A how does a multi-sensory approach to reading work
Read and Spell Blog
A multi-sensory approach to reading

A multi-sensory approach to reading

Traditional approaches to teaching reading rely heavily on visual and auditory stimuli, including workbooks and phonics activities. However, children who experience difficulties learning how to read may benefit from a multi-sensory approach that involves physical movements and lets them use their senses to engage on a deeper level.

In particular, dyslexic students who struggle to split words into their component sounds may respond positively to the Orton-Gillingham style of learning. It uses multi-sensory techniques to facilitate acquisition of phonics knowledge, decoding, and sight-reading skills.

Writing in all caps
Read and Spell Blog
Writing in all caps

Writing in all caps

Capital and lower-case letters can look similar, like 'O' and ‘o,’ or they can look very different, like ‘A’ and ‘a.’ Nonetheless we still recognize that they are the same letter. This is because when children first start reading and writing they learn to associate two forms with the same sound. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that upper and lower-case letters are processed by the brain in the same way for everyone. In fact, incongruent capital/lowercase forms may be problematic for unskilled readers.

3 Dyslexia Strengths
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3 Dyslexia strengths you should know about

3 Dyslexia strengths you should know about

People with dyslexia have many strengths thanks to the unique ways in which their brains process stimuli, including language. For example, many individuals with dyslexia are right-brain dominant. The right and left hemispheres of the brain are organized in a slightly different way. On the right, cells are more evenly distributed (versus in clusters). This means connections have to cross larger distances, which helps dyslexics with big-picture thinking, spotting patterns, and taking a more open and creative approach to problem-solving.

Dyslexics are often holistic rather than linear thinkers. While memorizing facts may not be their strong suit, children and adults with dyslexia often have the ability to integrate personal experiences with acquired knowledge, to generate new ideas. They can make great team players and be extremely creative students who are artistically gifted and have an intuitive sense of spatial organization. That's because visual thinking and spatial reasoning are both associated with right-brain thinking.

10 Fluency strategies for struggling readers
Read and Spell Blog
10 Fluency strategies for struggling readers

10 Fluency strategies for struggling readers

Literacy skills are one of the most important areas of ability children develop in their first few years at school. That's why it's crucial to provide fluency strategies for struggling readers as soon as a learning difficulty is picked up.

Most children begin by sounding out words and learning to recognize common vocabulary from books and classroom materials. With sight reading and more spelling practice comes greater fluency. Reading then speeds up and comprehension of more complex texts becomes possible as vocabulary knowledge grows exponentially. However, not all students find learning to read such an easy process. Struggling readers can quickly fall behind their peers and may develop low self-esteem and a lack of confidence as a result.

Because reading ability affects performance across all areas of the curriculum, including writing skills, it’s important to provide adequate strategy training as early as possible. Ideally remediation is tailored to the individual student’s needs, particularly when a learning difficulty is involved.

Dyslexia reading strategies
Read and Spell Blog
Dyslexia reading strategies for students

Dyslexia reading strategies for students

A guest post by Cigdem Knebel.

The English language is full of linguistic inconsistencies that make reading much harder for students with dyslexia. If you are like the majority of native English speakers, you may not even be aware of these inconsistencies because it is your mother tongue.

The irregularities are due to using the 26 letters in the English alphabet to create 44 sounds. To make up for the difference, there are several different ways a letter can be pronounced (‘a’ for apple, car, or ball, and ‘c’ for cat, ceiling, or scent).

Moreover, letter combinations create new sounds (ch, sh, ea) and these combinations can also be pronounced in different ways (chair vs. chorus, eagle vs. earth). This makes decoding a serious challenge for struggling readers, particularly those students who have dyslexia.

What is child-led learning?
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What is child-led learning?

What is child-led learning?

Child-led learning is a term used to describe education programs in which children are responsible for deciding what and/or how to learn. In some cases, it extends to kids being in control of how long they spend on a particular lesson and the methods and materials used for study. Quite often it is undertaken in a homeschool environment or in a private tutoring context.

While this movement typically stands in opposition to a fixed curriculum, some schools offer individual classes or after-hours programs that take a more child-led approach. There are also situations in which giving a child a greater role in deciding how much and what to learn is more appropriate, such as sessions for kids who struggle with learning difficulties.

Developing spelling skills in learners
Read and Spell Blog
Developing spelling skills

Developing spelling skills

Spelling skills are not something people are born with – we learn to spell at the same time as we learn to read and write. For individuals who struggle with learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, spelling can pose a particular challenge as it requires the ability to split words into sounds and then match those sounds to letters and letter combinations.

This is easier said than done because in English there are many ways to spell the same sound. There are also plenty of silent letters, words that break the rules, and foreign words with unintuitive spellings.

Note-taking skills for kids
Read and Spell Blog
Note-taking skills for kids

Note-taking skills for kids

Writing information down facilitates its transfer into long-term memory and provides an opportunity for learners to engage with content on a deeper level, including through review.

Common Reading Problems
Read and Spell Blog
3 Common reading problems for students

3 Common reading problems for students

Developing strong reading skills in students is one of the key goals of every early education program. It is through reading that students expand their vocabulary and learn about the world. Reading is also the key to success in spelling and writing.

And while 6 and 7-year-olds are fluent speakers, they require instruction in how to navigate print. If a student is having problems with literacy skills, it can affect their performance across the school curriculum and have a negative impact on motivation to learn and self-esteem.

Touch typing for dyslexics
Read and Spell Blog
Touch typing for dyslexics

Touch typing for dyslexics

For a significant number of children and adults, developing strong literacy skills requires overcoming the challenges posed by specific learning differences, such as dyslexia. Dyslexia affects reading, writing and spelling abilities but can also cause individuals to suffer from low self-esteem and lack confidence in the classroom.

While it is something people have for life, technology and strategy use can make language-based activities easier. For example, typing on a computer gives children and adults access to spell-checkers and helpful text-to-speech tools.

Mnemonic devices aid with learning the spelling of hard words. Memorizing high frequency vocabulary reduces the cognitive load involved in reading. Additionally, dyslexics who have had training in touch typing can reinforce phonics knowledge, use muscle memory to learn word spellings, and facilitate the translation of ideas into written language.

This renders the writing process less frustrating and makes composing written work more fluid and effective.

Orton-Gillingham reading instruction
Read and Spell Blog
Orton-Gillingham reading instruction

Orton-Gillingham reading instruction

The Orton-Gillingham approach is a multi-sensory way of teaching reading, spelling and writing skills to students who struggle with language-based learning difficulties, including dyslexia. Lessons focus on mastery of the smallest units of language first, including phonemes and graphemes, and then build to whole word, phrase and sentence level instruction.

Many current reading methods and courses are grounded in this approach, including Touch-type Read and Spell, and it can serve as a guide for tutors who offer literacy skills support for individuals with specific learning difficulties.

Because Orton-Gillingham focuses both on enhancing phonological awareness and teaching English language rules, it can also be useful for English Language Learner (ELL) students.