EdTech developers AmplioSpeech have launched a multisensory literacy programme called Esperanza to help bilingual students with dyslexia hone their language ability and develop their reading skills.
Amplio is a digital platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to improve outcomes, designed to supplement learning whether students are studying online or have returned to their classrooms. It takes the form of a digital platform that connects students, educators and therapists with advanced technologies to help students with different educational needs. It was launched in 2019, and since then, tens of thousands of students have received services and interventions via the platform- and last month, it's gone bilingual.
Developed by Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, a bilingual dyslexia therapist and speech and language pathologist at the University of Houston, Esperanza is the first Spanish-language dyslexia curriculum of its kind. What’s even better is that the Texas Education Agency is offering Amplio’s digital intervention with the Esperanza curriculum to all 1,029 school districts for free. According to Amplio's website, "By addressing specific sounds, words and general reading concepts, interventionists can use Esperanza to provide differentiated and individualized therapy for Spanish-speaking or bilingual students with dyslexia. Utilizing advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and natural language processing, the platform functions as an extension of the interventionist by assessing student responses and providing visual and audio cues to support the lesson."
This is good news for the relatively large Spanish-speaking population of Texas – a US Census Bureau survey in 2013 revealed that of a population of around 24 million, almost 7 million Texans speak Spanish at home. When we consider that over 1 in 10 people have dyslexia, it’s a significant number of students that stand to benefit from the new technology – and whilst promoting the cultivation and development of bilingual learning in education, it also underpins a strong foundation of assistive tech learning that’s only grown since the Covid-19 pandemic.
You can find out more about AmplioSpeech’s Esperanza and what its developers and the Texas Education Authority hope it can achieve at their press release, available at PRWire. You can also find out more on the Help a Teacher YouTube channel, where their host Hal Bowman chats to Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan and Dr. Judy Rich about Esperanza's approach to learning, and how the project got started.