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About Dyslexia<\/b><\/p>\n
Dyslexia in its most common form is a failure to develop \u2018phonological awareness\u2019, a skill that is only developed during learning to read an alphabetic language. \u00a0Without it emerging readers must compensate by guessing at words. \u00a0But guessing isn\u2019t real reading, and is effortful, slow, and error-prone. \u00a0Each of those factors reduces \u00a0comprehension and makes reading an unpleasant struggle.<\/p>\n
In grade 4 students must switch from \u201clearning to read\u201d to \u201creading to learn\u201d, and the ones that don\u2019t or can\u2019t are quickly left behind. \u00a0A chasm opens between strong readers who hone their reading skills with practice, and weak readers who avoid reading.<\/p>\n
As they fall behind, non-readers often develop self-esteem issues, emotional problems, and self-defeating behaviors. \u00a0They may act up and be assigned to a \u2018Behavior\u2019 class, or simply fall so far behind that they are assigned to an LD class. \u00a0They often get bullied. \u00a0And even in the best case, they barely learn anything in school.<\/p>\n
Many parents think school will help their child, but that rarely happens. \u00a0IEP\u2019s and accommodations placate the parents, but leave the students adrift and uneducated.<\/p>\n
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About the Intervention<\/b><\/p>\n
This is a one-on-one \u201cintensive\u201d intervention, building on the protocols of the Torgesen Study<\/a>. \u00a0We will systematically train blending and segmenting, phonics, finger-point reading, fluency, comprehension, spelling, writing skills, metacognition, and learning skills.<\/p>\n We will work 2-3 hours per day, five mornings a week. \u00a0At this intensity, a student will usually gain about a year in reading level each month. \u00a0But it will still take 4-5 months for a grade-8 student to recover to grade level. \u00a0If we start in mid-June, then we may have to train until October; at your option we will continue and your child will miss some school in the fall.<\/p>\n The first job is almost always to repair the \u2018phonological awareness\u2019 skill deficit, a relatively quick and easy process using systematic phonics. \u00a0Then we will address the longer, harder job of racing through an intensive reading program to gain grade-level skills and reset self-defeating behaviours.<\/p>\n To see what the first few days of the intervention might look like, check out the Christmas Intervention<\/a> that we blogged about earlier this year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n About CommunityReading.org<\/b><\/p>\n I run volunteer reading clinics for low-income non-readers in Toronto. \u00a0Typically our students are in grade 7 or 8, and come to us reading at grade 2 or less. \u00a0When they graduate our clinics, they are often the best readers in their classroom.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a real person, you can learn almost anything about me with a few clicks. \u00a0My house is across the street from UCC, if you live in midtown then you probably drive by it. \u00a0You might know my friends on Facebook and Linkedin.<\/p>\n My first degree was in Engineering, and I worked in software for most of my career. \u00a0I was 52 when I sold my company. \u00a0I returned to school for a graduate degree in Education, and spent three years reading every research paper I could find about reading and dyslexia.<\/p>\n Everything in this project is free. \u00a0Really free, I don\u2019t even allow advertising on my site. \u00a0\u00a0My goals for this project are:<\/p>\n This website is a work-in-progress. \u00a0This is where I will blog about the intervention, and there are discussion forums (still empty) for parents who want to follow along. \u00a0If we build a community, I can easily add tools like a wiki. \u00a0We will post periodic updates to Facebook.<\/p>\n This is a \u2018Reality Television\u2019 approach – I could easily talk about a child that I\u2019ve already helped, but that would lack credibility and interest.<\/p>\n The Ideal Candidate<\/b><\/p>\n I\u2019m looking for a dyslexic student with a severe reading deficit, healthy, ideally going into middle school, but as young as going-into-grade 4. \u00a0APD or ADHD isn\u2019t a problem as long as not being medicated – in the Torgesen study it was estimated that 80% of his recruits suffered from attention deficit. \u00a0APD would make the intervention relevant to more readers.<\/p>\n Perhaps your child seems to read, but uses memorized words and guessing from context and first-and-last letters, with very low comprehension. \u00a0Perhaps he throws a tantrum when he is asked to read, and you have no idea how well he understands. \u00a0Every child is a bit different, we\u2019ll figure it out.<\/p>\n The KEY thing is to show up for training every day. \u00a0If your child is already finding ways to miss school, \u00a0then it is probably too late.<\/p>\n Next Steps<\/b><\/p>\n Contact me if you are interested in having your child participate in the intervention.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dyslexics don\u2019t have a problem with learning, they can learn anything if taught in a suitable way. \u00a0But the skill they especially don\u2019t learn is READING. \u00a0\u00a0Poor reading often leads to educational failure, LD classrooms, bullying, and emotional problems. Yet…<\/span><\/p>\n\n