a digital tool to try to improve students’ reading level

For more than 3 years, Modibys company has been offering digital books to try to compensate for reading disorders caused by dyslexia, among other things. A digital tool specifically used by 550 schools in France, including some in Centre-Val de Loire.

According to Health Insurance, dyslexia is a reading disorder that manifests itself through “confusion and inversion of sounds and letters, spelling mistakes, even slow and illegible writing“. A disorder that can be detected early by the family and school environment.

for “free the reader’s brain, so that their attention is focused on meaning rather than decoding”, The society Mobidys has been offering elementary and secondary schools a digital library called “Sondo” for more than 3 years. A catalog of current books adapted to “FROG”, a digital format created by the company based in Nantes.

Thus, the publishing house launched the bet “to get 100% of students to work together on the same resource. So that students with reading difficulties can follow a general course, in the same way as others.”promoted a company press officer.

“Digital facilitates pedagogical differentiation by saving time for teachers who don’t have to adapt all their course materials, the students do it themselves. This allows them to succeed in reading the same books as their classmates and therefore follow the same program.”

A solution that piqued the interest of many colleges in the first incarceration. Today, the Sondo library is used by more than 200,000 students, spread throughout France.

for “relieve cognitive effort”Sondo offers, through “FROG” technology, reading facilitation tools that can be personalized according to individual needs (changing the font, highlighting syllables, meanings, etc.).

“We offer accessible ebooks with the added value of a reading aid toolkit, such as coloring syllables to better distinguish them from each other, letter spacing or even audio reading with speed reading. adjustable for the reader“, explained the press service of Modibys.

A catalog that aims to be extensive, consisting of digital educational books from children’s literature to classic literature. Its repertoire includes 688 works in total: 179 dedicated to primary education (kindergarten and elementary school), and 509 books (audio textbooks and literary works) intended for secondary education (college and high school ).

This device has for example been deployed at the René Cassin college in Beauce-la-Romaine, in the Loir-et-Cher, where students and teachers have tested the application “from September 2020 to August 2022, after a proposal from Modibys and a beneficial rate”, said one of the establishment’s documentalists. “It’s really well made for dyslexic students, reading is quite enjoyable even though it’s a bit robotic“, added the employee of the documentation and information center (CDI).

“It helps students yes, but it’s still screen reading, which is not recommended for their eyes.” Although he acknowledges that the Sondo repertoire is rich, he emphasizes that “there are no titles we use in class. It is very rich in youth but not in classic literature”he testified.

My fellow teachers don’t necessarily have time to look at it, because using it still requires a firm grip. This is why it is no longer used today.

A documentalist from René Cassin college

Modibys indicates that it regularly updates its catalog and maintains “a permanent relationship with partner publishers, both to increase the number of books available and for teachers to have more choices to offer students. Our enrichment is consistent“, argues the press service of the Nantes structure that wants “democratize the FROG format“, make “a new international standard for accessible books“.

Exporting its library of inclusive ebooks “in French, English, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and Native American Indian languages“, added the representative of the company.

In France, evenno reliable study has provided a figure, we are talking about 6 to 8% of dys disorders“In the country, can we read on the website of the French Federation of DYS.”Depending on the nature of the disorders included in the study, depending on the level of severity considered, the numbers vary from 1 to 10%”refers to this relationship.