This in itself is a very worthy cause, of course, but the site is also an absolute goldmine for parents: there are over 1600 reviews of children’s books, searchable alphabetically, by keyword, or by reading level; and there is an entire section on helping your child learn to read.

The site is beautifully put together, and easy to use, which is always a huge bonus in my book! All in all, it’s well worth bookmarking if there are kids in your life who you’d like to pass your love of book onto.

The scheme is called IMAC (Information sur les Marchés Agricoles par Cellulaire), and it allows users to access information about the relative market prices of agricultural products in a number of markets, via text message.  

Adult literacy in rural areas faces an inherent problem: the vast majority of rural villagers have managed to maintain their livelihoods since time immemorial without ever knowing how to read a single word. And what’s the point of literacy if there is no need for written materials?

Mamadou Issoufou, like 80% of people who live in rural areas, has access to a couple of different weekly markets where he can sell his millet. One market, Dogon Kirya, is 11 kilometres away;  the other, Doubélma, is 15 kilometres away. Mamadou usually opts to travel to Dogon Kirya, as it’s the closer of the two - but he knows that sometimes he could get a better price for his grain at Doubélma. If a fellow villager who travelled to Doubélma the previous week indicates that prices were better there than in Dogon Kirya, then Mamadou might decide to go the extra four kilometres - but he can’t be sure that he’ll get the same prices this week: he has to leave it to chance.

But if Mamadou had access to better, more up to date  information, he could make better choices on where to sell his goods. The mobile phone is a perfect device for transmitting information, and newly-developed technology, which allows you to have conversations via text message with large groups of people anywhere there’s a mobile signal, facilitates the dissemination of information to large groups of people. That technology is being introduced to Niger at the moment, alongside literacy-enhancement programmes, and the combination is allowing people to make informed economic choices, where before they were reliant on guesswork. 

And that is the point of promoting literacy in rural areas:  to increase access to information. Information about relative grain prices in the two markets may not be vital to Mamadou’s survival, but it certainly has the potential to improve his quality of life.

It’s called Reach Out and Read, and its mission is to make literacy promotion a standard part of paediatric primary care, by training doctors and nurses to advise parents about the importance of reading aloud, and giving books to children aged 6 months to 5 years when they attend paediatric checkups. The program was developed in the US (Boston, to be precise) in 1989 by paediatricians and early childhood educators, and it’s currently running in the US, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. To date, more than 50,000 doctors and nurses, working in a total of 4,535 hospitals and health centres, have been trained in strategies for early literacy guidance.

In the waiting room, displays, information, and books create a literacy-rich environment; and,

where possible, volunteer readers entertain the children, modelling for the parents the pleasures – and techniques – of reading aloud. About 6 million books are distributed to families via the scheme every year.

I know that the BookStart scheme here in the UK does something similar – they distribute packs of free books to every baby - but Reach Out and Read goes one step further: it encourages paediatricians to  “prescribe” reading time to promote literacy and to keep their patients on track developmentally. I think it’s really cool.

Chinese is fundamentally different to English in that it uses symbols for words rather than an alphabet representing the sounds in words.  Therefore the auditory processing deficit that we see so often in English-speaking children struggling to read, is not relevant in the same way.

However, they do have children who struggle to read and they seem to find it hard for the same reason as those with mild dyspraxia or neuro-developmental delay in English-speakers.

The article suggests that it is related to the amount of visual information that the child can process in a single saccade.  Saccades are the jumps the eyes make from one focus point to another.   Watch someone scan a room and you will see their eyes jumping from one static view to another.

I am not sure they are correct about that in general.   Our experience indicates that it is more likely to be a weakness in the motor control of the eyes than an inability to absorb the visual information.

Anyhow, here is the article:

- David

They are looking for entries from SENCos and non-specialist teachers working with young dyslexic people in the UK to demonstrate their school’s commitment to supporting and nurturing the strengths of dyslexic students.

 To enter, teachers simply have to submit a 350-400 word description of how they work to raise the awareness of dyslexia, and to establish a dyslexia-friendly environment at their schools.

 The closing date for the award is Friday 4th December 2009, so if you feel that your child’s school deserves recognition for the work they do towards making life easier for their dyslexic pupils, do encourage them to submit an entry.

 The first prize, worth more than £1,000, includes a Dell laptop and assistive technology software such as Mind Genius mind mapping software, Audio Notetaker, text-to-speech software ClaroRead, and VeritySpell for spell checking. Two runner-ups will receive the latest Toshiba G8 mobile phone and CapturaTalk scan and speak software.

 For more information about the Dyslexia-Friendly Best Practice Award and How to Apply, please visit www.dyslexic.com/award.

A lot of what we are doing during Easyread is to link the visual cortex to the auditory cortex.   That is quite an unnatural pairing and so does require effort to set up.   Most of the children displaying signs of dyslexia 12:01 trailer

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The article gives clear evidence of how necessary it is for the auditory cortex and linguistic areas of the brain to be involved in successful reading:

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Best wishes David

He makes 19 recommendations, but his two main points are first that dyslexia is related to reading difficulty and should not be expanded into other areas.   Here is his definition:

“Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling.

Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed. Urban Justice movie full Sydney aka Hard Eight download

Dyslexia occurs across the range of intellectual abilities.

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It is best thought of as a continuum, not a distinct category, and there are no clear cut-off points. Instinct to Kill the movie Jump In! movie

Co-occurring difficulties may be seen in aspects of language, motor co-ordination, mental calculation, concentration and personal organisation, but these are not, by themselves, markers of dyslexia.

A good indication of the severity and persistence of dyslexic difficulties can be gained by examining how the individual responds or has responded to well founded intervention.”

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This is a much cleaner and more relevant definition than many that you see and I agree with it entirely.

The other key point of his report is that we need proper expertise within the schools:

“First: There should be up to date, accessible information about literacy difficulties available for all teachers so they can adjust their teaching for children with dyslexia

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It seems amazing that it has taken 30 years for this to be recognised.

The only way to help children who struggle to read is to understand why that individual is struggling and then treat the underlying cause.   Anything else is likely to fail the child.   And the cost of that is huge for both the child and the rest of us.

Easyread is designed to deal with the underlying causes of reading difficulty and dyslexia.

To read more on Sir Jim’s report, go to this link

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It makes Easyread look pretty good value!

The results achieved by adult literacy programmes are usually pitiful.  They are almost always based on a weekly or fortnightly lesson, which just sets the person up for a further failure.

At the Shannon Trust (www.shannontrust.org.uk) We successfully teach adults to read in prison because they do a short daily lesson.

Anything else is a waste of time and effort.   And it is worse than that because it confirms the original failure in the mind of the individual.

- David

- David

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