+ Central Ohio: Advanced Decoding Workshop in August

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COBIDA (the Central Ohio Branch of the International Dyslexia Association) enthusiastically presents William Van Cleave MA, author of the book  ”Word Smarts: Morphology Development and Advanced Decoding.“

The book, Word Smarts: Morphology Development and Advanced Decoding is called a reference manual for Orton-Gillingham teachers and tutors.

This workshop picks up where basic word attack leaves off.   Most schooling provides nuts and bolts decoding instruction only at the earliest primary level.

In fourth or fifth grade, students are presented with textbooks filled with much longer words words than they’ve ever seen.  In early high school the complexity increases dramatically.

Students with reading problems — even if they received effective basic phonics instruction — often don’t have the strategies to handle this level of difficulty and may give up, finding the texts impenetrable.

Workshop Description

In this workshop participants will examine the origins of our language, learn about the characteristics of the major languages that influenced English, and grapple with basic word parts (morphology).  They will gain effective tools for instructing students at this level.

Students who have plateaued — or who may even  despair that they will ever “figure it out” — will benefit when given this kind of eye-opening information!

Register early.

• Tuesday and Wednesday August 7 + 8, 2012
• 8:30 am – 4:00 pm (registration begins 7:45 am)
• Workshop fee: $250 / $195 IDA member
• OCLC Conference Center, 6500 Kilgour Pl, Dublin OH 43017

Fee includes a box lunch and a copy of William Van Cleve’s book.

Register at http://www.cobida.org.  Questions: info@cobida.org.

Orton-Gillingham tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021  or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ ADHD: Therapy Better Than Drugs?

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Since the 1970s, stimulant drugs have been seen as the dominant way to help ADHD students focus.  But research now suggests that behaviorally-based changes are more effective in the long run.

An  article in Scientific American on May 15 2012 reports that a new synthesis of behavioral, cognitive and pharmacological findings emerged when experts in ADHD research presented their work at an Experimental Biology meeting in San Diego.

The findings suggest that behavioral and cognitive therapies focused on reducing impulsivity, and reinforcing positive long-term habits, may be able to replace current high doses of stimulant treatment in children and young adults.

Recently, surveys have shown that 9 percent of all children in the US have been diagnosed with ADHD.  The core symptoms of ADHD include hyperactivity, inattention, inability to perform monotonous tasks, and a lack of impulse control.

Such children have difficulty in school as well as in forming relationships.  Nearly sixty percent will continue to suffer from the disorder well into adulthood.

By 2007, 2.7 million children were being treated with stimulant drugs.  Psychologist Claire Advokat of LSU has looked into the effects of stimulant medications in college students.  She is interested in finding what improves with medication and what does not.

She found, to begin with, that people diagnosed with ADHD have lower grades and lower ACT scores.  In addition, they drop more courses than their peers.

She also found that these issues were not improved by stimulant medication treatment.

Instead, Advokat discovered that — naturally — ADHD students divided into those who had good study habits and those who did not, regardless of treatment.  It appeared that those with good study habits did not need medication to bolster their grades.

She hypothesizes that it is not that medication has no effect, but that “it may be that the medication can help, not in helping you remember, but in helping you form the good study habits.”  Her findings suggest that if ADHD patients could learn good study habits early on, medication would become less necessary.

Other research examined the role of behavioral interventions, not only for children, but also for their parents.

Parents of children with ADHD exhibit more parenting-related stress and difficulties than parents of students who are not afflicted.  After training parents in stress management, and giving them behavioral tools to help their children, says psychologist Bill Pelham of Florida International University, he and his colleagues saw significant improvement in the youngsters’ ADHD-related behavior, such as  frequency of classroom disturbance.

Pelham has also shown that behavioral therapy  for the children themselves produces equivalent results to those seen from medication.  He feels that his data suggests that a lower drug dosage, combined with behavioral therapy, may provide a far better outcome  than either medication or therapy alone.

Additionally Julie Schweitzer and colleagues, at the MIND Institute at UC Davis, published  a 2011 PLoS ONE paper, with results showing extra activity in brain areas associated with “task-irrelevant” information during working memory tasks.  It appears that such students have less efficient cognitive control.  Schweitzer’s recent work indicates that cognitive therapy could improve control, thereby potentially reducing the need for medication to “drown out” extraneous information.

At the San Diego meeting, Advokat, Schweitzer, Pelham and others agreed that behavioral therapies deserve renewed focus.  Therapies come with no drug tolerance; they offer no fear of subsequent substance abuse.

The trick, they feel, will be in identifying which of the new therapies are most effective and, additionally, making those therapies affordable.  While stimulant medications are much cheaper and faster at the moment, the “long run” is what matters most to those involved.

Visit: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=adhd-behavioral-therapy-more-effective-drugs-long-term&print=true

Orton-Gillingham tutoring in Columbus OH: Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com 

+ Direct Instruction or Minimal Guidance — Which is More Effective?

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For fifty years, the question of how much instructional guidance to provide has been hotly debated.  An article by Paul A Kirschner, John Sweller and Richard E Clark, published in Educational Psychologist (2006), contends that — based on what is known of human cognitive architecture — Minimal Guidance (discovery learning/inquiry-based learning/experiential learning/constructionist learning)  approaches do not work as well as Direct Instruction with scaffolding.

Minimal Guidance has variously gone under all those names.

In such Minimal Guidance instruction, for example, a student in a science class may be asked to discover fundamental principles of science by simply modeling the investigatory activities of professional researchers.

Similarly, medical students can be asked to discover medical solutions for common patient problems using problem-solving techniques.

Two main assumptions underlie these minimal guidance programs.  First,  in information-rich settings, students are challenged to solve “authentic” problems or acquire complex knowledge.  The assumption is that having learners construct their own solutions leads to the most effective learning experience.

Second, it is assumed that knowledge is best acquired through experience based on the procedures of the discipline (for example, seeing the pedagogical content of the learning experience as identical to the methods and processes or epistemology of the discipline being studied).

Those who advocate for this approach feel that direct instructional guidance —  which would provide or embed learning strategies in instruction — interferes with the natural processes by which learners draw on their own unique prior experience and learning styles to construct new situated knowledge and thus  achieve their goals.

They say that large amounts of guidance — while it may produce good performance during practice — impairs later performance.

Human Cognitive Architecture 

To the contrary, Kirschner, Sweller and Clark declare that minimally guided instruction makes no reference to what is known of the characteristics of working memory and long-term memory, or of the complex relations between them.

“Long-term memory” is viewed as the central, dominant structure of human cognition. Everything we see, hear and think about is critically dependent on, and influenced by, our long-term memory.

For example, research on chess expertise suggests that expert problem solvers derive their skill by drawing on the extensive experience stored in their long-term memory;  they then quickly select and apply the best procedures for solving  problems.

Any instructional recommendation that does not/cannot specify what has been changed in long-term memory — or that does not increase the efficiency with which relevant information is stored in or retrieved from long-term memory — is likely to be ineffective.

“Working memory” is the cognitive structure in which conscious processing occurs. This is where new information is taken in.  Working memory has two well-known characteristics —  1) limited duration and 2) limited capacity — that must affect the processing of novel information.

Almost all information stored in working memory, if not rehearsed, is lost within 30 seconds.

And the capacity of working memory is limited to approximately seven elements (it may be as few as four).  In addition, when processing (as opposed to storing) information, the number of items that can be processed may be only two or three.

The limitations of working memory — small number of items, brief period of time — only apply to new, yet to be learned information that has yet to be stored in long-term memory.

Conversely, when working with previously learned information, there are no limitations as to amount of information, and access is possible over indefinite periods of time.

The authors feel that any instructional theory that ignores the limitations of working memory, or that ignores the fact that familiarity with information eliminates those limitations, is certainly going to be ineffective.  ”Problem solving,” or “inquiry-based instruction,” places a huge burden on working memory.

Human cognitive architecture has implications for instruction.

The goal of instruction is rarely simply to search for or discover information.  The goal is to give learners specific guidance about how to cognitively manipulate information in ways that are consistent with a learning goal, and store the result in long-term memory.

Substantial research undergirds the thesis that Direct Guidance is much more effective instruction than Minimal Guidance approaches.

One study  found that in science classrooms with pure discovery methods, students became lost and frustrated; they were prone, therefore, to misconceptions.

Another research group found that because false starts are common in such learning situation, unguided discovery is inefficient at best.

Yet another investigation found, unambiguously, that learning with direct instruction — involving considerable guidance, including examples — resulted in vastly more learning than discovery-based instruction.

For more information, visit http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/fss/2006-1214-211848/kirschner_06_minimal_guidance.pdf 

Orton Gillingham tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com 

+ LDA Conference February 13-16 2013 Call For Proposals

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The Call for Proposals is now open for the Learning Disabilities Association (LDA)  50th Annual International Conference, which will be held in San Antonio Texas on February 13-16, 2013.

If you do not already have an account, it’s free and easy to create.  Once you have created your account and logged in, submit your proposal through their secure website: https://precisionconference.com/~lda/.

Deadline for submissions is May 15, 2012.

For more information about the conference visit http://ldaamerica.org/conference/index.asp

Orton-Gillingham tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com 

+ Preschoolers Reading: One Modest Change Helps

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A Science Daily article reports on research done at Ohio Satate University which suggests that a small change in how teachers and parents read aloud to preschoolers can give children a big boost in later reading skills.

If parents and teachers simply make specific references to print in books as they read — pointing out letters or words or capital letters, showing that we read from left to right — a benefit shows up later on in school.

The study shows that preschool children whose teachers used print references during storybook reading showed more advanced reading skills one — and even two — years later, compared to children whose teachers did not use such references.

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

Shayne Piasta, co-author of the study and assistant professor of teaching and learning as OSU says

Using print references during reading was just a slight tweak to what teachers were already doing in the classroom, but it led to a sizable improvement in reading for kids.

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

Piasta, along with Laura Justice, professor of teaching and learning at OSU, as well as Anita McGinty of the University of Virginia and Joan Kaderavek of the Univerity of Toledo, will publish the results in the April 2012 issue of the journal Child Development.

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

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

How Do Print References Help Future Readers?

According to Piasta, research suggests print references help children learn the code and how these details 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.

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sole source: un-bylined article at www.sciencedaily.com.  Journal reference: Shayne B Piasta, Laura M Justice, Anita S McGinty, Joan N Kaderavek, “Increasing Young Children’s Contact With Print During Shared Reading: Longitudinal Effects on Literacy Achievement.” Child Development, 2012; DOI: 10.1111/j1467-8624.2012.01754.x  

Orton Gillingham Tutoring in Columbus Ohio: Adrienne Edwards 614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com 

+ Autism Science Moving “Stunningly Fast”

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From an article in USA TODAY by Liz Szabo, we learn that the quest to unravel the mystery of autism has become more urgent.  Autism is more widely diagnosed; today the condition is affecting one in 88 children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Researchers feel that for the first time they are making progress  in understanding the autistic brain.  Thanks to work with real autistic children, scientists are getting a glimpse of what might go wrong in early development, according to researcher Sarah Paterson, developmental psychologist at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia.

And Kevin Pelphrey, associate professor of child psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center, says the latest research gives him hope for therapies, even therapies that can reshape children’s brains.  ”Treatment can have effects even very late.  It’s not a lost cause at all.”

Much of the progress is a result of parents who have pushed for funding that is now bearing fruit.

Technological advances in imaging, stem cell research, gene sequencing and computing have opened doors.  Robert Schultz, director of the Center for Autism Research at Children’s Hospital, says that in only a few years, it will be cheaper to sequence an autistic child’s genetic blueprint than to perform an intensive, one-on-one behavioral examination.

Many Problems, Not Just One

Autism is now commonly regarded not as a single condition but as a puzzle with multiple pieces, and none of them appear to fit together to form a recognizable picture.  The condition seems to be a group of related disorders with similar symptoms but different causes.

Thomas Insel, director of the National Institutes of Mental Health, says that if you’re looking at an autistic child’s whole brain, “you would be amazed at how normal their brains look.”  So doctors are zooming in deep.  They’re looking at the “wiring” between brain regions and the spaces between cells, where chemical messages are sent.

Other researchers have “created” brain cells in the lab: they transform ordinary skin from autistic children into stem cells and then coaxing them to morph again into neurons.  This approach allows doctors to examine the microscopic spaces between brain cells, called synapses, the place where chemical messages are sent.

Ricardo Dolmetsch, associate professor of neurobiology at Stanford, says “This is the very beginning of a revolution.”

sole source is Liz Szabo’s article at www.usatoday.com on April 8, 2012.

Orton-Gillingham tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards 614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com.

+ Columbus Summer Camp: Speech/Language Activities

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Northrup and Associates Summer 2012 programs will offer

• ARTiculation, using creativity and artistic exoression to focus on  sound  remediation (grades 2 and above). Individual or group sessions are available. Activities will involve oral motor exercises, auditory discrimination tasks, computer programs, and traditional articulation tasks.  Current speech therapy plans and/or IEPs would be helpful, they say.
• Summer Book Clubs,  offers two options: “Reading and Reels” (books that became films), and the “Unbook Club” during which students will use ebooks and reading software.  These will be grouped by age and reading level.  Talk will be directed getting the big picture, picking out key points, completing chapter summaries, making predictions/inferences.
• Building Executive Skills,  which grow as a child grows.  Both individual and group sessions available.  These will be structured with awareness of the developmental aspect in mind.  It will address attention, working memory, response inhibition and emotional control.
• Make Your MARC!  For students with strong decoding skills, this focusses on math and reading comprehension strategies.  Sessions will address reading comprehension of written passages and math word problems.  A variety of methods will be used including Lindamood-Bell’s “Visualizing and Verbalizing.”  Before math calculations can be made, students have to recognize key words, match corresponding operations with key words, and read with understanding the language embedded in story problems.
• F l U e N c y  is a fun, holistic approach to fluency.  Strategies such as decreasing tension and struggle during stuttering moments, working to decrease avoidances, and learning more about stuttering will help to increase effective communication.  The operative word is FUN.
• EASEL is a support program that assists with foundational concepts.  Sessions include aspects of Orton-Gillingham and Lindamood-Bell programs, using rhyming, letter/sound correlation, sound/oral placement correlation, auditory attention and awareness, and phonological awareness.  For students who have completed Pre-K, Kindergarten or 1st grade.  Group Session 1: June 25-29 from 9:30 to 11:30 daily; Group Session 2: August 6-10 from 9:30 to 11:30 daily.
• SLY   (Social Language for Youth) is for students who struggle with social situations.  Sessions highlight topics that will expand social thinking.  Activities include discussion, games and role-playing.SLY offers a safe and structured place in which to practice new and unfamiliar social language skills and gradually expand the student’s comfort zone.  The goal is to help children transfer learned skills in a structured setting to a social setting which is less structured.

Contact www.northrupandassociates.com, or call 614-864-6620.  Northrup and Associates are located at 6422 East Main Street, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068, and also 130 North Woods Blvd, Suite B, Columbus OH 43235.

Orton-Gillingham tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards 614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com