I came away from the conference with some interesting books:

1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

a novel by Mark Haddon.

This is a real charmer of a novel about a bright and quirky boy, trying to solve the murder of a dog, who encounters many of the problems that misfits face in our society.  Anyone who has had contact with a child dealing with autism spectrum difficulties will recognize his literal way of thinking and his perplexities as he tries to understand the people around him.  You can’t help but love his honesty and earnestness, as he goes about solving his mystery.

2. Last Child in the Woods

Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder

By Richard Louv

Nature is essential for a child’s healthy physical and emotional development. The author cites a growing body of evidence linking the lack of nature in children’s lives and the rise in obesity, attention disorders and depression.  He describes a generation so plugged into electronic diversions that it has lost its connection to the natural world.  This topic ties in with research discussed in the conference about “softly fascinating environments”—I’ll summarize it later….

3.  Waging Peace in our Schools

by Linda Lantieri and Janet Patti

This book is about the largest and most successful school initiatives in social and emotional learning in the country—the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program, now active in more than 350 schools nationwide. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence says, “a model of emotional intelligence…I hope that every teacher and parent reads this and takes this superb advice to heart.”

4. Intelligence and How to Get It

Richard E. Nisbett

Intellect is not primarily genetic, but is principally determined by societal influences.  Intelligence is not fixed at birth—it is fragile and malleable. This concept has astounding implications for the role of education.  Parents and teachers are literally responsible for changing the brains of their charges—either for better or for worse.  This book is shocking and inspiring, expanding on the remarkable research of Hart and Risley in their groundbreaking study Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children.  Both books are a must-read for anyone interested in education.

In 1970, my husband and I took our two children, Matthew (13) and Melissa (11) on a voyage that lasted 18 months.  We sailed a 31-foot sloop from New Orleans to West Africa and down the coast as far as Ghana.  We did “school” as we went, and the children learned sailing, piloting, marine biology, and we stayed amidst other cultures for periods of time—the Azores (Portuguese), the Canaries (Spanish), Senegal (French) etc.

We needed the kids to take watches and help with activities like cooking and boat maintenance, so they learned lots of everyday skills about how to take care of themselves in the world.  As part of “school” we asked them to keep a log (diary) of their experiences.  I would make suggestions from time to time about their writing and help with spelling, grammar, etc.  We eventually published a book called “Voyage of Aquarius” (including the most interesting logs of all four of us) about the experience of crossing the ocean in a small boat.  But we never got around to publishing the story of our adventures going down the coast of Africa and 300 miles into the interior up the Gambia River.

Matthew wrote some fascinating entries that I have just compiled into a book for middle school students called ”Our Big Blue Schoolhouse”.  It includes some wonderful photos taken by Matt, a professional photojournalist. If you are interested in this book, you can email me at herron at talkingfingers dot com.

Is this something that parents should be concerned about?  I think so. And it is the responsibility of parents because most of this happens after school. But what can be done? Here are three ideas.  Maybe you have more, and can share them with our readers…

1. Model for your children.

Have conversations at dinner or before bed where you really pay attention to what they think about some issue.  Tell them what you’ve been thinking, and that you’re going to write it down so you won’t forget it. If they see you writing, if they see you putting thought into some letter to an editor or a politician, or a poem or song, or your diary, and you talk about why it’s important to you, they will follow your lead.  Let them see you pursuing new knowledge yourself. It’s good for the aging brain as well as the developing brain!

2. You can set limits on the media.

Best to start when your kids are young, before they become rebellious teen-agers!  If they don’t honor your limits, take the devices away!  Decide how much time you want them to spend on TV or video games, and then stick to it.

3. Provide some opportunities for challenging experiences.

During the year, set aside a few weeks for doing something completely different without bringing the media along. Maybe as a family you participate in community service and you’re learning about green ecology.  Maybe you help Habitat for Humanity build houses and you’re learning about construction, and measurement, and carpentry.  Maybe you take a vacation to one of our amazing national parks and you learn to camp in the wilderness.  Maybe you travel to another country and learn about another culture and language.

In 1970, my children were 11 and 13.  My husband and I were discouraged with the school system in New Orleans, and tired of arguing with our kids about TV time.  I’ll tell you what we did in my next blog post…

A new study put out by Kaiser Family Services tells us that children are using media like TV, music, and internet social media more than 7.5 hours a day—that comes to an average of 53 hours a week of mostly passive experience! Yes, they text, but what kind of thought goes into texting or tweeting?  Are their brains really processing and analyzing and digesting new information?  Unfortunately, no.

Using the brain fully requires a complete circuit—IN + PROCESSING-> OUT.  It’s the PROCESSING and the OUT that’s missing. The brains of this generation are not learning to think deeply or express thoughts in an articulate and reasoned way.  Thoughts are being expressed rapidly without reflection, and compressed into short sentences requiring the shallowest of thinking, the paltriest use of language.  Fewer connections are made in the brain, and there is little growth.  This lack of neural challenge occurs during a period of time when young brains should be developing and laying down millions of connective nerve pathways that will serve for a lifetime.

How many youngsters of this American generation could write a diary like Anne Frank, or letters like John Adams? Teachers in middle school, high school and college these days despair of getting their students to write even a cogent paragraph.

Writing should start in kindergarten and be required across the curriculum all the way through school. And writing should be encouraged and praised by parents at home. Putting words on paper (or screen) makes your thoughts visible.  It creates a space for them to sit while you think about what you’ve said.  There may be another way to say them that will be kinder, or more forceful, or more imaginative.  The words sit there waiting, while your brain sorts through many possibilities—A metaphor? A different word?  A punctuation mark? A more humorous phrase?

What should concerned parents do to limit media time, and to provide more stimulating and meaningful experiences to help their children grow smarter brains?  More in the next blog…and send me your ideas as well, as a comment reply to this post, I would love to hear and share them.

(The study mentioned here is not available on-line, but a similar study and article can be read here.)

Dear Jeannine,

I am now using Read, Write, and Type with a low-verbal, severely austistic ninth-grader here in my new state of South Carolina, with amazing results!

Her teachers had not thought that she could read or spell, and they have been put off by some of her behaviors.  It turns out that she has been frustrated, because the staff assumed she could not learn.  They were skeptical when I brought in my computer and started her on the program, but she took to it like a fish to water.  I add comprehension work to the story activities and encourage verbal imitation and responses.  We are almost half way through the program, and it is changing her entire curriculum- the teachers are now focusing on teaching her to read and write, which is increasing her communication skills- her parents are thrilled!  She was previously thought to be unable to sustain attention to any activity; however, with skilled support, she works on Read, Write & Type for 50 minutes, and I think would happily do more- Read, Write, and Type is changing her life.

I do not exaggerate the results from your programs, Jeannine.   Now, each week when I come in the door, she is visibly excited and independently brings pencil and paper and sits down to work; she then insists that we write in her communication book to home what we did on Read, Write & Type that day.  Best of all, the teachers now know she can read and spell words, decode simple sentences, copy the sentences from the stories and re-read them, write grocery lists and engage in real literacy learning activities at school.

But you know I have used the Talking Fingers programs successfully in many environments, both clinically and in school settings.  In fact, I have yet to find a student, thoughtfully placed, who did not respond to  Read, Write & Type..  Whenever I have an opportunity to provide a dyslexia evaluation, I include Read, Write & Type, and Wordy Qwerty in my recommendations for parents.

I am now serving a very poor, rural, southern school district as a speech-language pathologist.  This district needs to spend what little money they have very wisely for kids. Your programs are so economical compared to others!  I have shown some special educators the Talking Finger programs, and they would like me to spend some training time this January, showing them the program and sharing my results.

All the best for 2010!

Jane Coolidge, SLP-CCC

While Jeannine takes a break from blogging this holiday week, here are some good blog posts to check out:

• SchoolFamily.com has some great articles, like these:

• “Is my child reading at grade-level?”

• “Holiday traditions that improve reading and writing skills”

• The ASCD Community Blog assesses the “Language of Thinking” in this article, examining the words that teachers use in the classroom when teaching children.

• The Educator’s Royal Treatment blog asks, is teaching handwriting is a waste of time?

Wishing all of our readers a happy holiday season!

At this time of gift-giving, when money is tight, why not give your child a gift that won’t cost you anything but time and love, and will last a lifetime.  Here is a recipe for getting started:

There are 18 FREE decodable booklets in pdf form on our website.

Print out the first booklet “IS IT A CAT?”  Look at the first book together, and read it to your child.  But don’t try to have your child memorize the appearance of words or “read” the book until you have played together making words.

The secret of learning to read is understanding how to make words first! If your child can arrange letter tiles to create the words in the first booklet, he or she is well on the way to understanding how letters are used to represent the sounds in words—and that is the key to reading!

The main words in this booklet  (bat, rat, mat, hat, cat) use seven letters:

a       t        c        h        b        r        m

1. Create a page in your word processor with lots of these letters in large lower case letters, spaced so they can be cut out as letter tiles.  (72 pt Helvetica font is good),

2. Arrange three letters c, a, t on the table in front of your child

3. Look at the cat picture on the last page.

Ask: “Would you like to learn how to write the word cat?”

4. Have your child look in a mirror while saying the word cat.

Observe: “See how your mouth makes different sounds when you say cat?  You have to move your mouth and your tongue to make the different sounds.  These letters stand for the sounds you are making with your mouth.”

Take some time to repeat the separate sounds together:  “c”, “a”, “t”

5, Then arrange the letters c, a, t in sequence to spell out cat as you say the sounds.

“This letter says “c”, this letter says “a”, and this letter says “t”.

6. Mix up the letters and have your child arrange them to spell cat.

NOTE: YOU MAY NEED TO REPEAT THE ABOVE STEPS SEVERAL TIMES.

IF YOUR CHILD IS NOT HAVING FUN, STOP AND HAVE SOMETHING GOOD TO EAT TOGETHER!  THEN TRY AGAIN LATER.

7.  When your child is successful at arranging cat, try the word “at” or “tac”, again pronouncing each sound together and paying attention to what the mouth is doing.

8.  On another day, try cat, at, tac again. Repeat until this is successful.

9.  When you feel your child is ready for another sound and letter, add b to the three cat letters on the table.  Look at the picture of the bat on the first page of the book and talk about bats.  Find the “b” letter on the table.

Repeat the mirror game, while pronouncing the word “bat” and segment it into its separate sounds, “b”, “a”, “t”.

“To make the “b” sound, you press your lips together and pop the air out.”

Point out that “bat” sounds like “cat”, except for the first sound.  Arrange the word bat on the table and sound it out.  Then mix up the 4 letters and play with bat and cat and tab.

10.  Repeat with the other letters one at a time: h    r   m for hat, rat, and mat. You can read the booklet together—wait when you come to one of the words you have worked on to see if you child will read it.

Eventually you will add s   f and i (one at a time) for writing and reading the words in the second book “SASS HAS A FIT!” for Sass, has, fit, sit, etc.

Then with these nine letters you can write more words like sat, fat, bit, etc.  Always practice with the previous words before you proceed to new sounds and letters.  Make the sessions short and fun!

Our software, Read, Write & Type can add to the fun.

Try it for only $35 at www.talkingfingers.com. Check out our special holiday discounts as well, when you sign up for our email newsletter.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

“One of the most fundamental flaws found in almost all phonics programs, including traditional ones, is that they teach the code backwards.  That is, they go from letter to sound instead of from sound to letter.”

Louisa Moats, 1998

What do you think about this quote from Louisa Moats?

How do you teach phonics? Method A or B?  Why?

A. Print-to-Speech. Letters-to-sounds. Decoding.

Teach the alphabet song.

Associate 26 visual letters with their names.

Then teach letter sounds.

Decode a familiar word together, like CAT by identifying each letter, saying the sound that is associated with that letter, and blending the sounds together.  If the blended sounds resemble the word, the word is decoded as CAT.

Use flash cards to practice letter names, and words.

B. Speech-to-Print.  Sounds-to-letters. Encoding.

Start with a familiar spoken word, like CAT

Segment together the three sounds in the word.

From a few letter tiles, find the letters that stand for those sounds. Arrange the tiles to represent (encode) the sequence of sounds in CAT. Mix up the letters until the child arranges them correctly. Read the word. Discuss other words in the same family, like FAT or HAT.  By working with other Consonant-Vowel-Consonant words, eventually the child learns the letters that represent the 40 sounds of English.  Encode words first, then decode (read) what has been written.

How do YOU teach early reading?   Let’s have a discussion!

You have to remember what the letters look like….

You have to draw the letters….

You  have to erase…

You have to copy over…

Writing with a computer can make it easier…

You don’t have to draw the letters….just tap the right key.

You don’t have to erase…just delete and type over.

You don’t have to copy over…

You can read what you’ve written…

The text always goes from left to right…

Our English alphabet is a way of drawing sounds.

Words must be written before they can be read.

Why not start with writing?