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 I had another look at the Spellit Summary Report (not peer-reviewed) a research programme carried out by the Dyslexia Action Group.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.

Concert today

We had a great concert this year, the 2 top classes together. All the children had a speaking part and Matthew got all his lines correct. Even better he was bright and alert, singing all the songs and getting the words correct, he was for the first time singing his heart out with a big smile on his face. HUGE difference.

New LSA

For the past few weeks Matthew has had a new and trianed LSA teaching him for his 1:1 within the class, I haven't met her and true to form the school hasn't let us know what's happening. Matthew informed me and at the school fayre I chatted to the TA who used to help him. She was sad to leave him, but says the new LSA is on her third module of specialist support, so good news. Matthew says all he sems to be doing at the momwnt is reading, but she has been removing him from concert practice to give him his required 5 hrs throughout the week, I'm sure when they get back in September she will be helping him within the class.

SEN Review- Neales Analysis of reading Ability

Here's Matthew review from the Language support teacher (weekly 1 hr group class) who does a reading test once a year, this test encompasses accuracy, fluency and comprehension. Here's the report

Click on pic for bigger image.
His reading score has improved by 2.5 yrs since July 2007. THe only problem is they haven't given us the actual age equivalent to the score, I saw the class teacher and she has promised to ask the LSA to phone me tomorrow.

PS found this write up on Primary Movement and Dyslexia while searching for informattion on the Neales test. There's a reasearch paper mentioned from the Lancet which I will have a look at when I have more time.

Swimming Success

Matthew tried for a distance badge last Sunday, the last one he swam was 400m.
He decided he would go for the 1 mile badge (1600m) as the week before he heard anohter boy talking about it. I'm pleased to say that he had no trouble at all, and was infact the first one to finish. He happily went around putting his thumb up every time he passed me and declaring that "he wasn't even out of breath yet" at 1000m mark. I can remember things when anything was too much of an effort.

More good news

Our new private tutor has been sorted out. A semi retired Dyslexia/Special Needs teacher living on our estate, so Matthew can walk around to her house. Amazingly her grandson has done the Dore programme, she is very pleased with his progress, also teaches 2 other boys who are doing the program and she can also see the progress they have made. She says undoubtedly the program is beneficial to these children
She tested out a good few things with Matthew such as Alphabet tested him on a few unusual spelling patterns and agree with me that the on the whole he is doing really well, she tried asking him the months of the year and could pick up on the slight hestitiation when asked what is the month 2 months before, although only a slight processing pause. She is going to work on the writing side of things, getting things ordered in his head and try some Mind Mapping. She can also work on the handwriting if we want (yes please) but says he is not as bad as she thought.

News about the Dore programme. Assessments have restarted at Kenilworth (Dore HQ) with more in local patrtnerships (don't really know what that means) to follow. Assessments are going to be shorter and less frequent, but with the help of MyDore hopefully this will make the programme more affordable. I'm very hopeful at this point that Dore will available to those who most require it.