Return-Path: <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id j911H0G01244; Fri, 30 Sep 2005 21:17:00 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2005 21:17:00 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <LOBBICLOAFKBEPDBHIAJIEECGBAA.l.cuttler@comcast.net> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Lucille Cuttler" <l.cuttler@comcast.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-LD:4908] Re: LD and intensive phonics X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 9085 Lines: 230 The International Dyslexia Association is a reliable source for many questions recently expressed - www.interdys.org Membership brings professional journals, newsletters, and a chance to meet with other professionals in your area. Techniques appropriate for severe dyslexics can certainly help anyone struggling with decoding and spelling. As a tutor with 20 years I have used structured, kinesthetic, explicit direct instruction. I know it does the job. A tutor/teacher to be effective needs a well equipped tool box. Creative ways of teaching, reaching both sides of the brain, work. Also, always keep in mind that the rate of learning varies. Students go as fast as they can but as slow as they must. Lucille Cuttler -----Original Message----- From: nifl-ld@nifl.gov [mailto:nifl-ld@nifl.gov]On Behalf Of John Nissen Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 11:04 AM To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: [NIFL-LD:4906] Re: LD and intensive phonics Hello Aaron, Thank you for the references. I had a good read of the article on Neurobiology, and it is very informative and well written. However I have some problems with it. From what I have seen, none of the research on dyslexia has taken into account a key environmental factor - how the subjects had been taught to read. Moreover none of the researchers, to my knowledge, have looked at children who have been given intensive phonics training at the start of primary school, by either explicit phonics or synthetic phonics. Perhaps the patterns of brain activation would be different, if the subjects had been taught in a different way. In the Clackmannanshire study, all the children were taught to read successfully using synthetic phonics, and there was little or no "dyslexia" apparent. And I have heard of reseach suggesting that the left brain can indeed by "activated" to help people overcome reading problems. Therefore, I am suspicious when the article says that "dyslexia is a persistent and chronic condition". It seems there might be effective remediation that could activate the parts of the brain that are used by normal readers. A key giveaway in the article is as follows: [quote] The awareness that all words can be decomposed into these basic elements of language (phonemes) allows the reader to decipher the reading code. In order to read, a child has to develop the insight that spoken words can be pulled apart into phonemes and that the letters in a written word represent these sounds. This so-called phonemic awareness is largely missing in dyslexic children and adults. Results from large and well-studied populations with reading disability confirm that in young school-aged children, as well as in adolescents, a deficit in phonology represents the most robust and specific correlate of reading disability. [end quote] The explicit phonics and synthetic phonics are designed to give this phonemic awareness from the start. The other skill these methods impart is "blending" - the ability to put the phonemes together to form (spoken) words. This skill is not mentioned in the article but is a key skill for reading. There is a great danger of looking at the brain of a dyslexic person, and saying the brain has been "disrupted" or "impaired", when in fact it may be just the way the person was taught. Is there any evidence to the contrary? What I'd like to see is brain scans of the Clackmannanshire pupils reading, to see which parts of the brain they are using, especially for those pupils with dyslexic genes. Cheers from Chiswick, John P.S. Ian, I'm copying this to you, because I read you'd done some fMRI with researchers at Bristol. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Aaron Kohring" <akohring@utk.edu> To: "Multiple recipients of list" <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 5:00 PM Subject: [NIFL-LD:4893] Re: LD and intensive phonics > John, > > Yes, there is research into some of these areas you mention. > > I'd recommend taking a look at the Focus on Basics article: The > Neurobiology of Reading and Dyslexia: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=278 > > Also, look at the resources under the section on Teaching/Learning related > to instruction: http://ldlink.coe.utk.edu/research.htm > > Other good instructional guides are found here: > http://ldlink.coe.utk.edu/ld_instruction.htm > > Aaron > > > At 11:26 AM 9/29/2005 -0400, you wrote: >>Hello everybody, >> >>It seems I was too late for Christopher, and a bit off topic, since my >>questions were not related to technology. But I'd be interested to have >>answers to these questions. >> >>Concerning the first question I asked, what kind of particular problems do >>people with LD have with reading. Is there anything different from the >>"specific" learning difficulty, which is dyslexia (or at least embraces >>dyslexia)? Is the difficulty in phonological awareness, or in blending >>skills, or in spelling/decoding rules, or in comprehension, or a mixture >>of >>all these? If it is a mix, is there a characteristic mix? Has any >>research >>been done on this? >> >>On the second question, I have heard of people with LD being taught to >>recognise whole words by associating them with symbols. This seems to be >>a >>denial of the fact that letters represent sounds, and they should be >>taught >>how to decode words, by sounding out the letters and blending those sounds >>together. But one person I asked said that "phonics was not suitable for >>children with LD". I cannot believe this. Is there research evidence on >>whether intensive phonics teaching is effective or not for people with LD, >>regardless of age? >> >>The third question is about cause and effect. If poor readers are >>utilising >>their right brain when they should be using their left brain, they could >>end >>up with underdeveloped left brains, i.e. not as relatively large (compared >>to right brain) as normal. That would be an _effect_ of lack of use. >>Alternatively a left brain problem (e.g. damage) could be the _cause_ of >>their poor reading, from a young age, and they would grow up with a >>relatively small left brain. So is it cause or effect? What does the >>research say? And is there anything that can be done for the older child >>or >>adult person to help in left brain development? >> >>---------- >> >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: "John Nissen" <jn@cloudworld.co.uk> >>To: "Multiple recipients of list" <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> >>Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 10:26 PM >>Subject: [NIFL-LD:4872] LD and intensive phonics >> >> >> > >> > Hello Christopher, >> > >> > I am sorry I coming into this session rather late. I hope I am not too >> > late >> > to join in with some questions. >> > >> > 1. Do people with LD have different teaching requirements? >> > >> > I am trying to find out whether there is any difference in the teaching >> > requirements for teaching people with LD to read, and teaching people >> > with >> > dyslexia to read. I haven't found any factor to distinguish them, as >> > regards their reading (dis)ability. >> > >> > 2. Is poor reading due to poor teaching? >> > >> > Also I want to find out to what extent the poor reading, or >> > non-reading, >> > is >> > due to misguided teaching. I often see that there are attempts to >> > teach >> > whole word recognition rather than word decoding, especially for people >> > with >> > LD, who may be considered incapable of the necessary phonological >> > awareness. >> > In the Clackmannanshire study, it was shown that a 'phonics first and >> > fast' >> > approach worked marvels for all the children, and by the end of primary >> > school they were three years ahead in reading age compared to their >> > peers >> > taught by the 'conventional' teaching of a mixture of methods >> > (including >> > an >> > element of phonics, together with guessing strategies, etc.). I >> > suspect >> > that anybody who has learnt to speak is also capable of the >> > phonological >> > awareness required for reading and writing, given appropriate teaching. >> > >> > 3. Left brain development for rapid decoding >> > >> > Finally I wonder whether the right brain development in some poor >> > readers >> > is >> > because they have developed skills for whole word recognition, and with >> > the >> > right teaching, their left brain would be developed to enable rapid >> > decoding, even in older children. >> >>BTW, I've written about the teaching of a brand of intensive phonics >>called >>"synthetic phonics" here: >>http://www.cloudworld.co.uk/teaching-synthetic-phonics.htm >>and I'd be grateful for comments. >> >>Cheers from Chiswick, >> >>John >> >>John Nissen, >>director Cloudworld Ltd >>maker of the WordAloud assistive reader >>http://www.cloudworld.co.uk > > Aaron Kohring > Coordinator, LINCS Literacy & Learning Disabilities Special Collection > > Center for Literacy Studies, University of Tennessee > EFF Center for Training and Technical Assistance > Phone:(865) 974-4109 main > (865) 974-4258 direct > Fax: (865) 974-3857 > e-mail: akohring@utk.edu > >
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