Teacher Tell-All About Our Educational Speech & Reading Tools

Posted on May 23 2018

Teacher Tell-All About Our Educational Speech & Reading Tools

Find out what real educators think about the Toobaloo and Eyelighter.

The Toobaloo and Eyelighter are educational speech and reading tools that can be used in the classroom, at home, or in speech therapy sessions.

We recently sent educational speech and reading tools to four educators to get real-life feedback. These teachers and speech therapists spilled the beans on what happened when they put the Toobaloo and Eyelighter to the test in their classrooms. Continue reading to discover what they found works best, how students responded, and their favorite strategies for helping students with reading, comprehension, and fluency.

Mollie S., Senior Speech Therapist | Appleton, WI

“I thought [the Toobaloo] was a great tool to utilize for all students learning to read. I saw great benefits from this product and have begun utilizing them in all my cases with readers.”

Challenge: Mollie is a senior speech therapist who works with children on the Autism spectrum. In the past, she has used rulers to underline text as children were reading, shorter books to help with recall, and other internal reading strategies to help her young students recall information. Mollie was searching for fun and effective educational speech and reading tool that would significantly improve reading comprehension.

Solution: Although she wasn't sure whether it could meet the needs of her students at first, Mollie was excited to give the Toobaloo a try. She hoped that her students would find it fun to use and be more willing to read their books.

Result: Not only did the students find the Toobaloo fun, but it also increased Mollie’s students’ reading comprehension by 50%! She particularly loved that it was small enough to keep in a pencil pouch that students can carry with them, making it convenient to transport from home to school and speech therapy sessions.

Timothy P., 4^th Grade Teacher | Palos Heights, IL

“Even if they are not diagnosed with a learning disability, [every student] can use these tools to help them with comprehension and decoding.”

Challenge: Timothy is a fourth-grade teacher with students at a variety of reading levels, including some with ADHD and others who struggle with decoding, or making sense of the words and phrases they're reading.

Solution: Timothy tried our educational speech and reading tools for three weeks before giving us feedback. He used the Eyelighters during guided reading time and the Toobaloos during independent reading time when students were free to sit anywhere in the classroom and whisper-read a book to themselves.

The Result: Timothy was happy to discover that his students engaged with both tools and felt they promoted active reading. He especially liked that Eyelighters provided contrast on white-black worksheets to help students follow the text and stay on track. He noted that the Toobaloo helped students decode unfamiliar words more efficiently, and it particularly appealed to the auditory learners in his class.

Samantha G., Special Education Teacher | Milwaukee, WI

“The Toobaloo was very helpful and eye opening for [my students] because they actually could hear whether they were using expression or reading too fast or too slow.”

Challenge: Samantha is a special education teacher and works mainly with second-grade and younger students. Her students are developing basic reading skills and struggle with fluency and tracking.

Solution: Samantha tried the Toobaloo and Eyelighter, and her students were eager to use both of them in a classroom setting.

Result: Samantha liked that both educational speech and reading tools were kid-friendly and very simple to use. She found that the Toobaloo was particularly beneficial for her students at a second-grade reading level or higher. She noted that it dramatically increased student engagement by giving them immediate auditory feedback as they read out loud.

Nikki K., 4^th Grade Teacher | Hartford, WI

“[The variety of colors] supports reading and makes it more appealing to students if they get to use a cool tool.”

Challenge: Nikki is a fourth-grade teacher. She already uses PVC whisper phones in her classroom, but her students have complained that they aren’t the right size, aren’t comfortable on their ears, and they don’t find them visually appealing.

Solution: Nikki allowed her students to use both Toobaloos and Eyelighters for about four weeks, particularly on weekly reading tests.

Result: Nikki found that her students were far more excited about using the Toobaloo than the traditional PVC pipe whisper phones in her classroom, thanks to its fun design and bright colors. While they have never tried eye-tracking tools before, her students also enjoyed using the Eyelighters to prevent losing their place or skipping lines when reading. Nikki felt this benefit helped the students concentrate better on their assignments, and also appreciated the sturdiness that held up to small, curious hands.

Now that you know what real teachers think of our educational speech and reading tools, give them a try for yourself. Shop our collection online or call customer service at 877-918-2541 today.