Photo Courtesy of John Zoccola
Two teens, center and right, are advised by a teacher as they learn using audiobooks provided by the nonprofit Learning Ally to learning-disabled students. The South Orange-Maplewood School District has a partnership with Learning Ally and provides audiobooks to its students.
MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Students struggling with a reading disabilities in the South Orange-Maplewood School District are being matched with technology that can assist them, thanks to a national nonprofit organization that provides access to more than 80,000 downloadable audiobooks to dyslexic, blind and visually impaired students.
Since partnering with Learning Ally approximately two years ago, the district has allowed students who have trouble reading printed words to listen to them instead with audiobooks that can be accessed through their school-issued Chromebooks, iPhones, iPads and other similar devices.
In doing so, the district has leveled the playing field for students with reading disabilities, according to Robert Schmidt, supervisor of special services for grades six through 12. Whereas dyslexic students would previously have to decipher jumbled words on a page, Schmidt said audiobooks allow them to absorb information more easily, enabling them to keep up in the classroom.
“In a lot of cases, if students can hear it, they can comprehend and can participate in class discussions and really engage in their learning,” Schmidt told the News-Record in an April 10 phone interview. “If I go home and I try to read and I cannot understand it and there is no support for me, I am going to come into class already behind everyone else the next day because everyone else did the homework and read, whereas I could not because of my reading ability. Traditionally, that was what would happen. So Learning Ally has transformed the way students can access material in the classroom.”
And the students have really taken to Learning Ally, according to Schmidt. In fact, though the program was originally offered only to students with documented learning disabilities, he said students without disabilities were eagerly listening to the audiobooks on classroom computers that had already been logged into Learning Ally. As a result, he said the district now makes the technology available to every student.
The reason Learning Ally has become so popular is likely due to the prevalence of technology in the modern world, Schmidt said. Years ago, he said wearing large, clunky headphones to listen to a book on tape in class would come with a stigma. Today, however, plugging a pair of earbuds into a device is viewed from an entirely different perspective.
“The fact that this is on the computer does not make anyone stand out because everyone is using computers now,” Schmidt said. “Everyone has Chromebooks in our district. The kids have iPads. It is the norm. So the great thing about Learning Ally is that you could be providing help to a student, and that student can be receiving the help that he or she needs in a way that does not stigmatize them, does not make them stand out. It is considered cool to be using technology in schools.”
Another benefit that Learning Ally provides is the fact that it exposes students to reading material they are actually interested in, according to Schmidt. Though not every one of the approximately 80,000 textbooks and literary works the program provides is offered to district students — the district selects which books are made available — he said students are allowed to request popular novels to listen to outside class. He added that, in some cases, teachers even include books like the “Divergent” series in their curriculum in order to get students excited about reading for pleasure.
Of course, Schmidt said an additional bonus of using audiobooks is that they are simply more convenient to use than physical books. After all, he pointed out, not having to carry around numerous books or worry about forgetting them in their lockers makes life easier for students.
But the South Orange-Maplewood School District is not the only district being helped by Learning Ally. The program is currently used by more than 300 New Jersey schools with the goal of eventually benefiting all 81,000 students identified as having reading disabilities across the state. Nationally, it serves approximately 10,000 schools and approximately 15,000 individual households.
Paul Edelblut, Learning Ally’s vice president of education, said he feels proud to help so many children with learning disabilities, especially since so many go unnoticed. In an April 9 phone interview, Edelblut said that 20 percent of the U.S. population is estimated to have a learning disability, yet only 5 percent are ever diagnosed.
It is the program’s mission to help those who need it, for people with reading challenges such as dyslexia are just as intelligent as those without, Edelblut stressed.
“They are very smart, but they just cannot process words that are written in a text-based format,” Edelblut told the News-Record, pointing out that notable dyslexics include Albert Einstein and Richard Branson. “When you give students these audiobooks, they are able to absorb that content and take in that content and continue to learn and grow and thrive in that educational environment.”
Edelblut explained that listening to Learning Ally’s audiobooks while also following along with the text — the program offers a word-tracking feature — develops a student’s multisensory learning; information is absorbed more deeply into the brain when it is heard and seen at the same time, he said.
Aside from helping students, Edelblut said Learning Ally benefits teachers and parents as well. Teachers in districts participating in the program have the option of utilizing Teacher Ally, a feature that lets educators monitor what books their students are reading and how many pages they finish so they can better understand how to address individual needs and interests. The nonprofit also offers free professional development workshops for educators and promotes awareness of learning disabilities.
Seeing so many districts, like the SOMSD, partner with Learning Ally is “awesome,” according to Edelblut, because he knows that the program works. According to a 2011 study conducted by Learning Ally, schools that participate in the program outperformed nonmember schools on reading proficiency tests in all 13 pairs that were compared. They also outperformed 12 out of 13 pairs on math proficiency tests.
Beyond statistics though, Edelblut said he has seen Learning Ally’s effectiveness in his own home. He said his son, who has a reading disability, uses the program and has experienced significant results. In fact, he said his son moved from the 4th percentile to the 50th percentile on a national norm test and was moved to the 76th percentile for his end-of-year goals.
And that is just an example of what Learning Ally can do for other students with reading challenges, Edelblut said.
“When given the right resources, you can make tremendous change,” Edelblut said. “I can look at teachers and I can look at parents and say ‘I know this works.’”