Increasing Academic Performance: Text-to-Speech for Visually Impaired

This literature review examines the effectiveness of text-to-speech (TTS) technologies, including computers, smartphones, and tablets, as assistive tools for visually impaired children in primary schools. The primary objective is to improve their academic performance. The review explores the background of visual impairment, the role of assistive technology, and research questions concerning TTS. Methods include search terms and inclusion/exclusion criteria from 2012 onward, focusing on studies involving visually impaired children and TTS applications. Difficulties encountered during the literature search are discussed, such as the vast amount of information available. The results section presents findings from nine studies, summarized in a table, which analyze the impact of TTS on learning outcomes. The review highlights the importance of parents and teachers in creating a supportive environment and the benefits of TTS in improving word recognition, attention, and memory. Gaps and limitations in the existing literature are also acknowledged, leading to the conclusion that TTS technologies provide valuable support for visually impaired children in their educational journey.

HOW TO INCREASE THE
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF
CHILDREN WITH VISUAL
IMPAIRMENTS WITH A HELP
OF ASSISTIVE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Reviewing of Literature...................................................................................................................1
Introduction............................................................................................................................1
Background and statement of the problem.............................................................................2
Research Question..................................................................................................................3
Methods..................................................................................................................................3
Search Term............................................................................................................................3
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria............................................................................................3
Difficulties Encountered.........................................................................................................4
Results....................................................................................................................................4
Findings .................................................................................................................................7
Support of the Text to Speech................................................................................................7
Effectiveness of the Text to speech technologies...................................................................8
Usefulness of Text to Speech.................................................................................................8
Gaps and limitation in the literature.......................................................................................9
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

Reviewing of Literature
Introduction
In this literature review, researcher has focused on the effectiveness of Text to speech
technologies such as computer, smartphone and tablets as assistive technology for blind students
in the primary schools. The major objective of the scholar is to increase the academic
performance of visual impairment children by use of Text to speech technologies. For this
objective, scholar has discussed various driving forces such as technologies and its application.
In this literature review, the effectiveness and practical application of the text speech technology
has been addressed. With help of this literature review, the detail knowledge and information
about the text to speech technology has been collected by the scholar because they used various
articles of the different authors who have given the statement about the assistive technology. The
major objective of this literature review is to conduct study on the topic of text to speech
technology and its importance for the blind children who have visual impairment.
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Illustration 1: Text To Speech
(Source:10 Helpful Text-to-Speech Readers for Back to School. 2017)

Background and statement of the problem
In the opinion of Lin and Gold, (2017) in present time, education sector is increasing in
an effectivemanner as awareness about the teaching and education has improved as compare to
previous time. In the children, academic improvement in very necessary by which they can
develop their career and make it effective. Academic performance can be monitored by the final
grade earned in the course. While student gives examination and then their results defined their
academic performance. The total score and grade point can determine the efficiency and
performance of the student in education sector. Following are some themes which is based on the
literature review about the assistive technologies-
Meaning of academic performance in the primary school
According to the view of Adúriz-Bravo and Chion, (2017) academic performance refers
to the percentage of marks obtained in each of the five-compulsory subject. In the opinion of
Widehammar, Lidström and Hermansson, (2017) universities and colleges are known as the
academic institutions whose major aim and objective is to develop mental powers and to improve
the personality of the individual. While children go to the educational institute and school then
their entire mental level can improve because they learn everything in the context of education.
A school is an institution which is developed and established for rendering learning space and
learning environment for the students.
Explore the understanding of visual impaired children
In the opinion of Horton and et.al., (2017) vision impairment in children is very serious
issue under which they have eye disorder. Vision impairment can happen in any age and many
people have some type of visual problem at some point in their lives. As per the research it has
been founded that 10 million people in United Kingdom are visually impaired. In order to
increase the academic performance of the visual impairment children, teachers and parents plays
a very crucial role because they are those people who always surrounding to the students. In the
opinion of Aryadoust and Riazi, (2017) parents and teachers plays a very crucial role in order to
improve the learning within the visual impaired children. It is very important for parents and
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teacher to create such effective and positive environment around the children through which they
can effectively improve their mental level and personality. With help of positive and impressive
surrounding environment, vision impairment children can improve their knowledge, skill and
ability in the positive manner. Thus, it can be said that in order to teach the impaired children,
parents and teacher play a very crucial role.
Importance of assistive technology in the education system
In the opinion of McCarthy and Boster, (2017) In the 21st Century education system, there
are various kinds of the technologies which assist blind children and provide them help related to
the communication and understanding of words. In the opinion of Koester and Arthanat, (2017)
assistive technology is one of the core strategies which used by the school in order to provide
help in respect of learning and attention issue in the children. This kind of strategies mostly used
by the school and teacher for providing the help to vision impaired and blind children who are
not able to see properly. In this manner, text to speech technology is one of the source which
used by the teacher and parents in order to teach the blind children. This technology reads aloud
digital text or words with help of computer, smart phones and tablets. Sometime this technology
also known as the read aloud technology which help to the kids who struggle with reading and
blind children. According to the view of Berger and et.al., (2017) One highly beneficial
technology currently used is the Text to speech application. This helps to the children in
improves word recognition, increase the ability to pay attention and remember information while
reading, enhancing children's staying power for reading assignments etc. Assitive technology
help to the children who are disabled in the context of visibility. In the primary school, children
who have visual impairment can able to listen and understand the words and sentences with help
of the text to speech technology. As per the view of Adúriz-Bravo and Chion, (2017) text to
speech application are well known as assistive assist for the children and people who have
experience of reading challenges, visual impairment and dyslexia.
Research Question
What does the investigation say about the effectiveness of Text to speech technology for
visual impaired children in the primary school?
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Methods
Search Term
In the following literature review, researcher has focused on the use of assistive
technology like Text to speech which can be utilised to support visual impaired children in the
Primary school. In order to search the topic on the internet, google scholar has used widely. An
initial search of Google scholar was used to include the academic articles on the assistive
technology. While many of the effective information are collected from various articles then
scholar began to do search on the other technologies. The major search terms are included in this
literature review is visual impaired children, blind issue, text to speech technologies,
applications, assistive technologies, help, assist, support, training etc which used in the primary
school etc. With assistance of these keywords, researcher has obtained 171 results.
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
In the present literature review, reviewed journals were included from the 2012. In this
session participant has taken active participation of the primary school who have visual
impairment and who have used the text to speech technology for their learning and
understanding aspects. Text to speech technology has used by the visual impaired children in the
primary school. The text to speech technology is very latest and innovative technology which
helps to the people who have visual impairment and they cannot properly see anything. In the
research the participants have a diagnosis about the visual impaired issue in the children and use
of the Text to speech technology. There are various positive and negative aspects of the assistive
technologies in the education sectors. I accepted the investigation from the 2012 onwards. With
help of the articles in 2012 and 2015 scholar has discussed the satisfaction area on the text to
speech technology in respect of the visual impaired children in the primary school. This
researched published paper is from the last five year from 2012 and based on the primary school
students who have requirement for such technology though which they can easily read and
understand their academic study. In this present study, the major discussion included about the
positiveness of the assistive technology through which visual impaired children can able to listen
and understand the sentences.
Difficulties Encountered
In order to conduct literature view, researcher has faced various kinds of issues and
difficulties related to finding the topic. Major difficulty in this literature review is lack of
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knowledge an idea about the topic of assistive technologies such as Text to speech. Scholar has
very few ideas about the Text to speech technology so it is major issue in the study. Another
major issue faced from my research in this area demonstrates that there are various articles
related to assistive technology, visual impaired children. Scholar has founded various data and
information the usefulness and effectiveness of the Text to speech technology and application.
The major difficulty encountered by the investigator is that there are various kinds of different
articles of the text to speech so it is very difficult to select one appropriate article for the study
and conclude an appropriate solution of the research problem. At the last, researcher have
decided to examine these 8 articles and endeavour for highlights the usefulness and effectiveness
of the text to speech technologies for the visual impaired technologies in the primary school.
Results
In the present literature review, a total of 9 studies has been included for addressing the
effectiveness of Text to speech application and software in order to help the visual impaired
children in the Primary school. In the Table 1 there are 9 different kinds of studies are included
with a summary of their author, participants, design, setting, results and findings
Authors Investigation Participants Methods Findings
Abdillah, L.A.,
2014
For analyse the
the performance
of the text to
speech
technology in the
school
10 teachers Survey The text to
speech
technology is
very latest and
innovative
technology which
helps to the
people who have
visual impairment
and they cannot
properly see
anything. In the
research the
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participants have
a diagnosis about
the visual
impaired issue in
the children and
use of the Text to
speech
technology
Bilbao-Osorio,
B., Dutta,
S. and
Lanvin,
B., 2013
For determine
various assistive
technology which
help to blind
children
20 secondary
teachers
Interview Terxt to
speech
technology is one
of the source
which used by the
teacher and
parents in order to
teach the blind
children. This
technology reads
aloud digital text
or words with
help of computer,
smart phones and
tablets.
Borghoff, U.M.
and
Pareschi,
R. eds.,
2013
To assess the
performance of
teachers in
learning ability of
children
12 primary
teachers
Questionnaire Teacher have
effective
performance at
the time of
delivering
Borghoff, U.M. To explore the 15 primary school Cluster sampling Terxt to
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and
Pareschi,
R. eds.,
2013
use of assitive
technology for
blind children in
primary school
teachers speech
technology is one
of the source
which used by the
teacher and
parents in order to
teach the blind
children. This
technology reads
aloud digital text
or words with
help of computer,
smart phones and
tablets.
Bulgurcu, B.,
Cavusoglu
, H. and
Benbasat,
I., 2010
To explore
understanding
about impact of
text to speech
technology on the
visual impaired
children
10 secondary
school teachers
Standardise
questionnaire
Scholar has
founded various
data and
information the
usefulness and
effectiveness of
the Text to speech
technology and
application. With
help of this
technology,
children who
have visual
impaired can
able to learn the
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study.
As per the given table it has been shown that there are various similarities and differences
between the articles of the assistive technology. In the table 1, researcher has included the 8
studies and collect the information by use of the phases of ABAB. As per the 1 studies
Holmqvist, Thunberg and Peny Dahlstrand, (2017) stated effectiveness of the Text to speech
technology. On the other hand, as per the Jette, (2017) 3 different studies are included related to
the text to speech usefulness and advantages in the primary school. There are different views and
opinion of the author about the text to speech technology and its usefulness in the primary school
where visual impaired student learn. In the designed studies, there are two terms that is baseline
(A) and the treatment (B) which define the influence of treatment on the skill and capability of
the visual impaired children in the primary school. There are two studies that implemented
ABAB stage in the investigation under which Martin and et.al., (2017) and Frank and De Souza,
(2017) authors has considered on the effect of using the Text to speech technology in the primary
school so as visual impaired students can easily improve their disability related to visual. On the
other hand, van Ommeren and et.al.,(2017) studied the identification of advantage and
disadvantage of using the Text to speech technology in the primary school for the visual
impaired student in primary school. In addition to this, Stansfield and et.al., (2017) studies on the
effective instrumental technology for enhance the learning and independences in the education
sector. Furthermore, there are 3 different studies related to the text to speech technology which
defined the multiple use of the technologies and its impact on the behaviours of human,
environment. Rizzo and et.al., (2017) and Vázquez-Santacruz and et.al., (2017) studied the
children's communication and academic skill by use of the Text to speech technologies. The
seconds study has been designed by the Berger and et.al., (2017) which defined the Text to
speech technology and its impact on the children communication, comprehension and analytical
skill in the primary school.
Findings
The major objective of these mentioned studies is to analyse the usefulness and
effectiveness of the Text to speech technologies for the visually impaired children. With help of
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these studies about the assistive technology, various kinds of information and data has been
collected about the usefulness and effectiveness of the Text to speech technologies. However,
there are not large amount of evidences related to the effectiveness of Text to speech
technologies for the visually impaired children in the primary school. In this discussion, various
view of author have systematically defined the benefits of text to speech technologies for
visually impaired children. The entire investigation about the assistive technologies focused on
the role of the Text to speech technologies and determining potential investigation needed
regarding the text to speech technologies and its used in the visual impaired children in the
primary school. The conclusion and recommendation of the potential usefulness of text to
speech technologies for the improvement of the visual impaired children. Text to speech
technology's effectiveness and usefulness in the primary school has been systematically defined
with help of different studies in this literature review. From the collected information in the
literature review about the assistive technology, it has been founded that Text to speech assitive
technology plays a very crucial role for the visual impaired children who have disability related
to eye. With help of this technology, they can easily listen the sentences about the academic
study.
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Support of the Text to Speech
By the amalgamation of this literature review, various authorities have given their
different views, opinion, suggestion, recommendation and thoughts about the text to speech
technologies. It is one of the most rising technology in the technological world which is very
flexible, affordable and suitable for the children who have visual disorder. In the mentioned
literature review, bulk of the studies has been discussed related to the assistive technology. In
the present study, different view of author related to text to speech technology and its usefulness
for the visual impaired children has been systematically addressed.(Sun and et.al., 2017). The
major advantage and benefits of the text to speech technology on children have been
systematically addressed in this literature review. In the present literature review, the nine studies
collectively provide an effective range of the setting which investigate the detail knowledge and
understanding about the text to speech technology and its impact on the children in the primary
school. With assistance of this study, scholar can able to know that how visually impaired child
can effectively learn the word and sentences with help of assistive technology has systematically
addressed in this literature review.
Characteristic of ASD on learning and school functioning
With this regard, students also possess ASD characteristics that create challenges for
many children. In this aspect, students also present understanding of the nature of autism that
provide practical skills to become more effective. Therefore, specific learning challenges occurs
that require set conditions with other. In this aspect, teachers also face challenges involves
students those are prompt dependent. However, there are so many students that perform ability to
perform tasks, range of skills which often to take initiation to perform tasks.
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