[SENco-forum] Philip's research

If I've understood previous postings by Philip correctly (and I hope he'll
correct me if I haven't) the major fact behind his work is that the child
needs to link the graphemes to the articulation movements that he/she needs
to make in order to voice that phoneme. That is, it's not the linking of the
graphemes to the phonemes directly, but the linking of the graphemes to the
articulation movements - or at least to their memory "trace". I also think
I've learned that this could be the reason why phonological difficulties may
be distinct from more general APD difficulties. Am I right please Philip?
Mary

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of
SEN at tringham.net
Sent: 15 September 2007 08:52
To: Becta Senco
Subject: RE: [SENco-forum] Philip's research 

The basis of Alpha to Omega (programme for those with dyslexia) is to find
where the student is at, help them learn a piece of information that has not
'stuck' for example a word family such as 'tch' or as smaller units
atch/itch/etch/otch/utch and then incorporate these in dictation sentences.

For this part the student listens, repeats and then writes.

The repeating part has to be correct before the student starts to write.
The repeating out loud helps support memory problems. You do not have to use
the sentences per se. Any sentences can be used and varied in content or
length depending on the students interests or ability.  I do the same for my
English as a second language students.  We learn something new.  We rehearse
it orally and fit it into conversational sentences and the writing part
comes last. I do not consider it properly learned until I hear them use it
again without prompting and finally that they use it in written work.

I studied to teach EFL before I studied to support students with dyslexia
and I find the 2 remarkably similar.  I think for someone with dyslexia
learning English is like learning a second language.  To demonstrate this
feeling of being 'all at sea' get someone to listen to a set passage and
then ask them to answer questions on it that have been set in another
language or in code.  My daughter used to feel like this in many lessons.
She listened, she understood and had opinions, none of which she could get
down on paper due to the questions appearing to be in a code that everyone
else seemed to have a key for , but that she could not break.

Listening to oneself may not bring about miracles for everyone, but it is
likely to be very beneficial for some and be a tool to help others, if this
is an area of weakness for them.

Sharon

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