Subject: Recommendation of brilliant software

Author:
Jennifer Whitehead
 

Date Posted: 15:16:24 11/12/03 Wed

Hi, I teach children aged 5-16 with Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and general reading difficulties at a Word Club on Saturday mornings for Grimsby College. We have used a touch-type read and spell disk based upon Alpha to Omega for the past seven years, and I took over running the course a year ago. I have often been told by the children's parents how effective this has been, and that their teachers have said that the children's reading age improved by two or three years very rapidly, but as I only facilitate the class and the parents are supporting the children, I haven't actually screened a child and seen their progress myself in any great detail until now as I have been too busy running around the classroom handing out certificates and chocs to deserving students (it's out of school so they need some reward for coming!).

I teach mid-week at a Pupil Inclusion unit for excluded pupils, and recently met a 16-year old student with severe dyslexia, to the point where after being given specialist tuition for the past three years, he still was not able to read beyond three letter words. I tried teaching him myself using the Beat Dyslexia programme (this is usually brilliant) and other multi-sensory methods, but this only worked for three letter words, and he was so afraid of failure that he would shut off the minute anything didn't immediately click. The unit is specifically for teenagers with emkotional and behavioural problems but this student really was difficult to maintain patience and keep trying with as he really did seem to rebuff almost every attempt to help him again and again and would just reinforce his own low opinion of himself constantly. I rang up his old SENCO who said that this had been an ongoing problem and that no real progress had been made over the past two years despite his regular attendance.

I thought that I would try teaching this student using the disks from the Word Club even though they are so expensive, and find some way of getting funding for the additional site license (£150 - this is not cost effective if it is just being used for one student and the others are on GCSE and KS3 level work) even if I had to go begging, basically because I was at my wit's end to help using every other method I know, and I know that this student really was desperate despite the convincing act. He is also extremely intelligent so being unable to read has been doubly frustrating.

This has had dramatic results. The stress just seems to have been lifted from my student because he is now working with the computer, and any mistakes can be deleted out straightaway. As he was trying so hard I have also told this student as a bet that if he could get 60 100% grades I will finance a ticket for Alton Towers from my own funds. I had expected this to take a number of months. However, it looks as though at this rate I might need to start offering smaller incentives. He just keeps repeating the work over and over until he gets it right. He has now said that he will forego the tickets and I can put the money into getting the disk, he just wants to do this for the sake of being able to read.

My student simply can't believe that he can be learning so quickly, and now arrives half-an-hour early, and has asked to stay an hour over his lesson time. This is the first time that he has ever been able to remember spellings, ever. I have had to force him to take breaks each half-hour because he was so adamant that he would complete each module more quickly then anyone else. His progress has been amazing. I did not at first believe this because I thought that as a dyslexic he would probably remember his spellings one week but then forget them after a break, but I have just re-tested him on the modules he covered before the half-term break (three weeks ago) and in a spelling test of sixty words, he got all of them correct without any chance to mug up beforehand.

The difference in this lad has been nothing short of miraculous. The first day I met him he had been taken to a work experience placement where he was asked his name and address and as he was new to the area he had to admit that he didn't know exactly what the street name was. He was kindly shown an A-Z with the streetnames alphabeticised so that he could find his own and of course could not read any of it, and had to admit this in front of three noisy teenager peers. My student broke down as soon as he got back home and the Ed. Welfare officer realised this was serious. The transformation from that day when he was brought in after going through that ordeal to this day is just incredible.

My student is now on Level Three after three weeks of using the disk for one-two hours per day, and is currently covering simple consonant blends. There are twenty-six levels of thirty modules on the disk, each module covering around two phonics rules and 15 new words. My student is determined to cover every single one, and has even begun to ask if he can come in in the mornings to do further practice.

I am normally reluctant to recommend resources to any other teacher, particularly when it is expensive, but this really is worth the money. An additional bonus is that it can be done without the one-to-one normally needed for dyslexia tuition as the disk reads the words to the student for them to copy and will repeat them as often as necessary. Really your only function is to provide praise and encouragement. I can't think of a better way for the students to learn because my own lad is gaining such independence and confidence. Please give this a go. I have found a website address for you to view the disk contents and book free trial lessons yourselves - this is www.ttrs.co.uk

Please contact me at j.whitehead@grimsby.ac.uk or jennifer.boyce@ntlworld.com if you want to know anything else.