Speak2Read Case Study – Grade 3 Struggling Reader Gets to Watch Cartoons

1
Speak2Read Case Study Grade 3 Struggling Reader
Gets to Watch Cartoons

• joyandvitalitycentre.ca
  403-452-5183

2
I am interested in examining some case studies
here in my blog to look at applications of
neuroscience, careful assessment, and
individualized intervention. For the first case
study, I actually chose a student that I did NOT
get to work with!
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
3
I have spoken about this situation elsewhere on
my blog, as well as on some Facebook live videos
that I have posted. It has troubled me it is
EXACTLY the type of situation that I want to
educate around.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
4
The Scenario A mother phone me about her son
in Grade 3. Another tutor had been providing a
specific reading program one that focuses on
phonics and features animated cartoon letters.
This tutor was no longer available, and the
mother was looking for another provider of that
same program.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
5
She asked me if I could provide this program.
My answer? Yes, I can administer that program
but I wont!!
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
6
I pleaded with her to consider other treatment
alternatives, but ultimately, we did not end up
working together. She was adamant that animated
cartoon letters were the right choice for her
son, despite our discussion.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
7
This is tragic that program WILL NOT WORK. It
is going to cost the parent money. It is going to
cost the family time. And it is going to cost
that poor kid in Gr. 3
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
8
because he is going to work his tail off, get
nothing for it, and further reinforce the growing
sense of shame that he is stupid and there
is something wrong with him. Lamentable.
Preventable!
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
9
I was unsuccessful in dissuading this particular
parent, but hopefully I can persuade YOU to think
more critically about how we teach our kids to
read! So, what is there to discuss?
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
10
Point 1 Young readers have different brains
than older readers. As young children are being
exposed to print and literacy concepts, they
really key in on the visual information.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
11
Brain imaging studies show that young readers
have more activation in the occipital lobe than
older readers. The occipital lobe is where visual
information is perceived and processed. This
makes sense. Young readers are learning about
letter concepts and learning to form letter
shapes.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
12
The brain is learning to recognize and
differentiate all of the letters. Lots of
exposure to the shapes of letters and the
features of letters is quite beneficial through
pre-school, Kindergarten, and early Gr. 1
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
13
As readers mature and begin to decode across the
early grades, we see more activation through the
parietal lobe, in the visual association areas.
What does this indicate? Letters are successfully
being recognized and processed visually, and NOW
the priority of the brain has shifted.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
14
The letters are visual symbols that represent
spoken language sounds and words. NOW the brain
is trying to connect or associate letters with
words and sounds. The brain is trying to
consolidate the VISUAL information of letters
with the SOUND and MEANING information of
language.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
15
Driving the Point Home So, what is the
takeaway? A child in Gr. 3 CANNOT be left STUCK
at the visual processing stage. A program that is
focused on recognizing letters is NOT APPROPRIATE
for this childs brain. It is activating the
WRONG AREA of the brain.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
16
Point 2 Processing and Associating Visual
Information Typically developing readers learn
to recognize letters whether they are upper
case, lower case, even upside down!
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
17
Whether they are drawn in the sand or made out of
Play-Doh or turned into animated cartoon
letters. Their brains can do it all when it comes
to recognizing letters. How? Children with a
typically developing brain adapt and specialize
cells in the brain around letters, and they
become efficient at processing letter information.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
18
Children with a learning difference do NOT. Their
brains do not adapt and specialize. These
children are very poor at processing letter
information.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
19
If a child is in Gr. 3, and he is having
difficulty pairing letters with the corresponding
sounds (called the Alphabetic Principle), suffice
it to say that this child has difficulty
recognizing letters AND associating those letters
with sounds (or recognizing whole words).
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
20
The likely culprit here is an area of the brain
known as the Angular Gyrus, which is important
for integrating visual and spoken information.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
21
Driving the Point Home This child needs to get
their brain organized around the alphabetic
principle the idea that visual letter symbols
represent spoken sounds. THAT needs to be the
focus of instruction.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
22
As visual information is not being integrated, we
may want to control the stimulus e.g., teach
very representative letters first, only teach
lower case, and AVOID letter confusion (b, d, p,
q, g). Makes sense, yes?
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
23
Do you know a child in Gr. 1 or beyond that still
struggles with letter reversals? Research has
proven that this is a LANGUAGEBASED error not a
visual error!
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
24
My point? This child is having difficulty
associating visual information. The LAST thing
you would want to do is DISTORT and PERVERT
letters by turning them into cartoons making
them less representative and even HARDER to
recognize!
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
25
Point 3 Functional, Integrated Activities that
Engage the Entire Literate Brain To read,
children must recognize a word on the page,
activate the corresponding sounds in the brain,
and then either blend these sounds together or
recognize the word, thereby extracting the
meaning of the word. Thats reading.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
26
To accomplish this, the brain needs to activate
the frontal lobes, the visual processing area of
the brain, the sound processing area of the
brain, and the language processing area of the
brain. AND then these three areas need to talk.
Neural activation and neural connection across
literacy areas are MANDATORY.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
27
In a younger childs brain, we sometimes work
only on sounds (phonological awareness). Or we
may work only on vocabulary meaning. And we may
do activities that are focused around visual
processing recognizing letters.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
28
Once kids are at about mid-Grade 1, we can no
longer AFFORD to work on discrete skills in
isolation. We MUST provide literacy activities
that are going to ACTIVATE and CONNECT all the
literacy areas of the brain. Doing anything else
is disillusioned, and we are fooling ourselves
and cheating children
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
29
Driving the Point Home A program with cartoon
letters will activate the visual processing area
of the brain and provide some activation of the
sound area of the brain. It will also allow some
communication between these two areas.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
30
It does not activate the language processing area
of the brain, and it is therefore ineffective. It
is not integrated. Further, often the sounds and
letters are addressed in isolation.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
31
This does not help children to build, recognize,
or know WORDS, and therefore has little impact on
ACTUAL READING PERFORMANCE. It is not
functional. It is also less likely to engage the
frontal lobes the attentional and memory
components of reading.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
32
Lastly, many elements of this program occur in
the visualauditory modality. They talk about
letters and sounds. However, it does not engage
the motor cortex as much as functional literacy
tasks like writing and spelling.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
33
Simply put, the program is inadequate in what is
needed to learn to read. Again, functional and
integrated tasks that activate and connect all
areas of the brain are what is needed to make a
difference!
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
34
Note that animated cartoon letter programs can
be useful for younger readers! There is nothing
inherently wrong with such a program. Where
people are misled is that such a program is not
typically appropriate for readers beyond mid-Gr.
1.
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
35
And for a child with Learning Difference a
brain that is not organized around letter-sound
correspondence it could be the OPPOSITE of what
is needed!
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183
36
Concerned? Interested? Want a 2nd Opinion? Visit
our Parents page or BOOK NOW for a free
consultation! Source - http//speak2read.ca/case
-study-grade-3-struggling-reader-gets-watchcartoon
s/
joyandvitalitycentre.ca

403-452-5183