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From: halff@utah-cs.UUCP (Henry M. Halff)
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: dyslexia
Message-ID: <3508@utah-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 30-Oct-85 10:10:57 EST
Article-I.D.: utah-cs.3508
Posted: Wed Oct 30 10:10:57 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Nov-85 02:39:00 EST
References: <2246@iddic.UUCP>, <481@cxsea.UUCP>
Organization: Halff Resources, Inc.
Lines: 31


From doc@cxsea.UUCP (Documentation ) Fri Oct 25 14:08:03 1985
Subject: Re: cognitive-engineering, connectionism, etc. ...really flame-ola
Organization: Computer X Inc., Seattle, Washington.

> 
> I've been learning about dyslexia. I know a few people who are dyslexic,
> and I've been attempting to devise some exercises for them on a Macintosh
> using MacDraw/Paint, as a means of mapping how they process and respond to
> visual cues. Has anyone else explored this? Any observations to share?
> 
Well, as something of a cog, I'm pretty sure that there are more kinds of
dyslexia than anyone cares to think about.

But one approach that struck me as being novel and easy was mentioned to
me by someone who just happened to have a PC and a neighbor with a dyslexic
child.  She said that the child really liked to play with ELIZA, that program
that provides a somewhat offensive dialogue based on keyword analysis of the
user's (??) input.  It struck me that dyslexics might profit from the sort
of low level feedback they could get from programs that would let them see 
their own typing and would respond to it in some interesting fashion.

ELIZA is really pretty obnoxious in most implementations, but we have a
version that runs on the mac which is customizable in that you can write
your own rules for recognizing and responding to the user.  I've thought
about doing something with it for dyslexics, but I have neither the time
nor the dyslexics to work with.  Someone else out there in netland might
be interested.
-- 
Henry M. Halff                                       Halff Resources, Inc.
halff@utah-cs.ARPA                 4918 33rd Road, N., Arlington, VA 22207