Learning Ally for high school?

[cintinative]

I am looking into getting our psychiatrist to fill out the form for this so we can join.  Has anyone used it? Are the audiobooks of good quality? TIA!

ETA: We are looking for audio versions of some of the books we will be reading for lit and history next year:  The Odyssey, The Illiad, Aeneid, Livy's Early History of Rome, etc.  I have not had a lot of luck with Audible--I only found one audio that was the same translation as the print book we are supposed to use.

Edited May 12, 2021 by cintinative

[prairiewindmomma]

Yes, we've used Learning Ally and Bookshare.  Learning Ally is volunteer read; the quality the recording is as good as the volunteer, iykwim.  It's entirely adequate, it's not necessarily professional quality.

[cintinative]

15 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Yes, we've used Learning Ally and Bookshare.  Learning Ally is volunteer read; the quality the recording is as good as the volunteer, iykwim.  It's entirely adequate, it's not necessarily professional quality.

Thank you. Learning Ally seems to have more of the specific translators for the books he has to read next year.  Bookshare is cheaper though!

[prairiewindmomma]

Both should be free if he meets the membership standards. It should be free if he is in a school through esssr funding (?) and free if you are a homeschooler. I just had to send in a statement from the opthamologist showing the vision issues. (At least this was true a decade ago.)

If they have changed their price structure, homeschool buyers co-op also runs deals. 

Still $135/yr is reasonable, compared to other things we have had to do.

Does he need a human voice or could you just use tech to read it? NaturalReader, VoiceDream—there are tons of apps out there, many of which are free! Ds has a free chrome book extension that reads to him occasionally, and a lot of the classics are free downloads. 🙂 You might play around just to see what is out there.

[cintinative]

11 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

 

Does he need a human voice or could you just use tech to read it? NaturalReader, VoiceDream—there are tons of apps out there, many of which are free! Ds has a free chrome book extension that reads to him occasionally, and a lot of the classics are free downloads. 🙂 You might play around just to see what is out there.

I don't know that these particular translations are available as e-books, and I am worried that a cybervoice is going to butcher the names in the Illiad and Aeneid. 😃  Although a human reader might also do that.  😃

We homeschool. In Ohio, if you have an IEP you can get certain services free through Jon Peterson scholarships.  However, it comes with strings attached such as the  IEP meetings, annual testing by the school, etc.  So our first step is to run some screeners with the psychiatrist. I am guessing I will avoid an IEP unless we are going to need it for accommodations, or if we will need long term services.  

[prairiewindmomma]

@cintinativeHonestly, having done one full round of high school ancients, I can't imagine discussing the ancients without listening to Vandiver's lectures. They are crazy expensive if purchased through The Great Courses, but you can pick them up from audible for a pittance using credits.  For a kid who is needing audio, I'd be inclined to just read snippets of the books and then listen to the lectures. YMMV, but the average adult can't plumb the depths of the ancients without historical and cultural context......

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/the-odyssey-of-homer ($89.95 for audio)

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Odyssey-of-Homer-Audiobook/B00DE2CLXU ($14.95 for same content on audible)

 

[cintinative]

59 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

@cintinativeHonestly, having done one full round of high school ancients, I can't imagine discussing the ancients without listening to Vandiver's lectures. They are crazy expensive if purchased through The Great Courses, but you can pick them up from audible for a pittance using credits.  For a kid who is needing audio, I'd be inclined to just read snippets of the books and then listen to the lectures. YMMV, but the average adult can't plumb the depths of the ancients without historical and cultural context......

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/the-odyssey-of-homer ($89.95 for audio)

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Odyssey-of-Homer-Audiobook/B00DE2CLXU ($14.95 for same content on audible)

 

My son is taking the ancient lit course at House of Humane Letters next year. If it is like the medieval course my other son took with Angelina Stanford, it will be a great fit.  She is ADHD herself and she is fantastic with the kids.  Her husband teaches the ancients class and we have not had him yet. 😃  I hope it goes well.  The history bit will be at home and it is homemade. I hope that we will have a good historical context from that too.  

Ironically, neither of my kids have liked video-based instruction in the past. Actually, saying they didn't like it is an understatement. Loathe is more accurate.  😃 I am hoping that if I can find an audio to go along with the literature selections, he can listen while he reads to improve his retention/understanding. But we still need the evaluation from the psych to figure out what is going on, if anything, beyond ADHD-inattentive. I may have to recalibrate depending on what she says.  So I will definitely keep these in mind!