mommy5 Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 My 10 year old is dyslexic but does read at about 3rd grade level. He really struggles. I'm trying to decide to between getting him a kindle e-reader (the basic one) or letting him use my kindle fire. Do either do audio books? I have trouble with keeping cds organized but would like something that is downloadable. Is this feature available? Also, is either better for dyslexia? He gets easily overwhelmed and distracted and gets headaches during reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 If he gets headaches while reading, you should get his eyes checked. He might have a vision problem going on as well. When my dd had headaches like that, it was convergence insufficiency, but there can be other causes. You can have dyslexia AND vision problems, so it's always good to check. You would look for a developmental optometrist, not a regular one. You can start with a regular exam (the $60 annual thing) but ask them to SCREEN for the extra stuff they can check. www.covd.org is where you find them. My ds LOVES his kindle fire, wow. If you get him a fire (or let him use yours), he'll be able to use their immersion reading feature. That means it will highlight the text of the ebook as the audiobook plays!!! Any book labeled "whispersync" on amazon will do this. And even more amazingly, if you get one of the two (the audio or the ebook) through your library, for the time you have it amazon will consider you to *own* it, meaning amazon will offer you the discounted price for the other part of the pair!! Super, super cool. You didn't ask, but the kindle has parental controls so that you can turn the apps on and off. I let my ds haul his kindle around all day listening to audiobooks, but I keep the apps off. It's easy to turn them on and off. You can passcode lock the wifi so he can't surf, whatever you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Also, a kindle of any kind will let him increase the font, which may really help with his reading and with the headaches. It is so much easier to track across the page with larger font. My husband makes fun of me for how big I keep the font on mine, but I have uncorrected convergence issues, and I can real so much more easily/faster with the bigger font. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Just for your trivia, you can increase the font on the kindle, not only in the reading app you're using, but also using the *accommodations* panel on the kindle. You can do something similar on the ipad as well. I have my ds' kindle set to magnify when I triple tap. We use this for apps where the font is set too small and isn't adjustable within the app. The Quizlet app, for instance, has a font that is WAY too small to be practical for my ds. I've written them about giving us the option, but for now I'm just using that magnify triple tap. I think you have to turn it on for it to work. It's a bit buzzy, but at least he can read it. His errors decrease when the font size is bigger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 I'm dyslexic and my Kindle Paperwhite has totally revolutionized reading for me. I used to only be able to read for 20 minutes before I got a headache. Now I'll sometimes read for 2 hours strait. A regular e-reader is much better than a fire/Ipad/whatever. Mine doesn't do audio books, but I don't care. I CAN READ!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 I have an ipad for myself and I've wondered about the paperwhite just for reading. The light is totally different. With the ipad it's very bright, even when you turn it down. I think for purely reading, the paperwhite is super brilliant. The reason you'd think fire is if he needs the immersion reading, either with kindle or the Learning Ally app, or because he wants to listen to audiobooks while he does other things. I don't think the paperwhite has audiobooks and immersion reading, right? So it's all just what you need most. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 I have an ipad for myself and I've wondered about the paperwhite just for reading. The light is totally different. With the ipad it's very bright, even when you turn it down. I think for purely reading, the paperwhite is super brilliant. The reason you'd think fire is if he needs the immersion reading, either with kindle or the Learning Ally app, or because he wants to listen to audiobooks while he does other things. I don't think the paperwhite has audiobooks and immersion reading, right? So it's all just what you need most. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovinmomma Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 Thank you for this post OP. My dd(almost 10 and also dyslexic) is getting a kindle fire from her dad for Christmas. She struggles with headaches and saying that her head "feels weird". She's said that for years. I hope that the kindle helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Χά�ων Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 I got my 10 yo a kindle DX. He makes the font rather large butis doing really well. He loves audio books so I got an old smart phone and put the audio books on them. I did not want a kindle fire. It is not an ereader, it is (or was when I looked at them) a very limited tablet with a kindle app. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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