Ines G Grote is a qualified Dyslexia Tutor who provides programs to help with reading and writing difficulties, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, ADHD and Dyscalculia.
Davis Learning Foundation (DLF) is proud to announce that they have recently achieved accredited CPD Status with the CPD Standards Office, UK. This award currently covers The Gift of Dyslexia workshop, the Davis Learning Strategies workshop and the Why Tyrannosaurus But No If? workshop for teachers.
To achieve accreditation, Davis Learning Foundation had to undergo a rigorous assessment process and the award confirms that these workshops conform to the highest professional standards.
Additional workshops are in the process of being accredited and should be awarded a similar status later in the year.
Read this article – Good that the Davis Programme exists!
‘When Phonics Doesn’t Work. If young children do not learn to read properly they will begin to fall behind in their school work. … They will then be better able to concentrate on the meaning of what they are reading. However, phonics does not work well for all children.’
Davis Symbol Mastery — the modeling of words in clay – is based on the principle that each word has three parts: what it means, what it looks like, and how it sounds. When all three parts are fully understood and learned, the word is mastered.
Brain research shows that all skilled readers make this connection, but the balance struck between sight, sound, and meaning may differ depending on the written form of language. In languages that are phonetically consistent, such as Italian, readers tend to rely first on letter-sound correspondence (phonology); whereas readers of a character-based alphabet, such as Chinese, rely more heavily on the correspondence between letter shape and meaning.
English uses an alphabetic system but an orthography (spelling system) that is influenced largely by word meaning (morphology) — hence its irregularity in spelling. Here’s a good explanation, from noted researcher Uta Frith, as to how that impacts reading:
Comparisons between Italian and English skilled readers have told us what the reading process is like in the mind and the brain. Skilled reading in both languages makes instant links between the sound, appearance and meaning of words. The brain does this by capitalizing on its evolutionary ancient language system, and by slotting in a component that links automatically to the visual form of words. Thus, in a triangular connection, a written word instantly evokes its meaning and its sound; the meaning of a word evokes its sound and written form; and the sound of a word evoke its written form and its meaning. By skimming through text, the triangular connections are made even faster than by listening to spoken words.
In spite of these similarities, research has shown that skilled readers of Italian read differently, by giving more weight to one of the links in the triangle, while English readers give more weight another link. Moreover, we know that the physiology that underlies their reading reflects this difference. The brain areas of the reading system of the Italian reader are configured in such a way that one component, the component that is involved in mapping sounds to letters, is more active than the component that is involved in mapping words to meaning. The reverse is true for highly skilled English readers. This make sense, since in English the meaning of the word is a key to its sound. How else is one to read ambiguous words such as cough, bough and through? Nevertheless, both English and Italian readers use all the components of the reading system, and they use them in concert.
Frith goes on to point out where the trouble begins for dyslexic readers:
It is the dyslexic readers who fail in this respect. They are unable to reconfigure the language system of the brain in the way that skilled readers are apparently able to do. Instead, they have to rely on tricks to remember words and their spellings and to use the effortful mapping of letters to sound.
Those “tricks” are what Ron Davis labeled “old solutions” in The Gift of Dyslexia – the habits that end up hindering rather than helping individuals gain reading fluency. Frith is accurate in describing the brain processes seen in dyslexics who struggle, but mistaken in using the word “unable,” as the brain patterns she describes are largely an artifact of the way most children are taught to read. As she explains,
Dyslexic readers are doubly hit. First, because their brains work in such a way that it is apparently harder or them to segment the sounds of speech, they find it difficult to learn the mapping between the sounds and letters. This applies to any writing system that use the alphabet, however simple and transparent. However, in English they have to make sense of an orthography that is not only very complex but has quirky sets of rules and exceptions.No wonder that dyslexia is particularly prominent in English-speaking countries.
Of course, the solution to the problem is readily apparent from Frith’s own explanation. She has written:
Dyslexic readers “find it difficult to learn the mapping between the sounds and letters;” and
“In English the meaning of the word is a key to its sound.”
Obviously, then, the key to teaching dyslexics to read is to begin with meaning, rather than than to begin with the strategy that is so difficult for them to apply. Meaning first, not phonics first..
Of course a meaning-only approach would make no more sense than a sight-only or phonics-only approach. It would provide one corner of the triangle without the ability to tie the meaning to the letter sequence or sound. That is why Davis Symbol Mastery combines all three: meaning, sight, sound. The hands-on, creative process helps ensure that the three elements, learned together, are integrated in the mind — thus building the brain’s ability to make the “instant links” that are critical to becoming a skilled reader.
‘The phrase “making progress” is misleading. Children with dyslexia need to close the gap to catch up to their peers.
If you have an option, would you want your child to be making progress or closing the gap? Can you see the difference as shown in the graph below? If a child is making progress, he or she may still be falling behind.
The phrase “making progress” is misleading and should be very concerning to parents who hear this description of their children. Children with dyslexia cannot be just “making progress.”
Many parents have the misconception that their dyslexic child is dealing with some complex learning difficulties that will need long-term interventions and that they will not do as well as their peers. This need not be the case. It is possible for your child to close the learning gap and eventually catch up with his or her peers.
It is important to recognise the cause of the dyslexic symptoms and to remove that cause. In other words, the starting point is not to teach a child how to learn but to remove what is preventing their ability to learn. Once that obstacle is removed, then easeful learning can take place.’
About Christina Tan
Christina Tan is the mother of a dyslexic daughter and a licensed Davis Facilitator in Singapore. She also manages the Singapore Dyslexia Support Group on Facebook – @dyslexiasupportsg
Would you be interested to become a Davis Facilitator?
Becoming a Davis Facilitator is an exciting and amazing experience. Once qualified, you will be able to work with children and adults alike to help them work with their ‘gifts’ in order to overcome what holds them back in their learning.
Listen Subiratha’s report of her first days on her training-course. Workshop presenter Richard Whitehead explains what exactly is involved to become a facilitator and what to expect afterwards.
Read the article below and find out how the Davis Method can un-lock your child’s voice. Kim Duff talks about what helped her autistic son find his voice.
June 9, 2016 Skilled readers can quickly recognize words when they read because the word has been placed in a visual dictionary of sorts which functions separately from an area that processes the sounds of … read more
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