When the school system fails
Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
by Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
4y ago
Supporting teachers to help students with learning difficulties   As a referral and information officer at SPELD NSW we often get calls from classroom and learning support teachers trying to find extra assistance for children with learning difficulties. It never ceases to amaze me the passion and care exhibited by these teachers. As a former high school teacher I understand that there is never enough time in the day, so for these teachers to go out of their way, often for just one of their students, is uplifting.   This post was inspired by one such learning support teacher concerned about the ..read more
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New review suggests education schools are failing to train new teachers to teach reading effectively
Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
by Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
5y ago
New review suggests education schools are failing to train new teachers to teach reading effectively https://gregashman.wordpress.com/2019/07/13/new-review-shows-education-schools-are-failing-to-train-new-teachers-to-teach-reading-effectively/ — Read on gregashman.wordpress.com/2019/07/13/new-review-shows-education-schools-are-failing-to-train-new-teachers-to-teach-reading-effectively ..read more
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The gift I would like to return
Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
by Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
5y ago
There is a big theme within the Dyslexia community to promote Dyslexia as a gift. Whether being dyslexic comes with strengths remains a controversial issue that is under researched. There is some limited research that supports improved visual spatial processing strengths in individuals with dyslexia. People with dyslexia are certainly overrepresented in the arts and the business world but it remains to be seen whether dyslexia confers any extra benefits. It may be that faced with difficulties at school forces the individual to develop a level of resilience to failure and other coping mechanis ..read more
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Crying foul in the phonics debate. The influence of vested interests.
Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
by Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
5y ago
The anti-phonics advocates, like a bunch of lemmings lined up to jump off the cliff, like to dismiss phonics advocates valid arguments and research with the cry of commercial interests or evil right wing influences. Some even refuse to even read research based on unproven vested interests. Twitter quotes… have a go yourself and search for vested interests phonics, think tank phonics, right wing phonics…never ending! Some tweeters pop up repeatedly. “So, a right-wing libertarian think tanker on the cover of #researchEd magazine? No thanks….” “Some years back reading became “phonics”. Pushed by ..read more
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Setting fire to the ultimate straw man : Phonics only!
Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
by Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
5y ago
There seems to be this gigantic straw man in the phonics debate that those that advocate systematic phonics want there to be only phonics taught. When pushed there doesn’t seem to be one valid example of anyone who advocates a phonics only approach. If you can find one let me know. This blog is about setting fire to the phonics only straw man and outlining evidenced based literacy instruction. So what are the phonics zealots advocating for? Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) is often mentioned in the phonics debate but I prefer to use the terminology systematic explicit phonics instruction as ..read more
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Time to fly
Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
by Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
5y ago
The only time you should ever look back is to see how far you have come! This blog is a bit of reflection on how far my daughter has come. I used to be afraid of the future. She struggled so much I couldn’t look forward to where she would be in the years ahead. But now I see how far she has travelled and how far she can go. I can see her strengths fighting to be seen and I can see her coming out of her cocoon and spreading her wings. My daughter still has so many challenges in front of her and there are still many hurdles to her success but I have hope. I can see the light at the end of a very ..read more
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Recovering from Reading Recovery
Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
by Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
5y ago
I read about the new Reading Recovery research with great skepticism. I have learnt a great deal in the last 5 years since my daughter struggled to learn to read. I have read literacy research until I wore my eyes out and gone to numerous professional developments. Most of all I have learnt from my daughter’s amazing specialist literacy tutor. I have’t been to one professional development where the strategies being taught were ones already being used by our tutor. She was our saviour when Reading Recovery failed spectacularly. Being our first child and an ex high school teacher I trusted the p ..read more
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Reading to children is not enough!
Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
by Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
5y ago
“If every parent, or carer …read aloud a minimum of three stories a day to children in their care, we could eliminate illiteracy within one generation.” This is one of Mem Fox’s favourite bylines. Every time she is interviewed she likes to declare how she is going to solve illiteracy. Unfortunately she is wrong! The first time I saw this quote was on a poster in our school library. My daughter had just been diagnosed with Dyslexia. I was already filled with enough parental guilt for not intervening in her schooling earlier. I really didn’t at that point to need any more guilt. It made me so sa ..read more
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Decoding decodable readers
Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
by Dekker Delves into Dyslexia
5y ago
This blog has been in the pipeline for awhile. I got sidetracked with other projects. I write my best blogs when I’m mad or passionate. Misty Adoniou and her continual efforts to ensure her myths are spread makes me very passionate, sad and certainly angry. So Misty and her latest creativity interpretation of the facts in the conversation article entitled “What are ‘decodable readers’ and do they work?” spurred me into action! One must ask if Misty has ever actually seen a decodable reader. Is the misinformation she spreads deliberate and therefore unprofessional? Or does it stem from a level ..read more
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