DD9 (ADHD, dyslexia) cannot decide what she wants for Christmas this year... an iPod touch or an e-reader. For those of you with dyslexic children, do they have either of this items? DD has recently gotten into the idea of audio books and LOVES to listen to a book on her iPod nano as she follows the story along in the book. She recently confided to us that she does not read nearly as well as we think she does and often has to reread books two and three times to understand what the story was about. Unfortunately, there are fewer audio books available for download at our library than e-books (at least in children's books) so her selection is limited. I know that there are e-reader apps for the iPod... does anyone who has one know if they have text-to-speech abilities so they can read the story to her? Or, should we spring for the Kindle with text-to-speech (not available in Canada so we need to order it online ASAP)?

If anyone can comment or offer any other solution, it would be much appreciated.

When we were looking for an ereader for our son, we checked some out from our local library and borrowed others from folks at work. That really helped us understand the advantages and disadvantges of each--hope you get to try some out so you can find something that will work great for your daughter!

The Drs. Eide cover this topic in a number of posts on their Dyslexic Advantage website (http://dyslexicadvantage.com/). Under "Dyslexic Help and Info" there are categories about the ipod, iphone, and ipad. They have reviews of the various ereaders and their pros and cons (e.g. http://dyslexicadvantage.com/profiles/blogs/dyslexia-and-ebook-reader-reviews) That may be a place to post a question, too!

Good luck!

If she has an official diagnosis of Dylexia she should be able to download and rent audio books from the blind and dyslexia assoc. Their website is http://www.learningally.org/
We are just waiting for an official diagnosis so we can join this site for DD10 who is also dyslexic. I believe the yearly fee to join is $20. If you decide to look into it, please pass along any feedback you have! I would appreciate it!

Hi KM
the ipad and ipod have a lot of ereader options. There are audio reader apps for free and paid which have 1000s of books although possibly not the books DD might want to read. For younger children ebooks routinely have audio components but she might still like them as a way to get more comfortable. They might have that feature for some kid chapter books too, I tend not to look at actual kid books on the ipad so I am not sure.I also saw online that there is some feature in ibooks which allows for the reading of any book, but haven't found it on mine yet, I will check - just found this - not sure it works on the touch - but should since ibooks should be the same in both

iBooks Text to Speech Feature on iPad
* On your iPad's Home Screen, tap the Settings section and choose General Settings on the left hand column.
* On the right column, choose Accessibility.
* Turn Voice Over item on and adjust as desired.
* Then turn the iPad speaker on, run iBook app and choose a book you want to listen to.
* Touch a sentence and swipe downwards with two fingers. It will start reading from cover to cover.

DeHe

Text-to-speech on e-books is going to be available only if the publisher has made the rights available. Most e-book readers will have the option available, but many e-books come with text-to-speech disabled. Check the fine print! (don't you love DRM?)

A quick and unscientific poll of the top NYT bestsellers on Amazon showed 3 out of 4 with text-to-speech enabled for the Kindle edition (Crusie, Patterson, Grisham) and one without (King).

Benefits of e-reader like Kindle: fairly low cost and fairly durable, nice size screen, nice lighting for reading, even in the dark. Downside - single purpose, usually only one format of e-book supported

Benefits of iPod Touch - very portable; fits in your pocket. Fairly affordable, multi-use and multiple platforms of audio, e-books and iBooks supported. Easy touch screen; some early indications of tactile benefits for folks with dysgraphia, dyslexia, and some types of brain damage. Downside - somewhat fragile (get a robust protector), can be a distraction (game apps, etc.), high theft item.

Benefits of iPad - excellent viewing experience for e-reading, excellent audio system, long battery life, multi-use, supports multiple formats. Downside - more expensive (opt for wifi only version to control costs), fragile, high theft item, distracting.

We are considering the lowest cost iPad for our son with dysgraphia but are starting hm out on one of our old iPod Touches. I develop mobile apps, so we have more iPods, Macs, and iPads in our house than we have people. I love, love, love the iPad but am concerned it isn't quite durable enough for a 11-year-old boy.

Will love to know what you decide and how it works out.

The iPad a very popular device for AAC for autistic children. There are a few cases recommended for those uses, and the Otter was the to-go reference for the original iPad. You might want to check forums for special needs families.