• A fantastic new Government report by Sir Jim Rose has outlined the future for children with dyslexia and literacy difficulties.
• It covers the need for early identification, assessing and monitoring children with literacy difficulties, how they should be taught and how parents should be involved with school.
• Ed Balls, the Minister for Education, has accepted its findings and recommendations.
• The Dyslexia-SpLD Trust has been set up to put the recommendations into practise and millions of pounds have been promised for teacher training.

Parents and Schools Working Together

• Teachers will involve parents more in plans to help their child.
• Teachers will listen to parents’ concerns and work with them.
• Parents will be kept informed of plans and progress on an ongoing basis.
• Parents will be helped to understand the process of assistance the school provides to children with literacy difficulties.
• Provision will be given in three teaching waves.

Understanding the Waves of Provision

• Wave 1 Teaching is ‘quality’ classroom teaching which all children get; this includes phonics.
• Wave 2 Teaching (was School Action) is for children where Wave 1 is not enough; this includes small group (and some one-to-one) teaching by school staff and SENCo using short-term pre-set programmes.
• Wave 3 Teaching (was School Action +) is for children who continue to have difficulties after following several Wave 2 programmes; the child is given individually tailored one-to-one programmes given by specially trained staff.

What Will Be In a Literacy Teaching Programme?

• Phoneme awareness training – to help children learn to analyse and process the sounds in spoken words.
• Phonic decoding training – learning to ‘sound out’ individual printed letters.
• Multisensory learning – learning to ‘look at’, ‘say’ and ‘write out’ words.
• Learning in small, gradual steps.
• ‘Overlearning’ by repetition, rehearsing and revisiting what has already been learned.

Identifying Problems Early

• Children at risk of literacy problems should be identified in Reception from a slow response to pre- and early-literacy activities.
• Teachers will be expected to pick up literacy problems by the end of  Year 1.
• Slow progress means that the child will be moved to Wave 2 provision.
  

Building Good Self-Esteem

• Rose recognises the importance of good self-esteem for motivation to learn, preventing behaviour problems and for general happiness.
• Schools and parents to help by:
  • Giving positive reinforcement (praise and rewards).
  • Offering different curriculum if needed.
  • Using alternative materials and presentation (e.g. audiotapes and handouts).
  • Offering peer support (‘buddies’ and mentors).
  • Allowing alternative recording methods instead of writing (laptops, scribes and dictating machines).
  • Helping the child to develop good coping strategies.

Practical Implications For Parents

• Look out for early signs (delayed speech, family history of literacy difficulties, slow to learn letters).
• Help develop good spoken language (do lots of word games, talking about pictures and surroundings, daily reading to your child).
• Help develop phonological awareness through lots of sound games (like ‘I Spy’, rhyming).
• Help develop listening comprehension (by telling back stories, discussing and and answering questions about what’s been read).
• Encourage your child (at every age) to read daily.
• Look out for other learning problems that often occur alongside literacy problems (attention difficulties, poor motor co-ordination, maths problems).
• Build in ‘action plans’ at home to improve motivation and to develop good homework, study & organisation skills.
• Don’t just focus on the problems – develop your children’s strengths and interests so they feel they are doing well.
• Take action – and so reduce your own stress and anxiety levels.

 To download a copy of the Rose Report on dyslexia please click here.

The Shut-Down Learner: Premise

The primary premise of the book is that the shut-down learner’s strengths (visual spatial skills, hands-on thinkers, etc.), do not mesh well with the standard school curriculum, which results in their having layers of frustrating experiences over the years.  I refer to them in the text as “Lego Kids.”  Sadly many of the children with this profile are casualties of school.  Their self-esteem is so beaten down and their personal shame and defectiveness runs so deep, that they cannot overcome these emotions.  However, there are those who make it to the other side, and are having productive, satisfying lives.

This book, The Shut-Down Learner Helping Your Academically Discouraged Child, explores the variables that contributed to enabling them to get to this successful other side, putting the shame and embarrassment experienced in school behind them.

Shut Down Learners – New help for parents with kids who are struggling in school

What do you do when your child is becoming increasingly discouraged about school?  What do you do when your child has a difficulty learning the basics skills – reading and writing at school?  What do you do when your child literally refuses to crack a book and do homework?  

Dr. Richard Selznick coined the term” shut-down learner” to describe these children. 

Dr. Selznick, who has spent over 20 years of clinical experience assessing thousands of children has come to the conclusion that many of them are visual thinkers.  In fact, it’s a mode of thinking that is far more common than people ever imagined. 

As many as 40 percent of all children in America experience problems learning to read and write and a significant proportion of them are “spatial learners”- they learn best and even will thrive if they are given hands on tasks requiring them to use their eyes and hands. 

But they will often fail miserably if they have to read and write.

“Unfortunately,” says Dr. Selznick “the educational system is often at odds with the shut down learner’s style.   If you have a ‘Shut Down Learner’ you are in for a really rough time unless you identify and address your child’s special learning needs.” 

His new book The Shut-Down Learner: Helping Your Academically Discouraged Child is packed with techniques that parents can use to help their shut-down learner succeed in school and in life.

Dr. Selznick says that the Shut-Down Learner style becomes increasingly apparent in the upper elementary grades, although there are indicators in pre-school and kindergarten.  You can identify the early warning signs of a Shut-Down Learner style by noticing what he calls the “cracks in the foundation.”

These cracks include:

• Difficulty with learning letters
• Trouble with playing rhyming games
• Difficulty following directions
• Resistance to early reading activities and instruction

“The cracks in the foundation can be identified in kindergarten!,” says Dr. Selznick.

How would you know if your child is a Shut-Down Learner?

Dr. Selznick offers these signs:

• A sense that the child is increasingly disconnected, discouraged, and unmotivated (shut down)
• Fundamental skill weaknesses with reading, writing, and spelling, leading to lowered self-esteem
• Increased avoidance of school tasks such as homework
• Dislike of reading
• Hatred of writing
• Little to no gratification from school
• Increasing anger toward school

“When you couple these behaviors on the part of the child with lack of understanding from parents and teachers, emotional tensions and problems increase over time and strained family communications result in a phenomenally difficult family situation that can last for several years.” 

But Dr. Selznick says there’s hope.  “Shut-Down Learners are often times incredibly talented and misunderstood. Sadly, many of them are casualties of school. Their self-esteem is so beaten down and their sense of shame and defectiveness runs so deep that they cannot overcome these emotions.”

“There are those who make it to the other side and are enjoying very productive, satisfying lives.  They come from a variety of different fields and professions and include high-level executives, CEO s of companies, engineers, photographers, graphic designers, exhibit designers and producers, surgeons, landscapers, musicians, and trades people. “

Dr. Selznick’s book delves into the strategies parents can use to identify and deal with these challenges. He offers a number of strategies to deal with a child who is showing the signs of being a shut down learner:

1. Identify the “cracks in the foundation” as early as possible. Find a professional who knows the “red flags” to identify for early learning problems.  So much heart-ache can be avoided if you address the skills weaknesses early. 
2. If you as a mom are worried, usually there is good reason. Most of the moms that I meet are right about their concerns.  Don’t let professionals tell you “he’s fine…you know how boys are.”  Check it out.  Maybe you’re wrong, but usually I find the moms know their kid is struggling.
3. If the cracks are widening, seek outside help if possible. Don’t be passive and wait for the schools to intervene.  They may, but it’s often a long process.  Many of the children I see are not bad enough to warrant the school’s intervention.  It’s a negative snowballing effect.  Use word of mouth in your community to find people who can intervene.
4. Know what you are targeting. There are essentially two types of reading problems.  In the first type the child has trouble decoding the words and reading fluently.  This type is the largest majority of the struggling kids.  In the second type, the child can read fluently, but has great trouble understanding what he/she has read.  Get clear on what you are targeting!!!!  Don’t scattershot your remediation.
5. Take the heat out of the interaction. For most of the struggling kids, the daily ritual of yelling about school is a constant. Households are tense.   Lots of blame goes around.  Pecking at your child, nagging and yelling are not working.  Why continue?
6. If you have a spouse, get your husband on board. The dads can be tough.  They often don’t see the problem and will tell you typically that you are making a big deal out of nothing.  This leads to more confusion and arguing.  If you can find a professional to explain things in clear terms to both of you, it helps to get both of you on board together.
7. If you are in a divorced situation, it’s even more important to try and work together. The differences between you can really lead to huge emotional problems for the child.  These differences result in a lot of anger and it is this anger that leads to classic shut-down learner behaviors.
8. Find the child’s true strength and help kid embrace it. The shut down learners that I know do not feel very good about themselves and they do not see their strengths.  Most of these kids are very solid in the visual spatial dimension of ability.  This is often not valued in school. The kids need to learn to value this trait and see it as a potential.
9. Find someone to connect & mentor your child in school. If your child is older, push the kid to have one adult in the building as child’s mentor.  It should be someone that your kid can form a relationship with.  Too often SDL kids go through their school experience not bonded to anyone.  This is tragic.
10. Keep Your Humor. Try not to let school problems become all consuming.  Go out for an ice cream sundae with you kid even if he hasn’t done his homework!  School problems can be so all consuming - don’t lose touch with the good qualities he/she has.

• Teach children to love books right from the start. Enjoy reading to them. Make it a relaxed and happy time for both of you.
• One of the most important skills children need when they get to school is to listen and to concentrate. Read to your children little and often. Stop if they get restless or bored. It is better to have them begging for more than switched off.
• Discuss the pictures and the story. Listen carefully to what your child has to say. If adults don’t listen to children, why should children listen to adults?
• Read somewhere quiet with no distractions. Switch your mobile off and forget about cooking supper.
• Put lots of expression into your reading. Children need to recognise tone of voice if they are to respond correctly to social situations. You can act out bits of the story if the child likes that.
• Share with your child the pleasure of a tale well told. Retell it in your own words, with your child filling in bits of the story here and there. Most young children like to hear the same one over and over again.
• Books use a wider range of words than are common in conversation. It is fun for a child to learn new and exciting words in books, so explain the ones he does not know. But don’t stop too often or the child will lose the thread of the story.
• Prediction is a useful skill for later when children are learning to read for themselves. What do you think will happen next? Is the monster hiding in that cave?
• Have a special shelf for your children’s favourite books and let them choose which one they want.
• Books introduce children to new places, new people and new experiences. They also help children to understand a whole range of feelings. You can use puppets or soft toys to discuss these. “Is Teddy frightened? Shall we tell him it will all be fine?” The ability to put feelings into words is a wonderful skill for a child to develop.

Children learn about words and their meaning by talking and by reading. The larger your vocabulary, the better you function both at school and later in the workplace. This is why it is so important to read to your child. The words we use in everyday speech are really rather few. Books teach you words which will open up new worlds of knowledge and experience. Through them you can travel in time and space, explore feelings, assemble facts and most importantly, enjoy a good story.

Parents are crucial in helping children to learn and store up words, both spoken and written. Talking to your children from the moment they are born, and later reading to them, gives them the best chance to become skilled in the use of words.

How you can help

·         Listen to your children and respond when they talk to you. If you don’t listen to them, how can you expect them to listen to you?

·         Enjoy books together from a very early age. Reading with mum and dad is one of the memorable experiences of childhood.

·         When you are choosing a book, think carefully how it will be read. Make sure you have the correct level of reading material for the right occasion.  Is the child going to read it to himself? or are you going to read it together, when you can help with any harder words? And if you are reading it to him you can select something more challenging. 

·         Make reading together a regular habit. Do you have a comfortable place to read together? Look on it as a special treat for both of you. Try to find a quiet time when you won’t be disturbed The better you can concentrate, the better your child will too. A few favourite nibbles and perhaps a drink make it all that much more fun.

·         Keep a book in your bag for boring moments, for when you’re travelling or waiting at the dentist.

·         Have a special shelf of your child’s favourite books. It is important to let children say openly that they don’t like a book or an author. Search around till you find one they do like, and then get hold of several by the same author. Use the library or charity shops to find books you can try out. Don’t buy books until you’re sure your child will like them.

·         Draw in grandparents, if available, or older siblings or family friends to read to your child, if you yourself have limited time.

·         If you do not enjoy reading aloud, and some people don’t, listen to an audio tape with your child. You can still discuss unfamiliar words, talk about the plot and characters and share the delights of a tale well told.

·         Encourage your child in the art of story-telling by recounting tales from your own childhood. Your children will love to hear about the way you lived and the things you did, especially the naughty tales! Encourage them to tell you stories about what happened to them at school. Concentrate on getting them to express themselves clearly so that you can understand them.

·         Confidence with words is such an essential skill. Telling jokes is always a great challenge. Try working out carefully how they’re best worded, and then test them on friends or relatives.

·         Finally talk to your children about the books you read together. If you get a bit of an argument going, so much the better. Try to guess what will happen next? How will it all end? Who is their favourite character?  Which is the most exciting bit? Why?  Sharing your ideas is one of the best ways of developing language.

Everything may appear fine and any mention of dyslexia being the root cause was normally quashed with the party line ‘you can’t tell if a child is dyslexic until they are 7’. In other words go away and wait until your child is really in need of help when all their self esteem and joy of school has been squeezed out of them/refusing to go to school/wetting the bed/throwing chairs across the classroom. If they are lucky, they are referred for tests to see if there is some sort of problem, a short report is written that is largely ignored by their teacher. The child can then generally swim around the bottom of the class where earlier labels stick that much harder. The outlook can be bleak. Hopefully they may be good at something at school like art, sport or music and may excel in this arena and make life bearable but if they are not, or the school misses it, an almost life sentence can be past on the child. Of course, schools are no longer like that, and if they are, shame on them. Yet, how do we identify problems early on in order to get a different outcome? I recently spoke to one mother who knew her daughter was very dyslexic but apparently, according to the school, was learning to read. The defining moment came when, at 7 years old, the child was reading her class book out loud word perfect, holding the book at arms length with the words facing her mum, who sat opposite. She had a very good memory for all the books that were read to her, but she could not read. There is a difference.

As a class teacher, you can easily concentrate on the children who are easy to identify and who can display much more pronounced or obvious needs, however a bit of investigation may well show up some interesting findings and avert disaster. I think the way to do it is not to think about dyslexia as simply a reading and writing issue, but more as an information processing and outputs issue. That way we are looking for the signs at an age appropriate/task level. Think about it, if we define dyslexia as just the inability to acquire the skills for reading then, of course, we can not pick anyone up until after they should be reading independently and fluently, in other words aged about 7 or 8. But the inability to read is an effect of dyslexia not causal. One of the reasons why children fail to learn how to read, despite developing a very numb bum sitting through endless extra reading lessons, is because they have a brain that works differently (not worse) and dyslexic brains have certain characteristics:

• Poor or underdeveloped phonological skills
• Medical issues (e.g glue ear)
• Trouble tying shoes
• Orientation confusion
• Late to establish a dominant hand
• Sequencing problems (especially the ABC)

If they show two or three of these signs it needs to be looked into more thoroughly. Talk to parents, ask questions”

• Did they, or do they have lots of ear infections? – glue ear cuts out all the high frequencies and since most primary school teachers are female much of the sound definition can be lost to them, based on the assumption that female teachers have high pitched voices.
• Do they find it hard to dress themselves? Tie their shoes?
  
• Do they switch from their right hand to their left while colouring, writing, or doing any other task?
  
• Do they have difficulty learning the names of letters or sounds in the alphabet? Do they have difficulty writing the alphabet in order or saying the days of the week?
  
• How good is their phonological awareness? Phono what?

I like to think of it like building an Airfix model (something I was never good at).

1. You have to find the right bit of grey plastic. Identification of sounds Can they match the same sounds in a pair of words? Identify rhyming words? Count the number of sounds in a word? Are they able to do it at pace?
2. You have to put said piece of grey plastic and get your fingers to put it in the right place. Sound manipulation. Can they segment sound units within a word? Add, take away and substitution of sounds?
3. Is the rear gunner in the right place and is it going to stay on. Blending. Can they put words together? This I think is the hardest and requires the most amount of integration and co-ordination of eyes, ears, brain and mouth.

All of these skills can either be tested informally or you can use one of the many tests around (I prefer the PhAB since it has it all in one place and gives standardised scores from 6)

What are the markers in early years education?

• When did they start talking? Often, dyslexics don’t start talking until they are two, two-and-a-half, three, or even older. Apocryphally, Winston Churchill’s first words at 4 were “would you be so kind as to pass the condiments.”
• Do they mix up their sounds? Spaghetti becomes bisghetti, hangaberg is a meal with chips.
• Do they have a stutter or clutter (Cluttering involves excessive breaks in the normal flow of speech)?

They can often have immature speech, they may say “wed and gween” instead of “red and green” in years 2 and 3.

They may well have been identified by health visitors and be in the NHS system and work with Speech and Language therapists already. If so work with them, if not refer them.

Remediation
Think, same message different medium, remember to keep it fun, play lots of games but tweak and adapt them.

Syllable games
Syllable count – say the word (eg. Smarty pants), then use counters or toys to count the syllables (smar/ty/pants).
I’m thinking of someone..can you finish the name or word Lou ... (Louise), This could be a good time to introduce some makaton signs.

Make compound words up using pictures. (sea-sick)

Sounds in words games
I spy initial sounds, end sounds, medial sounds, in that order from pictures and items in the classroom, bingo, sound swap – this can be great to give children one sound to be and then see if they can make words by standing in threes and then changing the sounds – it can also help with blending - don’t do this one at ten past 3 though...

Rhyme games
Picture or object rhyme games, “Can I have the object that rhymes with”
Odd word out, cat, bat, man, rat.

You can adapt games like twister and there are lots of pelmanism games on the market.

Sound differentiation
Evidence suggests that if children with dyslexia play a musical instrument or sing, it helps to build the listening and attention skills they need in a classroom that they find difficult to aquire in a formal setting. There are lots of sound CDs you could get hold of to make a game of sound bingo. Try getting hold of some old 35mm film tubs and in pairs, fill them with different shaker material. See if the children can find their partner from the sounds – its best to fill two with lentils, two with chick peas, two with marbles and two with something metal so the sounds are very different.

Patience is needed in enormous quantities. However, there is no quick fix and I would recommend that children have one to one lessons outside school by a properly trained dyslexic tutor, this includes a proper screening test when and where it is appropriate.

Children with dyslexia may have all or some of the following difficulties.

1. Oral language weaknesses

2. Sequencing difficulties including left/right orientation

3. Memory limitations: short term, long term and working memory

4. Auditory and visual processing vulnerabilities

5. Slow processing speed

6. Weak conceptual knowledge

7. Weak non-verbal spatial abilities

Many of the underlying difficulties of dyslexia could also be the core factors affecting progress in maths and a significant proportion of dyslexic children have difficulty learning maths. Many of these children have difficulties with the surface aspects of numeracy rather than an intrinsic lack of number sense which is now often referred to as dyscalculia. This article intends to address these surface aspects rather than the profound difficulties in having a feel for numbers that characterise the dyscalculic child. It can however be mentioned that Stern materials can also help dyscalculic children but they would need to spend longer on certain aspects of the Stern programme to equip them with a 'toolkit' for numeracy before moving on to other areas of the programme involving the beginnings of basic calculations.

What is Stern's Structural Arithmetic?

Stern's multi-sensory maths system was designed to develop a child's emergent number sense by building-up number knowledge and number facts in a logical and structured manner thus enabling children to think logically and reason mathematically. Stern facilitates the understanding and application of the four number operations. Since the system is based on two tangible sets of number representations, the blocks and patterns promote a clear image of number in the concrete enabling pupils to discover for themselves all of the attributes on a physical level. When numerals are introduced they correspond to the blocks and patterns by embodying the intrinsic qualities and values of those numbers.

Each piece of Stern apparatus has a unique function, as well as contributing collectively, and shows the child familiar aspects of number in a different light. The strength of this system is the maintenance of subliminal stimulation of number relationships in the form of images, whilst keeping them in the child's view on a concrete level.

It is necessary to look at some of the main underlying difficulties of dyslexia in order to consider if Stern materials can help.

1. Most dyslexic children have some oral language weaknesses, especially when it comes to learning new vocabulary. The language of maths can pose a problem. The Stern programme is particularly thorough in the way it teaches maths vocabulary in a multi-sensory way to facilitate the child hearing and using the maths words in a meaningful context.

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2. Sequencing and left-right orientation weaknesses that interfere with the learning involved with reading and writing of two digit numbers can make some aspects of maths confusing. The Stern 10-Box and blocks help children to gain experience with the commutativity principle by seeing two sets of like blocks that can be switched around and so discover that the order of the addends can be changed without changing the sum, thus grasping the interchangeable nature of addition (and later with multiplication).

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3. Sequencing errors are reduced through working with different arrangements of equipment to strengthen learning. They learn about size relationships and measuring with the number blocks in the Counting Board. They 'see' and 'feel' that each length is one unit longer in the sequence from 1 to 10, or one unit shorter in the reverse order. Children can 'see' where each block 'lives' in the sequence as well as the relationships they have with each other.

4. Auditory and visual memory limitations that are characteristic of many dyslexic learning patterns are supported by Stern materials. These limitations may be in short term, working and in long term and/or visual memory and respond well to the multi-sensory approach of the Stern programme. It also helps the child's memory to be able to stay focused on the exact numbers whilst performing calculations with those numbers. The child may be able to build up a more explicit mental image by using the materials regularly so that they can remember them even when they are not present.

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5. The children with poor auditory discrimination and perception who find it difficult to discriminate and perceive the difference between the ' teen' numbers and the ' ty' numbers, will find it easier when the numbers are built in the Dual-Board or located in the Number Track.

6. Stern can make concepts and procedures more explicit for children with poor visual perception as part of their nonverbal learning difficulties. The Dual Board makes the concept of place value explicit for two digit numbers. Children gain insight into the relationship between the role and the position of each numeral. The size of the two compartments guide the children when building numbers and are easily placed correctly. 10 ones equal 1 ten is seen clearly when filling up the 'ones' compartment with unit cubes. A 10-block can be laid on top to show they are the same.

7. Children with slow processing speeds who work at a slower pace than the oral presentation by a teacher may find it hard to follow. Stern materials enable the child to grasp the verbal meaning while experiencing the visual and tactile associations that the materials provide. This leads to some children understanding maths lessons more easily.

8. Children may not have developed much conceptual knowledge about numbers due to their dyslexic learning difficulties, or may have other problems that could be investigated by an educational psychologist using a test such as the WISC IV. They could also be screened for Dyscalculia on the Butterworth screener.

9. With explicit multi-sensory teaching, these children may also be able to build up their conceptual understanding in due course. If this conceptual understanding fails to occur easily, then it may be advisable to consider a deeper difficulty which could then be described as dyscalculia. The Stern materials could still help the dyscalculic child but the materials might be used more selectively in an even more structured and controlled way which is dealt with in a further article.

10. Stern develops concepts by measuring, not by counting. There is opportunity for visual and auditory input through the teacher's explanation; modelling; the child's own commentary to peers and the incorporation of role play. The activities provide progressive repetition through kinaesthetic input. All these factors strengthen the child's own developing mental strategies providing multi-sensory experience from the formation of imagery, building concepts and enhancing storage and recall.

11. Weak spatial knowledge could be strengthened through regular use of Stern blocks and patterns of cubes. Children learn to recognise patterns of cubes at a glance and then check their patterns by placing the cubes into the empty insets in the boards to verify their visual perceptions against their motor and tactile senses. The process of recognising and constructing number patterns also calls for spatial thinking, and will be reinforcing already developing abilities such as left / right orientation, sequencing; hand-eye coordination, one-to-one correspondence, as well as estimation of quantities, and the concepts of too many and too few.

12. Stern impacts on learning by aiding the development of spatial thinking and reasoning. Whether children are measuring blocks or working with patterns of cubes, they are applying spatial thinking, to help them reason. Each experiment leaves an unforgettable mental picture to turn around in their minds to explore new relationships. Unfamiliar maths language is clarified by the practitioner through concrete demonstrations and further reinforced and linked to the child's actions with the apparatus. By following spoken directions, children are able to develop receptive language and this is a means of assessing their receptive language acquisition. Stern is a system of errorless learning where misconceptions in the child's understanding will be seen immediately and acted upon through further exploration and practice.

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Dr Catherine Stern, mathematician, child psychologist and Montessorian, (Children Discover Arithmetic) introduced us to a specific pattern structure to encourage cognitive development such as left/right orientation.

Whilst the blocks facilitate much of the learning, the Pattern Boards and cubes provide more opportunities to develop concepts based on the characteristics of odd and even numbers.

It is easy to teach children the quality of evenness and oddness with this specific pattern structure. The even patterns all have 'partners' and the odd patterns have an 'odd man' or a 'driver'.

The Pattern Boards

Once number names have been assigned and internalised this frees up space and time within the limits of working memory to better focus on the learning new concepts. Adding 1 to a number in the 10-Box and again with the cube patterns shows the different ways Stern helps children to access the same concept. Children are rather amused to see that adding an extra cube to a number pattern causes the next higher number pattern to appear! Equally with subtraction, that removing one cube gives the next lower number. Also, with the addition of one cube, children see an odd number become an even number and an even number become and odd number. It is easy to show that if you add nothing to a pattern it stays the same. When adding 2 or subtracting 2, using the patterns, it is visually very clear that this results in the next even or odd number, depending on the starting point. For example, by direct experience, the child sees that if 2 cubes are added to 4 then the next even number is the result.

Number facts

There is greater impact and opportunity for successful learning of number facts to 10, (and 20), developing strategies that lead to internalisation of facts and speedier recall.

Through structured, small-step activities and games, pupils work with combinations of blocks in number boxes to acquire the basic addition and subtraction facts with numbers up to and including 10. Beginning with the 10-Box, (see fig 1) children fit pairs of blocks into this selfchecking device like a puzzle. The materials encourage children to think and reason for themselves, if a block is too big or too small they can 'see' and 'feel' in which way it doesn't fit and try others until they are successful. Pupils are able to name the combinations of the blocks that go together to fill the 10-Box and express them orally as equations - Telling the story of 10. They will also understand the concept and language of the missing addend. This becomes a useful strategy when working with subtraction facts not readily internalised. You will find that the language of mathematics is used naturally by children since it fits the facts they have discovered and links their actions with the Structural Arithmetic materials.

Making sense of numbers

Visualisation skills are crucial in acquiring the fundamental building blocks of maths. Pupils who mostly maintain a ones-based concept do not see numbers as whole ideas. Nor are they able to see that numbers contain many patterns such as the doubles, near doubles or sub-groups. It is also hard for them to see the structures within numbers.

Stern provides opportunities for children to see patterns within numbers. Doubles are seen clearly with the even pattern structure. Near doubles 'neighbours' 3+2 will also be seen and encourage the strategy double 2, add 1. Addition facts for all numbers can be taught using two different sets of coloured cubes leaving the overall number in view.

Economy of learning - the result of transfer

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By making the structure of the number system visual, Stern materials make it possible for children to transfer a newly learned fact to other areas. For instance, if they know that 3+5=8, they can discover that this fact holds true in any decade by measuring in the Number Track: 13+5=18, 23+5=28, or 63+5=68.

By working with cubes and 10-blocks in the Dual Board, children can see that what is true for the 'ones' as in 3 ones and 5 ones equal 8 ones or 3+5=8, is also true for the 'tens' as in 3 tens and 5 tens equal 8 tens or 30+50=80. The result is an immense economy in the number facts that have to be learned. Therefore, it can be seen that Stern is a very appropriate resource to help dyslexic children over-come their surface difficulties with maths and would be an invaluable addition to any classroom.

Jane Emerson and Vikki Horner

A more comprehensive version of this article can be found on www.mathsextra.com

References:

Children Discover Arithmetic by Dr Catherine Stern: Harpers & Row

Dyslexia Dyspraxia and Mathematics by Dorian Yeo: Wiley Blackwell

The Butterworth Dyscalculia Screener published by nferNelson

Dyscalculia Guidance by Brian Butterworth and Dorian Yeo: David Fulton Publishers

For information and advice regarding Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dyspraxia contact Jane at Emerson House, London:
T: 0208 741 4554
W: www.emersonhouse.co.uk

For more information and advice on Stern programmes contact Vikki at Maths Extra
T: 01747 861 503
E: enquiries@mathsextra.com
W: www.mathsextra.com

A physio will initially do a detailed analysis of a child's motor functions co-ordination , muscle tone, skills, eye-tracking and writing - as well as the 'whole' child and their self-esteem. Then a treatment plan is tailor made for each child, with exercises to do at home in addition to those done with the physio. A child will generally do courses of treatment over a number of weeks, with breaks in between.

Looking at gross motor skills includes assessing the child's balance and posture, the height of their working table and chair and whether the muscle tone is too tight or too loose. Typical balance/posture problems result in the child sitting with their feet and ankles curled round the chair legs in order to increase their stability.(seeback2 website) Imagine trying to write correctly if you have to concentrate hard and brace yourself at the same time in order to maintain an upright position in your chair - apparenrtly a common problem for dyspraxic children.

Other problems which have serious implications at school are to do with changing for PE (finding your clothes, putting them on the right way out and in the right order tying shoe laces, tying a tie etc.) and lack of organisation and planning skills - being in the right classroom at the right time, with the right equipment. An OT can work on improving these skills and can make the school aware of any problems.

• Don't even think about allowing a child to use a laptop in class until he/she can touch type more than 20 words per minute (or twice as fast as average handwriting speed).
• Do attend a talk on the practicalities of using a laptop for ideas on how to make it work. There are many considerations to take on board.
• Do talk to the school about your plans and preparations - you need their permission and support.

Be flexible, particularly in the early days, about how much the laptop is used. Some teachers may not be sympathetic until the child can prove that they are capable of organising themselves and their work without disrupting the class and requiring too much help from the teacher.

Start by using a computer just for homework, and introduce gradually into other parts of the curriculum as confidence and competence improves.

Many secondary schools will now allow children to sit entrance exams using a computer, if this has been recommended by an educational psychologist, but this is something you should check well in advance when you are looking at schools.

Many years ago I read an article entitled: 'Dyslexics of the world untie.'

In those days the nature of dyslexia was little understood. There were many who believed that dyslexia was not only hard to define but also questioned whether it existed at all. Nowadays we know better. Dyslexia is no joke.

Today I am launching a website which asks teachers, parents, children, young people and others with an interest in dyslexia to let me have their views and experiences, to help me develop recommendations to Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families, on the identification and teaching of children with dyslexia. I am also asking for details of relevant research evidence to be sent to me, to add to the growing body of research evidence already being identified by expert advisers.

For those parents with a dyslexic child, concern can quickly turn to anxiety as, for example, difficulties with learning to read become an entrenched and increasingly serious obstacle to learning across the whole curriculum. Obviously, parents' concerns are hardly made less if, as they and dyslexia charities tell us, children cannot always get the right help when they need it. Of course, it is important to distinguish between children who may not have been taught as effectively as they might have been, and those whose difficulties continue in ways that are described as dyslexic. But it is equally important to ensure that if a child has a difficulty, the right help is provided to support him or her in overcoming barriers to learning.

Parents' concerns are no less than those of teachers whose best efforts may, for various reasons, not succeed in helping children to overcome dyslexia. This is often despite the fact that these children may display unusual talents and high ability in aspects of the curriculum which make a low demand on their reading and writing skills.

I am therefore pleased to be asked by Ed Balls to look at the current position on tackling dyslexia and to make recommendations about the identification of this learning difficulty and the teaching needed to overcome it. I am already undertaking a review of the Primary Curriculum, and although I shall also be looking at how children with dyslexia can be most appropriately supported at secondary school, it is often whilst at primary school that children's difficulties should first be identified and addressed. I will be drawing strongly on the help of expert advisers and we will look at other learning difficulties, such as dyscalculia and dyspraxia, which may overlap in some respects with dyslexia. I am talking to teachers, children and young people about their experience of tackling dyslexia whilst visiting schools, as well as to representatives of the dyslexia charities.

Of course, much is already happening to improve outcomes and provision for children with dyslexia. Local authorities and schools are funded to provide services for children with special educational needs (SEN), including those with dyslexia. It is for schools to determine how best to use resources to overcome barriers to achievement. The law requires schools to use their best endeavours to make suitable provision available for all children with SEN. Local authorities and schools budgeted to spend £4.9 billion on SEN last financial year, up from £2.8 billion in 2001-02.

To encourage schools' development of best practice in improving outcomes for children with dyslexia, the Department for Children, Schools and Families is providing funding of around £1m over three years to the No to Failure project. No to Failure is trailblazing and evaluating the impact of specialist training for teachers and specialist tuition for children with dyslexia in some schools in Southwark, Cornwall and Calderdale. An evaluation of the impact of this project on outcomes for children identified as experiencing learning difficulties, including dyslexia, will be available towards the end of this year, and will be an important source of evidence for me to take into account when making my recommendations.

The Department is also rolling out to all areas an Inclusion Development Programme designed to increase knowledge and awareness of dyslexia and communication difficulties amongst the schools and early years workforce and improve learning outcomes for this particular group of children.

In addition, the Department is providing funding to Dyslexia Action for further Partnership for Literacy pilots, and for the British Dyslexia Association to develop their helpline, which provides advice about dyslexia (0845 251 9002).

I will be visiting schools where there is much to learn from their good practice and the website will provide regular updates on progress. I expect to publish a report, containing my recommendation, by the end of February next year.

Western society is dominated by words.  Linear, lexical information transmission is the norm, and most of us don't think twice about it.  We train our children to think and learn in words from a very early age, marginalising alternative ways of processing information.  We know that children learn through play, but we hope that they learn to read and write sooner rather than later.  We assume that traditional words-based teaching and training methods are right and proper, and that people who don't get on with them lack a degree of intelligence.  Our schools and universities are consequently squeezing non-linear thinkers out to the margins, quashing creativity and variety in a bid to produce students who will pass exams.  Many of these marginalised learners are branded with a 'learning difficulty' label, simply because they think and learn in a way that is incongruous with traditional classroom teaching.  In truth their difficulty often lies with the teaching methods they are subjected to, rather than their intellects.  Even if a visual thinker is identified, teachers and parents can struggle to know how to encourage this 'different' way of thinking, often because they simply don't understand it.

Learners who think in a holistic, visual way often find written language difficult.  Most of the issues that visual thinkers and dyslexic learners struggle with stem from having to read or write sentences in which letters, words and information must be sequenced.  Professor John Stein of Oxford University has been researching the physiological reasons for dyslexic reading behaviour.  The following is quoted from a seminar he gave (“Visual Dyslexia: Force of Artistic Talent”) at the 2003 Arts & Visual Thinking Conference in Falmouth:
 
“Reading requires precise sequencing of letters and word sounds, and in fact there is no other normal activity of human beings that requires such precise linear sequencing.  But dyslexics are bad at this kind of sequencing... because they inherit a vulnerability of a particular kind of nerve cell in the brain called a Magna cell... Magna cells play a very important part in reading in particular, because they control how the eyes move during reading.  How the eyes move during reading determines how you sequence things - how you sequence small objects such as letters.”

He has found that due to a developmental deficiency in Magna cell formation in the brain, the eyes of dyslexics do not move from left to right in tiny movements like a 'normal' reader's eyes.  They tend to make larger eye movements, and consequently find it very difficult to sequence letters and words.  There are several ways to improve reading ability; I have found that dyslexics find it easier to read in columns - when working with children I limit the number of words to five per line.  Coloured lenses have proven to be very effective for some dyslexics, and Professor Stein has shown that this is because Magna cells are particularly sensitive to yellow and blue light, and so by wearing coloured lenses the Magna cellular system can be boosted to improve reading.  

But the pressure of having to sequence information linearly can make a dyslexic or visual thinker freeze, and can sometimes stop them from reading, saying or writing anything at all.  Holistic, visual thinkers will sit down at the computer to write an essay, and they might get out a few sentences before they stop because it doesn't sound right, or they haven't used the correct grammar, or the spelling needs correcting.  But by the time they've gone back over those sentences to try and get them right they have lost about five other thoughts that they had when they were initially inspired to write.  This is not only unproductive but extremely demoralising.  

And it is a pattern that is all too familiar for visual learners.  Whatever the information they are attempting to process (from filling in forms to language learning), sequencing is often their greatest stumbling block.  Visual thinkers see holistically, they see all the information at once, rather than in a linear order.  Written words are therefore like a foreign language to them, even in their mother tongue.  

So is there a way in which visual thinkers can learn more easily?  A way in which they can process information and communicate holistically?  

One option is pictures, which form the foundation of my 'Footnotes' visual thinking techniques.  A picture can holistically symbolise a piece of information without needing any sequencing at all.  Unlike spelling or writing sentences, there is no right or wrong picture, so there is no pressure to get it right; each person can draw something completely unique to symbolise their thoughts.  Without the pressure to produce correct sequencing, visual thinkers are far more free to express themselves and are more likely to get out what is in their minds.  The jump for a visual thinker from thoughts to words is a huge one, but from thoughts to pictures is a natural one.  

Getting the processed thoughts out of the mind and onto paper is the major hurdle.  Once the learner's thoughts are down on paper, the process of translating these pictorial thoughts into words is far easier.  My suggestion for visual thinkers is therefore to first think and plan in holistic, pictorial terms, and then translate into linear terms.  Use pictures to 'say' what needs to be said, to externally express thoughts, and then translate the pictures later.  I regularly work with students helping them to plan 8,000 word dissertations without requiring any written work at all other than a synopsis.  One picture might represent 30 words, or even 3000.  It will not be readable, but the student knows what it is all about.  An analogy I use is of a memorable day, say somebody's wedding or birthday.  When you look at photos of the event, you do not just remember the picture, you recall other things that happened at the event, even though those things are not in the photo.  The images are not meant to encapsulate all the information - they are merely the trigger.  I have had students with entire 20,000 word dissertations completely planned in pictures.

For some students, particularly artists, words are an inadequate medium for expressing thoughts - they just don't 'say' what needs to be said.  In most cases, however, a translation of some sort is possible, and in fact I would not want to steal from a student the sense of achievement they get from actually handing in a great wadge of paper.  For some people this is a huge wall they think they can never climb, so my aim is more to alleviate the fear of written assignments, rather than do away with them.  
 
I often get asked, “What if we allow learners to be so picture-based and image reliant that it actually affects their language and other linear skills that have to be demonstrated in examination-based work?  If we are encouraging picture-based activities might we be leading them away from spending time developing their literary skills?”  Fortunately quite the opposite seems to happen.  What we are teaching them is to use their preferred style of thinking and processing information internally.  By allowing these learners to communicate with themselves more effectively, they then find it easier to communicate externally by speaking or writing.  Ten years ago I struggled to put words in the right order to make a sentence; by using my visual thinking strategies I can now think more clearly by creating images of what I want to say or write, and this has made my external communication much better.  The more efficient use of the right side of my brain seems to service the left side more effectively.

The drawing process may sound laborious and time-consuming.  However, the relief it brings for visual thinkers, and the release of creativity that ensues, more than outweigh the investment of time and effort.  Not only that, but new neural pathways are established that become more and more functional with time.  For some children, these pathways are already established, but are just not exercised in traditional school environments that try to force a learner to think and process in a linear, lexical way.  Just like a muscle, visual thinking can be exercised to make it work better; children that have found it difficult to focus and concentrate in lessons can suddenly find they are able to focus when they discover their preferred, natural thinking style and begin to regularly use it.
  
Eventually, with practice, there is often no longer a need to actually draw images on paper; the mind gets used to connecting input with images and an internal whiteboard takes over from the piece of paper. 
 
Many people that I talk to speak of not being able to draw, or feeling inadequate as they try, or just feeling uncomfortable with the whole process of drawing.  When asked when this realisation happened, it was often when someone commented negatively in some way on their drawing or requested help to understand what the drawing was meant to be interpreting.  To develop Footnotes visual thinking techniques properly, I believe the individual needs to be released from the pressure of having to produce an image that has to be readable by anyone else.  This is really important.  When people are asked how to develop this inherent drawing ability rather than a learnt one, I encourage them to draw with a line continuously, without lifting the pencil from the paper at any point.  Once the person is comfortable with this, they should then begin to draw without looking at the drawing until it is complete, or at least make sure that they are looking at the object (or with closed eyes if drawing from the imagination) while drawing most of the image.  In time, I encourage them to then use continuous drawing strategies, but to begin to look at the picture and reposition the pencil to start another stage in the drawing.  

I believe that this is to do with hand-eye coordination developed through the activity of drawing without looking at the piece of paper, something that artists are always encouraging their students to develop.  In a sense, it cuts out the brain activity that has 'logical' control over the drawing action of the hand; if one was to see a table at an angle and only three legs were visible, there might be a temptation to draw four legs because logically we assume that a table will need four legs to stand.  If the logical brain is constantly trying to 'correct' the message from the eye to the hand, this often complicates drawings.  

It takes trust to draw without necessarily thinking about the subject from a logical point of view.  The process of trusting the message from the eye to the hand develops an instinctive artistic response, which I believe can often be much stronger and more expressive than a response based on learnt knowledge or technique.  This, therefore, is another reason why Footnotes strategies are so useful to many individuals whether they say they are good at drawing or not.

The Footnotes techniques are underpinned by the Footnotes Grid, a tool for arranging and sequencing picture-based information.  The Footnotes Grid is simply a piece of A4 paper folded four or five times and then unfolded.  The folds create a grid with 16 (or 32) equal blocks, and into these, pictures are drawn.  The pictures do not need to be in a linear order - they can be anywhere in the grid.  The idea is to create a sort of map of information, without worrying about the order it needs to go in.  When the whole thing is down on paper, it can then be decided how to link the various pictures to make a sequence.  If necessary, the grid blocks can be ordered, either by numbering them or cutting them up and laying them out in sequence.

When drawing in the grid, the first picture that comes to mind is the one to put down.  It is important not to think logically about it!  Children are good at putting down an image that sounds like something but has nothing to do with the actual piece of information - as long as the image triggers the recall of information it doesn't matter what it is.  One must trust that the image will do the job and not think about it too much. The pictures do not need to be high quality, so no inherent artistic skill is required; they will not need to mean anything to anyone else.  The quicker they are drawn, the better, because this allows the thinker to move on to the next thought.  Sometimes people who are good at drawing do not like using the grid when note-taking, for instance, because they don't have time to draw a 'good' picture.  They must be encouraged to put this perfectionism aside!  The grid is great for encouraging everyone to draw, even those who are nervous of drawing, because quality is not an issue.  It can be fun!

The Footnotes Grid can also be used as a memory aid.  Visual thinkers can struggle with retaining information in their minds; instead of sequencing lots of things to remember, new thoughts tend to replace previous thoughts, which are then lost.  The Grid is useful for 'emptying' the brain of things the thinker is trying to remember; these can be prioritised later.  It would take too long for the visual thinker to think of and write down words for these thoughts, but an image that triggers the memory can be drawn instantaneously.  

Footnotes techniques are designed to slot in alongside existing teaching methods.  Students can use the Grid alongside their textbooks and worksheets, translating the information they contain into words when required.  Each learner will learn how to adapt the techniques to suit their own learning style, using the Grid when they find that it helps.  

In summary, Footnotes visual thinking techniques offer visual and holistic thinkers a way of processing and expressing information that naturally fits their learning and thinking style.  Instead of struggling with sequencing letters, words and sentences in order to communicate, the techniques allow learners to express their thoughts visually, before translating into words when necessary.  This relieves the pressure of having to think in words.  Many visual thinkers speak of pictures being their 'first language' and words being their second; Footnotes techniques give these learners tools to express themselves in their first language.  The techniques are simple to use, and often facilitate dramatic learning breakthroughs for students who have consistently struggled with traditional classroom teaching and learning methods.
 
www.oliverwestfootnotes.com