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Talks:
1) P. Bentote - Screening and Intervention for Dyslexia,
notably in the Early Years.
This talk introduced 'SIDNEY' a highly structured set of materials developed by educators working in Hampshire County Council for screening and intervention for Dyslexia.
This project began by the testing of two commercially available screening tests DEST (Dyslexia Early Screening Test Nicholson et al 1999) and COPS. (Cognitive Profiling System Singleton et al 1996) Both identified the same percentage of children at risk but guidance was needed in how to teach these identified children.
The authority developed a programme to be carried out 15 minutes a day for a term in conjunction with either of the 2 commercially available tests. The success of this programme, which is used by all Hampshire schools for children in their last term in Reception, is due to the fact that it is incorporated into the special needs audit and a focus of SEN monitoring. The materials develop the ability to recognise and spell c-v-c- words by the end of the last term in year 1. It is incorporated into the National Literacy Strategy framework and has produced good results. Key Stage 2 teachers also have benefits, as funding for children with special educational needs can be better targeted.
For the 26% of children identified but showing slower progress after using the SIDNEY materials a further programme is being developed.
2) P. Ott - The Way forward for Reluctant and Ineffective Writers.
This was a practically based presentation providing many examples of encouraging writing skills.
The presentation introduced the reasons why pupils may be poor writers and gave many examples of how these may be overcome e.g 'c-a-p-s' content, audience, purpose, style.
Poor writers need to be positively encouraged and given relevant writing tasks, then they will achieve.
3) A. Carter - Enabling Dyslexic Children to become part of a literate community.
This presentation introduced the concept of 'informal' writing opportunities that non-dyslexic children engage in such as , writing notes, diaries, texting friends etc.Dyslexic children do not appear to take part in these activities due to their spelling problems.
As part of a 1:1 support programme the idea of writing stories which were produced into books and then lent to other dyslexic readers with comments invited was conceived. The project developed into a framework of mutual exchange, 'penfriendship' and support. The children developed their own literate community which enabled them to grow in confidence.
4) Margaret Taylor Smith - Multi Sensory Teaching System for Reading.
This is a highly structured multi-sensory programme that was developed in Texas to enable children with reading difficulties to participate and succeed in the school curriculum for English. It is based on the theoretical work of Orton and Gillingham and developed out of the approach known as 'Alphabet Phonics'. The approach teaches phonological awareness, phoneme awareness, alphabetic principle, orthographic awareness and comprehension. The instruction takes from 15-30 minutes a day and is widely used in schools in the USA.
It has been trialled in English schools and found to be successful.
5) Chris Singleton - Intervention for children with Dyslexia a follow-up study of differential outcomes.
This was a presentation of the analysis of clusters of children who were making little progress after having been involved in intervention studies. 49 children were assessed twice over a 1-5 year period.
Most took part in some form of intervention ranging from unstructured help with homework to private dyslexia tutor. A rating scale for intervention was devised ranging from 0 for no additional support to 9-10 for private tutor. The assessment battery consisted of intelligence, reading and spelling, non-word reading tests as well as parental interviews, attitude rating and the intervention scale previously described.
The results after a 5 year period showed 2 clusters of children who did not progress as well as the other children, 10 out of 49. The conclusions from this study showed that there was no one characteristic which resulted in better progress. Similarly the 2 cluster groups of difficult to remediate children had a variety of characteristics.
The talks presented were varied and imaginative. It does appear that early identification can prevent a cycle of failure and poor attitudes but that differentiated forms of teaching reading particularly using multi-sensory techniques can remediate some of these problems. The need for dyslexic individuals to form their own support groups was an interesting area and the study by Chris Singleton showed that there is no one approach which is the panacea for all dyslexic problems.
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