Hear words, see a difference

Daniel Dormevil used to slog through sentences, sounding out words one at a time. Hindered by a reading disability and attention deficit disorder, he would often lose his place and forget what he had read soon after setting down the book.

But since November, the Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School senior has been able to hear the words as he reads. Using a computer text reader, Dormevil no longer looks out the window or watches the words ''run off the page" during reading class. Listening to the text read aloud as he follows a digital highlighter that bounces from word to word, he can keep his place.

Words that used to lay lifeless on the page now speak to him and create images in the 17-year-old's head.

Dormevil belongs to an expanding group of students with learning disabilities who are using print-to-speech software programs to become better readers and writers. In Massachusetts, students with disabilities have begun using the programs to take standardized tests. This month, some 270 Massachusetts students, with various disabilities, in grades 6 through 10, will take the MCAS using text-to-speech software. Next year, elementary school students will likely be able to take the test on the software in Massachusetts, one of only a few states allowing the practice.

While reading, these students often failed to recognize words they would use casually in conversation. But with the help of audio, highlighted words and phrases, and a built-in dictionary that pronounces and defines words at a point and click, weak readers receive the help they need to improve, educators and researchers say.

''Before, I would be able to read most of the words, but I wouldn't understand what the whole thing meant," Dormevil said. ''But it's a lot easier being able to hear it. I just learn better that way."

Teachers liken the effect to runners who train with faster athletes to get used to a quicker pace. Students who used to get bogged down in chapter one can now read books cover to cover. It's because they can focus less on what the words are, and more on what the words mean.

''It gets them to a higher level," said Eileen Bayer , a fourth-grade teacher at the Patrick O'Hearn Elementary School in Dorchester, where students have worked with Kurzweil 3000, the text-to-speech software Dormevil uses. ''It breaks the ice."

A growing body of research indicates these reading programs help students make significant strides, and under special education law, schools are required to consider buying reading programs that might help students with disabilities. .

Having the test read aloud gives students who struggle with the printed word the chance to show what they know, said Dan Wiener, a Massachusetts Department of Education official who oversees testing of students with special needs.

Students who would otherwise be frustrated having to ''recognize black squiggles on white paper," can instead focus on understanding and explaining the ideas expressed, he said.

While acknowledging a gray area between ''leveling the playing field and overcompensating" for a child's disability, Wiener said the software doesn't provide an unfair advantage. Some researchers believe all students can benefit from speech-to-text software tailored to their specific reading abilities.

''Instead of making machines to help students with inaccessible lessons, we want to make lessons accessible from the beginning," said David Rose, executive director of the Center for Applied Special Technology, a nonprofit education research group in Wakefield. ''The print is the problem."

For Dormevil, his reading problems had made him embarrassed about reading aloud because he would skip words or even entire lines. On the first day of the school year, he told his teacher, Wendi Grant, that he had grown sick of trying to read.

For more than two months last fall, Grant and Dormevil worked together almost every day on sounding out words. But it didn't work. In November, they tried the talking software. After a few minutes reading Elie Wiesel's ''Night," Dormevil smiled and said it was ''cool." ''This was like a light bulb going off," Grant said.

In just a few months, Dormevil's reading has improved from a seventh-grade to a ninth-grade level. Now, he's reading ''Slam," a book about a talented basketball player who wants to play in college but is struggling in school.

Dormevil is confident he can move on to more advanced books next year in college. He's been accepted at Bunker Hill and Roxbury community colleges and is waiting to hear from UMass-Boston.

His teacher thinks he can make it if he takes a reduced course load, uses similar reading programs, and receives regular tutoring.

To other educators, Dormevil's story shows that students with disabilities can succeed academically if they are given the proper tools.

''They talk about the achievement gap. There's no bigger gap than between disabled students and their nondisabled peers," said Bill Henderson, principal at the Patrick O'Hearn School in Dorchester. ''And we know this works."

Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.