The science behind the workbooks

‘Zebras Spell Really Well, Phonics and Spelling Rules’

The predominant reason why people with dyslexia find processing letters and words demanding is that they have difficulty processing speech sounds, this is described as ‘phonological processing’ skill. They may also have an underdeveloped verbal memory, and more general working memory difficulties which affects the overall speed of their linkage of letters to sounds and vice versa. This slow processing then goes on to inhibit their reading fluency which impacts on their recall of the text they have just read.

‘Problems in learning to use the regular patterns of letter-phoneme correspondence in words as an aid in identifying new words have been referred to as the single most important defining feature of specific learning difficulties.’(Lyon, Shaywitz, & Shaywitz, 2003)

A tried and tested way of developing phonemic decoding skill is to teach the spelling rules alongside teaching letter to sound correspondences starting at alphabet level.

The pupil should be taught step by step beginning with single-letter sounds linked to letter names and letter shapes and working through stages through simple one syllable words to complex multi-syllabic words.’ (Beve Hornsby, 1995)

‘Zebras Spell Really Well’ is a cumulative sequential spelling programme that takes the learner on a journey starting at letter to sound level, right through to exercising their skill at reading and writing words in sentences. Imagery is used throughout and the learner is continually, being engaged by a variety of tasks, in order to learn a specific spelling rule, prior to moving on to the next one.

References

Lyon, G.R., Shaywitz, S.E., & Shaiwitz, B.A. (2003) A definition of Dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 53(1-14)

Hornsby, B (1995) Overcoming Dyslexia, 73, Vermillion Press

‘Times Tables?’ It’s a Doddle’

‘Phonological processing skills play a critical role in learning to read write and spell, particularly for alphabetical writing systems. They also appear to be involved in mathematical computation’

(Wagner, Torgesen and Rashotte, 1999)

The ability to rapidly ‘name’ or read both letters and digits is a fundamental part of phonological processing tests. ‘Rapid naming of objects, colours, digits or letters requires efficient retrieval of phonological information from long term or permanent memory.’(Wagner, Torgesen and Rashotte, 1999)

And the ability to recall digit strings in forward order is a fundamental aspect of phonological memory tests.

‘It is clear that phonological coding in working memory is potentially more useful when attempting to code new words, particularly new words but by bit, as a means of storing intermediate sounds.’(Wagner Torgesen and Rashotte, 1999)

It would be sensible to conclude that low scores in both rapid digit naming tests and digit memory span tests would predispose the individual to having difficulty performing mathematical operations. Processing numbers slowly will place strain on the individual’s working memory and this will impact on their ability to perform calculations with integral steps and also to recall the different steps involved.

‘Long term retrieval abilities are important to math and calculation skills. For example students with deficits in long–term retrieval may have difficulty recalling basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and or division facts when encountered within a math problem.’ (Korkman, Kirk, and Kemp, 1998)

It is perhaps not surprising then that Dr Beve Hornsby, speech therapist, clinical psychologist and specialist teacher, lead at the ‘Dyslexia Clinic’ in St Bart’s Hospital from 1971-1981,and who also set up the ‘Hornsby International Dyslexia Centre’ stated in her book ‘Overcoming

Dyslexia’, ‘Around 60% of dyslexics have difficulty with basic mathematics.’ (Hornsby, 1995)

The ‘Times Tables? It’s a doddle!’ work book has been created to support children with dyslexia who have co-existent difficulty with recalling maths facts, leading to a real difficulty conquering the myriad facts in the twelve basic times tables. The workbook uses imagery and multi-tasking to support learning and includes textual problems to exercise the learner’s ability to turn number problems into words and vice versa. The learners have to select the correct answer to the times tables from a non-sequential set of answers, thus there is no rote learning.

The reader is engaged from the outset in working the facts out for themselves from given clues.

References:

Wagner, R.K., Torgesen, J.K., Rashotte, C.R (1999) The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, 2, pro-ed

Wagner, R.K., Torgesen, J.K., Rashotte, C.R (1999) The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, 6, pro-ed

Korman, M., Kirk, U., Kemp. S.,(1998) The NEPSY Manual, The Pysch Corp

Hornsby. B., Overcoming Dyslexia, 27, Vermillion Press