Wednesday 16 July 2008

Reading gains

I was interested to have a look at what sort of gains were expected by Dyslexic children normally with just Language/phonological Support. I had another look at the Spellit Summary Report (not peer-reviewed) a research programme carried out by the Dyslexia Action Group. Taking another look at it, this is what I can glean from their report:-
Research design looks very similar to that of the Balsall Common Study i.e. not only Dyslexic children were chosen, they chose the lowest 10% in literacy, there was a cross over control group.

Results.

Home reading, age increased 9 months in 9 months - made no actual gains, remained as far behind as they were at the start.
Dyslexia Action, teaching made 11 months in 9 months - Caught up 2 months.
Combined, (Dyslexia action and Home reading) -not reported -disappointing results?
Waiting group, 6 months in 9 months- fell further behind their peers.


Now compare this to the gains Matthew has made,

Dore plus Home reading (+1 hr a week group support):-
29 months in 12 months.

I realise we are only 1 here, but know we are 1 amongst many who are seeing these gains. Another interesting factor was that children with specific verbal memory weaknesses and slow processing skils made less progress, and from what you can see from this blog (check previous Ed Psych reports) Matthew was in this catagory (OMG was he ever!).

Come on people there has to be something extra going on here. Why can't we have Dore plus phonological lessons for all Learning difficulties children? I admit it may not work for 100% of cases, but I think there would be absolutely no harm in trying it out for those who want to give it a chance. We need it in our education system ASAP.

Dore is currently being restructed, hopefully to make it substantially cheaper to run,allowing it to be available to a larger market and hopefully easier for our Government to embrace.

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