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On Saturday morning, two symposia looked not only at reading and spelling but also at written expression as a whole. Noel Gregg from the University of Georgia chaired these two symposia. Taking the lead, Noel presented research findings from her group based at the Centre for Learning Disabilities at the University of Georgia. Their research demonstrated how groups of college students with Learning Difficulties (Dyslexia) seemed to have fewer language resources available to them to read and spell both familiar and unfamiliar words. It was concluded that in the absence of adequate language skills, dyslexic students' memory might be overloaded and this places them at a distinct disadvantage compared to students without literacy difficulties.
This talk was followed by Chris Coleman's (University of Georgia) presentation that demonstrated the practical implications of such research findings. He asked the question what accommodations would be appropriate for college students with specific difficulties, such as dyslexia and/or attention difficulties, to enable them to achieve their full academic potential. He got college students with literacy difficulties, with attention difficulties, with both types of difficulties and without difficulties to write an essay under time pressure. Their essays were corrected for punctuation and spelling and were then rated in terms of linguistic quality. Although spelling and punctuation were corrected, the work of students without difficulties was consistently rated as qualitatively better than the work of students with dyslexia or/and attention difficulties. It was also found that the quality of the written work was largely dependent on whether the students with specific difficulties had enough time to finish their piece of work and on how fluently the piece was written. Interestingly, their research demonstrated that the work of the two groups of students with dyslexia and with attention difficulties appeared very similar in character. In terms of accommodating these college students, providing provisions such as extra time, spelling and proof reading assistance as well as the use of a thesaurus were recommended.
After a break, the session continued with another brief presentation by Noel Gregg, who talked the audience through the development of a model of reading comprehension that best describes the performance of college students with and without disabilities. This was followed by a very practically orientated presentation by Margaret Smith (EDMAR Educational Associates, Texas), who talked about comprehension strategies for dyslexic students. In a very clear and practical manner, she demonstrated how, in practice, dyslexic children differed from good readers in terms of how they approach the task of reading and writing. She illustrated how dyslexic children can be effectively taught to increase their literacy skills and gain greater comprehension of texts that they process. Her approach emphasised learning through modelling in a stimulating environment and she stressed the importance of making the child feel comfortable whilst learning.
This well attended symposium certainly provided the audience with food for thought, before round table sessions and a final plenary round table session in the afternoon rounded off a successful conference.
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