This course is for teachers to learn why some children have so much difficulty with reading and writing, often called 'dyslexia', and to learn more about best practice in teaching literacy to all in light of recent scientific discoveries. Participation in or completion of this online course will not confer academic credit for University of London programmes
1.1 Introduction by Jenny and Vincent
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From the course by University of London
Supporting children with difficulties in reading and writing
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From the lesson
An overview
Writing systems; models of reading acquisition (the ‘decoding’ and ‘direct’ paths); the importance of automatization; bilingualism
Meet the Instructors
Dr Jenny Thomson
Dr Vincent Goetry
We are going to work on a new sound today.
Open your ears as wide as possible.
'Often'.
'Fight'.
Can you start at the beginning and you catch each F
... ... You can feel that your tongue is actually touching your teeth.
Touch the first letter, is this one yes?
'Rhinoceros'.
>> 'Rhinoceros'.
... ...
Okay, 'A-lli-ga-tor'.
Pen, P.
>> Hello and welcome to our course.
I'm here with Doctor Vincent Goetry, and your here with myself Jenny Thomson.
We're delighted to welcome you to this course.
Just to give you some framework, as we mentioned in the introduction video,
we really want to demystify reading difficulties, and
specifically dyslexia, for teachers,
for individuals with dyslexia, for those who are supporting them.
We want to give you some really practical strategies,
in terms of identification and also intervention.
But we will also give you some of the theory and
the background information around those core themes.
So they're our overall aims.
So to give you a sense of how it will look, week by week.
So ... ... in week one, we're really going to be giving you a context of what
typical reading looks like, to give you a good baseline understanding.
Then in week two, we're going to be talking about the definitions of dyslexia,
and identification, both with younger children, but then also at later stages.
In week three, we're going to take a broader perspective.
because so many other things can be happening with dyslexia,
apart from just the reading.
And so we're going to be looking at some of those other behaviors, and
aspects of dyslexia that can occur.
Then in weeks four to six, really the big focus is, what do you do about it?
Practical strategies both for the earlier stages of reading, but
then also as students get older
when we're thinking about comprehension study skills, strategies.
So that's the overall picture.
In terms of some practicalities for you:
so if English isn't your first language, we do urge you to use the closed captions.
So you'll look for
a little cc (... ...) symbol that's going to be on the screen in the corner.
Do take advantage of that.
You can also speed us up, and slow us down.
So again, look out for the indicators there.
And we find that Chrome is quite a nice browser to do these manipulations in.
If you're doing this course for the Certificate,
do be aware that there are some assessments you'll be doing and taking.
So for you, look in the grading tab on the course website,
where you'll find all the details for what's expected to do the Certificate.
It is going to be important for
you to have children, especially those who are struggling to read,
where you can try out some of the strategies that we're talking about.
>> So Jenny, what brought you to the field of dyslexia?
>> Well, my initial training was as a speech and language therapist,
and when I was working with children with early speech and
language problems, some of them would go on to have
reading problems.
And it really intrigued me, and it puzzled me that we didn't really know
which children would go on to to having reading problems, and which wouldn't.
And so that really led me into research.
I thought I'm going to try and found out the answer to this question.
And so I did a PhD at University College London,
where I was looking at causal factors in dyslexia, and
especially at auditory processing as one possible factor.
And that's something that's remained a strand in my research.
I then ... ... moved over to America, and I was doing some work at Harvard,
where I actually then became
equally interested in how new technologies are impacting what reading is, and
how that impacts you, especially if you have a reading difficulty.
So that's where my current research is.
So Vincent, what brought you into the field of dyslexia?
>> My initial training was (in) psychology, but (I studied very quickly)
I specialized into the psychology of the learning and learning difficulties.
Then, I've always been completely fascinated by
reading development in young children.
So I did a PhD at the University of Brussels in Belgium,
on the reading development in bilingual children
schooled in a second language, French/Dutch, Dutch/French.
And then I went on with the study of immersion programming in Canada,
so ... ... in Canada in French immersion program for
English native children, at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
And I developed a growing frustration,
because I was studying the children who were succeeding.
As in a bilingual setting when it's, setting,
when a child is failing, when a child is struggling you put him back, or
her back in their native language, the native language school.
So I could not follow those children, and
I decided to study the children who were struggling.
So I took two years post graduate course with Dyslexia Action
to be able to support dyslexic children individually,
which I did for a few years.
And now I'm associated with -
I'm a scientific collaborator with the University of Brussels in Belgium.
And I'm a general lecturer at the University of Mons in Belgium,
training future speech therapists, and also training teachers.
Make them aware of what dyslexia is,
and how to cope with dyslexia in the classroom.
>> So, Vincent, how common would you say dyslexia is?
>> Well, dyslexia is actually more common than what many people think,
because it affects about ... of course there are controversies around the cut-off
researchers are using to say from
this performance you are dyslexic, or you are not, but
usually the proportion of ten percent is put forward.
Ten percent of a population is about 700 million
people around the world who have dyslexia traits.
And among these persons, five percent of the population will have
really enormous difficulties in acquiring literacy,
unless they are properly taught and properly helped.
Now if we situate that in the classroom, it means that if you are a teacher, and
you have, and you have about, let's say 30 children in your classroom,
it means that you will come across - you are likely to come across - two or
three children who will have dyslexia traits every year.
>> Right. >> So, it's quite an important issue.
>> This really affects all teachers.
>> This affects all teachers, certainly.
What are some of the bigger reasons why dyslexia matters?
>> Dyslexia matters in the sense that the cost (is) associated
with addressing the unaddressed consequences of dyslexia in adulthood.
And we know that there is, we are going to see in the course,
with a guest lecturer, Linda Siegel,
how much it costs to address the consequences of dyslexia,
in that either which he's semi-illiterate or illiterate.
These costs are much higher, compared to the costs of early intervention, and
early detection of dyslexic children.
So this is a matter of investing the money where it should be invested.
>> Right.
So that includes things like emotional costs, and such.
>> Emotional costs, psychological consequences,
psychological exclusion, delinquency.
We know that there is a relationship between illiteracy and
the fact of ending up in prison -
of course not a direct link - but when you are illiterate,
you are more likely to fall into
a vicious circle of social exclusion, and delinquency and aggressiveness, etcetera.
So, Jenny, what are the most exciting parts of the course to you?
>> Well, I mean, I think lots.
One thing I'm particularly keen to get across in this course,
is the developmental aspect of reading difficulties.
I think it can often be easier to identify
reading difficulties ,when children are first starting to read.
The main tasks there is decoding.
And so if a child is struggling with that, it's really quite clear,
although, obviously it's not always clear what to do.
But then, as children get into the later years,
I think it can be a lot more difficult to actually work out what's going on, and
so that's one of the things I'm excited about in this course,
that we will actually tackle those later years, and the slightly messier
identification process, and that will be particularly in week three.
So, Vincent, what are you particularly excited about with this course?
>> Well, because I have been studying bilingualism, and
the relationship between bilingualism and learning to read.
I'm really interested in seeing, and talking,
and discovering the relationship between bilingualism and
dyslexia, which is a question that parents often ask.
And also I'm very much interested in the models of reading development in
the non-dyslexic child, and the models of reading development in the dyslexic child,
the differences, and the the precise places,
the precise stages where there
are differences between the two subgroups, of groups of children.
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