| New Technology
Using Effective Activities to Teach Dyslexia and Special Needs
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Read Quick-Learn Quick, a student
friendly reading program teaching a new method for learning to read, was developed in the classroom during 30 years
searching for the "KEY" to help special needs students
with learning disabilities have their best opportunity for success in school.
Teach decoding skills, reading skills and
critical thinking skills thoroughly to
special needs students to develop their maximum learning for
immediate and long term goals.
Special needs
students of many disabilities are able to correctly decode
multi-syllabic words for advancing their needs for learning to read
with modest
practice. Longer words are accurately decoded using the
3-Step System; an important feature for
remedial readers, allowing them to have a more rapid path to
reading success.
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Dyslexia - A True Story
"An 11th grade male student,
diagnosed as dyslexic, requested reading instruction from our private
reading clinic. The student was in special education classes due to his
reading deficiencies. The student, his father and teachers, reported
that he was unable to read after many different approaches had failed
over the years. He was taught the academic curriculum in his classes
using taped textbooks provided by the State Dept. of Education.
After nine
clinic hours, using the Read Quick 3-Step system on a one to one
basis, student read one-half of the story, "Outcast of Poker
Flats," making one pronunciation error and in general, read
orally with normal emphasis and grade level comprehension."
Reading Clinic Director
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Read Quick is a successful reading program
for helping dyslexia children learn to read. We have found
success with dyslexics and other right brain children learning
with the 3-Step System. This is an important
distinction in identifying how special needs learners are taught
and identified based on the nature of their disability.
Numerous
students in Special Education classes have trainable causes such
as vision tracking and understanding their dominance profile.
Correct vision tracking and teach based on dominance profiles
will reduce special needs population by 50-60% or more. |
Read Quick teaches a new reading strategy to students in special education by
eliminating the often confusing syllables, difficult for special
needs students to remember and apply. As a consequence, they
are unable to decode key words that greatly decrease their
comprehension. When meeting an unknown word, they may 'skip'
over it or ask for help from a teacher, aide or parent.
As
students mature, asking for help becomes "tiresome" and
they accept reading failure as their ultimate fate. Accepting
failure is the fourth step in Dreikur's, "Maintaining
Sanity in the Classroom" and "Natural
and Logical Consequences".
(Books should be required reading for all teachers,
particularly those working with special needs learners.)
The 3-Step System is a direct
pathway from print to sounds. When a word is marked, each
sound in the marking process results in the word correctly
controlled and each sound is speech perfect. This teaching
method is critical for dyslexics and special needs learners to hear and see sounds for
developing their logic, left hemisphere.
Special needs
students receive the precise sounds needed for decoding and saying
the word. This teaches to the special needs,
learning disabled, right brain learners, dyslexic, autistic,
learning delayed, auditory-processing deficits, attention deficit
disorder, and any disabilities relating to language processing.
Memory is achieved by the Read Quick
method by constantly hearing and repeating the correct sounds. The
challenge now is for students to memorize letters and letter
clusters, much like learning the alphabet. Students hear, see,
and say 47 Combinations in as many formats as
possible. This constant repetition of isolated sounds and same
sounds in English words soon results in memory and identification of
Combinations, G, G, & Y Borrowers and vowel sounds,
which are then applied by learners to words, leading to
comprehension.
It is not
necessary to separate affixes from the base word to decode the word.
The 3-Step System accurately identifies newly
created Combinations when affixes are added to a
word. Prefixes with a long vowel sound, but no long vowel rule
to follow, are taught as 12 prefixes having a long vowel sound.
Affixes should be taught in the context of a word, not in isolation.
This reading help provided by the 3-Step System allows special needs
and struggling readers a more rapid process for decoding and reading
the text.
Students are taught to pay attention to the "reading brain."
When all 3 steps are finished, students are taught how to sound out
the word and there is only one sound they need to change. A
short vowel may change to a long vowel sound; a simple application
of the 'listening vocabulary.' Six suffixes are taught that
usually cover or eliminate visual identification of the final 'e'
which gives a reading strategy for ultimate vowel control.
Special needs students develop a positive attitude and willingness
to attack unknown words, where they previously asked for help or
skipped the word. This reversal is very significant for
teaching reading comprehension to special education students.
Reading vocabulary will improve comprehension as unfamiliar
words now make sense to the "reading brain". Motivation to
read greatly increases and reflects in improved reading skills and
overall academic improvement.
Learning to read is challenging to special education students, but
Read Quick 3-Step System is taught much like learning the alphabet
to develop the skills students need for learning to read. Oral
reading allows teachers to select challenging reading materials so
special needs students are reading for understanding through
dialoging.
Strategies for Special Needs Students
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Read Quick is applicable to a wide range of
student needs, based on their learning styles, dictated by their
vision, hearing, and brain dominance.
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Provides special students consistency and
accuracy for initial learning and review for memory and application.
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3-Step System may be repeated daily during
warm-up in less than 15 minutes.
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Lessons are age appropriate. The system is
a decoding method, and any reading material may be used.
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Offers a simple
system, easy to teach and explain to special needs students.
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Allows user to read and unlock unknown words in
context that are typically years above their basic reading skill
level.
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Students are pulled 'upward', not leveled, when
using reading text, short story, or novel.
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Teachers should not place an artificial ceiling
on reading material for any special education student. They need the experience of exposure to a better
vocabulary.
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Should be used in all subject areas requiring a
workable decoding system for all ages.
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Motivates student by allowing them to read mature
reading material while practicing decoding, vocabulary and critical
reading skills in context.
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Consistently using reading material 2-4 years
above students actual reading level, while reading orally, works
exceptionally well with this group of students.
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Allows instructor to use direct teaching method,
as well as, silent reading activities to instruct and monitor
progress and student needs.
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Promotes student interaction when reading orally
and discussing quality questions, developing skills in text analysis
while providing a much needed student-to-student social interaction.
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Teachers working with this group of
learners should teach every facet of reading skills as identified by
curriculum for their grade level.
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Stop oral reading every time there is an
opportunity to ask questions and clarify vocabulary and content.
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It is not how many words or pages students read orally, it's how
thoroughly they are read, based on teacher's questions.
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Reading and speech skills are taught
simultaneously, further enhancing the overall language skills
because Combinations are speech and spelling perfect.
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Used by speech teachers to supplement their
formal speech program.
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Memory for Combination sounds
and spellings are improved because Combinations do not change.
The same sounds associated to letters are consistent and repeated
throughout the process; a method required for most special needs and
ESL learners to internalize.
Why We Think Read Quick Helps Dyslexics Learn
to Read
From the first lessons over a period of time in public schools, teachers in
regular and special education noticed that students identified by clinics,
teachers and families of dyslexics reported improvement in their reading,
spelling and a gradual reduction in their negative attitude toward school.
We found some of the answers 30 years later form the research by Sally
Shaywitz, M.D. as reported in Overcoming Dyslexia.
Read Quick is taught and practiced by seeing, hearing
and saying the speech perfect sounds and seeing spelling perfect clusters
that go with the Combination sounds in isolation; then
reading, hearing and saying them all again. We believe this is a remarkable
coincidence in what seems to work to retrain the left hemispheres of
dyslexics. Other researchers have found the same results but have also found
there is no pattern of training the brain as development takes different
routes to fill in the nerve pathways.
Laminated 3"x 8" Student Bookmarker
should stay with the learner as long as needed. The 47
Combinations,
Borrowers C, G, & Y, with rules,
and the 3-Step System are on the front side, all 2 sound
Combinations are
repeated on the back in sample words. Blends are listed across the bottom.
Bookmarker should be used as a constant student reference.
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