[senco-forum]Developinglistening skillsinsecondarypupils-Eddie'sCD

From the point of view of someome paid to resolve the problem of childrens'

Aly  writes 'Teachers only see things from an educational point of view.'

>From the point of view of someome paid to resolve the problem of childrens' 
inability to read, I regard it as right that I should focus exclusively on 
that problem since that is the area of my professional competence. It would 
be ludicrous and pretentious for me to delve into areas in which others have 
professional training and expereince.  If the doctor in the example you 
quote determines that an aspirin does in fact 'cure' the reported condition 
then he or she is professsionally right to 'prescribe' that cure. The doctor 
is only wrong if his/her diagnosis is wrong and hence the prescription could 
never result in a cure.

 I regard the medical model of reading disability as inappropriate as a 
remedial strategy - it just plain doesnt work - we can't cure anything - 
remedial teachers have not been trained to deliver cures - only to remedy 
skills deficits. If we can send children out into mainstream skill with 
sound basic educational skills, we are doing our job. The fact that one 
child in five fails to become functionally literate suggests that we are not 
doing that at the moment.

I am very well qualified in what I do but neither my professional training 
nor experience covered the delivery of 'cures' for mental, physical or 
sociological conditions therefore I decline to delve into areas in which I 
have no specialist knowledge or competence. I find that teaching is a 
sufficient challenge for me. I am happy to leave physical deficiencies to 
physicians - mental deficiencies to psychiatrists and sociological 
deficiences to sociologists.

I do have some small competence in the area of remedial literacy. If a child 
is failing to decipher/blend/decode/segment  I know how resolve these 
issues.
I do not know how to resolve APD.,ADHD, short term auditory/visual memory 
deficit, Downes Syndrome, low IQ, brain damage etc etc etc but I do know how 
to restore reading deficits because that is what I was trained to do.

Please accept that I am well aware that ' There is more at stake in a 
child's life than the inability to read.' I have five children and ten 
grandchildren,  but it is the only area in which I have any professional 
competence or experience. I cannot understand why you find that so difficult 
to accept. There are, I suppose, people somewhere who have a responsibility 
for researching the causes of APD et, etc - perhaps it is these people you 
should be pushing?

Eddie C.