Three Types of Struggling Readers with Three Different Solutions

Three Types of Struggling Readers with Three Different Solutions

There are three types of Struggling Readers (Wolf, 1999).  Learning about each type, will help you understand and instruct your Struggling Reader more effectively.

1. Struggling Readers with Phonological Processing Challenges

A Struggling Reader in this category has difficulties with phonological awareness and/or phonological processing.  Simply stated, this student has difficulties recognizing, blending and segmenting sounds without letters.  For example:

·        Blending sounds together can be slow and laborious

·        Segmenting (pulling apart) sounds is difficult

·        Patterns and sounds in words are not often recognized  (rhyming,
        categorizing)
SOLUTION:  Cognitive training focusing on Working Memory.  Our working memory stores phonological information (auditory) and letter patterns (visual) long enough for students to work with the information.  Here is a model of Working Memory created for a workshop.

2. Struggling Readers with Rapid Naming Challenges

A Struggling Reader in this category usually has the ability to read words fairly accurately, but is painfully slow.   Naming speed skills are critical for fluency and achieving comprehension.

·        Often has difficulty “thinking up” the word

·        Has many stops, starts and hesitations while reading  

·        Becomes easily tired when reading…reading is hard work!

SOLUTION:  Cognitive training focusing on Processing Speed and Scanning
Skills.  Processing speed can be improved!  Scanning skills and details are 
critical for reading quickly

3.  Struggling Readers with both Phonological and Rapid Naming

    Challenges

A Struggling Reader is this category has BOTH phonological and rapid naming challenges.

* Difficulty understanding sounds with and without letters

* Is inaccurate and slow when reading

* Is easily exhausted when reading short passages

* Has poor comprehension

Many Struggling Readers with phonological and rapid naming challenges have poor comprehension because of their lack of fluent reading ability (Wolf, 2007).  Research indicates that fluent (smooth, effortless, automatic) readers comprehend reading passages accurately, however less fluent readers must focus their attention primarily on decoding and retrieval of individual words. Therefore, they have little attention or effort left for comprehension.

SOLUTION:  Cognitive training focusing on Working Memory, Processing Speed and Scanning Skills.

Listen to one of our grateful moms:  

“My child was very behind when he started first grade and in a matter of a few short months, Ms. Carleen has him reading and more focused! He is also less apt to frustration or anger. Not only am I grateful for Ms. Carleen, but even my kids also say that they are thankful for her.” ~Joelle P

Carleen M. Paul owns Skills for Success Learning, an online educational company providing students with the latest services in Educational Neuroscience. She can be reached at 951.858.1643 or SkillsForSuccessLearning.com

A Reading Strategy from Neuroscience

What is the best way to teach reading?

Ask any 20 educators this question, and you may receive 20 different answers.  The controversy over how to teach reading has been around for decades and continues to be relevant today. 

As the field of Educational Neuroscience (the blending of brain research and educational research into a new scientific field) continues to grow, our knowledge of how our brain learn becomes better understood.

A study co-authored by Professor Bruce McCandliss published in Brain and Language from Stanford Neuroscience Institute provides some of the first neurological-reading evidence. Learning specific neurological teaching strategies is of great importance to students and teachers.

The Study

In this study, researchers devised a new written language and divided several students into two groups for instruction.  In one group, the students were taught to read using a letter-to-sound instruction (/c/ …. /a/ …. /t/) method.  The other group was instructed to read using a whole-word association (‘cat’) method.  After learning multiple words under both approaches, these words were presented in a reading test while brainwaves were monitored.

The Results

The visual brain mapping techniques used in this study showed various parts of the brain activated while reading.  Students in both instructional groups learned to read words, but the brain map showed students’ learning took place in different areas.  It was determined that newly learned words were influenced by how they were taught; not just what students were taught.

The Significance

Students in the letter-to-sound instructional group showed activity on the left side of the brain, which activates the visual and language regions.  During early word recognition, the left side of the brain is activated for skilled readers.  According to McCandless, “Ideally, this is the brain circuitry we are hoping to activate in beginner readers.”

Students in the whole word instructional group learned sufficiently to recognize particular words on the reading test, but the underlying brain circuitry was impaired.  Instead of using the left hemisphere, these students engaged the right side of the brain - which is characteristic of children and adults who struggle with reading.

The Conclusion

According to McCandliss, “It’s like shifting the gears of the mind – when you focus your attention of different information associated with a word, you amplify different brain circuits.”

McCandliss also stated, “If children are struggling, even if they’re receiving phonics instruction, perhaps it’s because of the way they are being asked to focus their attention on the sounds within spoken words and links between those sounds and the letter within visual words.”

The Application

When applying the results of the study, the best strategy to insure students are “focusing attention on the sounds” is to implement Phonemic Awareness instruction, the ability to detect sounds in words.  Focusing on the sounds within each word will help students activate the visual and language areas of the brain needed for reading success.

Carleen M. Paul owns Skills for Success Learning, an online educational company providing students with the latest services in Educational Neuroscience. She can be reached at 951.858.1643 or www.SkillsForSuccessLearning.com

Wong, May. (2015, May 20). Standford study on brain waves shows how different teaching methods affect reading development. Retrieved from https://news.stanford.edu/2015/05/28/reading-brain-phonics-052815/

Three Cognitive Skills Needed for Reading

Three Cognitive Skills Needed for Reading

It has been well documented that Phonemic Awareness, the ability to detect sounds in words, is the foundation for learning to read.  

But what if the student can’t “hear” the sounds or remember the sounds long enough to blend them together?

A closer look into the student’s cognitive skills may provide the answer.

There are three cognitive skills that must be adequately developed, if reading skills are going to improve:  Attention, Working Memory and Processing Speed skills.

Attention

Our Attention allows us to choose which stimulus (thought) to focus on.  If a student has the ability and energy for sustained focus, learning can take place.   However, if a student cannot sustain focus, learning is disrupted.  For many students, sustained focus during learning can be painful.  It is quite easy to understand why students often choose an alternative stimulus (thought) to focus on.

Working Memory

Our Working Memory allows us to hold language and visual stimuli (information) in our minds long enough for us to “work” on the stimulus (thought).   Blending sounds together depend on an effective Working Memory; the sounds (stimuli) are held in working memory long enough to “work” on them. Blending sounds can be challenging when the Working Memory becomes overloaded.

Processing Speed

Processing Speed is the pace at which a student takes in a stimuli (information), tries to make sense of the stimuli and then begins to produce a response.  A student with Slow Processing Speed may see the word ‘cat’ and then slowly begins to “sound-out” the word (/c/…../a/…../t/).  The student must then figure out how to blend the sounds together and then say the word (cat).  If the Processing Speed is slow, it will reflect in the lack of automaticity needed for independent reading.

Training Cognitive Skills

Neurologists have long known that Attention, Working Memory and Processing Speed skills can be improved through “neuro-plasticity,” or making new connections in our brain.  Educators begin looking into recent neurological research to explain learning challenges and soon Educational Neuroscience was born.  As a relatively new science, Educational Neuroscience bridges the gap between neuroscience and education by applying what has been learned in neuroscience to education.

Results

Educational Neuroscience is changing the way teachers are instructing and students are learning.  Just this morning, I re-assessed a 7-year-old student. It was only a few weeks ago, he could not blend two syllables into a word.  Today after training his Attention, Working Memory and Processing skills, he had better focus and was able to blend multiple sounds together with 90% accuracy.  Simply Amazing!

Carleen M. Paul owns Skills for Success Learning, an online educational company providing students with the latest services in Educational Neuroscience. She can be reached at 951.858.1643 or SkillsForSuccessLearning.com