Skip to main content

100 Powerful Learning Specialist and Educational Therapy Materials

This week I wanted to tell you about my online store, Good Sensory Learning. I’m Dr. Erica Warren, and I established this site so I could share all the materials that I have created over the last 20+ years as a learning specialist and educational therapist. When I first began my private practice, Learning to Learn, I had great difficulty finding fun and multisensory materials for my students that were effective and engaging. So back in 2005, I made it my mission to design and distribute high-end, remedial products as well as memorable, motivating lessons that bring delight to learning. If you would like to try a free sampling of my activities , CLICK HERE . How Are the Products Organized at Good Sensory Learning? You can download my Free Printable Catalog or you can browse the site using the grey “search all products” bar in the top right of any page with keywords such as dyslexia, working memory, and executive functioning. What’s more, drop down menus in the red banner allow you t
Post a Comment

Excellent Reading Comprehension: Developing the 3 Core Cognitive Skills

Every teacher would love to ignite a love for reading and nurture voracious readers, but simply teaching your students how to read and asking them to read each night isn't necessarily going to help them comprehend the text that they are scanning. The key to helping your students get lost in the pages depends on whether they have developed 3 foundational cognitive skills. 

What are The 3 Cognitive Skills?
Automatized Naming (RAN): RAN or rapid naming is the ability to quickly verbalize a series of familiar items including letters, numbers, colors or objects. Research suggests that RAN is much like executive functioning in that it is a control center. RAN is a complex set of cognitive processing areas - verbal, visual and motor systems - that work together thus defining one’s reading fluency capabilities.

Decoding: Most students are taught in the traditional classroom how to decode. Decoding is the ability to recognize and analyze printed words and to connect it to spoken words. These skills include the ability to recognize the basic sounds and blends that make up words, grasp what words mean, recognize words in context and know whether words are used correctly in sentences.

Visualization: Research has investigated the effects of visualization on reading capabilities. Studies have shown a direct link between poor comprehension skills and the inability to visualize text. Research also substantiates that students who picture what they are reading, have better comprehension scores and find greater enjoyment in the reading process. What’s more, studies suggest that training in mental imagery helps students generate their own mental images, make inferences and form accurate predictions. Finally, the research shows that visualization improves deep connections that aid in memory recall and reading comprehension.

Developing these Skills to Automaticity
Because reading requires multitasking the three core skills in unison, developing these skills to automaticity is a must. Automaticity is the ability to do things without occupying the mind - allowing it to become an automatic response pattern or habit. Automaticity is usually the result of learning, repetition, and practice. 

How Can I help Students Develop These Skills?
RAN: Games are a motivating option for exercising RAN to automaticity. There are many games that require word retrieval and place time constraints on players. Several rapid naming/word retrieval games are listed below. Also, don’t be afraid to create your own games!
Decoding: Some students don’t fully pick up decoding when they are exposed to the traditional ways of teaching. Instead, they may require a more systematic, multisensory approach such as the Orton-Gillingham (OG) approach to reading. There are many successful OG programs on the market today. The Dyslexia Reading Well offers a comprehensive list.

Visualization: I have found that the best way to teach visualization is through games and mindful discussions. Here are a few options:
    Visualization and education
  • Stare board game
  • Mindful Visualization is a downloadable document (PDF) that provides a review of the research, assessment tools, over twenty game-like activities and lesson suggestions in all the subject areas.
  • Teaching Visualization PowerPoint downloads review the 10 core skills that need to be developed to optimize visualization abilities.

Cheers, Dr. Erica Warren
Dr. Erica Warren is the author, illustrator, and publisher of multisensory educational materials at Good Sensory Learning and Dyslexia Materials. She is also the director of Learning to Learn and Learning Specialist Courses.
· Blog: https://learningspecialistmaterials.blogspot.com/
· YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/warrenerica1
· Podcast: https://godyslexia.com/
· Store: http://www.Goodsensorylearning.com/ & www.dyslexiamaterials.com
· Courses: http://www.learningspecialistcourses.com/
· Newsletter Sign-up: https://app.convertkit.com/landing_pages/69400
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

88 Assistive Technology Tools for Struggling Learners

Making sense of the complex weave of assistive technology devices and applications for struggling learners can be a confusing and frustrating chore. This blog talks about 15 different types of assistive technology that can benefit struggling learners with links to my favorite tools. For a more comprehensive discussion of these technologies  CLICK HERE Comprehensive Technologies: Don Johnston Inc. - $. Kurzweil 3000 - $   TextHelp - $ ClaroRead - $ Planning, Time Management, and Organization: iStudies Pro - Free/$ - Remember the Milk - Free - RescueTime - $ Strict Workflow  - Free - Wunderlist - Free - Text to Speech: AnyBook Personal Reader - $ Audible.com - $ IntoWords - $ NaturalReaders - Free/$ Project Gutenberg & Librivox - Free Raz-Kids - $ Read & Write for Google Chrome - Free/$ Read OutLoud - $ Snap&Read Universal - $ Voice Dream Reader - Free/$ Voice Typing - Free Speech to Text: Co-writer Un
Post a Comment
Read more

10 Free Ways to Improving Visual Tracking for Weak Readers

While reading, tracking across the page from one line to the next can be tricky when the text is small, but for students with dyslexia or weak reading skills, it can be a problem regardless of the font size.  So why is this the case?  Perhaps one of the problems is poor tracking skills. What Exactly is Tracking? Tracking is the ability for one's eyes to move smoothly across the page from one line of text to another. Tracking difficulties happen when eyes jump backward and forward and struggle to stay on a single line of text.  This results in problems such as word omissions, reversals, eye fatigue, losing your place while reading and most importantly it can impact normal reading development.   Can Tracking be Improved? Tracking can be improved by strengthening eye muscles as well as getting your eyes and brain to work cooperatively.  There are three eye movements that need to be developed:   Fixations: The ability to hold one's eyes steady without moving
Post a Comment
Read more

Do I have dyslexia - Explaining Symptoms and Myths for Kids

What do you do when you learn that your child has dyslexia? Should you hide this diagnosis to protect them from labels and misunderstandings, or should you tell them? If you do decide to tell them, how do you do this? Can you help them to overcome any potential fears or misunderstandings? These are the questions that I will answer in this blog that includes kid-friendly graphics. What are the Benefits of Telling Your Child That He or She Has Dyslexia? Educating your child with dyslexia about the common signs and misconceptions can help them to: understand that they learn in a different way than other kids that don’t have dyslexia.  shed negative labels such as stupid, careless, unmotivated and lazy. correct any misunderstandings. identify with other successful people that have or had dyslexia. acquire the needed intervention and instruction in school. learn that many people with dyslexia have strengths that others do not have. Individuals with dyslexia are often: great
Post a Comment
Read more