Texts by Gero Tacke

The texts by Gero Tacke included in the program are suitable for children without reading difficulties up to 5th grade, and for children with difficulties up to 6th and 7th grade. For most texts, reading comprehension is tested using questions about the text. In addition to the texts, the program contains many word lists (natural words and pseudo words). Short learning units of approximately 15 minutes are very important for concentration, memory performance, and weekly continuity.

No distracting stimuli

Children are not distracted by multimedia effects—there are deliberately no animations in the program so that their full attention is focused on reading and writing. The program is so comprehensive that a new text/word list can be worked on every day for over half a year.

Expandable and flexible

It is the only learning program that is so flexible and easily expandable:
At the touch of a button, new word lists (e.g., for vocabulary and learning word training) can be created and your own texts can be inserted, copied from the Internet, or scanned, and even provided with your own comprehension questions.
New words are automatically separated into syllables by the integrated syllable separator.
These functions not only allow the program to be used from first grade to adulthood, but also enable the integrated use of reading material from the classroom, as texts for teaching can be loaded into the software with little effort.

Print station

The integrated print station also offers additional, easy-to-use options for schools.

My child cannot read – what should I do?

You should always start at the top of the exercise set, i.e. with “Recognizing at a glance.” In the first 5-10 exercises, it makes sense to work in “Supervised” mode “Supervised” mode in order to make a basic diagnosis for the child being supervised (e.g., how many letters can the child recognize at a glance, how much time does the child need to pronounce what they see, can they make the eye jump, how much time does the child need to recall what they see from memory, etc.). The exercises used for diagnosis are also used for therapy, i.e., not every word list in the program needs to be worked through.
Example: The child can reliably recognize the letters b and d, so the word lists for b and d no longer need to be practiced; move on to the next exercise.

Easy-to-use user interface

You don’t need in-depth knowledge of reading disorder therapy or special computer skills to use the celeco method effectively.

The program is based on the Windows Explorer user interface:
The program contents are displayed in a tree structure in the left window, while details of the selected program item are shown in the right window.
The width of both windows can be adjusted by clicking and dragging the window divider bar with the left mouse button held down. Clicking on a plus sign opens the next level of detail, while clicking on a minus sign in the tree closes a level of detail.

Procedure for the exercise “Recognize at a glance”

The displayed word must be selected from a list of similar words. The display duration of the words is chosen so that a few mistakes can be made in one round. If everything is recognized correctly, the display duration is reduced. If too few words are recognized correctly, the display duration is increased.

[See image gallery at www.celeco.de]

Recognizing several letters at once

This chapter focuses on practicing the simultaneous recognition of several letters. As an overall goal and prerequisite for fluent reading, the learner should be able to recognize at least three to four letters in approximately 250–300 ms and pronounce them immediately. Practicing longer words has a positive effect on reading performance.

Recognition after a saccade

The “saccade” exercise also involves recognition at a glance, but after a saccade:
The fixation mark appears, and to the right of it are the letter segments that are to be recognized.
In “Eye movement variant b,” word segments appear as the fixation point, and the letter sequence to be recognized appears to the right of them.

Procedure for the exercise “Recognize at a glance”

The displayed word must be typed in. The display duration of the words is chosen so that a few mistakes can be made in one run. If everything is recognized correctly, the display duration is reduced. If too few words are recognized correctly, the display duration is increased.

[See image gallery at www.celeco.de]

Visually prepared texts

The texts are presented with the help of visual aids in such a way that the causes of the reading disorder can be eliminated, e.g.

Change in contrast

As many children (and also adults with dyslexia) are distracted by the surrounding text when reading a word (segment), this surrounding text can be completely or partially faded out or even just made paler.

The text is faded out on the left and/or right to prevent the child from being disturbed/distracted by the surrounding text.

Two-colour reading cursor

The texts can be read in small segments (e.g. syllable by syllable) by underlining the text segment currently being read (e.g. a syllable) with the colour cursor; this trains eye tracking.

The lighter coloured inner cursor automatically draws attention to itself, so the text segment is automatically fixed in the right place. The outer cursor marks the other letters belonging to the text segment.

Typical example

The reader does not stick to the coloured cursor. The future text (to the right of the cursor) is too distracting, the gaze is not guided correctly over the text. As a result, the reader’s gaze jumps too far, for example, leaving gaps. Thursday” becomes “Thurday”.

The distracting text is now hidden.

If the text is now read correctly, the hidden text can gradually be made visible again. This trains the user to ignore the surrounding text (in this case future text).

 

(*)
Excerpt taken from J. Taylor and T. Ingelby
Lesemeister für 1./2. Jahrgangsstufe, 1993
©Auer Verlag GmbH

Suitable for all

The programme is suitable for all people who have difficulties with reading and writing (dyslexia). It can be used from first grade (from knowing a few letters) to adulthood.

It can be used at home, in school lessons (also in combination with a projector, whiteboard, …), in remedial lessons and in individual work.

Gaze control

Problems with gaze control are a common cause of reading disorders. They can be specifically treated with the software. This is one of the central functions of our software.

Especially recommended for ADD/ADHD

The exercise set is also frequently used by parents who have children with ADD/ADHD and is also very suitable for spastic children or children with perceptual and speech development disorders.

Font used

All fonts available on your PC can be used (whether print or cursive). The font size is freely selectable.

Read texts

Text, cursor and background colour, contrasts, etc. – All parameters can be set as required.

The reading speed can be determined by the child him/herself, as can the segmentation in which reading is to take place.

Available segment sizes:

• 2 Letters (not available in english)
• 3 Letters
• 4 Letters
• 6 Letters
• Syllables
• Syllables with extra marking of the syllable nucleus (only for German)
• Whole words

Regional customisation

The following languages are currently available for content and interface

• German
• Swiss German (an ß becomes an ss)
• English
• Spanish
• Portuguese

The interface language is automatically set to the language of the computer, but can also be changed manually.

The language of the content must be licensed separately.

Homework

The spftware has an interface to the celeco Professional Edition.

Receive exercises from the therapist or specialist counsellor

The Professional Edition is the version of Reading the right way intended for therapists and specialist carers. With the help of the Professional Edition, exercises can also be set as homework and given on a USB stick, by e-mail or via other data carriers. A homework assignment corresponds to a “normal” homework assignment from a school day. With the Exercise Edition, this homework can be read in, worked on and finally handed over to the subject tutor for evaluation.

Progress becomes more visible

The learning progress is more visible for the carer, as all practice units can be checked at home by the supervising teacher if necessary.