An NPR member station
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

App Created By CDA High School Student Helps Children With Reading

Doug Nadvornick/SPR

A Coeur d’Alene High School student has created a phone app that helps people who have reading problems. He’s testing it with the help of a special education teacher in the Lake City.

Morgan Dixon’s app is called Outloud Reader, which gives you an idea of what it’s all about.

“I started in March of 2017 with an idea to help my brother with work and school work. He wanted to take his college books and put it onto his phone and listen to it while he was working. So that idea developed through two years and working with the SBDC, Small Business Development Center. And now we are here today with this cool app that’s definitely helping students and that makes me feel real good,” Dixon said.

When he felt it was ready for testing, Dixon contacted teachers around Coeur d’Alene to see if they’d try it. His message found its way to special education teacher Melissa Mello at the Sorensen Magnet School.

“He said, 'I’m a Coeur d’Alene High School student. I created this app. It helps kids who are struggling with reading and if you want me to come to your classroom, I’d be happy to come.' And so I emailed him and I said absolutely. Come and show us what it is,” Mello said.

“So the app takes a photo of an article of text and then digitizes the work and then reads it out loud and that’s how we came up with the name," Dixon said.

One of Ms. Mello’s students is fifth grader Tristan Slaughter. He has some difficulties reading. He holds an iPad on which the app is installed directly over a book he recently began.

“The Land of Stories," he said. "I’ve read a little bit of it, not a bunch.”

The app takes a picture of the page of text and begins translating it. A robotic voice begins, “He quickly bent into an overly pronounced. I wasn’t expecting anyone from the palace. Oh, no apology necessary.”

“We’re working in my classroom on actually decoding words and reading fluently and comprehending. But there’s sometimes when these kids really want to have access to bigger books, longer text, more complicated vocabulary. This just gives kids immediate access and independence, which is great," Mello said.

She’s only had access to the app for a few weeks. She likes that it’s easy to use and so do her students.

“It’s all relatively new, but it’s really exciting and I’m hoping to use it with more students," Mello said. "Right now, it’s just been my fifth graders that have had access to it, but it’s on my classroom iPads and I know that some of my other intermediate students would also benefit. So we might have something where we have the fifth graders teach the fourth graders.”

“There’s plenty of development to continue. As you saw, there were some errors," Dixon said. "I want to add in a font, dyslexic typeface that helps students read. Hopefully that will be coming soon, as well as document detection for those who are totally blind, so they can figure out where the text is on their screen and then it will automatically take the photo.”

Dixon charges $3.99 for the app to help him pay the development costs, though he has given Mello a free version to share with her students. He’s also making it available to other schools in Coeur d’Alene and elsewhere who are willing to try it.