Learning Ally Blog: Access and Achievement

Time Warner Cable News AUSTIN - Ask anyone in the business of teaching, and they’ll tell you every kid learns differently. “Well I met William in the first grade and he was a non-reader,” says Connie Bagley, a Dyslexic Reading Specialist at Crockett Elementary in San Marcos. William Rios is dyslexic but you wouldn’t have known that watching him pick a random book from a shelf, and read from it. It’s all thanks to audiobooks from Learning Ally—a group dedicated to leveling the playing the field when it comes to reading. Professional recording studios, like the one in Austin, they’re able to publish everything from fiction to textbooks and they’re all available at kids’ fingertips. “A lot of what we talked about today was the evolution of the playback equipment,” says Carter York, Geo Hub Director of Learning Ally. During a special field trip to the Learning Ally recording studio, around 75 San Marcos ISD students got to learn more about the process of making the same audiobooks that have helped them learn to read. “I have a 5th grader, a 10 year-old kid who loses his shoes every morning but he will not lose that iPad and Learning Ally because he uses it all the time. He takes it with him everywhere,” says Ed Rios, William’s father. If you ask William what some of his favorite books are, you could find yourself listening in for some time. “I’ve read so many it’s hard to decide. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, King Chronicles,” says William. So if there was any lesson here today, it’s to not judge a book by it’s cover.