Reading Skills Benefit from One Modest Change by Teachers

A small change in how teachers and parents read aloud to preschoolers may provide a big boost to their reading skills later on, a new study found. 

That small change involves making specific references to print in books while reading to children -- such as pointing out letters and words on the pages, showing capital letters, and showing how you read from left to right and top to bottom on the page. 

Credit: © Glenda Powers / Fotolia

Preschool children whose teachers used print references during storybook reading showed more advanced reading skills one and even two years later when compared to children whose teachers did not use such references.

Shayne Piasta

This is the first study to show causal links between referencing print and later literacy achievement.

"Using print references during reading was just a slight tweak to what teachers were already doing in the classroom, but it led to a sizeable improvement in reading for kids," said Shayne Piasta, co-author of the study and assistant professor of teaching and learning at Ohio State University.

"This would be a very manageable change for most preschool teachers, who already are doing storybook reading in class."

Joan Kaderavek
University of Toledo

Piasta conducted the study with lead investigator Laura Justice, professor of teaching and learning at Ohio State, as well as co-investigators Anita McGinty of the University of Virginia and Joan Kaderavek of the University of Toledo. Their results appear in the April 2012 issue of the journal Child Development.

The study is part of Project STAR (Sit Together And Read), a randomized clinical trial based at Ohio State to test the short- and long-term impacts associated with reading regularly to preschool children in the classroom.

The study involved more than 300 children in 85 classrooms who participated in a 30-week shared reading program. As a group, the children came from low-income homes, started with below-average language skills and were at substantial risk for later reading difficulties.

The children were separated into three groups: high-dose STAR (four reading sessions per week), low-dose STAR (two reading sessions per week) and a third comparison group who also had four reading sessions per week.

All teachers in the three groups read the same 30 books to their students.

Teachers in the two STAR groups were trained to make specific print references while reading the books.

Teachers in the comparison group were told to read as they normally would, and were not prompted to make print references.

Results showed that both one and even two years later, preschoolers in the high-dose STAR classrooms had higher word reading, spelling and comprehension skills than did children in the comparison group.

The benefits were not as clear for those in the low-dose STAR classrooms, although they did seem to have slightly better skills than those children in the comparison classrooms.

Piasta said it was particularly notable that students in the high-dose STAR classrooms scored higher on tests of reading comprehension.

"If you're getting kids to pay attention to letters and words, it makes sense that they will do better at word recognition and spelling," she said.

"But the fact that they also did better at understanding the passages they read is really exciting. That suggests this intervention may help them become better readers."

How do print references help preschoolers become better readers? Piasta said research suggests it helps children learn the code of letters and how they relate to words and to meaning.

"By showing them what a letter is and what a letter means, and what a word is and what a word means, we're helping them to crack the code of language and understand how to read," she said.

While this study shows the value of using print references with preschoolers, research suggests very few teachers and parents do this systematically, according to Piasta.

NB: STAR-1 has now been superseded by STAR-2

Dyslexia: Brain connectivity predicts reading skills

The growth pattern of long-range connections in the brain predicts how a child’s reading skills will develop, according to research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Literacy requires the integration of activity in brain areas involved in vision, hearing and language. These areas are distributed throughout the brain, so efficient communication between them is essential for proficient reading.

Jason Yeatman, a neuroscientist at Stanford University in California, and his colleagues studied how the development of reading ability relates to growth in the brain’s white-matter tracts, the bundles of nerve fibres that connect distant regions of the brain.

They tested how the reading skills of 55 children aged between 7 and 12 years old developed over a three-year period.

There were big differences in reading ability between the children, and these differences persisted — the children who were weak readers relative to their peers at the beginning of the study were still weak three years later.

The researchers also scanned the brains of 39 of the children at least three times during the same period, to visualise the growth of two major white-matter tracts: the arcuate fasciculus, which conects the brain's language centres, and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, which links the language centres with the parts of the brain that process visual information.

Differences in the growth of both tracts could predict the variations in reading ability. Strong readers started off with a weak signal in both tracts on the left side of the brain, which got stronger over the three years. Weaker readers exhibited the opposite pattern.

Read the full article here

Dyslexia: With Determination the Disadvantages can be overcome

He had a higher-than-average IQ, but his school exam results did not reflect it. In Cheah Xian Pin's words, he was "very confused and unsure of what was going on".

What it was, was dyslexia. It made reading a slow, difficult process for Mr Cheah, but that did not stop him from devouring an average of one book a week, at one point.

Now 21, he is pursuing an accountancy degree at the Nanyang Technological University and working part-time at accountancy firm KPMG. For his determination to overcome the odds, Mr Cheah was one of two youths recognised with a Young Achiever's Award by the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS).

Mr Cheah credited and thanked the teachers at DAS for being "there at my lowest point in life".

Shenlynn Lim, 20, also was diagnosed with dyslexia early on. She was then a shy girl with low self-esteem. "I struggled with my school work and did not score well in exams. My confidence took a huge beating whenever the class ranking was announced," she said.

Now chatty and confident, Ms Lim was awarded the Lien Foundation scholarship while doing a diploma in Child Psychology and Early Education at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. She has decided to working full time with DAS upon graduation.

"I hope that my humble achievement today will serve to inspire other dyslexic children. As long as you are willing to try and err, nothing is impossible," she said.

Good Writing Techniques Find a Perfect Platform in Thompsons New Book

Writing is an important communication tool that has proven its might and power to make a difference in the world. Closely, it is a way to express peoples thoughts and feelings and a medium to give clarity to any information they want to convey.

But writing is so diverse that one should be careful not to present any detail erroneously or insufficiently. Good writing techniques have found a perfect place for everyone's access in between the covers of author Geneva Anderson Thompsons The Rite to Write Right about Wright.

This is an educational book that will walk readers through the fundamentals of writing providing a substantial amount of tips and techniques on how to develop their writing skill.

A good writer is highly prized; therefore, it is important to know what is good writing. This book clearly defines the essential elements of good writing.

Here, Thompson underscores how presentation, clarity and professionalism can affect the writer's brandits as if they were the work itself and how their work can influence the opportunities in this field.

The book plausibly presents the importance of writing and shares good writing techniques to supplement the readers knowledge and help boost their aptitude.

It discusses on the importance of a powerful title and how to make the introduction of one's piece, win the interest of the reader.

It underscores the key components of a compelling body, one that comprehensively binds almost all important information the readers surely are going to find.

Moreover, grammar, punctuations, transitional words and phrases, commonly used words, and additional expressions are also emphasized in this book to ensure compact and indispensable information are well supplemented.

Compelling, very informative, easy to understand and very feasible, The Rite to Write Right about Wright offers readers the road map to good writing. This book is the first step toward becoming a master of ones own craft, a practical way to learn a simple but prize-winning writing strategy.

For more information on this book, interested parties may log on to www.Xlibris.com.

About the Author
Geneva Anderson Thompson is originally from Jamaica, West Indies, where she taught students at High School and Community College, respectively. Currently, shes teaching at a middle school in South Florida. She has always had a passion for writing. Publishing this book has been her dream. Her philosophy in life is, Just Write.

The Rite to Write Right about Wright (Amazon.co.uk) * by Geneva Anderson Thompson

Good Writing Tips

Publication Date: January 17, 2012

Trade Paperback; $ 15.99; 48 pages; 978-1-4691-4291-3

Trade Hardback; $ 24.99; 48 pages; 978-1-4691-4292-0

eBook; $ 3.99; 978-1-4691-4293-7

The D Word: Understanding Dyslexia TRAILER - YouTube

A dyslexic high school student pursues admission to a competitive college, a challenge for a boy that didn't learn to read until 4th grade.

Additional accounts of the dyslexic experience from children, experts, and Iconic leaders help us understand that dyslexia is as much a gift as it is a challenge.

Click on the picture to visit the D Word Movie Website

Skills Rocket: Reading Software - YouTube

Learn about the up-to-date software you can access on today's market to help you with reading.

Skills Rocket is a FREE e-learning website developed by Chartered Occupational Psychologist Nicola James.

Access a range of extra hints and tips for Adults with Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, AD(H)D and other Neuro Differences to help improve your reading skills. Simply register for free and watch your Skills Rocket!

Neuroimaging helps to predict which dyslexics will learn to read

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have used sophisticated brain imaging to predict with 90 percent accuracy which teenagers with dyslexia would improve their reading skills over time.

Their work, the first to identify specific brain mechanisms involved in a person's ability to overcome reading difficulties, could lead to new interventions to help dyslexics better learn to read.

"This gives us hope that we can identify which children might get better over time," said Fumiko Hoeft, MD, PhD, an imaging expert and instructor at Stanford's Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research. "More study is needed before the technique is clinically useful, but this is a huge step forward."

Hoeft is first author of a paper, which will be published online Dec. 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The senior author is John Gabrieli, PhD, a former Stanford professor now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dyslexia, a brain-based learning disability that impairs a person's ability to read, affects 5 to 17 percent of U.S. children. Affected children's ability to improve their reading skills varies greatly, with about one-fifth able to benefit from interventions and develop adequate reading skills by adulthood. But up to this point, what happens in this brain to allow for this improvement remained unknown.

Past imaging studies have shown greater activation of specific brain regions in children and adults with dyslexia during reading-related tasks; one area in particular, the inferior frontal gyrus (which is part of the frontal lobe), is used more in dyslexics than in typical readers. As the researchers noted in their paper, some experts have hypothesized that greater involvement of this part of the brain during reading is related to long-term gains in reading for dyslexic children.

For this study, Hoeft and colleagues aimed to determine whether neuroimaging could predict reading improvement and how brain-based measures compared with conventional educational measures.

The other exciting implication, Hoeft said, involves therapy. The research shows that gains in reading for dyslexic children involve different neural mechanisms and pathways than those for typically developing children. By understanding this, researchers could develop interventions that focus on the appropriate regions of the brain and that are, in turn, more effective at improving a child's reading skills.

Hoeft said this work might also encourage the use of imaging to enhance the understanding (and potentially the treatment) of other disorders.

"In general terms, these findings suggest that brain imaging may play a valuable role in neuroprognosis, the use of brain measures to predict future reductions or exacerbations of symptoms in clinical disorders," she explained.

The authors noted several caveats with their findings. The children were followed for two-and-a-half years; longer-term outcomes are unknown. The study also involved children in their teens; more study is needed to determine whether brain-based measures can predict reading progress in younger children.

Hoeft is now working on a study of pre-readers, being funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Journal Reference:

1. Fumiko Hoeft, Bruce D. Mccandliss, Jessica M. Black, Alexander Gantman, Nahal Zakerani, Charles Hulme, Heikki Lyytinen, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, Gary H. Glover, Allan L. Reiss, and John D. E. Gabrieli. Neural systems predicting long-term outcome in dyslexia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2010; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1008950108

Dyslexia - Get Ready to Read!

Get Ready to Read! is a 10 minute, 20 question, screening tool to help identify if your 4 year old children need help with the foundational language skills required to become good readers.

Children who are vulnerable can receive small group preventative instruction in letter recognition, letter-sound correspondences, rhyming, and segmenting and blending sounds.

Even brief daily interventions by volunteers with minimal training appear to result in substantial growth in language skills.

Speech and language therapists can be very adept at helping to remediate language delays in one to one or small group sessions.

The tool is designed to screen a child twice during the year before kindergarten. Use the tool first in the Fall or Autumn, one year before the child enters kindergarten, and again the next year or Fall, just before kindergarten begins, to measure the child's progress.

Don't use the tool more than three times in a year. It's not designed to measure small changes, and children develop new skills gradually.

Speech recognition, mobile apps help build reading skills

Students’ scores on a national reading assessment have remained relatively flat for nearly 40 years, with students ages 9-17 scoring an average of 255 points on a scale of 0 to 500. As educators work hard to bring that average up, many are excited about the potential for new technologies to help.

Some schools, for example, are using tools such as speech recognition technology to give students a personal reading coach inside the classroom. Others are taking advantage of mobile technology to help students build the skills they need for reading fluency in their spare time, wherever they might be, by downloading audio books or applications to their mobile phones or mp3 players.

“Technology changes the whole game,” said Matt Walker, vice president of sales and marketing for Recorded Books, a company that provides audio books and other products for schools.

Meanwhile, there is new research to suggest that this approach can be successful: A PBS study found that mobile applications can help increase students’ vocabulary. That could be welcome news for educators who have seen students’ reading scores remain largely flat in national exams.

Long-term trend results in reading from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are available on the National Center for Educational Statistics web site for 12 assessment years, going back to the first in 1971.

The average reading score for 9-year-olds was 220 points in 2008, increasing 4 points since 2004 and 12 points in comparison to 1971. While the average score for 13-year-olds in 2008 was higher than in both 2004 and 1971, it was not significantly different from the scores in some assessment years in between, at 260 points. The average reading score for 17-year-olds was higher in 2008 (286 points) than in 2004 (283 points) but was not significantly different from the score of 285 points in 1971.

Scientific Learning Corp.’s Reading Assistant software aims to change that. The program is a guided oral reading tool that is used to build fluency. The software uses speech verification technology to monitor for signs of difficulty in reading—which include hesitations, silence, mispronunciations, and other cues—and provides assistance when students stumble or get stuck.

“Reading Assistant was developed with the idea of bringing additional reading tutors to students through computers,” said Maura Deptula, projects manager for Scientific Learning. “The computer can listen to students the way a teacher can and prompt the student when he or she gets stuck.”

The software automatically calculates a student’s fluency rate, and there is a direct correlation between fluency and comprehension, said Liz Kline, product manager for Reading Assistant. The software not only helps teachers identify problem areas but also allows them to make sure each student’s reading has been assessed.

Read the full article here

17% of UK Adults have lowered Literacy Rate

One in six adults has lower literacy than the level expected of an 11-year-old, new research shows today.

It finds that only half of children enjoy reading, and that a quarter do not recognise any link between reading and success.

The report, Literacy: State of the Nation is the first coherent, national picture of reading and writing abilities, according to the National Literacy Trust.

It conducted a study of more than 17,000 pupils from 112 schools. Most read e-mails, blogs and websites more frequently than books, the survey suggests. However children who engage in technology are more likely to enjoy writing than their classmates.

Check out NLT's Reading for Life and Fun website

While literacy levels have risen among 11-year-olds in the past decade, they have plateaued in writing. Yet three-quarters of parents said their child often read for pleasure.

The report also analysed reading and writing in the workplace, and found widespread concerns.

Almost seven in ten retail firms and half of manufacturing companies reported problems with literacy among staff.

Check out the NLT's Reading for Younger Children website

Nearly two-thirds of men and three-quarters of women with very low literacy skills had never received a promotion, it found.

Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, said the findings were “extremely worrying”.

“We believe this should be of great concern to all political parties as reading for pleasure helps to develop strong literacy skills and ultimately, supports academic and future success,” he said.

“The Treasury estimated the cider tax will bring in £30 million. For just a tenth of this money the Government could establish which adults are most in need of literacy support and run a year-long campaign to support children and adults who are struggling with literacy.

“It is estimated that poor literacy costs the economy £2.5bn a year.”

Dyslexia: Music can Help Reading Skills

The part of the brain that interprets sound, known as the auditory cortex, responds faster in people with musical training and is better primed to pick out subtle patterns from the huge volumes of information that flood into the brain from our senses.

Neuroscientists have found that musicians benefit from heightened brain activity that allows them to process information from their eyes and ears more efficiently than non-musicians.

They found that the part of the brain that interprets sound, known as the auditory cortex, responds faster in people with musical training and is better primed to pick out subtle patterns from the huge volumes of information that flood into the brain from our senses.

Professor Nina Kraus, a neuroscientist and amateur musician at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has also found that this part of the brain plays a crucial role in reading.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego on Saturday, she called for music to become a more important part of school syllabuses to help children develop better reading and language skills.

She said: "There is a strong argument for more musical education, especially in schools.

"Our eyes and ears take in millions of bits of information every second and it is not possible for the brain to process all of that, so the sensory systems in our brains are primed to tune into regularities or patterns in the signals it receives.

"People who are musically trained are better at picking up these patterns because they learn to recognise notes and pitches within melodies and harmonies.

"The better you are at picking up these patterns in music, the better reader you are. This makes sense as letters and words on a page are really just patterns."

Professor Kraus and her team have used a method known as electroencephalography, which measures electrical activity in the brain, to examine how musicians and non-musicians brains respond to different stimulus.