[senco-forum] Dyslexia Assessments

Hi John,
Do you believe that working memory can be improved then? I understood that
the jury is out on that - or is there now some solid research to support the
idea that working memory can be improved? Or perhaps you mean improving
skills to support working memory, such as rehearsal? I would really like to
know more about this. I know lots of people like to use computer programmes
and games designed to improve this area, and I like to as well, because the
children enjoy it, but I can't really prove to my satisfaction that I'm
improving anything that will transfer to the main classroom. Does anybody
else have the same doubts, or any evidence to reassure me?
Many thanks,
Mary

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of John Kerins
Sent: 27 June 2007 16:02
To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: [senco-forum] Dyslexia Assessments

Adding to what Martin says, we see a lot of children in our centres. Often
times they have language issues, such as lack of phonemic awareness, poor
phonological fluency, weak vocabulary and incomplete knowledge of language
structure. Equally we see children with reasonable reading skills, (sight
words, even good decoding) but fail to comprehend fully and quickly what
they have just read. 

What we know is there is frequently an overlap between language weaknesses
with cognitive skills deficits. So we have to work on improving their
ability to pay attention, develop their memory, especially working memory,
improve auditory processing (speed and clarity) and work on their sequencing
skills. Sometimes these improvements are the catalyst to reading gains. For
sure all students will benefit from these exercises.

A good dyslexia assessment will take these cognitive skills into account
along with language and other factors.

John 

www.neuron-learning.co.uk.