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

Did You Know Reading Skills Can Be Improved by Singing Songs?

I am so pleased to feature this insightful and informative blog by early literacy and reading specialist, Nancy Platt!  Nancy worked as a children's librarian for 15 years at the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Connecticut, and she is passionate about multisensory and play-based early education. Currently residing in the Dominican Republic, Nancy is furthering her expertise in advocacy, language acquisition, and bilingual education.
singing songs can improve reading
If you have a child or a student with reading problems or dyslexia, you may be surprised to know that using songs and music can help! When children are babies and toddlers, parents and caregivers often sing and recite nursery rhymes to their children. But what can you do if your child is well past the preschool age and is struggling? Revisit the classics, and find new ones!

What Does the Research Say?
Studies have shown that generations upon generations of mothers were not wrong - nursery rhymes and singing are excellent ways to help develop phonological awareness, which is one of the leading indicators of future reading ability. Furthermore, studies on struggling readers involved in systematic music classes with special emphasis on rhythmic perception and production yielded significant positive results in reading, and studies that further incorporated kinesthetic movement into the program yielded additional improvements in auditory attention, phonological awareness, and reading abilities. In addition, neurological research on the brains of professional musicians revealed greater brain plasticity and demonstrated that the musician’s brain is well suited to study the effect of repeated intensive training in areas the brain associated with both language as well as reading. Singing songs (and the repetition of the songs) appears to support strengthening inter-hemispheric connections in the brain.

How Can Songs Help Develop Core Reading Skills?
There are three main ways that songs help:
  1. Most songs are broken down in such a way that individual notes often segment the syllables in the lyrics (words) of the songs, which helps children hear the individual parts of words (segmentation and syllabication). 
  2. Many songs, (notably children’s songs) use rhyming words or patterns. Recognizing rhyme requires auditory discrimination, a skill that children with dyslexia often need help in developing. 
  3. Most songs offer catchy melodies and lyrics that kids enjoy singing.  This exercises sequencing and auditory memory. Additionally, learning songs helps support recall and develop short-term memory, with children using the tune as natural scaffolding. (One only needs to think of how many children memorize the alphabet and continue to use the song to recall letter order well past kindergarten, to realize how this persists).
What Can You Do?
Look to their age and musical taste and take it from there. You can revisit classic nursery rhymes and children’s songs and, once familiar, grow into having your child or student create new lyrics of their own, taking from the rhyming scheme. Begin with easier melodies and work your way up towards more complex songs, with a wider range of vocabulary. Employ rhythm instruments to help younger children find the beat.  Rhythm sticks, shakers or small drums are fantastic engagement tools to use with all kids. Homemade egg shakers work well for smaller hands and can be made easily from plastic eggs (abundantly available at Easter), dried beans, and a dab of glue. Bongos or drums work well for tweens and teens. Many teens love rap music or spoken word poetry with a strong beat, and if you’re worried about content, look to recordings such as the Hamilton cast album for inspiration.

Our brains appear to come wired and fully ready to dive into language and music, indeed, the rhythm of music appears closely linked with creative thought and expression. Using music can help your child make greater gains in their reading while providing a fun, relaxing, and bonding experience.

Other Educational Resources for Struggling Readers
Making the learning process both fun and memorable is key to nurturing excellent readers.  If you would like to learn about all of Dr. Warren's reading games, lessons and cognitive based resources CLICK HERE.

Cheers, 

Comments

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

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

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