests (Subtest I: presentation of nonsense-stories and corresponding questions, and Subtest II: maze selection). The other levels consist of one subtest each. This paper focusses on the subtests at text level. More specifically, the paper reports the results of two studies. Study 1 describes the development phases and the first piloting of these two subtests (data collection: 10/2019-12/2019). Testing 273 students with preliminary versions of the subtests (Subtest I: 30 items, Subtest II: 60 items) produced information on (a) item difficulty, (b) item discriminatory power, and (c) time limits for future speed testing. Items not meeting the required quality criteria were excluded. The final version of Subtest I consists of 16 questions referring to eight different, short, nonsense-texts. Its testing time (without instructions) is three minutes. The final version of the Subtest II consists of 2 texts each with 15 maze selections (30 items) and testing time is 100 seconds. The internal consistency is found to be good for Subtest I (α=.87) and Subtest II (α=.78 to .80). Study 2 reports on testing for validity and retest-reliability (data collection: 09/2020-11/2020). Student scores in another reading comprehension test, together with teacher assessments of reading comprehension, were used to assess congruent validity. Divergent validity was assessed using teacher assessments of mathematical and socio-emotional skills. As expected, the correlations with the congruent measures were higher than those with the divergent measures. A subsample was tested twice with the GraLeV. Retest-reliability was acceptable for Subtest II. However, the scores obtained at time 2 were higher compared to those at time 1 in both subtests. This is probably the result of increased student familiarity with the digital device and the digital test environment at time 2. The results are discussed in the light of teachers’ needs for standardized digital assessments in order to facilitate the tailoring of student reading support.

Teaching methodology in students with special educational needs during their transition to secondary education

The gap between the skills of students with special educational needs (SEN) and learning requirements is widening as they move from primary to secondary education. The purpose of this research is to implement and evaluate the pedagogical tool "Targeted, Individual, Structured, and Integrated Program for Students with Special Educational Needs" (TISIPfSENs), through which a special teaching methodology is proposed for the reading support of students with SEN. The methodology applied was mixed and lasted 5 years in 5 general Greek secondary schools. The study sample consisted of students with neurodevelopmental disorders (N = 10) and adults (N = 130) who encountered them learning, therapeutically, and socially. The qualitative data were collected in the context of the action research with the utilization of observation and intervention tools, while the quantitative data were collected from an unbalanced questionnaire. The results showed that "TISIPfSENs" supports students with neurodevelopmental disorders in reading skills during their transition to secondary education. The findings showed that students can actively participate in the general learning process, provided that the intervention is governed by certain principles, such as individualization of teaching, structuring of teaching methodology in certain phases, informal pedagogical assessment, and differentiation activities for the cultivation of neurodevelopmental areas. Keywords: School transition, TISIPfSENs, neurodevelopmental disorders, reading skills, secondary school teaching methodology

Effects of a Peer-Tutorial Reading Racetrack on Word Fluency of Secondary Students With Learning Disabilities and Emotional Behavioral Disorders

Reading difficulties that are not addressed at the primary level continue to exist at the secondary level with serious consequences. Thus, it is important to provide struggling students with specific reading support. In particular, many students with learning disabilities (LD) and emotional behavioral disorders (EBD) demonstrate reading obstacles and are at risk for motivation loss. A multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the effects of a motivational reading racetrack as peer-tutoring on the word reading skills of secondary students with LD with and without EBD. The intervention was conducted through 4–5 baseline and 16–18 reading units three times a week for 15 min over 8 weeks. The results showed positive effects indicating a highly effective treatment. In addition, follow-up results were also promising. Our findings indicate that this multicomponent intervention has a positive effect on the word fluidity of low-achieving students in secondary education with LD and/or EBD.

Instructional Practices to Boost Tier 1 Content Area Instruction for Students with Disabilities: A Closer Look at PACT

For students with learning disabilities, providing text-based instruction in general education content area classes can provide students with additional reading support while simultaneously boosting their content knowledge. This article will outline a set of instructional practices delivered in social studies classes that has been shown to improve performance of eighth grade students with disabilities on measures of content knowledge, vocabulary, and content reading comprehension. Each instructional practice will be described in detail with a timeline of step-by-step procedures and accompanying language that demonstrates how the intervention may unfold in the classroom setting.