Dyslexia and Reading Recovery.

RR is only effective if it is monitored correctly and the students are followed even when they have finished their time on the programme. It isn't a cure for children that have not grasped the concept of reading, but I guess it's better than not doing anything. The phonics, whole word debate have been going on for a LONG time, but the most effective way to teach it is to combine both. Using the cues, (pictures, words in context etc), IS actually very important, but will probably only help those who are able to achieve some success in reading. Personally, I believe that a rich oral language programme in the classroom, will teach the child a great deal about reading and writing concepts, too often we have to rush into both and miss out on the EXPERIENCE of the English language.   Ellen Thompson

I also have a son with dyslexia. He is now 15 and still can't read or write formally. He is however very clever and can learn using computer speech to text and vice versa, although this has been a challenge. He spent some time in Reading Recovery and it didn't help him at all. He actually tried everything the school had at the time including a teacher aide taking him through one letter at a time. This did not help. I believe he finds hearing sounds very difficult. In the end the programme or method that did work was the Davis Dyslexia Method by Ronald Davis. This didn't solve all our problems, but it did solve the main one, self esteem. My son found peace with himself at the tender age of 8 knowing he wasn't alone in his struggle to learn the formal part of literacy. The Davis Method also taught him his letters. It was successful. We actually didn't make it through the rest of the 200 plus words, claying them one by one, but we did what we could. I have noticed as he is in an accepting and helpful Modern Learning Community he is flourishing. I wrote a blog about it and posted it last week. If anyone else is interested her is the link. It is very interesting to me as the journey has been difficult but by keeping our eyes on what is really important we have made it through with our son still loving to learn. I believe literacy is more than de-coding words for reading and forming letters for writing. At its core is communication of ideas. This can be done on computers now.  Tara O'Neill (Me)

Reading Recovery has been a popular remedial reading program in Australian schools for many years, but there has been some recent discussion questioning how effective it really is.
The last time Australian children’s reading achievement was benchmarked against that of other countries in 2011, it was the lowest in the English-speaking world. Given the vital importance of literacy it is important we ask ourselves why.
Reading as a ‘natural’ process
Mainstream early literacy teaching and Reading Recovery are both still grounded in the idea that reading is a natural process, and that children learn merely via exposure to print. However, we now know this is not the case. Reading is a complex, learnt skill.
A small number of children do appear to teach themselves to read. Many others are taught before they start school by a family member or preschool teacher.
However, learning the complex, opaque English writing system takes most children several years. Many children simply can’t learn unless they are taught to discern sounds in words and represent them with letters just one or two at a time, and given lots of practice with each pattern.
A wait-to-fail system
After a year of trying, many children still haven’t learnt to read. Children with speech-language and cognitive difficulties fare particularly poorly. Some children who are good at memorising words visually seem to be doing okay at first, but unless they learn to sound out, they are soon falling behind.
Reading Recovery originated in New Zealand as a way to help struggling readers in their second year of schooling. However, its content does not specifically target the main areas in which most beginners struggle – speech sounds and their spellings, or phonics.
Each Reading Recovery session involves reading familiar and unfamiliar books, with encouragement to guess from pictures, first letters and context. Students also assemble cut-up sentences, write personal sentences, and do a single phonics activity involving building words with movable letters.
Reading Recovery is an intensive, one-to-one program delivered half an hour a day for 12-20 weeks by specialist teachers. It has been in use in New Zealand now for 30 years, so you’d expect Kiwis to be doing well. However, New Zealand’s results were barely better than Australia’s in the recent international benchmarking exercise.
Reading Recovery is a proprietary program, meaning it can only be accessed by teachers trained and registered to be Reading Recovery teachers. This means it can only be researched with the consent and co-operation of its publisher, using teachers who have already been instilled over months of training with the belief that it is of benefit.
Research exists showing it has a positive effect compared to doing nothing or a mixture of interventions of variable quality. But most things teachers do have a positive effect, so that’s no surprise.
More interesting research would compare Reading Recovery with programs we know are consistent with the reading science, and that we know from well-conducted experiments have significant positive effects. I am not aware of any such research.
Many long-term studies of reading achievement have shown that children who don’t get off to a good start with literacy tend not to catch up. Like a rocket poorly lined up on the launching pad, they can end up very far from where they are meant to be.
Teaching needs met from Day One
Louisa Moats, the academic whose criticisms of Reading Recovery attracted recent media attention, is one of the leading US proponents of more evidence-based practice in literacy education. In particular, she urges that teachers be taught more about language, so that they are equipped to teach literacy in a more successful and evidence-based way.
Moats points out that reading is one of the most studied aspects of human behaviour, and we know a great deal about it. Yet the way we teach it typically doesn’t reflect the scientific consensus on what works best.
We vaccinate all children against deadly diseases, regardless of whether they are susceptible or likely to be exposed to them. The risks of not doing so are simply too great.
Likewise, we should be giving all children explicit and well-sequenced instruction about speech sounds and spelling patterns, integrated with work on vocabulary, comprehension and fluency, right from when they start school.
Practices such as guessing from context, pictures and first letters (known as “searchlights” or “multiple-cues” teaching) should be eliminated as having no basis in reading science.
Choosing an effective remedial program can be tricky when vulnerable parents and concerned teachers look to commercial resources. However, teachers and parents should be guided by the principles of effective reading instruction outlined in the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacyand current research findings that highlight the importance of alphabetic approaches that systematically and explicitly teach phonological awareness and phonics to mastery.
Programs that meet these criteria include: MiniLit and MultiLit, Little Learners Love Literacy, Get Reading Right, Jolly Phonics, Sounds Write, Write to Read, Read Write Inc and Letters and Sounds.
This would line all children up correctly on the launching pad, ready for a successful learning trajectory, regardless of linguistic or cognitive skills, or family circumstances.
During her recent National Tour, Moats warned Australians about the gap between research and practice in literacy education and urged us to replace our current wait-to-fail system with one that ensures maximum success for all learners. In our increasingly complex, print-based society, it is simply unacceptable to do otherwise.  ( I am unsure where I copied this from)

Flow, Learning and Dyslexia        By Tara O’Neill

 

Recently I have become aware of the concept of flow. 

 

“In positive psychology, flow, also known as zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.”  (Wikipedia)

 

In my own life, I can think about past times that I have experienced flow.  I just hadn’t realized that flow was the name of the vehicle that released creative ability and learning.  When I was a younger mum, I used to write music.  The songs would just pop into my head and I would be working on a piece during cooking tea and bathing the children.  It was a passion, and I could never explain how the music would come but now I recognize I experienced flow.

 

Recently, as I have become aware of the concept of flow, I find that I could use it to help me in my post grad study.  Again I am passionate about what I am studying and find flow helps me to get to a place where I am at my creative best and able to apply the study to my work and in creating new information. Sometimes, the flow is over several days which contain must do’s in life such as parenting and work. 

 

Today I celebrated with my son as he too experienced flow at school.  He was completing a ‘flow’ project on one of his recent topics - coding.  He was able to plan his own learning around coding.  He is 15 years old and wants to be a software developer.

 

Josiah spent 9 hours completing his first coding course during school last week. This was a free course via the internet. There was other learning that needed to be done, but he felt comfortable to keep going with his coding as he was obviously experiencing flow.

 

At many schools, learning is broken into subjects like Maths, English, Computer science.  The day is ordered in a very routine way.  One hour for Maths and one hour for English etc. This is not conducive to creative thinking or to developing continuity of learning – flow.  

 

How wonderful that Josiah is able to experience flow in his own learning at school.  Sometimes, you just want to keep going, to keep learning and to finish.  Because he is able to plan his own learning he is able to prioritize completing the course as being important in his day. 

 

 

 

I saw Josiah at school today he was sitting on the sofa and he showed me how he had started to code.  He was putting his knew found knowledge into action.

 

By this evening he had completed his first page on his portfolio.  That is right, he is coding his own portfolio.  He hasn't worked out how to get a web address yet, but he is on the way and one day it will go live.

 

The most impressive and encouraging thing about all of this is that Josiah is a student with the challenge of dyslexia.  He finds reading and writing very difficult. But he loves learning.  I asked him how he could manage to understand coding when he couldn't read.  He said that he understood the logic of coding really well and it was easier than writing and reading because it had one letter that stood for an instruction.  He could ask for help from a teacher aide for the inserting of the words, or he could use his computer for that.   At the moment at home, he is asking his younger sisters how to spell words and they tell him gladly.  He continues to work on creating a portfolio at home, sending me updates to see how it works on my computer.  Sharing problems he is working on “I’m trying to figure out how to make the images smaller.”

 

Learning for Josiah is experienced in the context of real life, both at school and at home. The way school is timetabled allows learning to become timeless.  Technology allows for it to be seamless.  School doesn’t define learning, instead it becomes part of the learning.  Being able to read and write doesn’t define learning. Learning is about using flow to create in and to experiment in.  Flow is a vehicle for discovery. 

 

I am so happy for Josiah, relieved that he is making progress in the area that he really loves and that he can experience success with learning.  How wonderful that he goes to a school that believes in future focused learning and in allowing students to self manage and to achieve flow in their own learning.

 

 

--

Tara O'Neill

Films for action article

This is an amazing article.  It highlights so much of what I believe about literacy.  It is what I have seen to be true in my own family and especially with my own son.

The difference of one

"I experience with incredible gratitude, the kindness of one who understands.  The words they speak that put my world into a reality that feels like I can survive.   The way they listen, the time they take and the love they show.   I appreciate that they can see where I am. They can understand why I am and who my child is, even though they are not in my tunnel.   How grateful I am to them.  They change my world.  They change my child’s world.  To me they are superstars."

And there it is, one of those special people walks into my life.  A life saver.  

What makes them so different?

Session one, they listen.  They don't judge.  They don't comment.  They don't label.  They don't blame. 
Their body language is open.  
They reframe.  Session two, they start to add in context.  
They make links to my mess, they join the dots.

From my point of view I can sense the difference.  It is tangible.  Even without words it was tangible.  Even the first meeting.  Prior beliefs are seen in body language before words are even spoken.  

Then the linking of ideas.

For example - It is not the  behavioural approach  or..................    it is behavioural approach and..........  
Medication works in context.  It requires the environment to be working as well.  (Ecological theory).  You can't just rely on the medication to be enough.  If the environment is working then the Medication can do it's job.
Teachers need to spend time with Miss A, just being and building relationship.  Not doing any new learning.  Spend time in play with her and others.  
We will reframe the behaviour so others can understand it is not being naughty.  A strategy to help a team to understand.

Here are two really important keys here for us as practitioners.  

1.  Our delivery of knowledge is just if not more important than the knowledge itself.  You can't have one without the other.

2.  The ability to listen to people, and then bring them new information from where they stand takes real skill but is very powerful. It is affirming.  Start from the person's belief and then put that belief, those ideas, in context, move on to the next new learning creating a link.  

I begin to understand that it is not knowledge alone or practice alone, but the ability to link the two in context of the team supporting the individual.

Help I'm drowning

Help I feel like I’m drowning.

I went to get help, but I forgot that getting help requires energy.  Everyone wants to hear the story.  And then the questions start in your head “Is it my fault, is she like this because of my bad parenting”.  

Miss 7 years old and her meltdowns have increased in frequency and in intensity.  I don’t know what to do now.  The recommended way of dealing with anger and hitting by a child “time out” isn’t working, she is going from 0 to 10 in an instant.  She is throwing things, rampaging, she is very angry.

I went away for the weekend for work and I walk into her having a session.  She has been at Gran’s for the weekend.  Everyone is trying to sit around the dinner table to celebrate Gran’s 75 birthday.  Apparently nothing happened, she just snapped.  She is out side, pulling plants from the garden.  I sit down for my lunch.  Miss 7 comes in, continuing her rampage, knocking over a pot plant she runs down to the bedrooms and starts to throw things around.  No one can stop her because no one can hold her.   Unbelievable you think?  It is true, we have tried.

At CAMH’s (Child, Adolescent, Mental Health Service) the next week, my husband and I sit with the person we have seen for over a year on and off.  He has a thick file in front of him.  We share what is happening.  During our conversation we have to remind him of details we have told him many times.  We ask… “Could it be triggered by the medication? Could we see a Psychiatrist?”  The answer returns, “no because we don’t have one at the moment”.  Where we live no one wants to come and live, so Doctors fly in from Auckland, but the one at the moment we normally see is on long term leave and the other, ‘well, they are only giving her ‘easy cases’ so she doesn’t leave and our case is not easy.

“So there is no one to ask if this is made worse by medication?”    “NO”.

We agree to drop the dose anyway.   

So I ask, “you still haven’t answered my question, what would you do if your child was rampaging at 7 years old?”   The answer is cagy.  He suggests we work on the positive side since the consequences are not working.  So we discuss ways of ‘noticing her’.  Basically, he can’t help either.  And he informs us that the service is down 5 or 6 Psychologists.  They just can’t keep them, they leave with stress.  The ones they have are dealing with ‘worse cases of suicides’.  I laugh out of shock, “well our 7 year old given another couple of years will be there, so I guess we will be seen eventually!”

Later we hear that we can go and see a clinical Psychologist in a fortnight who will mark the latest behaviour assessment filled in by teachers and met the 7 year old.

Meanwhile, we were accepted by RTLB in partnership with Special Education.  The RTLB has been in and observed.  The Special Education person comes next week.  She has just moved from CAMHs to Special Education.  She comes highly recommended, not that we have any choice.  We are told that we are ‘lucky’ to be accepted by the service and it is unusual to be accepted so quickly.  

Here’s the thing I forgot from the last time I travelled this crazy roller coster… each service has forms to sign and new people to meet.  And each one wants to here the story and wants to know what you want them to help you with.  How do you tell 7 years worth of mothers intuition.  Where do you start?  What parts do you tell first?   And then you feel like you are so ‘lucky’ to get help that you don’t want to offend them and scare them away.

And all of this comes on top of continuing to deal with stressful behaviour.  It is tearing at the family.  It wears down your ability to respond to your partner of 26 years decently.  You go into survival mode, you look for things that you can find respite in and often this is work for me, seeking knowledge.  But it could so easily be drink and sometimes during the worse sessions it becomes food.

It takes resolve to keep perspective.  Even remembering how we made it through for daughter number one and how wonderful she turned out becomes hard to believe.  I do remember the effort required to find the services and help to achieve that.  

Each day becomes a walk of faith.  Moments upon moments, I keep positive, I remember to praise Miss 7 because in the end, that is all I can actually do at the moment.  I remember to hug her and tell her I love her even though every thread of me is tired and love is such a momentary word.   And I remember to breath because I am holding my breath, no major meltdowns for 4 days.  And I hope there will be no more, even while preparing for the next.

And the feeling of drowning occurs in the times that I stop and reflect.  I am grateful for my faith and my strong family.   I am grateful for help that we do have and for study and knowledge.  And for the experience which can only make us all stronger, more understanding and filled with a life with things that count.

Inclusion within inclusion

I'm thinking about my eldest daughter.  It is fascinating talking to her now (16) about what she remembers form when she was younger and at Primary School.  At Primary School she became extremely anxious and didn't want to stay at school without me.  Back in 2004 no one had heard of Autism in Nelson - at least not in the mainstream schools.

I was so happy to met another parent whose children came to the school whose mother was a world renowned Autism expert in England.  This mum knew her stuff about Autism. The principal hired her to help me and my daughter.   From my perspective she was like an Angel, what a gift, I finally felt validated and had some ideas on what to do!

So she told me of the 'best practice' stuff to help with anxiety.   We went about setting up all the 'obvious' changes to my daughters classroom.    We did out the storeroom and made a lovely quiet place with her own box of goodies.  We moved her desk to a 'quiet' place in the classroom.  We made a journal up with pics in it so her teacher could use pictures with her to communicate and she could use pictures to ask for help from her teacher.  We asked for some technology to help with her writing, as handwriting was difficult.  And a couple of other things as well.   

Of course, you know what happened don't you...   My daughter rejected all of it.  She wouldn't have a bar of it at all!

Now at 16 she tells me off.  Mum, I hated all that stuff you did to me in Primary school.  I hated being different.  I hated you making me leave the classroom and go and talk to all those people.  

UDL allows in the most powerful way, for difference to be accepted by everyone.  What would have made my daughter less anxious and more included?  Probably if everyone was able to access the quiet space and the fun box.  If everyone had access to pics to express their desires.  The teacher was very rigid and very black and white.  UDL allows colour into the classroom while keeping everyones dignity to be included alive.

Sometimes I just want to shake the world.

Why do you have to be so black and white?

Why do you wear blinkers?

What happened to your patience and understanding?

What happened to you being able to help?

Where is all the grey and colour gone?

Why do you put everything in boxes?

Is it because a square is safe?

What is wrong with a circle or triangle?

Can you delight in difference or

Could you weather challenge to

your traditions and your blinkered normality?

World, why so right and wrong?

If I could close my eyes and imagine a world,

It would be colorfully filled with unimagined shapes

Joining together to communicate,

Acknowledge,

Help.

To be,

Different and

To love it all with abandon.

By Tara

Written 20 August 2014