[SENco-forum] Re Literacy

From: "Clare North" <clare at clarenorth.co.uk>

Hi Clare. My daughters reading problems have been blamed on many many things 
over the years. Yes children watch more television and play more computer 
games now, but she certainly plays no more than her brothers and sister who 
are all excellent readers. The past senco at her primary school I'm sorry to 
say was about as much use as a chocolate tea-pot. She told me that my 
daughter would always have reading problems and refused to get any outside 
advice from specialists as she told me they would not be able to suggest 
anything that she wasn't doing already. My daughters problem has never been 
a lack of available support or funding but rather a school refusing to 
acknowledge that they were not experts and admitting they needed help. They 
always told me they used a phonic approach but when I have seen how the 
private tutor works with my daughter it is abundantly clear they did not.

>From: "Clare North" <clare at clarenorth.co.uk>
>To: <kngbrndn at aol.com>, <SEN at tringham.net>, 
><senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
>Subject: RE: [SENco-forum] Re Literacy
>Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 11:46:20 -0000
>
>I agree with the points that Sharon and Brendan have made. Although most
>of us appreciate the importance of phonological awareness and phonic
>skills, many of us also have examples of children who have found it very
>difficult to learn to read using only approaches which focus on these
>skills.
>
>In his email Eddie says " the most effective preventative strategy is
>appropriate instruction in the early years of their schooling which
>teaches them the sounds the letters make and how to synthesize these
>sounds into meaningful words."
>
>I think we need to qualify this statement so that it recognises that for
>SOME children 'appropriate instruction' may not necessarily use a purely
>phonic approach.
>
>I also work with older disaffected pupils and personally feel that
>'inappropriate teaching' (my words) is not the only reason for their
>lack of skills. Youngsters today are not the same as they were some
>years ago. I have always enjoyed reading but many do not. Youngsters
>today have many more activities - particularly electronic games etc.
>which they prefer to do. TV is all day now (it was only evenings when I
>was young) and many prefer these activities to reading. Don't know if
>anyone has any thoughts on this ....
>
>Clare
>
>---
>This email and any attachments have been scanned by AVG AntiVirus 7.5.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
>[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of
>kngbrndn at aol.com
>Sent: 29 December 2006 11:17
>To: SEN at tringham.net; senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
>Subject: Re: [SENco-forum] Re Literacy
>
>One of my current parent's children had severe glue ear when in early
>years/primary (he now has 2 tubes fitted rather than grommetts). He
>had/has fluctuating hearing loss. He now has a profile of very low level
>auditory processing and verbal skills, but is in the 'gifted' range in
>visual / spatial skills. I reckon phonetic (whether organic or
>synthetic) would do (and probably did) no good at all for him. He is now
>doing much better with multi sensory specialist advisory input and 1:1
>TA support in literacy -- aged 13. There are very many such children --
>and others with varying degrees / types of dyslexia -- children for whom
>phonetics is an entirely unsuccessful approach for them. Brendan
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: SEN at tringham.net
>To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
>Sent: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 10.01AM
>Subject: RE: [SENco-forum] Re Literacy
>
>
>Because of the high level of illiteracy I really do hope that more
>'aware'
>teaching of phonics does help the masses as promised. I am a great
>believer
>that if it does no harm ( like salt water for a sore throat) then do it.
>However, as has been pointed out synthetic phonics is not the be all and
>end
>all.
>
>My daughter knew each of the 26 phonemes & graphemes age 3.  We played
>lots
>of games that did not involve any reading.  She knew digraphs sh-ch th
>etc &
>did well in her school baseline assessment, but going unnoticed by
>everyone
>was the fact that she could not blend nor absorb whole words.
>
>Now every letter combination has to be taught, learned over learned in a
>multisensory way that is not available to everyone.  Only when getting
>specialist teaching ( age 10 and functionally illiterate with an IQ of
>141)
>has she made any progress at all.
>
>Paired Toe by Toe did not work as the facts were too bald for her to get
>a
>handle on.  Real books did not work -she was surrounded and immersed in
>them
>from birth.  Phonic books with rhyming words that should have been
>accessible if only by analogy were a mystery.  Any strategies or
>interventions on my part only went towards 'hiding' her severe dyslexia
>for
>longer.  I worry that this will happen to many other children and I hope
>teachers will be trained to look out for these and other anomalous
>children.
>
>Sharon Tringham
>
>
>--
>No virus found in this outgoing message.
>Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.15.29/607 - Release Date:
>28/12/2006
>12:31
>
>

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Hotmail is evolving – check out the new Windows Live Mail 
http://ideas.live.com