Adapt, don’t replace: why DysAdapt doesn’t mark homework or offer its own exercises

There are plenty of apps for children with learning difficulties. Some offer their own sets of exercises. Others mark work automatically, show the right answer, or give a score at the end of the session.

DysAdapt has made a different choice, deliberately. Here is why.

1. The class exercise, not an extra one

The homework a child brings home is not just any exercise. It is the one their teacher chose, linked to the day's lesson, and the one that will be gone over in class the next day.

A practice exercise, however well designed, does not replace that:

• it is not about the lesson the child has just had;
• it is not marked along with the rest of the class;
• it is extra homework, for a child who is often already the most tired in the evening.

So DysAdapt always starts from the actual worksheet: you take a photo of it, and you get the same worksheet, made readable for this child. Every exercise and every question from the original is kept. We change the presentation (font, spacing, layout, how the instructions are broken up), not the content.

Being able to follow when the class goes over the answers

It is a detail that matters enormously in class. One teacher explains it while describing how she prepares her texts:

"I keep the same layout and the same line numbers for everyone. Otherwise my dyslexic pupils are even more lost: they don't have the same reference points as the others."A teacher

When the child has done the same exercise as the others, in the same order, they can put their hand up when the class goes over it, follow, join in. They are part of the class.

2. No automatic marking: a mistake is information

You might think a tool that marks everything by itself saves time. But automatic marking takes away something essential.

The mistake belongs to the child and their teacher. When a pupil gets something wrong, that is valuable information: about what they understood, what is still blocking them, what needs going over again. If an app marks the work before the teacher sees it, that information is lost.

Effort is what makes you learn. An adapted exercise should remove the obstacles that have nothing to do with learning (an unreadable font, instructions that are too long, an answer box that is too small), but not the effort of thinking. If the answer is given away, or even guessable, the exercise is pointless.

Parents should not have to become markers. In the evening, the parent's role is already heavy enough. A tool that flashes "wrong" in red turns the kitchen table into an exam hall. Better for the child to hand their work in, and for the marking to happen where it makes sense: in class.

That is why DysAdapt applies a strict rule to every adaptation: no answer visible, pre-filled or guessable. No word coloured in because it is the right answer, no example that gives away a question, no "well done" or "try again" message.

3. Same expectations, a different route

One worry comes up often, among some teachers as among some parents: that adapting means lowering the bar, or even giving one pupil an advantage.

A Year 4 teacher sums it up well:

"Adapting isn't giving up on expectations. My pupil follows the same curriculum as his classmates, just with different tools."A Year 4 teacher

That is exactly DysAdapt's line. The child does the same exercise, with the same underlying difficulty. We only take away what was stopping them from showing what they know. And because the answer is never given, nobody can suspect that the tool did the work for them.

4. How others see them

For many children, the real difficulty is not just the worksheet: it is being seen as different. The older the child, the heavier the fear of standing out. A professional who supports pupils with learning difficulties puts it simply:

"At secondary school especially, pupils refuse to stand out. There's real work to do on that, starting in primary school."A learning support professional

What sets a child apart is not so much the tool as not doing the same thing as everyone else: a different workbook, a separate activity while the class works on the worksheet, marking they cannot follow.

That is where DysAdapt comes in: on paper as on screen, the child works on the same worksheet as their classmates. Same exercises, same order, same instructions in substance. It is simply easier for them to read.

Paper or screen: the child chooses

A laptop is a valuable aid for many pupils, but it shows. Some are completely fine with that. Others, especially as teenagers, would rather go without than stand out. FCPE Paris, a French parents' association, has noticed it:

"it is not unusual for our children to refuse to take it to secondary school for fear of being stigmatised […] since their disability is invisible, they would rather not reveal it."FCPE Paris

That is why DysAdapt produces two versions of the same worksheet:

• a printable version, which looks like the class one, for the child who does not want to stand out or for days without a laptop;
• a web version to fill in, for the child who works on a laptop. On their screen they then do exactly the exercise their neighbours are doing on paper, not a separate app.

The format can change with age, subject or day. The content stays the class's. The child does not have to choose between getting help and going unnoticed.

One teacher put it this way:

"My dyslexic pupils like having at least one subject where they aren't singled out. For their confidence, it matters."A teacher

A good adaptation does not set the child apart. It puts them back on an equal footing.