LearnAbility

04/12/2020

💜💛 As the sun sets in Australia on International Day of People with disABILITY we wanted to pause one more time to draw attention to people with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and their unmet needs.

Our families tell us they often hear "he'll grow out of it" or "you just need to read to them more often". This simplistic and inaccurate understanding of the impact of DLD across the lifespan is not helpful and needs to be addressed. Let's look at the evidence provided by researchers from around the world and compiled by RADLD - Raising Awareness of Developmental Language Disorder shall we:

🟣 DLD affects 7.5% of grade 1 children. Teachers, need to know about DLD, because there are two students with DLD in every classroom. In a class of 30, 2 children have DLD. 𝙉𝙤𝙧𝙗𝙪𝙧𝙮 𝙚𝙩 𝙖𝙡., 2016

🔵 DLD is 50 times more prevalent than hearing impairment and 5 times more prevalent than autism. 𝙈𝙘𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙤𝙧., 2020 - 𝙙𝙡𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙢𝙚.𝙤𝙧𝙜

🟡 People with DLD are 6 times more likely to have reading difficulties and 4 times more likely to struggle with math. 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙩 𝙖𝙡., 2002

🔴 DLD commonly co-occurs with other neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD, Developmental Coordination Disorder, dyslexia, and dyscalculia. 𝘾𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙣 & 𝙆𝙞𝙧𝙗𝙮, 2018

🟣 4 out of 5 children with identified emotional and behavioural problems may have unidentified DLD. 𝙃𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙤 𝙚𝙩 𝙖𝙡., 2014; 𝘽𝙚𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙩 𝙖𝙡., 200

🔵 DLD is unidentified in many affected children. Children with DLD often do not receive specialised services to address the condition. 𝙏𝙤𝙢𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙣 𝙚𝙩 𝙖𝙡., 1997; 𝙉𝙤𝙧𝙗𝙪𝙧𝙮 𝙚𝙩 𝙖𝙡., 2016

🟡 DLD is a persistent problem, but it may look different at different ages requiring different assessment tools sensitive to ongoing challenges. The core deficits in DLD change over the lifespan. Children do not grow out of DLD. They need support. 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙚𝙩 𝙖𝙡., 2019; 𝘿𝙚𝙡 𝙏𝙪𝙛𝙤 & 𝙎𝙖𝙮𝙖𝙠𝙤 𝙀𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙚, 2020

🔴 People with DLD can succeed despite their language difficulties. Adults with DLD can achieve positive educational and employment outcomes. 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙞-𝙍𝙖𝙢𝙨𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙚𝙩 𝙖𝙡., 2017

We hope people's views will change towards DLD when they are confronted by the facts of this hidden disABILITY.

03/12/2020

Early intervention...

We talk about it a lot, I could give you so many reasons why it’s great for kids!!!

But one in particular we forget is reducing carer burnout!

Don’t get me wrong attending multiple therapy sessions a week is beyond exhausting for parents.
But not getting in early can make it worse!

One of the key ingredients of early intervention is parents!! We always see better results when parents are part of the treating team, learning and working with the child and therapist.

Supporting a parent to help a child regulate is a lot more successful if the parent themselves are regulated.

What’s not so helpful is leaving a parent struggling to support a child for months or years with no support, no intervention and no personalised strategies.

When all they have to turn to is the often judgemental and inaccurate deep dark corners of the internet guilt, fear, distress and exhaustion all grow!!

But if we can help parents right at the beginning we can give them tools, strategies, support and reassurance, we can start seeing improvements before it gets completely overwhelming.

Leave it too late and we are left asking an exhausted, overwhelmed and scared parent to try to learn and implement new strategies, techniques and routines.

So next time someone expresses concerns about their child’s development, don’t just spout the old ‘they all do it in their own time’ listen, validate their concerns, parents instincts are often very right!
Encourage them to seek assistance from health professionals early no matter how small the concern.
Sometimes a handful of appointments early can prevent many many appointments later.
Sometimes early intervention gets kids and families the diagnosis and support they need!

At worst things are ticking along just fine they get professional reassurance they are doing ok!!!

20/11/2020

Amazing news! Let’s hope this results in evidence-based instruction being available for every Victorian student that needs it 👏🏼

Victoria's called 'The Education State' for a reason.

We want kids to have the very best start in life – no matter where they live.

And to receive an education that matches their needs and supports them – no matter their background.

That's what makes today so special.

Nearly $1.6 billion to completely transform the way students with disabilities receive support at school.

We know that in the past, some kids who've needed extra help just haven't been eligible.

That's made things tough at school, and tough for families. And far too many have fallen through the cracks.

So we're expanding the criteria and doubling the number of students who'll receive targeted support in the classroom – including kids with autism, dyslexia or complex behaviours.

We'll employ specialist facilitators to help identify students' individual circumstances and needs.

This new approach will focus on what a student can achieve in the classroom - rather than what they can't.

It means kids will be given more opportunity to work to their strengths, in areas that interest them.

And to help schools better plan and adjust support for students, we're investing in staff and skills too.

81 additional teacher roles in specialist schools. 25 coaches and new learning resources to support teachers. And 150 scholarships for existing staff to build on their skills and experience.

This investment is the biggest in our state's history. And unlike anything else in the Southern Hemisphere.

It marks a complete reform in how a student's needs will be identified, and how those needs will be met in the classroom.

More kids will get the help they need – and a fairer future.

Because that's exactly what they deserve.

14/11/2020

Children often learn from watching. How will you demonstrate kindness this week?

Happy World Kindness Day!

06/11/2020

Pre-Black Friday Sale!! Code: PREBF40

We want to help homeusers provide virtual learning solutions to their children. So, we’re offering a massive 40% on up to 3 licences of our award-winning programs. Get Nessy Reading and Spelling, Writing Beach and Nessy Fingers for 40% off using the code PREBF40

For British English: www.nessy.com/uk/products
For American English: www.nessy.com/us/products

06/11/2020

Here's a fantastic resource for our transitioning Grade 6 students or early high school students! Thanks Georgia 💕

02/11/2020

27/10/2020

For my education colleagues: recommended reading for Dyslexia Awareness Month!
https://www.nomanis.com.au/single-post/2019/10/28/Issue-8-October-2019

In this edition, Pamela Snow examines what evidence-based practice in education means in 2019, while Jennifer Buckingham reports on how evidence-based instruct

22/10/2020

And if you have a dyslexia diagnosis, you can access the Vision Australia audiobook service with a letter of referral.

Audiobooks have been available since the 1930's. Did anyone listen to books on cassette tapes, CDs or in their car ? Tell us what you love about audio books ?
Audiobooks open up an entire world of literature and are enjoyed by people all over the world. Have you tried previewing a book by audio and then reading it with your school? Do you prefer to listen and read along? Are you an adult that recently discovered audio books are a wonderful experience? We still believe children should be taught how to read. We also believe everyone deserves the freedom to learn with all technology available. See the comments for some alternative technology. . We love audiobooks.

21/10/2020

Today marks the start of dyslexia awareness month. Check out this statistic from Decoding Dyslexia. Too often parents are told that poor reading skills are “normal” and kids will grow into them. If you suspect your child has a reading difficulty, getting them early and appropriate intervention is key. Contact us if you have questions or concerns about your child.

20/10/2020

19/10/2020

Teachers: this dyslexia awareness month freebie is for you!!

08/10/2020

How does your child feel about returning to school? What's behaviour like on a Sunday night or Monday morning? Supporting both literacy skills and mental health is crucial!

Children's Mental Health and Literacy Difficulties🧠🧩💭

What impact does your child's literacy difficulties and/or dyslexia have on his/her mental health?

Dyslexia Vicotria Support recent survey results are very concerning. 81% of responding parents believe that literacy difficulties and/or dyslexia has a "negative" or "very negative" effect on their child's mental health.😢

Poster available from here:https://cdn.nessy.com/production/books/Poster_Pack.pdf

01/10/2020

02/09/2020

Good advice especially in the tail end of Stage 4 lockdown in Melbourne - the pandemic parenting fatigue is real!

This article is written by Dr Justin Coulson, Parenting Expert from Happy Families Pandemic parenting. It’s intense and surreal (and sometimes

25/08/2020

Have you seen Code REaD’s TV advertisement?

16/08/2020

Fantastic information regarding decodable readers for upper primary/high schoolers from the amazing Amanda Kranz!

In my role as a specialist teacher and Director of The Dyslexia Hub, I work predominantly with upper-primary and secondary-aged students. This is partly by choice (I was a secondary school teacher for many years), but also because this is where the demand is. The vast majority of enquiries to our se...

04/08/2020

A follow up from yesterday's post! It's no coincidence I receive lots of requests for Grade 4 or 5 students that are suddenly struggling to read and spell.

As you can see, the number of multisyllabic words that students encounter each year is enormous! Students need an effective way to be able to decode words with 2+ syllables.

Without a method to attach multisyllabic words, what chance do students have at successfully reading grade level text and beyond?

Syllables Matter!
Source: Kearn, et al 2016

03/08/2020

Breaking words into syllables is such an important skill for reading and spelling. Thanks to Learning Matters Ltd for this wonderful poster explaining the basics of syllable types!

As Dr Guinevere Eden says .... "Something that many of us take for granted and forget, is just how complicated reading is. There's nothing about our brain that was designed to learn to read...... Reading uses different parts of the brain to sound out words, recognise familiar words by sight, think about how to pronounce the words."

As teachers and specialists it is not only crucial we know this, but that we understand how our alphabetic code works and how we can explicitly teach both word recognition skills and language comprehension.

This Syllable Types poster is a firm favourite (reminder and teaching prompt) to have on the wall in your classroom, staffroom, office room, bedroom haha. Ok I may have taken that a bit far :)

The Syllable Types poster gives very clear explanations for each of the 7 Syllable types.

Developing the knowledge that syllables are parts of words and every syllable contain vowels helps children to successfully grasp an understanding of the English language.

This poster breaks down the syllable types with a brief explanation and word examples.
Syllable types, and the rules within them, are most successfully taught using a well scaffolded, cumulative approach to spelling.

Do you have your poster yet?
https://www.learningmatters.co.nz/shop/product/419520/7-syllable-types-a3-poster/

27/07/2020

Mums of preschoolers - check this out!

25/07/2020

Here's some free decodable book resources for our older struggling readers! Thanks Phonics Books!

13/07/2020

👀 Look what arrived in the post! Just in time to delve into phonemic awareness activities in iso 👏🏼

19/05/2020

Another amazing resource free until 30th June!

Jolly Phonics Readers are available as e-readers for free for a limited time on Android and Apple devices! All of these readers will be available for free until 30th June.

Spanning 93 books across 5 levels of decodable readers, they will help you to support your children remotely as they practice their reading skills anywhere!

Orange Jolly Phonic Readers available through

Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/books/author?id=Louise+Van-Pottelsberghe

Apple Store: https://books.apple.com/gb/author/louise-van-pottelsberghe/id1511937913 -all/books

Read, Blue, Yellow and Green sets available through

Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/books/author?id=Sara+Wernham

Apple Store: https://books.apple.com/gb/artist/sara-wernham/1512736931 -all/recent-books

17/05/2020

Check out these warning signs of dyslexia. The last few weeks may have given parents a good insight into how their children are managing with reading and writing. ✍️ If you
are concerned, please seek help.

25/03/2020

This is a wonderful resource for our early learners at this time 🤩

We hope that with the many great online video conferencing tools available that teachers will be able to continue teaching the Little Learners Love Literacy scope and sequence. Please remember that the teachers need to teach the new grapheme/phonemes and skill parents on all of our games and resour...

20/03/2020

Some free decodable readers!

Online Materials Portal This portal is offered as a free resource to help facilitate online reading instruction and learning during this challenging time of school closures due to the Coronavirus outbreak. There are two areas of the site, one for Students and one for Instructors. Materials are organ...

02/03/2020

Check this out for students with learning difficulties in your classroom

Apps for learners with Dyslexia or other reading/writing difficulties:

https://www.callscotland.org.uk/downloads/posters-and-leaflets/ipad-apps-for-learners-with-dyslexia/

26/02/2020

Recommended Literacy apps: great to see some Australian and NZ apps featured in this list.

You and I know that nothing can replace quality, explicit instruction from a highly qualified educator, especially when it comes to helping challenged readers. There are times when technology can offer a helping hand, though. Here is a list of apps for younger students to support, NOT replace instruction.
📍 https://www.theliteracynest.com/2020/02/the-best-reading-and-writing-apps-to-support-younger-readers.html