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Dyslexic Learners: Teaching Reading Via Whole Language or Explicit Phonics

Explicit or Implicit phonics instruction – and where do sight words fit?

Yesterday I skimmed through a whole series of websites about teaching dyslexic learners how to read. I was most interested in the approaches and materials being used. One website held forth on the topic of explicit vs. implicit phonics instruction. The author explained that explicit phonics is the approach where you teach in detail the various phonics rules. You teach from part to whole: teach the little pieces of words very systematically. And she stated that this is the ONLY way to teach dyslexic children or any other child who struggles with reading. She went on to say that implicit approaches to reading are ones in which the teacher teaches from whole to part: she names whole words and the child has to learn and remember the words. The teacher then may break the word apart into its various components and teach the child that way. The author of this website stated categorically that this approach is what is called a whole language approach and that it will never work for struggling readers.

Communication is tricky

What I got from reading this site was that communication is tricky. When I make the statement that some learners learn best from whole to part, this can convey the idea to others that I am an advocate of whole language. Which I am not. I do believe it is best practice to provide specific, detailed, explicit phonics instruction to children. Having said that, I also believe it is best practice to teach all children whole words at the same time (see our SnapWords™). So many children need to understand the global view; they need to see the end product; they need to understand the reason behind learning little pieces of words. Without these big picture concepts, these children will not experience success in learning to manage all the little fragments of words. Another reason for teaching whole sight words along with explicit phonics instruction is that most right-brained learners do not successfully memorize and utilize those little word fragments. They will be a whole lot more successful if you give them the whole word used in a sentence that means something, and then you break the words into their sound spellings.

When explicit phonics fails dyslexic and other struggling readers

I have seen what happens to strugglers when they are taught the little pieces unsuccessfully. I can see a picture in my head that shows this. I picture a child with a whole box of little pieces sitting by him on the table. The pieces in the box are all the little phonics rules he has been taught. He might be successful at telling you what an isolated piece sounds like, but when you hand him a text and he suddenly encounters a new word, he has to quickly decide which puzzle pieces to take from his box. Not every child will be able to sort through all the pieces and come up with the right answer so quickly. Another challenge is that a dyslexic child already has the challenge of reversing letters or syllables… so the more you expect him to handle several little bits and keep them in the right order, the more likely it will be that he will reverse something. As is the case in much of life, no one method is going to be sufficient for every child. It simply doesn't match up with the evidence to compartmentalize like that. I believe we have to learn the child first, not the system. Too many of us focus so strongly on learning systems of instruction; usually those who are considered master teachers are those who master the systems the best. However, we are often not that great at reading individual children. We try to fit each category of child (dyslexic or autistic, for example) into a system we’ve already learned. And as long as this focus on the system instead of the child continues to happen, we will be unable to reach many learners.

What does work for strugglers

The only reason I experienced success in teaching failing readers was because I focused intently on each child. I noted when he blinked… a child with ADD will sometimes blink each time his attention is short circuited. During those lost moments, mistakes are made. I learned that sometimes it is not that a child with ADHD didn’t know how to read, but rather that his struggle was in those little lost connections. The focus then became to help him not lose his focus. Sometimes it helped to have him track with his finger and purpose to not look up until he reached the end of the sentence. I also noted when a child’s eyes glazed slightly and realized that what I was doing was not working for that child. I also paid a lot of attention to what we were doing every single time the lights went on in the child's brain. I studied the child first, and that is the only reason the children learned. Later, when I started this company, I chose the name Child1st because I want so much to advocate for each individual child. We teach the child, not a lesson and not a system.

Successfully teaching visual and other right-brained learners

Several times on this blog we’ve talked about how to teach word fragments to visual and other right-brained learners. This belief, this practice came out of working with real children who were almost non-readers, who had not learned to read under regular phonics instruction. Utilizing the approach of using both whole words arrayed in columns so the children could see the spelling patterns and systematically teaching the components of words worked like magic for these children. Nothing else worked as well, in fact, to get them up to grade level in reading within the year.

Our Easy-for-Me™ Reading Program has been successful with non-reading dyslexic children when nothing else had worked for them. The program explicitly teaches word construction (phonics) at the same time as it leads the teacher through the process of introducing related sight words. The lessons detail specifically how to make this process a multisensory process, one in which children learn to rely on their amazing visual gifts for learning and remembering, and where they practice daily with hearing, seeing, and doing.

A Recent Testimonial About Learners with Dyslexia

We want to share this recent comment from a customer who talks about struggles common to learners with dyslexia: "All three of my children are having huge problems making sense of symbols, be they letters or numbers.  Having to manipulate these symbols to add or subtract or blend to actually make words is extremely difficult.  The information at the beginning of the teachers manual seemed to really have grasped these discrepancies that dyslexic children have.  I have not found anything else that puts it in such great terms."

Click here to read more about the Easy-for-Me™ Teaching Manual or view sample pages.

Join a discount group to get permanent discounts on this and other Child1st reading resources.

Moving More to Center with Visual Learners

So much of what I’ve been reading lately has to do with visual learners and identifying which children actually fall into that category. Wow, the list is growing like Pinocchio’s nose!

• Most children from ages 4 to 7 learn best through images since they're at the stage in which the right hemisphere (gestalt brain) is rapidly developing as a normal neurological function. You can’t fight nature! Children will develop as they were designed to do.

• Many children were created to be strongly visual in their learning style. If you read the experts, this percentage is pretty high.

• Children who have been identified as dyslexic are visual learners.

• Children who are autistic learn well through images.

• Children who have been classified as ADD or ADHD are also visual learners.

• Children who have spent a great portion of their time immersed in media such as television, video games, computer games all develop a strong visual sense. Even if their neurological wiring would have been predominantly left brained, their experiences in life create a strong right brain and make them visual learners.

I’ve written a lot about how traditional teaching methods are perfectly suited to left brained learners, and how right-brained children seem to be in the minority. Short of doing a massive overhaul of our educational system (don’t hold your breath on that one!) what can we do?

The Plastic Brain

I've also talked a lot about how plastic the brain is and how much we can shape our children through experiences we provide them. If you are working with children who are strongly visual because of the way they have spent their time and what they have been exposed to, don’t despair! Start providing other types of experiences in small bytes to these pseudo visual learners so that you can begin to move them closer to center. The answer is not to suddenly immerse them in a left-brained classroom, but while you are using visuals to teach them, also begin to nudge them towards a more balanced approach to learning.

How?

Begin to encourage a lot of outside play. Wow, when I was typing that sentence, an image flashed into my mind of a little couch potato being pushed out the door with the injunction to “go play and have fun.” There the poor tyke stands, blinking in the bright sunlight, no clue at all how to play. Don’t think this could be true? I’ve seen it happen. Some children spend so much time inside, in passive mode responding to media, that when placed in a situation that requires them to invent an activity, they have no idea what to do. So go outside with the child, already. Have a little activity planned to break him into playing outside.

Ideas for activities both inside and out that develop strong connections between hemispheres:

1.    Scavenger Hunt. Make a collection of natural items that catch the child’s attention. Explore them on the spot. Do they have a particular texture? A distinctive smell? What about color? Then when you have a nice little collection, engage the left brain by asking the child to describe briefly each item she picked up. Talk about what some items have in common and how they differ from each other. The tactile exploration of nature is wonderful for creating neural pathways and the more often it is repeated, the better for the child!

2.    Dribbling. Using a soccer ball, play outside, kicking the ball first with the left then the right foot. If you do it together, each of you with his own ball, you could make it more fun. The cross-lateral movement strengthens connections between left and right hemispheres of the brain and helps children when it is time to do school tasks that require both regions of the brain.

3.    Silly Stories. Collect images you cut from magazines, newspapers, travel brochures, or find in clip art…any image that catches your eye. You can even find pictures of common items such as a fork, a belt and a button, etc. Glue these pictures on cards of the same size. When you have collected a nice stack of photo cards, shuffle them. With the cards face down, have the child select three cards at random. Then have her lay the cards on the table and look at them. Ask her to invent a silly sentence that includes all three of these words. For example, the child might draw the following cards and create the sentence "I ate my carrot with a fork in a wagon."

 

At first it might be hard for her, so you could play too, modeling for her your thoughts as you invent a silly sentence. I’ve done this with children as young as preschool and I would have them tell me something about all three items while I wrote what they said. OH MY GOODNESS! We had the most amazing stories emerge. This activity helps children begin to tie visuals with words. Start very small. A phrase is great. Over time if you keep on doing this activity, the child will become more and more fluent with her words and will likely begin to embellish until she has a little paragraph. If you make yours silly, the exercise will be fun. And fun is good!

4.    Play Simon Says to help the child listen, think, and control the motion of his body. To activate the connections between multiple regions of the brain, go outside and PLAY. Do activities that require hopping, balancing, tipping, spinning, etc. Simon can tell the child anything he wants to after all! “Hop on your right foot three times” or “Spread your arms out like wings and stand on your left foot.”

5.    Red Light, Green Light is another great game to help a child learn to listen and control his movements. For the green light which signifies GO, just hold up a simple green paddle or other object. The child will be able to run forward until the moment in which you hold up the red paddle. This game is great for children who have been classified as ADD because it will activate their frontal lobe…the center for forethought and body control. This is especially true if the child gets points or a token of some kind for each time they are able to stop or go when they receive that signal.

6.    Charades is a great game to combine verbal, visual and body movement. For young children, you can have pictures of objects or animals on cards. If you're playing with multiple children, deal everyone a card and then when it is the child’s turn, have her stand up and strike a pose or act out what is on her card. Ask the others to guess what she is and say why they think she is what they guessed. Encourage conversation between the players in which they verbalize their thoughts.

 

Once you begin these activities with your child, you will think of many more. Make conversation. Ask questions that encourage your child to think through possible outcomes. Experiment outside. For instance, if you have a wagon and you pull it down a gentle hill, will it go faster or slower if you load it full of rocks? Have your child guess the outcome before trying it out, giving reasons for his choice. Then try the experiment, and talk about why the experiment turned out as it did. Choose two objects of differing weights and shapes and have your child predict which will go further when tossed. Have him throw the objects as hard as he can and see which one went further. The wonderful outcome of activities such as these is that each time you do them, whether or not you see any change at the time, communication is being established between different regions in the brain which over time will help your child simply blossom!

 

Learning Via Images

Is it really possible to sort people by their primary characteristics into neat boxes with straight walls and no overlaps? Although we tend to think of people that way, it almost always takes many subsequent looks before we begin to fully understand the many facets of a person’s personality. For example, look at the two categories of personality: extrovert and introvert. We casually assign people we know one of those general labels, but it is not that simple. There are times when extroverts may display a huge degree of shyness or when they would love to melt into the woodwork and just observe. There are other times when introverts find themselves comfortable enough to “shine” unexpectedly.

The same applies to different types of learners. We have come to the point in our society where every child seems to need a label and one that details specifically how he learns or doesn’t learn. We have visual learner, tactile learner, dyslexic learner, autistic, and many many other labels. The implication is that each of those types of learners requires a specific set of directions for how to teach them successfully. In doing research, however, and as I have read the experts in each of the most common areas of disability, one element keeps on showing up: the fact that so many of these non-traditional learners learn best through pictures and hands-on lessons.

Let’s look at what the experts have to say on this subject.

Visual-Spatial Learners

Linda K. Silverman, Ph.D., and Jeffrey N. Freed, M.A.T. published an article that discusses what a visual-spatial learner is and how these learners best understand information. Following are a few excerpts:

A visual-spatial learner is a student who learns holistically rather than in a step-by-step fashion. Visual imagery plays an important role in the student's learning process. Because the individual is processing primarily in pictures rather than words, ideas are interconnected (imagine a web). Linear sequential thinking — the norm in American education — is particularly difficult for this person and requires a translation of his or her usual thought processes, which often takes more time.

In most cases, the visual-spatial learning style is not addressed in school, and these students' self-esteem suffers accordingly. Traditional teaching techniques are designed for the learning style of sequential learners. Concepts are introduced in a step-by-step fashion, practiced with drill and repetition, assessed under timed conditions, and then reviewed. This process is ideal for sequential learners whose learning progresses in a step-by-step manner from easy to difficult material.

By way of contrast, spatial learners are systems thinkers-they need to see the whole picture before they can understand the parts. They are likely to see the forest and miss the trees. They are excellent at mathematical analysis but may make endless computational errors because it is difficult for them to attend to details. Their reading comprehension is usually much better than their ability to decode words.

Concepts are quickly comprehended when they are presented within a context and related to other concepts. Once spatial learners create a mental picture of a concept and see how the information fits with what they already know, their learning is permanent. Repetition is completely unnecessary and irrelevant to their learning style.

A key component in the recovery of motivation for visual-spatial learners is experiencing success. Individual tutoring should be sought to help these students learn to use their strengths and build their feelings of competence. Sincere praise works wonders. Spatial learners often excel at activities such as Legos, computer games, art or music. Any skill in which these young people experience success should be encouraged and nurtured. Their skills, interests and hobbies may lead to careers in adult life.

(http://www.dyslexia.com/library/silver1.htm)

Those with Autism

Rachel Evans, author of two popular books, talks about autism as it relates to learning. Following is an excerpt:

Reading Comprehension

Although many autistic children are able to read, some parents find that comprehension can be an area of concern. Special education teachers and parents of autistic children believe that autistic children learn best with hands on or very colorful activities. Books with pictures, audio books, and touch and feel books all work well.

Learning Words

According to Temple Grandlin, professor at Colorado State University, autistics are visual thinkers. Temple Grandlin lived in the world of autism and was diagnosed at a young age. Today, she uses her knowledge to help others. The easiest way toward teaching autistic children reading is to demonstrate words that aren't concrete. For example, a noun is typically concrete and easy for the autistic child to picture. A word such as "boy" is easy to relate to a mental image. However, words such as "up" are harder for the autistic child to picture. When teaching such words, the teacher should show the word by acting it out. Saying the word "up" and lifting the arm goes a long way toward helping the autistic child understand.

Teaching Methods

Most of the standard methods for teaching reading simply won't work for an autistic child. Temple Grandin, the high-functioning autistic woman mentioned earlier, explains that some autistic children learn to read better with phonics and others with a whole word approach and still others a mixture of the two approaches. One thing that may be of great help is testing the child to see which approaches might work best and to evaluate strengths and weaknesses

Final Tips

Reinforce what the child is reading with repetition. Read books out loud, act them out, create visual aids and watch movies based on books. Don't be afraid to try new things and be patient. It may take a while when teaching autistic children reading to find the methods that work best for each individual child.

(http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rachel_Evans)

Temple Grandin, professor at Colorado State University and referenced above, expands on these ideas:

Anyone teaching an autistic child to read should remember that many think visually. This means they are more likely to learn about words and letters through visual stimulation. Almost every child has a special interest, and autistic children are no exception. If they like trains, you may want to use them as a visual guide to learning how to read. If they are interested in the subject matter they are more likely to pay attention for longer periods of time, and are more willing to learn because they will find it interesting.

(http://www.grandin.com/inc/visual.thinking.html)

 Dyslexic Learners

Studies from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development have shown that for children with difficulties learning to read, a multi-sensory teaching method is the most effective approach or treatment. This is especially crucial for a dyslexic child. But what does it mean? Using a multi-sensory teaching approach means helping a child to learn through more than one of the senses. Most teaching in schools is done using either sight or hearing (auditory sensations). The child's sight is used in reading information, looking at diagrams or pictures, or reading what is on the teacher's board. The sense of hearing is used in listening to what the teacher says. A dyslexic child may experience difficulties with either or both of these senses. The child's vision may be affected by difficulties with tracking, visual processing or seeing the words become fuzzy or move around. The child's hearing may be satisfactory on a hearing test, but auditory memory or auditory processing may be weak.

(http://www.dyslexia.com/qagift.htm#981026)

Conclusion

So what does all this mean? One common thread running through all of these articles is that many people who are diagnosed with learning disabilities learn most naturally through images. If this is true, it helps to simplify our approach to teaching many types of learners at once. Instead of taking the time to create multiple plans, one for each child, why not try a multisensory approach and incorporate visuals and movement into each lesson? This will ensure that every learner is reached and make the teacher's life simpler at the same time!

(One of our favorite multisensory products this season is the Help at Home Kit that teaches sight words through visuals and movement without resorting to flashcard drill and memorization.)

Dyslexic Learners

  How can I best help my dyslexic child?
Experts agree that best practice for teaching dyslexic learners is to teach them via all their senses (multisensory teaching). This means using visuals, motions, body movement, hands-on, and auditory elements in their learning. Studies have shown that dyslexic children draw from various regions in their brains while engaging in reading, so it stands to reason that using teaching approaches that stimulate various regions in the brain would ensure success for these learners.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Incorporate visual elements in learning
• Involve body movement in learning
• Use a multisensory teaching approach to reading (used all at one time)
• Focus on teaching phonemic awareness and manipulation
• Summarize and give the big picture first - then start with the details
• Utilize visuals in books and prompt the child to visualize in his mind as he reads
• Read outloud in order to utilize the auditory pathway to the brain
• Use an explicit, systematic approach to teaching reading to be sure that everything is taught that needs to be

“Children with dyslexia have a difficult time learning to read and write in a typical classroom setting. Most teachers often gear their lessons to students with auditory learning styles. The teacher relies mostly on talking to teach. Teachers lecture, explain and answer questions orally. The dyslexic learner cannot process this information using only his auditory modality. For this reason, dyslexic learners need to learn using an approach that simultaneously combines auditory, visual, and tactile learning strategies to teach skills and concepts.
     Another reason that dyslexics struggle with the regular classroom reading programs is that the dyslexic child tends to have difficulties applying and using phonetic rules to decode words. In order for the dyslexic child to become a good reader he/she will need to first learn decoding and word recognition skills and then develop fluency and comprehension skills. That is why early intervention is so important. Phonemic awareness is a learned skill; it is not something that comes naturally to a child. The National Reading Panel found that children who are taught phonics systematically and also explicitly make greater progress in reading than those who are taught with any other type of reading instructions."
 ~ Karina Richmond, MA
www.pridelearningcenter.com

HOW WE CAN HELP YOU:

Our products are multisensory which simply means that we have created materials that will utilize as many avenues to the brain as possible for the benefit of visual learners. Many children who have been labeled with a particular learning disability are actually highly visual learners who need multisensory instruction in reading. These identified disabilities include autism, aspergers, and dyslexia.

ABCs taught through visuals, jingles, body motions, stories & hands-on activities so that all those left brained symbols are surrounded in wonderful right brained elements. 

 

Toobaloo® & WhisperPhone® are acoustical voice-feedback tools that enable learners of all ages to focus and hear the sounds that make up words (phonemes) more clearly as they learn to read, spell, or process the language aloud. Great for those children who must hear sounds clearly in order to learn. Click HERE to learn more.

  

Multisensory, explicit phonics instruction that includes DAILY:

• Body motions combined with auditory exercises, and visual elements all at one time
• Phonics and phonemic awareness taught systematically
• Patterns, stories, cartoons, visuals are utilized to maximize the learning benefit for children who are not left brain learners.
• Hands-on activities that will provide practice, books that provide the "goal" for learning sounds and words, and so much more!

   SnapWords® (multisensory Dolch sight words combined with other high frequency words) help visual, right brained learners, and children with learning disabilities learn to read more easily. SnapWords® allow the mental camera to snap a picture of the words, sentence on reverse lends meaning to the word, while the body motion grabs those children that need movement to learn! (kinesthetic learners)

 The Kid Friendly series incorporates a variety of learning styles within the math curriculum. Visual learners will see numbers and computations through pictures, auditory learners will hear concepts put to music, and kinesthetic learners will be involved in hands-on activities. All of these activities connect learning to concepts in a meaningful and concrete way for children.