Speech-to-text intervention to support text production for students with intellectual disabilities.

AIM: Writing is a multifaceted skill involving planning, transcription, and revision that is challenging for students with intellectual disabilities. Some studies have examined reading abilities. However, there needs to be more research on writing proficiency in this population. Especially concerning writing with the assistance of technologies such as speech-to-text (STT). To contribute to filling the research gap, this study aimed to investigate whether tailored speech-to-text interventions enhance text production for students with intellectual disabilities. METHODS: The research utilised a single-subject design involving the participation of four students (three girls and one boy) aged 10-13 years with mild intellectual disabilities in a rural municipality in Sweden. RESULTS: The results of this study revealed significant improvement post-intervention for all four students in word, sentence and text qualities. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that STT offers a valuable tool for students with intellectual disabilities struggling with handwriting, providing new opportunities for self-expression. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

This study investigates speech-to-text technology for students with intellectual disabilities. Previous research on writing among students with intellectual disabilities is very limited and almost missing with the support of assistive technology such as speech-to-text.The results show improvements for all participants.Speech-to-text technology appears to be valuable for enhancing text production among students with intellectual disabilities.

Decoding intervention for young students with mild intellectual disabilities: A single-subject design study.

Students with intellectual disabilities need more time and explicit instruction to develop word decoding. Most previous research on interventions among these students is performed in English. Therefore, the current study examined the impact of a word-decoding intervention in Swedish on individual students with intellectual disabilities. A single-subject-design study was conducted with five students with mild intellectual disability in the fourth grade. They needed to enhance decoding, and Swedish was their first language. Their word and non-word decoding was measured during the baseline and intervention phases. The intervention with the Wolff Intensive Program was delivered by special education teachers supporting phonemic decoding and reading fluency training during 25 sessions. All five students developed their decoding as they decoded more words in a given time (NAP=0.84-1.00) and decreased their decoding errors in both word and nonword decoding (NAP=0.72-1.00). The results are promising but need to be confirmed in additional studies.

Effects of assistive technology for students with reading and writing disabilities.

BACKGROUND: Assistive technology has been used to mitigate reading disabilities for almost three decades, and tablets with text-to-speech and speech-to-text apps have been introduced in recent years to scaffold reading and writing. Few scientifically rigorous studies, however, have investigated the benefits of this technology. PURPOSE: The aim was to explore the effects of assistive technology for students with severe reading disabilities. METHOD: This study included 149 participants. The intervention group received 24 sessions of assistive technology training, and the control group received treatment as usual. RESULTS: Both the intervention and control groups improved as much in 1 year as the normed population did. However, gains did not differ between the groups directly after the intervention or at 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The use of assistive technology seems to have transfer effects on reading ability and to be supportive, especially for students with the most severe difficulties. In addition, it increases motivation for overall schoolwork. Our experience also highlights the obstacles involved in measuring the ability to assimilate and communicate text.Implications for rehabilitationsAssistive technology (AT) can be useful for children with reading disabilities to assimilating text as well as boosting their reading.Children with reading disability using AT increased reading performance as much as a norm group, i.e. the students enhanced their reading ability despite no training in traditional reading remediation.Children's and adolescents' motivation for schoolwork can be boosted when using AT as a complement for those with reading and writing disabilities.

Evaluation of a new in-clinic test system to detect feline immunodeficiency virus and feline leukemia virus infection.

BACKGROUND: Many in-house tests for the diagnosis of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukemia virus (FeLV) infection are licensed for use in veterinary practice. A new test with unknown performance has recently appeared on the market. OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to define the efficacy of a new in-clinic test system, the Anigen Rapid FIV Ab/FeLV Ag Test, and to compare it with the current leading in-clinic test, the SNAP Kombi Plus FeLV Antigen/FIB Antibody Test. METHODS: Three-hundred serum samples from randomly selected healthy and diseased cats presented to the Clinic of Small Animal Medicine at Ludwig Maximilian University were tested using both the Anigen Rapid Test and the SNAP Kombi Plus Test. Diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were calculated for both tests using Western blot as the gold standard for verification of FIV infection and PCR as the gold standard for FeLV infection. RESULTS: The presence of antibodies against FIV was confirmed by Western blot in 9/300 samples (prevalence 3%). FeLV DNA was detected by PCR in 15/300 samples (prevalence 5%). For FIV infection the Anigen Rapid Test had a sensitivity of 88.9%, specificity of 99.7%, positive predictive value of 88.9%, and negative predictive value of 99.7%. For FeLV infection, the Anigen Rapid Test had a sensitivity of 40.0%, specificity of 100%, positive predictive value of 100%, and negative predictive value of 96.9%. Diagnostic accuracy was similar to that of the SNAP Kombi Plus Test. CONCLUSION: The new Anigen Rapid FIV Ab/FeLV Ag Test performed very well and can be recommended for use in veterinary practice.