What a fantastic day! Please do get in touch with Katrina to find out how you can join in. I am so lucky to be able to keep on learning- thank you for helping me on my journey!
What did I learn:
Developmental Language Disorder and dyslexia- overlaps and dyslexia.
Dr Anne Smith (ELT Well)
Very interesting to see how much overlap there is between development language disorder and dyslexia and that 7% of children will have a degree of DLD, so I will have taught/ assessed students with this difficulty. Looking at similarities and differences makes me alert to what I need to be looking out for. To find out more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/what-is-dld/z86p3qt.
English: the beautiful, crazy, hotchpotch language- supporting those with dyslexia.
Rachel Gelder and Pamela Hanigan.
Key take away resource for me (and I will be purchasing), so have a look:
- try these letter pebbles, a more age-appropriate alternative for older learners to create alphabet arcs and for blending and segmenting activities;
- memory fix tool kit, for focused games and activities:
Multi-sensory learning approaches for teachers (cross-curricular): what is multi-sensory learning?
Dr Susie Nyman and Julia Clouter.
I love the enthusiasm, and there are so many multi-sensory teaching ideas, such as using food and pipe cleaners. My favourite (and not just because I love liquorice): liquorice strings to help plot graphs- who’d have thought!
Three new recommendations for me, so take a look:
Food: 5 multi -sensory activities you can do with your child at home
Using creativity to support dyslexia.
Rossie Stone, Dekko Comics.
- Learning is about stimulating different parts of the brain and it can be fun! Using creativity and allowing this in the classroom for key stage 2: Dekko’s curriculum support resources are now on my to do list (my ever increasing to do list!)
Autism & neurodiversity: language, literacy, and communication.
Dr Sarah White, UCL.
- A new term for me that I have missed: ‘mindreading’ or ‘mentalising.’ Although it is not a new idea to me, I have not heard it called this. I like it as that really helps explain the difficulty in thinking about the other person’s mental state and putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. Autistic people have difficulty with this (non-literal language/ inferences etc.) and it underlies some of the social communication difficulties that are present in autism.
- It was interesting to hear the consequences of having to compensate for difficulties with mentalising: anxiety, exhaustion, avoidance and seeking predictability. Autistic people can learn compensatory methods, such as learning to predict behaviour in other ways, e.g. using stereotypes, building a memory bank from experiences. It does not mean it has become intuitive, or that they have developed ‘mindreading.’ It is interesting that these compensatory methods provide benefits in terms of a ‘quieter life’, but it comes at a cost of exhaustion, effort and impacts on their mental health. How tiring!
Take away point for me: From autistic people themselves, research has shown that social interaction is easier for autistic people when the person they are interacting with has a deeper understanding of autism, and is educated in this area. So, we all need to be educated!
Coaching techniques to support dyslexic adults.
Jane Myers, IDC.
- A new area to me as I do not work with adults, but good to know the techniques can be used with children, and their parents;
- Take away point for me to have a think about: How can I implement this ‘GROW model’: goal, reality, options, way forward.
Using mind mapping to support dyslexia in the classroom and workplace.
Chris Griffiths, CEO Ayoa.
- Mindmapping technology and visualising information helps to see the whole picture. I have heard about this but I need to investigate further. Free versions, as well as paid for ones. Take a look!
Please do get in touch with any thoughts and we can learn together, or if you feel I can help. I would love to hear from you.