[senco-forum] Developing listening skills in secondarypupils-Eddie's CD

'f working on short term auditory memory or the sequencing aspects of  
listening, I would use games like "I went to the shop and I bought.." '

But you are not working on a single modality here as when we play this the
kids are using all sorts of other cues to help[ them eg who added what to
the shopping list ( tend to look round group as they recite the list) and
the alphabet and a quick recount of where we've got to in the alphabet etc

'I know that the children in those  
situations are probably being funded for a one to one  withdrawal
intervention 
and generally end up in a class of  3 or  4 or more all being "remediated" '

In our countythere are NO one to one teaching provisions - they are always
'in a group of 4' within which we then teach each pupil individually however
as a school we offer more than any statement provides as during year 7 all
withdrawn pupils have an hour every day whereas statements provide for 1/2
hour daily which in secondary equates to 5 hour sessions in a fortnight, we
also where the pupils are mainstream as opposed to small class ( 2 of these
small classes based on weak reading) try as far as possible to put them in
with older pupils who need less active intervention as they have been taught
to be in control of their own learning so that here again the younger pupils
get 'more than their due'

There endeth my twopennorth as I haven't the energy to continue arguing the
points one by one  barbara ht

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Olanys at aol.com
Sent: 22 August 2006 14:05
To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] Developing listening skills in
secondarypupils-Eddie's CD

"I feel that this is a nonsense statement as the whole point of
multisensory is to provide pegs/props -in this case visual- on which to hang
the weaker input -in this case auditory.What we are hopefully doing as with
all 
teaching , is using the child's strengths to develop weaker  areas."

I think you're confusing multi-modal mainstream teaching with specfic  
interventions for a specific modality. Teaching children to use their other
senses 
to compensate is a good strategy and one that they will naturally adopt  as
a 
coping strategy. Using their strengths helps them to better COMPENSATE FOR  
the weaker areas. I agree that a holistic teaching approach that gives as
many  
in-roads into the longterm memory by associations is important but uit does 
not  work for all children and is certainly not applicable when remediating
one 
sene,  one modality.

When I said  'Multi-sensory  reinforcement does not aid a  defiicit in one 
modality if you
are remediating  that modality -you have  to work on that modality in 
isolation or it just  confuses the issue.' I  meant that you need to focus
on 
listening to aid listening skills.

If you were working with a child who has poor eyesight, using listening  
skills won't benefit them- its like giving a child glasses, a stick and a
hearing 
aid, a special pen to write with and a leg brace to make sure they  walk 
better, all at once does not help what is lacking. Poor vision needs
specific 
intervention for the eyes, all the rest confuses the issue.

If you were working with a child with poor hearing, you would not use eye  
exercises. He same applies to listening in those with processing problems.

If working on short term auditory memory or the sequencing aspects of  
listening, I would use games like "I went to the shop and I bought.." etc,
ones  
that use listening skills alone, where there is no reading or writing
involved,  
simply listening. The child will then associate listening skills with 
listening,  otherwise they won't know what you are asking for. They need to
train 
their  brain to respond apporpriately with as little risk of ambiguity as 
possible,  otherwise they may come to expect written tasks to be involved in

listening.

If you are working with a child who has attention deficits that prevent  
listening, I would keep drawing their attention back by speaking to them  
personally using their name, have them seated near you, use eye contact to
draw  their 
attention, keep visual or other distractions at a minimum. This is also  
vital in those with processing probolems who are often distracted by visual

distractions because in aiding APD they "see" everything and are distrascted
by  
it. Allow them to twirl a pencil to aid concentration...this is multi-modakl
but 
 works in a sensory integration sort of way.

I speak from experience. My son with APD uses vision to compensate (as a  
gifted visual spatial learner) and with his Irlen syndrome and visual
perceptual  
difficulties has developed his own coping strategies to compensate for them

which are many and various depoending on the situation. If he is expected
to 
listen and write and or listen and read together his brain does not know
how 
to cope and he cannot do either. But if expected to listen he can now focus

and do so in a quiet room with no distractions and he lipreads. I used to
be a 
big advocate of multi-sensory methods for all but after teaching him for
two 
and a half years, I have had to rethink my approach.

"Have you  never observed teachers who sit with pupils  whilst they work
thro a  computer  exercise or worksheet, or as I often do multitask -
individually teaching one child or listening to one reading whilst the other
3 are working on pc/ sheets/drawing a poster to reinforce a spelling pattern
with my (generally) watchful eye on them - the child I'm individually
teaching knows that over the period of time I will continually interact with
the others as well "

You are in fact still sitting that child at a PC while you are occupied  
elsewhere and none of those children can get your full attention, with the
best  
will in the world and no offence meant to those good teachers out there that
d  
their best with what they have... it is not your fault but the lack of 
funding  available. I have witnessed this and I know that the children in
those  
situations are probably being funded for a one to one  withdrawal
intervention 
and generally end up in a class of  3 or  4 or more all being "remediated"
at 
the same time, which does not give any of  them the one to one help they
need. 
Statemented children who are funded for this  sort of help rarely get the 
individual help they need and would benefit most  from, because of that
wonderful 
phrase "best management of resources" which  means a SENCo,  SLT or LSA
being 
used for all those that need it at once  because they are there...not the
one 
to one individual teaching for the  individual it is put in place or funded 
for, that would benefit most from  one to one not one to 5 with one eye hear
and 
one ear there whilst  marking... but this is another issue. Unfortunately
some 
teachers  will sit a child at the PC do do CDroms alone on every withdrawal

lesson, while they do other things and very little else will be done with
that 
 child...something I have also witnessed. None of which takes away from the

fact that the CDrom in question does very little to aid listening

Best wishes,
Aly

Chair Auditory Processing Disorder in  the UK/APDUK
www.lacewingmultimedia.com/APD.htm 
www.apduk.org