Dyslexia: Breaking Down the Definition The International Dyslexia Association created the following definition of dyslexia: “Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component […]
What is interleaving? You may have heard of interleaving, and wondered what it is, especially within the literacy world. Interleaving is already a well-documented learning technique for studying, and today we will explore what this means when working with a structured approach to literacy. Let’s begin by breaking down the word: The word “interleaving” contains […]
What is ‘working memory’ and why is it so important? The other day my dyslexic, dysgraphic, and dyscalculic son and I were sitting having breakfast together and we got to talking about some of the things he has been finding hard to manage at his job recently. The most prevalent thing on his mind was […]
Understanding Cognitive Load Theory and its Classroom Impact Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) explains how the mental effort required by learning tasks can hinder students’ ability to process new information and form long-term memories. This theory, developed by Australian cognitive scientist John Sweller in 1988, helps teachers apply more effective teaching methods and how to recognise […]
This blog post is the fourth in a series about writing. I was prompted to write these after coming across a post about writing in a forum I follow a few weekends ago. The post described a parent’s frustration with their child’s writing process. Although the child writes extensively to express their ideas, the resulting […]
This blog post is the third in a series about writing. I was prompted to write these after coming across a post about writing in a forum I follow a few weekends ago. The post described a parent’s frustration with their child’s writing process. Although the child writes extensively to express their ideas, the resulting […]
This blog post is the second in a few about writing. I’m not sure how many parts there will be yet! As I discussed in part one, I was prompted to write this after coming across a post about writing in a forum I follow over the weekend. The post described a parent’s frustration with […]
This blog post is the first in a few about writing. I’m not sure how many parts there will be yet! I was prompted to write this after coming across a post about writing in a forum I follow over the weekend. The post described a parent’s frustration with their child’s writing process. Although the […]
Sometimes I get it wrong! This week I wanted to reflect on not always getting it right. It’s pretty challenging to get everything right all the time, even with the best tools at our disposal! At the end of last term, I was working my way steadily through slides in The Syntax Project, and with […]
In my role as a private intervention tutor, I’m very familiar with invented spelling and see it a lot when carrying out literacy screening. But what exactly is it? Invented spelling can be good on one hand, as it tells us important milestones are being reached, however, we also need to be mindful of when […]
