A new approach to Dyslexia

[Sally44]

I went to see the Head Teacher at Maple Hayes school in Litchfield. He is an Educational Psychologist and a Neurologist. He devised a new way of teaching children with dyslexia. Some at his school are also on the spectrum.

Anyway, my son is too autistic to go there. But his approach to learning to read/write is very interesting.

He doesn't use phonics at all. He uses flash cards with pictures of the meaning of the word on one side and the relevent section of the word written on the other side. He doesn't divide the words into sylabels, he divides them by another means (canot remember the name).

Anyway, he taught my son to write 'tractor' by using two symbols meaning 'something that pulls', and another symbol for 'man or machine'. And after my son had seen the symbol, he was shown the letters.

There was no sounding out at all. Just looking at the meaning, then the letters, then the card was turned over so that all he could see was the icon.

When he put the two icons together it made 'tractor'. Then Dr Brown told him to 'think of a machine that pulls something that is on a farm', and he said 'tractor'. And he has learnt it. He only saw it once.

After we left, we drove home. It took over 45 mins. When we got home, I tested him to see if he could remember. And he could, he wrote tractor again. Then I tested him again some hours later when my husband came home. And again he remembered it.

 

So now where do we go. There is a school that has a system that may well teach him to read and write, but he is too autistic. No other school uses this system yet. At the moment i'm very excited, and very frustrated.

 

I have been told I'll probably need to ask for a re-assessment of the Statement and go to Tribunal again to get specialist teaching and specialist training of a teacher in this method of addressing dyslexia. I feel like I'm standing at the bottom of a mountain and anticipating the climb to the summit.

[chris54]

The system you describe here is something like the method that was used to teach reading when I first started school. I got to the age of 11 unable to read more than a handful of words that I could remember.

It was only when I was sent to a special school and taught using what is now called phonics, that I was able to master the art of reading.

 

I now know that I am dyslexic, not something that "existed" when I was a child.

I still rely heavily on phonics to decipher the written word.

It is beyond my understanding to see how you can read without using phonics. What about new word you have never seen before.

[Sally44]

The system you describe here is something like the method that was used to teach reading when I first started school. I got to the age of 11 unable to read more than a handful of words that I could remember.

It was only when I was sent to a special school and taught using what is now called phonics, that I was able to master the art of reading.

 

I now know that I am dyslexic, not something that "existed" when I was a child.

I still rely heavily on phonics to decipher the written word.

It is beyond my understanding to see how you can read without using phonics. What about new word you have never seen before.

 

That is exactly what he cannot do. He cannot use phonics. He cannot tie the sound to the sight of the letter and he cannot retrieve visual information relying on sound to prompt his memory. He also has auditory processing problems and so hears sounds differently. His visual memory is brilliant. So he can learn to spell and read a word by using a picture of what it represents and without using any sound system to break down the word. Then you tell him what the what says and he remembers it. But phonics is all school uses. We are now 5 years into this system with little success.

 

 

[Kathryn]

That's really interesting, Sally and any method that works for a child is worth trying.

 

I was wondering though whether this method has limitations when it comest learning words for more abstract concepts which cannot be represented by simple icons? Also how does it help the child to decode a word they haven't seen before?

 

K x

[Sally44]

My understanding is that the meaning of the morpheme is learnt.

For example an icon for 'un' with the meaning to describe 'not', would enable a child to add that morpheme to other morphemes they knew eg. stable to unstable, tried to untried etc and to know that it changed the meaning from 'it happened or was' to 'it did not happen or was not'.

In that way, they can decode words by the morphemes. And morphemes are not sylabels. eg. cats has two morphemes 'cat' meaning 'cat' and 's' meaning 'many of'.

[Sally44]

In this way grammar can also be taught. Something my son does not get. so the morpheme 'ed' might have an icon for 'it was done' to help them understand the 'ed' ending on any base morpheme means it has been done, eg finished, jumped, tried. The incon for 'ing' would be to show 'it is happening now' so singing, jumping, running is present tense. etc.

[chris54]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that system wont work, many form of script around the world use this type of system. I was just pointing out that a very similar system to the one described left me with no reading ability at all.

 

It was only with the introduction of Jolly Phonics at my sons school that he made any real progress with reading.

 

Jolly Phonics is a system that reinforces the phonic sound using visual symbols and physical movements.

 

(Edit:- Hi Sally44, just read your other post and I can see from what you say that that Phonics as a way of teaching reading would not work in your sons case.)

 

Our system of recording spoken sound in script relies on the individual or combination of letters representing the sound of the word components. Without the ability to use this system there will always be limitations in the use of written English.

Edited November 26, 2009 by chris54

[lynne]

 

 

 

We too went to see the school a few years ago and was very disappointed because if the child had any thing additional to dyslexia than they could not cope with the child.

 

 

We have a very able child who can cope in a small school with quiet surroundings and a very structured approach. This is all in our childs statement, yet the said school said they could not cope with his autism even though he would have the support of a full time LSA.

 

 

We thought that considering alot of these children with dyslexia would of experienced not fitting in the current system like our children. Than the school would of been more open and thoughtful when it came to accomodating children with an additional need apart from dyslexia.

[chris54]

I do not know anything about this institution.

I have come across other educational institutions that are selective about who they admit so as not to damage their record of success.

[Athena]

Finding this very interesting! My DD has recently been diagnosed as being severely dyslexix - it was masked by her ASD and other difficulties, so this problem has not yet been properly addressed by the school.

 

She just cannot get phonics at all. The few words she does know she recognises as whole pictures, if that makes sense.

 

So I would like to find similar resources to the ones Sally described that I could use at home with her.

[Sally44]

Finding this very interesting! My DD has recently been diagnosed as being severely dyslexix - it was masked by her ASD and other difficulties, so this problem has not yet been properly addressed by the school.

 

She just cannot get phonics at all. The few words she does know she recognises as whole pictures, if that makes sense.

 

So I would like to find similar resources to the ones Sally described that I could use at home with her.

 

That's where the problem lies. This system is specific to this school. And this school does not take on children with additional difficulties. They do have some Aspergers children. But he said my son would find the language side of things difficult, and his writing speed is almost non-existent. He said he just would not be able to place him in the classroom with the other pupils.

 

I have spoken with a woman from the Dyslexia Association, because I want to find out about what is available in terms of approaches to teaching a dyslexic child. She too said that the phonics way always is the one taken. But i'll post what I find out.

 

What I found interesting from the dyslexia/ASD angle was the 'using one mode of sensory input' and not multi-sensory. So if the child can learn through visuals then you don't talk or use any other sensory channel until the child has associated the picture with the morpheme. When that connection is made, then you tell them what the 'word' says.

 

His school had an open afternoon for mathematics today. I'm thoroughly depressed afterwards. Yes, he has improved from not even knowing his numbers from 0-10 in year 2. Now he knows them up to 20 and can use a number line for simple additional and subtraction. But his is in the lowest academically achieving class. On the lowest achieving table. And he is with one other boy, who was doing better than him. Yet he is assessed as high average cognitive ability. It doesn't add up. Is this as good as it gets?

 

I'm off to have a G&T and try to put all these thoughts to the back of my mind for a while.

[frazzled]

I was successful in teaching DD to read using an American system called picture me reading - you can google this for details. Basically it uses a picture of the word, for example the word 'down' has a dog walking down steps and each of the letters of the word are written down the steps. It was really quick for DD to catch onto this and read books like Dr Seuss. About 15 months after this, phonics began to make sense where previously it was hopeless.

 

I really recommend getting the reading problem cracked as I found this was a key to DD communicating much more effectively as she could read what language looks like, where with auditory processing issues it was difficult for her to hear what it should be like.

 

Reading your post about the school I am so pleased that we have been home educating now for around 18 months. Apart from all the unhappiness of school, which was the reason we withdrew DD just before her 6th birthday, I was not aware just how low the school's expectations were for her. Like your chap she was on the bottom table and performing at a very low level. They had assumed her cognitive skills were on a level with her communication skills. Now she is at the 'normal' level or even above it in some subjects. Shows what you can do if you have the right environment and the right method of teaching.

 

I wish you luck in your battles with the school system to get the best for your son - I do not miss those days at all!