Thank you for all those attended my session

 

SENIA Conference

 

November webinar on the Informal Assessment of Dyslexia

Join me for a new webinar on Thursday 18th  November at 6.30pm HKT on the Informal Assessment of Dyslexia.  Such an important topic as while many wait and hesitate about formal assessment, informal assessment allows interventions to be offered straight away.

https://htrethewey71.clickmeeting.com/informal-assessment-of-dyslexia/register?_ga=2.140950322.1450955772.1636370963-1608119873.1633869672 

Creating a positive classroom climate

Maths Foundations

Maths is all around us and it is needed for many aspects of everyday life. Children and sometimes parents, don’t realise how much maths we use each day. It is important that we actively point out numbers, shapes, time, directions and calculations as we see and use them. For example: think of all the maths concepts you might use to make cookies. You might have to buy some of the ingredients before you start, you need to weigh the ingredients, you have to think about how many cookies you need, how long to bake them for, what shape and size to make them.

For some children, maths seems to come naturally but for others, it can be confusing and difficult. So what can we do to help all children succeed in maths? The key is to build the right foundations early on through practical activities, observation and talk. Maths in the early years should be more about doing than writing sums and getting the right answers. The key skills to develop right from the start are counting, estimation, and partitioning.

The reason some children find maths difficult is that they do not have a strong sense of numbers and can not really picture what different numbers would look like with real objects. If they open a packet of sweets, they have no idea how many sweets there are – 10, 20 or even 100! They look at a room of people or a pot of pencils and they can not guess how many there are. Counting is the place to start. Encourage your child to count anything and everything at home and as they do their normal activities. Count steps, count spaces on a board game, count toys, count plates at the table, count flowers. The list is endless! 

As your child gets good at counting, you can turn it into a guessing game. When you visit a new building, you can ask ‘I wonder how many steps there are?’ Then together you can check. This develops estimation skills. At first, the guess is likely to be completely wrong but over time they will get closer and closer. But remember, estimation is not about getting the exact answer and children need to be helped with this idea. If there are 18 steps then 20 would be a good estimate. Again, you can do this activity anywhere and with anything that can be counted – cars, trees, shells, people. If you are setting the table for dinner, you can encourage your child to check each person has what they need. You could ‘accidentally’ put out 3 bowls on the table when really you need 5 and ask your child how many more you need.

Partitioning is much more than splitting numbers into tens and ones, which we often practise at school. It can involve experimenting with ways to split different numbers into 2 or more groups. You can use counters, cubes, beads, pasta or even pieces of playdough. Pick a number below 10 and ask your child to count out this number of objects. Then their challenge is to split the objects in as many ways as possible. This is the foundation of number bonds and helps children understand the conservation of numbers. That is, the idea that even though we can split a number or arrange the number in different ways it is still the same number. At first, it is more important to verbalise what they are doing, than to record it pictorially or formally. It is also a good way to introduce maths vocabulary. For example, 3 and 4 is the same as 7, or 2 plus 5 equals 7, or 7 take away 1 makes 6. This activity can be extended to any number and rods or straws can be used to represent tens. When children discover the patterns and relationships between numbers themselves through play, they will gain a deeper understanding and memory of number facts. This in turn will lead to confident and successful learners. 

Practical activities are the key to success in maths and should encouraged both at school and at home.

Monthly webinar - October

In October my monthly webinar will be on Coordination difficulties.  This an area that affects many students with Learning differences and many of those in education do not fully appreciate how important it is. My talk will be informative and there will be lots of practical advice.

Register here

The Importance of Early Screening for Dyslexia

In recent years, educators are beginning to realise that our classes are full of neurodiverse learners and that many more children than we originally thought have learning differences that mean they may not progress in a straightforward way. This makes early identification more important than ever. Many questions are asked about how best to identify dyslexia. Can screening be effective or is a full assessment needed if we suspect dyslexia?

The answer lies in what we are hoping to achieve and when and why we are assessing.  I believe there is a place for both, but screening can lead to early identification, which is vital. 

One thing is clear - the signs of dyslexia are evident very early. Sometimes these signs are ignored because dyslexia is much more common than many teachers believe and they do not always link the difficulties a child has early on with dyslexia.  The idea of 'wait and see' is of no benefit to dyslexic students and in fact can be very damaging - leading to an educational gap which is hard to close and low self esteem.

What we want is for children to be given the right support at the earliest opportunity.

Both teachers and parents can misunderstand the benefits and purpose of screening.  Screening should be a quick and 'low stakes' way of identifying children who have gaps in their skills that could hinder their progress in school. Success in learning to read and write relies on having the right foundation skills. If we can identifying children 'at risk' of having a learning difficulty then interventions can quickly put in place. For many these interventions are likely to prevent failure and help children to make progress in areas they find difficult. Screening works best when all the children in a class or year group are screened, this means that children are not singled out and no one is missed. 

Screeners can are often computer based or may be a series of short activities or games. This limits the skills had can be tested and the depth of information gained. While no screener is completely reliable as they look at a child's performance on a particular day with 'novel' activities.  They can still help to identify many students who would benefit from a different approach.

Many parents, in my experience, worry about labelling young children. They feel that if their child is identified as having learning needs  it will be like a 'self fulfilling' prophecy.  They fear that their child will be treated differently and this will disadvantage them. They feel if we ignore the difficulty it will go away.

In reality the opposite is true, those who receive early intervention often go on to needing minimal support long term and develop their own strategies to manage any difficulties they have. Their self esteem and sense of self usually remain positive. In contrast those who do not receive the specific help they need fall further and further behind and become frustrated and  demoralised.

Many students do need a different approach and this should be more readily accepted. Identifying this is not a disadvantage but an advantage. It means that they can develop their basic skills and then start to access more of the classwork without support. Ignoring difficulties very rarely ends up positively in reality the gap between the child and their peers only gets wider and as they become more self aware their self esteem crumbles.

Children know from a very early age if they are not able to do the things that their peers can do. They will then use a number tactics to get through. They will avoid activities they find difficult, this is easy to do in the early years setting. others always choose to work with a partner.  Verbally able students often find ways of masking their difficulties and in my experience girls are better at masking than boys. Boys tend to opt more for clowning around or looking like they 'don't' want to something to disguise the fact they 'can't' do something. Boys will often employ work avoidance tactics.

There is also a still the long held belief that some children are 'late bloomers' in my experience this is rarely the case.  Those who start off 'behind' stay behind unless they receive appropriate interventions and support. Their difficulties never really go away but change the way they present themselves which can give an illusion that the problems have gone away.

The purpose of screening is not to give a definite label but to suggest areas of difficulty that can be targeted and supported.

It is important to realise if a child is identified as having a learning need, this is not a judgement of a child's intelligence and does not mean that they can't be successful future. But the fundamental thing is they need to be taught in a way that works for them early on while their brain receptive and this preserves their self esteem. If a child takes longer to develop basic skills, this is absolutely fine. However, our education system has turned into a conveyor belt where certain skills need to be achieved in each year group and this is how some students can quickly get 'behind'.

The great thing about early intervention is that is largely game based and gives the child extra adult attention. It is also not 'harmful' if a child is wrongly identified as all that will happen if they make rapid progress. As a result, they will no longer be included in the intervention.  

The number of times I have arrived at class to take my intervention groups and half the class want to come and join in. While parents worry about some sort of stigma, the children themselves are excited to do activities where they can succeed.  They also enjoy having adult attention either individually or in a small group.

Screening can not replace formal assessment it just has a different purpose. In my opinion, formal assessment has an important role as it is a much more thorough and detailed process which is beneficial when the child needs more individual support. However, it does not necessarily need to be the first step or a pre-requisite for intervention. It can also be hugely beneficial for both the child and parent to properly understand why learning to read and write is so challenging. Strangely, having a clear label can also be a huge relief for many students who are often mislabelled by themselves and others.

So my advice is to screen first and follow up with a formal assessment when necessary.

Watch a lesson in World Empathy Week

For more details follow the link 

https://www.educationinfluence.com/world-empathy-week/ 

Learning to Learn - the importance of metacognition

 

One of the most important things that we can teach students is how to learn. As adults, we may have forgotten many of the details of our own schooling and the challenges and frustrations we experienced on our learning journey. We know that we learnt things at school but we do not always realise why some things stick with us and others are easily forgotten. 

It is so important that students understand the learning process. Sometimes they get disheartened when they find an activity hard or they make mistakes, when in fact, many skills can not be easily grasped without frequent practice. Also, it is when we make mistakes that our mind is most open to adapt and take on board new learning. Many children wrongly think it is bad to make mistakes but this can lead to our deepest learning. As adults, we often try to prevent our children from making mistakes because we want to protect them and we want them to experience success. This is very valid, as success brings confidence and a positive attitude to learning. However, understanding that there may be bumps on the way and that everyone makes mistakes helps students to overcome difficulties. Teachers have such a key role in creating a classroom environment where students feel comfortable making mistakes. Teachers can do this by highlighting their own mistakes, praising effort and using students common mistakes as a teaching tool. It can take time to build up this sort of environment and trust. It is best not to put children on the spot or unnecessarily draw attention to one person's mistake initially, unless you know they will be comfortable with it. Quiet praise for effort and privately going through errors works better for some children. Teachers also need to be aware of what children may be told at home, as in some cultures making mistakes is taken very seriously.

There are many activities that we engage in that we can almost do without thinking. This feels comfortable but it does little to help us make progress. However, when we try to learn something new it can feel uncomfortable. Students need to know this is normal, so they can push through the difficult feelings or the frustration when something doesn't make sense. There has to be a balance: if everything we encounter is new or too hard it can be exhausting, but if everything we do is routine or automatic our brain will switch off. Good teachers should aim to build elements of routine and challenge into each lesson and also consider how much new material they present in one day. In addition, consideration needs to be given to students with learning differences and how much challenge they are experiencing each day. Many routine tasks may be considerably more demanding to these students than we imagine.

Understanding how memory works can empower students to be actively involved in their learning. Teachers should take some time each day explain strategies that can help their students to remember the information or skills presented. It also needs to be explained that we all learn differently and children should be encouraged to try a range of strategies before selecting the ones that work best of them. Some information is not easily remembered unless we interact with it and use our different senses. It is hard to remember information that is just given verbally. Simple strategies like encouraging students to explain what has been said can make learning stick. Using visuals alongside verbal explanations makes information more meaningful, allowing students to link new learning to things they already know. Practical activities, where they are active, are the most memorable. Equally, when children discover something for themselves it sticks in their mind. This is why young children learn so much through play. As children get older, they need to understand how they learn best so that they can use strategies that will help them remember key facts and concepts This will lead to students of all abilities being confident and successful learners.

Creating a Positive Classroom Climate

 

Check out my You Tube channel for more 'potted' webinars:

Helen's Twice Exceptional Learners

Also full webinars are available on a range of topics:

Webinars on ClickMeeting

Phonics with Mrs T

Early Signs of Dyslexia

Helen's Twice Exceptional Learners is now on You Tube

 Please check out my new You Tube channel featuring  'potted' webinars, information animations, recommended resources and lessons for students  Here is the link Youtube Channel

Being Dyslexic