Nonprofit Teaches Students with Dyslexia Through Audiobooks

PRINCETON, N.J. (WPVI) --Students from Village Elementary in Montgomery Township were cheered Monday as they arrived at Learning Ally in Princeton, the national nonprofit originally known as Recording for the Blind. These kids are among the one in every five students in America who suffers from dyslexia, a reading disability. "I'm struggling on these words that are hard for me. [When I hear them say it,] it helps me learn about them," student John Rossman said. The kids have been improving their reading skills with the use of audiobooks. Using smart phones, tablets or other devices, the students can hear and see the words they are reading. "It highlights the word as it's being read to him and he can follow along," parent Daniela Ciminella said. "I was struggling with words and it reads it for me so I can get practice on it," student Alessandro Spera said. The class trip allowed the students to see where the audiobooks are recorded and they even got a chance to sit in a sound booth themselves to try it out. Experts say dyslexia has nothing to do with how smart you are, it's all about how your brain processes information. "So you absorb information differently than somebody else and you need different tools and accommodations to learn," Connie Murphy of Learning Ally said. "Now I can read bigger words because I've been listening to the bigger words," student Shay Cheskis said. The Learning Ally program is offered in almost 1,000 public schools in New Jersey and the kids in the book club say it's making a huge difference for them. "Now I know that a lot of people struggle like me. It makes me feel a lot better," student Riley McCann said.