LAB Learning Clinic provides treatment for difficulties with reading and spelling
Is a wait and see approach good enough for your child?
Research shows early intervention is the key.
“Most parents and teachers delay evaluating a child with reading difficulties because they believe the problems are just temporary, that they will be outgrown. Reading problems are not outgrown, they are persistent.”
– Sally Shaywitz, M.D, Author OF ‘Overcoming DyslexiA’.
The Science of Reading (SoR).
At LAB Learning Clinic, we are committed to evidence-based reading instruction. We align instruction with the Science of Reading (SoR) using structured literacy to provide treatment for adults and kids with reading learning difficulties.
What we know:
The SoR helps us to understand the cognitive processes that are essential for reading proficiency. It describes the development of reading skills for both typical and atypical readers.
Studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of intensive phonemic awareness training, intensive phonic decoding training, and opportunities for repeated practice with reading decodable texts. Intervention in these skills leads to efficient orthographic mapping and the highest degree of success.
Using whole word memorisation should be minimised. Learning through a synthetic phonics approach empowers students with an exponential effect.
If a child memorises ten words, then the child can read ten words. But, if the child can learn the sounds of ten letters, the child can read…
- 350 three-sound words
- 4,320 four-sound words
- 21,650 five-sound words
Reading development can be divided into three stages:
- Learning letter/sound relationships
- Phonic decoding
- Orthographic mapping
Orthographic Mapping
Orthographic mapping is the process that occurs when unfamiliar words become automatic sight words. The research on orthographic mapping explains how students develop this vast sight word bank for accurate and automatic word retrieval and why students with reading problems struggle to develop this skill.
Spelling is taught not caught!
“English Isn’t Crazy! The Elements Of Our Language and How to Teach Them” is a neat little book by US author Diana Hanbury King. Diana was a master OG practitioner who supported struggling readers and spellers since before most of us were born.
One common but mistaken belief is that spelling problems stem from a poor visual memory for the sequences of letters in words. Recent research, however, shows that spelling problems, like reading problems, originate with language learning weaknesses.
English words can be explained through their language of origin, meaning and sound structures.
How LAB Learning Clinic can help with Reading & Spelling Difficulties
At LAB Learning Clinic, we explicitly explain the how and why of the English language taking learners from the small to the large, the simple to the more complex. We start to unlock the secrets of language as we dig deep into the phonic structures of language. But we need to go further than just phonics. We broaden learners understanding of English Orthography.
Orthography is how we represent speech in writing and all the rules (or generalisations) that go along with the spelling of words.
According to Louisa Moats, to understand a word’s spelling, we need to look at:
- Sound-symbol (phoneme-grapheme) relationships
- The patterns of letters (position of letters in words) and syllable patterns
- Morphology
- The history of a word (etymology)
Fact sheet links:
Get support for reading & spelling difficulties with LAB Learning Clinic