A Researcher Looks at LD I am a retired professor of NeuroPsychology who developed a research program on the relationship between the brain and learning disability. I want to outline one particular study and show its importance in how we diagnose and teach the children we now label learning disabled.
An identified group of poor readers who had clear phonological deficits in reading were compared to average readers on two simple tasks. A group of words preselected to be in the sight vocabulary of all participants were paired under two conditions.
In one case the student had to say whether the words meant the same, opposite, or unrelated. In the second task the students had to say whether the two words rhymed. In the semantic task there were no differences between the two groups, but the students with phonological deficits performed much worse on the rhyme task. Even though they knew what the word meant and its relationship with other words, they could not pronounce the word.
I was never a K-12 teacher but it seems to make more sense to build on strength than remediate weakness. The purpose of reading is to get meaning from the printed word and the all the children in the study could do that. A prime approach is phonetic decoding. The poor readers could not use that approach, but they learned to read despite it. What is ironic is that we call the way the poor readers do it without phonics as speed reading and pay for a course to learn it. A phonetic approach worked for me and for many others, but it does not work for everyone.
If phonetic decoding does not work for some children, use something that will. Closing Questions Phonetic decoding is a Means toward the End of reading. Are we confusing the End and the Means? Do we use phonics for deaf children? Note: The study was a published Ph,D. dissertation and available on request.
Further thoughts
By drzThis distinction had been the focal point of my research starting in 1980. The consistent finding was that 85% of the students we label as reading disabled have a right hemisphere orientation and a weakness in the speech centers of the left hemisphere. I can back that with published research.
To be able to determine whether the words rhyme they have to be spoken or heard and it is here that the reading disabled child has a problem. There is something amiss in the LH speech center.
That should have been a minor problem, except for the fact that the way we teach reading is exactly their weakness. Whether we use a strict phonics approach or whole word or look say, the idea is the same. Look at the printed word, convert it to sound, and if you hear it you will know what it means. Phonetic based learning makes it difficult for them to learn, but how do we test them? Reading aloud is the last thing these kids need. As long as you put phonics questions on a test the child will have a problem.
The rhyme task is only the tip of the problem.
Phonics for deaf children
By AnnieDeaf children don't learn phonics as we learn phonics. It depends on which type of communication they choice to use. If they use Sign Exact English, then they will learn phonics and the whole grammar process. It they go to ASL, then they don't. They only sign key words in a statement. I have a friend, who is deaf. She use ASL, because it is less stress on your hands as you sign. She can read lips to a point. She also uses closed caption to hear the news or tv program. She does have a cocklear implant, which helps her. In her job of teaching deaf students, she is torn about teaching phonics, even though the students don't really get it.
How can you sound out if you can't hear????
By drzHow do you teach phonics to someone who has never heard a sound before?
Things have to be done visually or tactually to take advantage of the working senses.