Reading Pens

[OhCrumbsWhereNow]

Does anyone have an SEN/dyslexic child who uses a reading pen?

Looking for recommendations of good ones and any tips or things to avoid.

Have a look at a C-Pen.

I had a look on Amazon at that one, but the reviews were very mixed, so was hoping someone here might have tried it given the price.

DS tried a C-pen. It worked as it should, but DS preferred text to speech software on his laptop/iPad to the pen so didn’t continue with it.

Did he use text to speech for exams? I'm looking for something DD can use for GCSEs as well as in general.

DS1 hasn’t sat GCSEs exams yet, but he has exam access arrangements, including the use of a computer reader, in his EHCP.

JCQ’s access arrangement guidance is worth reading. It allows the use of a computer reader that doesn’t decode or interpret the wording. The benefit of this (or a reading pen) over a human reader is a computer reader can be used in papers assessing reading.

That's what I'm hoping.

No EHCP, but DD has dyslexia, hypermobile joints and ADHD.

She gets 20% extra time, use of laptop (normal way of working anyway) and rest breaks. But I reckon she's spending half her time working out what the text of the questions says before working out what the question actually is (if that makes sense) and so having the text read to her would massively reduce the extra work load she has due to the SEN.

Her working memory is particularly weak and she has said by the time she's worked out the words in the question she can't actually remember what it asked her to do. Looking at mock scripts she's losing marks because she hasn't understood the question not because she doesn't know the answer and content, so my guess is that she's guessing what the question asks based on key words.

First actual exam is in May so if I can get this added fast then that would be a huge plus. Although it seems from the JCQ information that it doesn't need to be added to the arrangements but can just be used?

I have contacted the SENCo but no response as yet...

IIRC a computer reader/reader needs applying for but a reading pen doesn’t.