March/April - All Special Kids

ASK
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
MARCH/APRIL 2008
Dear Friends,
Contents
READING
A Word from the Editor
1
Reading instruction & the 2
Brain
ISSUE NO.10
3/4/5
Disclaimer
5
Geneva View Point
6
Monthly Kid’s Social
(Ski outing)
C.A.R.E. Program
7
Summer Camp
8/9
ASK Geneva Calendar
10
ASK Bern Calendar
10
When ASK started in 2003, three
mothers, Jane Howard, Loute
Banchenna and Joy Tong, were simply
looking for ways to help our own children. We have come a long way from
that humble beginning, as several
dedicated parents have joined ASK
over the past five years making ASK
what it is today. No one could have
ever imagined the positive impact we
would have on so many families arriving in Switzerland since then with
the same needs as us three mothers.
However, we cannot sit on our laurels
and think that this is the limit of
what we can achieve. We have many
more hills to climb if we are to obtain a better life for our special
kids; to become productive young
adults, to assimilate into society with
an understanding, respect and dignity that they all deserve.
In 2003, ASK's main mission and goal
was to assist and meet the needs of
the English speaking parents' community. Now we are also providing
support to parents with special
needs children in the French and
German speaking school systems,
with the Bern Chapter formed last
year and the Zurich Chapter pending.
Wade and his beautiful daughter Bella
With the growing need of support to
parents of local school children looming, ASK plans on reaching out to local organizations to partner in our
efforts to continue providing support to the families and especially
the special kids to obtain a better
understanding and appropriate support in the local school setting.
ASK needs your help to make known
in your organizations the assistance
you are receiving from us, so that we
can begin raising funds to support
our programs and activities and expand our assistance to as many special need kids of every age, any level
of learning difficulties and in every
language.
As always, ASK - we are here to help
Joy and the newsletter team
ASK - All Special Kids
case postale N°147
2-4 Ch. de la Tourelle
1200 Genève 19
“Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet
voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow.”
http://www.allspecialkids.org
info@allspecialkids.org
Mary Anne Radmacher
2
READING INSTRUCTION AND THE BRAIN
“When learning new words,
either the
brain’s upper
or lower circuits can be
used. For
reading words
in isolation the
most effective
approach is
decoding the
words using
the upper
circuit”
Educationalists have developed
different methods for teaching the
brain to read based on observations
and more recently through guidance
from educational research. Today,
with the help of brain imaging,
neuroscientists can now directly study
how reading instruction can influence
the brain’s reading development. They
can also separate out components of
the reading system and consider the
most effective ways to teach reading.
When learning new words, either the
brain’s upper or lower circuits can be
used. For reading words in isolation
the most effective approach is
decoding the words using the upper
circuit. However, the lower circuit
plays an important role in working out
new words based on meaning or
contextual learning. Often the brain
uses a combination of these two
circuits, which involves partial
decoding in a search to find a word
that fits with the meaning of the
sentence as well as with the letter/
sound relationships of the word.
Phonics and Whole Language
There are two popular ways to teach
reading. One is phonics, which teaches
children to recognise individual letter
sounds. The other is whole language,
which teaches children whole words
within a meaningful context. These
two teaching approaches target
different circuits in the brain.
Phonics instruction stimulates the
brain’s upper circuit. This circuit
processes individual letter shapes in
the back of the brain and connects
these to letter sounds in the front of
the brain. Whole language activates the
brain’s lower reading circuit. This
circuit processes whole word shapes in
the back of the brain and connects
these to word pronunciations in the
front of the brain.
Whereas the upper circuit contains a set
of rules that can be used to decode new
words, the lower circuit stores
vocabulary so that a word can be
recognised in an instant when seen again.
As we become fluent readers we rely
less on the upper circuit, as most of the
words we read are stored in the lower
circuit. The upper circuit is useful for
learning new words, as it provides a
strategy apart from meaning for
deciphering the pronunciation of a word.
It analyses the visual features of a new
word and then calculates the most likely
pronunciation based on the rules of
letter/sound relationships.
Although no instructional method is
purely phonetic (no exposure to
contextual print) or purely whole
language (no decoding instruction), these
two methods develop different ways of
reading unknown words. The phonics
approach encourages decoding the word
in an effort to calculate the most likely
pronunciation. The whole language
approach also encourages predicting the
unknown word’s pronunciation, but based
on the meaning of the sentence and its
context within the story. While unknown
words read in isolation must be decoded
for calculating the most likely
pronunciation, unknown words read in
context can either be decoded or
3
BY DR. DUCAN MILNE (PAGE 2)
predicted based on meaning clues. Research with electroencephalography
(EEG) shows that the brain predicts
words in a sentence based on meaning.
When reading a sentence that doesn’t
quite make sense, the brain will respond
to the word that doesn’t belong. These
are known as semantically incongruent
words. For example, when reading the
sentence ‘He spread the warm bread
with socks,’ it is the word ‘socks’ that
produces the inconsistency. Four hundred milliseconds after the word socks
is presented, the brain responds: “Wait
a minute, something’s not quite right
here,” and a negative electrical potential
is produced. This demonstrates that
the brain uses meaning when reading
words in context to help predict the
likely pronunciation of an unknown word.
Individual learning differences bring the
phonics/whole language debate into
question. A fundamentalist whole language or phonics programme neglects
the instruction of either the upper or
lower circuit. While some children can
develop untaught skills implicitly, most
children need explicit instruction. Fundamentalist teaching of phonics or whole
language does not cater for all learning
needs and leads to reading disparities.
Children within the classroom have
mixed abilities and are at different developmental stages.
Some will need
phonics as a means of decoding new
words quickly whereas others will already understand letter/sound relationships and demand contextual text.
Teachers should therefore combine a
balance of phonics and whole language
instruction depending on the individual
needs of the children they are teaching.
Without providing a balanced mix of
phonics and whole language instruction,
there is a risk that irregularities will
develop between the relative strengths
and weaknesses of the upper and lower
reading circuits. Children who only receive phonics instruction will have difficulties identifying words within meaningful text, a function of the brain’s lower
circuit, but will decode words using the
upper circuit with relative ease. Children only receiving whole language instruction will have problems sounding out
new words using the brain’s upper circuit, but will develop good contextual
reading skills using the lower circuit.
Synthetic and Analytic Phonics
There are two methods for teaching
phonics – synthetic phonics and analytic
phonics.
Synthetic phonics teaches the 44 sounds
of the English language together with
corresponding letter relationships. This
method is effective as it provides a tool
for decoding any new word. However,
some children can have problems identifying phonemes, as they are very small
units of sound. This is quite understandable considering the artificial nature of
phonemes themselves.
For example,
some phonemes such as /b/ are impossible to pronounce on their own without
adding the ‘uh’ sound. Nevertheless, the
ability to manipulate individual sounds
and letter relationships is a significant
predictor of future reading performance.
Analytic phonics makes use of word
stems in words the brain has already
“Four hundred
milliseconds
after the word
socks is presented, the
brain responds:
“Wait a minute, something’s not
quite right
here”
4
READING INSTRUCTION AND THE BRAIN (3)
“Synthetic
phonics involves teaching the sound
relationships
of the different letter
combinations
of the English
language”
learnt to help sound out new words. Research shows that children develop this
skill very early in reading acquisition.
With analytic phonics, the brain draws on
common letter/sound relationships found
in word families. It analyses new words
against the word patterns already retained. Analytic phonics places fewer demands on working memory as the coarticulation (the joining together of
sounds) has already been made. For example, it is easy to decode ‘crash’ as /
cr/ /ash/ because the letter patterns
from other words (such as crab, crane
and cash, ash) are easy to recognise,
whereas synthetic phonics takes more
processing to decode /c/ /r/ /a/ /sh/.
Some words with changeable vowel sounds
are easier to predict when visually similar
words are known.
Synthetic phonics teaches the brain’s upper circuit to read by developing an understanding of letter/sound relationships
that enables us to decode new words,
whereas analytic phonics involves a more
central activation, representing interconnection between the two reading circuits.
In this model, analogy involves an analysis
of common letter relationships and their
corresponding sound patterns, transferring from known words to the unknown
word. Here, the decoding of an unknown
word is supported through comparing
known words with similar letter/sound
relationships.
Recent MRI research shows that the
smallest unit of sound, the phoneme, is
processed in the upper circuit. A larger
unit of sound, the rime (such as the word
ending –ime), is processed in a more central location between the upper and lower
reading circuits.
Analytic rime processing is faster than
phoneme processing. Within the brain’s
left hemisphere, the two reading circuits are indeed connected and support
each other. Integration of these two
circuits provides additional support for
decoding, not only using meaning and
context, but also through analogy word
support. The brain’s word bank in the
lower circuit does not contain a list of
words in alphabetical order like a standard dictionary. Rather, the brain’s
word bank is multidimensional. While
some words are grouped around meaning,
they can also be grouped around sounds.
All of this happens at a subconscious
level. At a conscious level, phonological
assembly then allows us to manipulate
the sounds in new words to find common
patterns. We can identify single sounds
from within words, and compare these
sounds with words that look the same.
In the brain, analytic phonics allows connections to be formed between different sounds, letters, and whole word
shapes for new words that are acquired.
Synthetic phonics involves teaching the
sound relationships of the different letter combinations of the English language.
This method is typically introduced with
letter-name/letter-sound associations,
letter-name/picture associations or actions relating to the initial sounds of
words that are already known. After
children become familiar with letters
and their corresponding sounds, movable
letters can be used to construct new
words. CVC words (consonant–vowel–
consonant) are easy to manipulate as
they are closed syllabled, make the
short vowel sound and contain simple letter/sound rules that are easy to follow
(for example, dog, cat, pig).
5
Reading instruction (4)
The –VC component at the end of CVC
words is the rime stem. Through analytic phonics children can see that words
ending in the same stem share the same
sound pattern. The initial sound can then
be manipulated to make new words. For
example, change the /m/ sound in mat to
a /b/ sound to make bat. Children can
also perform other operations on CVC
words with the moveable alphabet. Letters can be brought together to blend
sounds, known as co-articulating, and
separated to explain segmenting, deleting or isolating. Children can also substitute letters (with other letters) to make
new words. For example, swap the /e/
sound in peg with an /i/ sound to make
pig. Once children have mastered these
operations, they become aware that
words are made up of different sound
units that correspond to different letters and can in turn be manipulated.
Word-level work using moveable letters
combines synthetic phonics, analytic
phonics and phonemic awareness into one
lesson. However, phonics instruction is
only one part of a broader literacy programme and should be placed in the context of real reading.
Summary
While advanced brain research did not
exist when these instructional methods
were first deployed, it now provides scientific recognition of these methods.
We no longer need to debate whether
one technique is better than another.
We can see the big picture. Different
approaches target different parts of
the reading brain, and we should strive
to simultaneously target multiple modules, circuits and connections to produce
learning synergies and to develop children who enjoy reading. (Article contrib-
uted by Dr. Duncan Milne (smartkids.com)
DISCLAIMER
Dear Parents,
In January, ASK hosted two lectures on
Dyspraxia with Dr. Madeleine Portwood
in Bern and Geneva.
We informed the ASK community by
email , in advance of her lecture, that
Dr. Portwood is planning to conduct a
research on "Fatty Acids and it's effect
on learning and behaviour", in Switzerland. The research project will use the
product "Eye-Q" produced by ViFor
pharmaceutical company.
On 30th and 31st January, ViFor representatives were present at both seminars and distributed free samples to attendees without our prior knowledge
and/or agreement.
Disclaimer: ASK does not promote the
product "Eye-Q" nor do we have any
agreement with ViFor or it's representatives. Please note that ASK only disseminates research information and does
not endorse any products that parents
may choose to use. Any participation in
the research project of Dr. Portwood is
solely the responsibility of the parents.
ASK will not be held liable for any
misrepresentation of the product, the
manufacturer or the research itself.
We apologise if there was any confusion
caused by the presence of the two product representatives at our seminars and
if it may have caused you any inconvenience.
Thank you for your understanding.
ASK - All Special Kids
“Any participation in the
research project of Dr.
Portwood is
solely the responsibility of
the parents”.
6
GENEVA VIEW POINT— SKI DAY
“The Ask Kid’s Social went skiing and
I thought it was a lot of fun. I really
enjoyed it and when it was time to
leave I didn’t want to go. I think that
everyone who went had a lot of fun
like me, it was brilliant”!
•
Sara-Louise Wilkins
“Can we go again next year?”
• Niall
“I was very
impressed
with their
patience,
kindness and
ability to
communicate
with the
children and
treat them as
individuals”
“It was crazy. We went down lots of
slopes and some were difficult.”
•
Robert
THANK YOU.
Many thanks to Phil Trumper and his team
from the Emmanuel Church for a wonderful day out. Each child had a minimum of
an instructor and helper and was taken on
slopes suiting his/her ability. We would
like to make this an annual event and look
forward to seeing more ASK families take
advantage of Phil’s generosity next year.
Karen Wilkins
Kid’s Social Coordinator
karen.wilkins@allspecialkids.org
“I was skiing. {It was} good!”
• Raphael
“I was delighted that he had such a
good day and the best preparation
for a few days skiing with school
later this week. The instructors gave
him confidence and a sense of fun.
I was very impressed with their patience, kindness and ability to communicate with the children and
treat them as individuals. I appreciated everything they did for us.”
E.W (A Parent)
7
C.A.R.E.
ASK
ALL SPECIAL
C.A.R.E.
A family approach
COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE RESOURCE ENRICH
Are you searching for family support with an integrative approach?
Are the siblings of your special needs kid feeling neglected?
Are you having a hard time connecting with your teenager?
MONTHLY
Family
Support
Groups
(3 groups: Parents, siblings and special needs
kids)
When: Jan 28th, Feb 18th, March 10th,
April 14th, May 14th , June 9th 2008
Time: 6-8 pm
WEEKLY
Adolescent
Group
When: Jan 24th, Jan 31st, Feb 7th,
Feb 21st, Feb 28th, Mar 6th 2008
Time: 5:30—6:30 pm
Location: Webster University (Room TBA)
C.A.R.E. contact: nadia.care@allspecialkids.org
8
9
ASK 2008 SUMMER CAMPS
Place:
School
Place:Edelweiss
Edelweiss International
International School
39
39Rue
Rue de
de Peillonnex
Peillonnex
1225
1225 Chene
Chene Bourg
Bourg
July 7-11, July 14-18,
August 11-15, August 18-22
Skills Building through Constructive Play and Fun Activities
New Optional Tutoring Morning Program
100Chf discount early registration extended to 10th April
50Chf discount for each additional siblings
Making and playing with friends: Two things that children do that we ordinarily take for granted.
Yet for many children with related learning differences, these two aspects of childhood do not
come easily. The effects of learning differences may in fact preclude children from interacting
appropriately, with poor self-esteem, low frustration tolerance and problem with anger or aggression being a constant source of concern for parents and teachers.
The Camp Program from ASK – All Special Kids concentrate on social skills development for children with learning differences by providing educational and therapeutic environment, where children with socialization problems can learn and be supported as they develop their potential for
fruitful relations with peers, family and school. Fun, creative activities are structured around nurturing and therapeutic atmosphere, in order to maximize positive peer interaction. Daily camp activities are based on learning cooperation, sharing, conflict solving, imagination, communication,
empathy and assertiveness, to encourage development of self control, self-awareness and selfconfidence at the child's own pace.
Supervision and safety are of paramount importance at ASK Camps, and the general welfare of the
individual child is our primary concern. Teacher/student ratio are small, averaging 1 teacher to
2/3 children, for 3 age group (5-7yr old, 8-10 yr old, 11-14 yr old).
This summer, we also add a new optional tutoring morning program developed by two special
needs teachers, one is a dyslexia specialist. We also accept kid’s older than 14 to the morning tutoring program and age appropriate afternoon activities.
Different Fees Structure for Tutoring Program
Contact: info@allspecialkids.org or Petal.Jaffrey@allspecialkids.org
ASK-Geneva
ASK/Bern-Chapter
Upcoming Events
Upcoming Events
MARCH 2008
MARCH 2008
TEACHING THE BRAIN TO READ
Presented by Dr. Duncan Milne
3rd March - Webster University (see page 9)
MONTHLY PARENTS GET TOGETHER
18th March, 9am-11am
RSVP: Roxanne Eicher, roxdan@bluewin.ch
MONTHLY PARENTS GET TOGETHER
7th March - 10:00 - 12:00hr
APRIL 2008
C.A.R.E.– Community Assistance
Resource Enrichment Program
10th March, 18: to 20:00hr, Webster University
MONTHLY PARENTS GET TOGETHER
Due to Spring breaks no meeting
APRIL 2008
MONTHLY PARENTS GET TOGETHER
3rd April - 10:00 - 12:00hr
“The thing always happens that you
really believe in; and the belief in a
thing makes it happen”
ASSESSMENT BY DR. GAVIN REID
14th to 16th April (by appointment only)
ASSESSMENT BY DR. MADELEINE PORTWOOD
17th to 19th April (by appointment only)
C.A.R.E.– Community Assistance
Resource Enrichment Program
14th April, 18: to 20:00hr, Webster University
Frank Loyd Wright
“Knowing is not enough;
we must apply.
Willing is not enough;
we must do”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
ASK Kids’ Social Agenda
Open to all fun-loving kids
Saturday 15th March 2008 from 18:00-20:00hr PIZZA EVENING
Saturday 5th April 2008 at 18.30hr PONY RIDING & GROOMING (or CINEMA if wet)
Thurs 24th (or) Sat 26th April 2008 at 18.30hr CHOCHOLATE MAKING & EATING, PRANGINS
Sat 26th May 2008 from 2pm. TREE CLIMING, BREAD MAKING, RUN FREE @ SIGNAL DE BOUGY
Sunday 29th June 2008 from 2.30pm ASK's FAMILY SUMMER FUN AND PICNIC