I have just qualified in Developing Writing Skills in Adults with Dyslexia (Level 5) with Dyslexia Action. It was particularly interesting to explore how people typically acquire and develop writing skills, and why this is more difficult for a dyslexic adult. It was also useful to pick up some new ideas for support strategies, and have contact with other specialist tutors.

The Davis Attention Mastery Programme introduces strategies to control attention focus and overcome behavioural, or organizational difficulties. The programme includes the exploration of concepts, such as consequence, sequence and order, which enables individuals to develop an understanding into their self-created barriers.

Working with a client on these concepts always results in me having a good re-organisation of my own work environment once they have left. Lockdown2 has presented the perfect opportunity for me to ‘create order’ in my desk.

Creating order

In the early summer I was contacted by a mother who had been told by the school that that her daughter, Jessie aged 7,was two years behind in her reading and playing up. So we embarked on the Davis Reading Programme for Young Learners, a learning enhancement programme which builds confidence with the alphabet and develops accurate reading skills.

During the holidays, I worked directly with Jessie, and provided guidance to her mother who also worked with her at home. Her mother worked with her regularly throughout the summer while taking care to keep the sessions fun. Her dedication and commitment is reflected in the change in Jessie’s reading and writing, and highlights the importance of good parental support for these programmes.

Jessie returned to school with enthusiasm. I was thrilled to hear that her teacher, who also taught her last year, is planning to move her up a set in her reading and support groups, and commented that it is very rare to see this progress. Congratulations to Team Jessie!

This practical online six-session course will run in the evenings 7:30 – 9:30.

The course starts by discussing how dyslexic people think and learn, how their perceptual gift can also cause a problem and suggests ways to optimise the home learning environment. It then provides strategies for improving reading comprehension and explores the role of creativity in learning.

This is done through a mix of short presentations, interactive discussions and plenty of practical exercises to provide techniques that can be used to support your child.

Terrific set of podcasts by Fish Don’t Climb Trees which shed light on the ‘gift’ of dyslexia, not the ‘dys’ in dyslexia. Perhaps I’m biased as I’m featured in the 4th one which discusses the connection between perceptual talent (the gift part) and dyslexia – but have a listen to them all and see what you think. The Podcasts are part of The Whole Dyslexia Society’s campaign to bring about knowledge and understanding, and hopefully a change in our education system, which they hope will bring about a cognitive equal opportunity for all.

Great news that PictureGrammar is now available for Android phones. This clever dictionary gives a visual meaning to nine parts of speech and includes more than 150 illustrated definitions of the most common adverbs, determiners, pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions. It’s less than £2.50 so great value to support Symbol Mastery.

I thoroughly enjoyed presenting my first online Why Ty for Parents course. I hope to run another one in the Autumn so please contact me if you are interested.

The course runs over six sessions and gives a good understanding of the Davis methods and how you can support your child.
It starts by exploring the idea of a threshold for confusion, how this leads to disorientation and how we can alleviate this by using the Davis tool of ‘Release’. It goes on the explore how ‘perceptual talent’ can cause a problem for picture-thinkers as disorientation, conflict of sensory information, can cause a learning difficulty.

Learning must be active and incorporate pictures, words, and creative personality. The course participants experience this active and creative learning through the medium of plasticine. Some words lack strong mental image, and this can have implications for reading if you rely on mental imagery to remember or understand things.
The course introduces how you can use Symbol Mastery to fill those gaps, and a Davis reading technique that uses mental imagery. We looked at how these techniques can be used with fiction, and then moved onto using them for factual texts and school work. This technique aids discovery of unknown areas and provides a strong long-term memory of mastered texts.
The course also had Q&A sessions with specialists and Richard Whitehead, author of the book Why Tyrannosaurus But Not If?

The course was well received, one parent wrote:

If you would prefer to find out more about the Davis Methods by watching short videos rather than reading, subscribe to Carl Nigi’s YouTube channel ‘Overcoming Dyslexia’. He adds a new post every couple of weeks.