Here are 2 stories from the World of Dyslexia newsletter that may be of interest:

Catching Dyslexia Before it Catches Your Child

“Children with developmental dyslexia may be living in a world with in-between sounds,” Nadine Gaab says. “It could be that whenever I tell a dyslexic child ‘ga,’ they hear a mix of ‘ga,’ ‘ka,’ ‘ba,’ and ‘wa.’” This inability to process sounds becomes a problem when it’s time to turn written words into spoken language.”
In a new study, Gaab is looking for the same sound-processing problems in children as young as four who have a family member with dyslexia, then seeing if the children go on to develop dyslexia themselves.

Musicians Hear Better

Musical training can improve your hearing, according to several studies presented in Chicago at Neuroscience 2009. One study suggests that musical training could help children who are struggling with language.
Dana Strait asked musicians and nonmusicians to take a simple test. “They were asked to click a button every time they heard a specific sound,” she says, “but not click a button to other sounds that they might hear.” Musicians not only responded faster and more accurately; they were able to stay focused longer, Strait says. In contrast, many children with dyslexia and other language problems do poorly on tests like this. Musical training could offer a way to improve their performance, Strait says.

There is much evidence (Bryant & Bradley, 1985; Goswami & Bryant, 1990) to show that if a child can recognise and, crucially, generate rhyming words by the age of 3 and a half, then s/he is likely to learn to read and spell relatively easily. Early intervention, such as the ones described above, is so important if we are to enable youngsters to develop a strong sense of themselves as competent learners.

My colleague, Morna MacDonald has commented here on a talk we heard from the optometrist, Dorothy Crystal.

I found these links which may be of interest:

Wilkins Intuitive Overlays - Cerium Overlays are colored sheets of robust transparent plastic which can be used for all reading tasks. The use of an overlay has been shown by Professor Arnold Wilkins at the Medical Research Council at Cambridge, UK, to enable an increase in reading fluency, efficiency and duration. The same research also demonstrated that the color selected will vary for each child.
In the past assessment for scotopic sensitivity was generally done by the Irlen Institute.  It was quite an expensive assessment and the overlays were also relatively expensive.  Now the Intuitive Overlays Test has enabled practitioners who have been trained by the Institute of Optometrists to carry out an assessment and prescribe an overlay for use when reading. 

Are Weak Eye Muscles Holding Your Child Back at School?

There are all sorts of reasons for learning difficulties, but for some children – perhaps as many as 400,000 in the UK – the problem lies with the way their eyes work. If the muscles around the eyes are weak, the eyes won’t work as a co-ordinated pair. This makes it difficult to focus clearly on something as small as the printed words on a page. Now a new campaign has been launched to alert parents and teachers to the fact that sight problems can be an issue for children with dyslexia and other learning difficulties. The good news is treatment from an orthoptist, an eye specialist who deals with focusing problems, could improve their vision dramatically. .
 

If a child’s reading can be improved by such reductions in visual stress then the problem was not entirely one of dysleixa. However, it is helpful to eliminate visual problems as the root cause of literacy difficulties. If we suggest an eye check we must remember to advise parents to inform the optometrist of any reading difficulties so that s/he can dig a bit deeper.

Needless to say. hearing checks are equally vital in establishing why a child is struggling unexpectedly.

Memory plays tricks, sometimes mercifully allowing one to forget stressful times. I had genuinely obliterated how many things need to get done in a single day just to tread water for families with young children until I offered to take L to nursery in the latter stages of her mum’s 2nd pregnancy. You forget that at any moment the whole enterprise could – and often does – tumble like a house of cards. Arguments break out like wildfire; there are spillages, inexplicable illnesses, breakages, losses, eventualities that you can never prepare for. And woe betide you if you try to give short shrift to the hard questions that need an answer despite the need to cross town, hand her over and get to work. Things can set parents back months, like chicken pox.

Sometimes when my older two were primary age I was tempted to wait for fulsome applause for, once again, having made it before the 9 o’clock watershed as we rushed into the playground with the pushchair loaded up like a packhorse. I really felt I deserved a fanfare.  I was so pleased with myself not just for making it to school, often on only a few hours sleep, but also for bringing 2 fully fed boys in the correct uniform, and the toddler, still eating toast but nevertheless dressed and partially fed, 2 nut-free packed lunches, and one pair of named gym shoes.

 But the true heroes are those with dyslexia in the family.

I have come across a couple of blogs  that focus on the trials and tribulations, as well as the joys, of being in a family with dyslexia. The Ghotit Blog is written from the perspective of a dad who has dyslexia and reminds me of how hard parenting is especially in a family where organisational skills are a challenge. This post describes the problems inherent in helping a child with homework.

 Mydyslexicboy documents a mother’s growing understanding of the pressures on her 7 year old to cope with school.

It’s hard enough for everybody to adjust to the everyday dramas of life as a pupil. How much more so in a dyslexic household.

Most of the people, including myself, involved in the study of, and support for learners with, dyslexia don’t have these differences themselves and were, in many cases, successful students in our own school days. I am grateful to these bloggers – and my students and their parents – who remind me of the stresses many encounter before, during and after school.

WordTalk  is a great resource available free to all Scottish educational establishments and for young people to download at home (watch the site for when this service is available) developed at the CALL Centre, University of Edinburgh.

We are beginning to use it extensively in East Lothian and we find it easy to use (even we teachers). WordTalk makes the curriuclum much more accessible than hitherto.

And Heather’s voice is a nice touch. Here you can download the Scottish voice for use with most ‘text-to-speech’ programs such as electronic books; PDF files (such as SQA exam papers); worksheets and other documents in Microsoft Word. You can also create audio files using the voice. The Scottish voice can also be used on talking internet browsers.

For people with reading and writing difficulties, having text reinforced by hearing it read aloud can be very useful. Specialised programs have existed to do this for a long time, and in many cases are extremely helpful and highly appropriate and should be seriously considered, perhaps in consultation with professional advice where necessary.

WordTalk is a free text-to-speech plugin developed for use with all versions of Microsoft Word (from Word 97 upwards). It will speak the text of the document and will highlight it as it goes. It contains a talking dictionary to help decide which word spelling is most appropriate.

Siting neatly in your toolbar it is highly configurable, allowing you to:

• Adjust the highlight colours
• Change the voice and the speed of the speech
• Convert text to speech and save as a .wav or .mp3 file so that it can be played back on an iPod or mp3 player.

Background

WordTalk was conceived and developed by Rod Macaulay of TASSC in Aberdeen, Scotland who later received a Microsoft Innovative Teacher Award for its development.

It was noted that:

• Children with Reading and writing difficulties often benefit from having text read aloud to them. In schools, this may be done by an assistant, but the use of assistants can be expensive, and their presence might be more usefully deployed elsewhere in the class.
• Nowadays, teachers are more and more frequently creating worksheets and other classroom materials using ICT, and Microsoft Word in particular, then printing them out and handing them to the class.

Research

As ICT has become more frequently used in Education, a lot of research has been carried out investigating its effectiveness in assisting Learning. Here are some sources that you may find interesting.

• Access to Text using ICT for Students with Reading Difficulties: From CALL Scotland. This presentation summarises some of the legal requirements on Schools in Scotland in terms of providing access to education and explains various methods of accessing text in several forms.
• Text to Speech: Comparison of text to speech applications: From http://www.dyslexic.com/. This article, provides a summary of products that can make a computer talk, known as Text-to-Speech applications (sometimes shortened to TTS applications).
• WordTalk: Enabling Access to Curriculum Resources for Students with Additional Support Needs

Browsealoud is a software program for people who have difficulty reading web pages, have learning disabilities like dyslexia or have literacy issues. Browsealoud may also be of use to those who need help with general reading problems, perhaps where English is not their first language.

How does Browsealoud work? The program works by highlighting words whilst reading them aloud and can also be used to highlight paragraphs or entire pages which will then be read back to the viewer.

Additional features include: Simple On/Off functionality (Ctrl Key) Variable voice control Variable pitch control Variable speed control

How do I get a Browsealoud reader? The Browsealoud software is available free to download from the Browsealoud web site where you will also find full installation instructions.

Thanks to http://www.dyslexic.com/browsealoud for the link.

Saya meyakini di setiap sekolah setiap saat sepanjang tahun ada saja satu dua anak yang menderita disleksia. Sang anak kerap mengalami hambatan di kelas. Segala bentuk menulis atau menghitung seakan hadir seperti monster. “Mengapa aku tidak bisa membaca dan mengeja?” hingga pernyataan sang kepala sekolah di sekolah Indra sebelumnya. Dengan dinginia mengomentari kejadian saat Indra berlari ke lapangan di hari hujan, “Selama puluhan tahun di dunia pendidikan, saya tahu mana anak bodoh.” Ah, mungkin yang ia maksud dunia pendidikan di Timbuktu, saya tak ambil pusing.

Saya kemudian mencoba mencari tahu keunikan Indra sampai ke akar permasalahan, jauh di bawah permukaan yang dilihat sang kepala sekolah itu. Yang patut dipahami dari Indra adalah kemampuannya dalam bidang koordinasi fisik, kreativitas,  empati dengan orang lain. Kekuatannya mungkin ada di beberapa daerah tersebut. Indra mudah menari jika mendengar musik menghentak (koordinasi fisik). Ia mampu menggambar sejam penuh atas apapun yang menjadi minatnya hari itu (kreativitas). Ia pun mudah jatuh iba akan hal kecil, seperti melihat pengemis kecil di jalan, atau bahkan melihat saya termenung kelelahan di satu sore (empati).

Saya telah mencoba metode pengajaran bahasa semasa kuliah dulu (linguistik) dengan kesadaran fonem. Saya pun mencoba mendapatkan buku-buku menarik dan permainan kata, sebagai fondasi dasar bagi Indra. Saya pun mencoba menyakinkan ia tiap malam dengan mengatakan kepadanya bahwa semua yang ia kerjakan itu baik, bahwa ia adalah anak cerdas. Setiap malam. Walau saya telah mengatakan padanya bahwa selama bertahun-tahun, ia perlu bukti.

Di satu saat, saya pernah melakukan latihan berikut ini, yang bisa memiliki efek pada Indra. Bisa dilakukan sendirian ataupun bersama sang anak . Ambil selembar kertas dan membuat dua kolom: dalam satu kolom menambahkan ‘Hal yang Paling Pandai Saya Lakukan’ dan pada yang lain ‘Hal-hal yang Tak Terlalu Pandai saat Saya Lakukan’

Tulislah daftar ini selama sekitar lima atau sepuluh menit, lalu diskusikan bersama anak Anda. Kajilah dari sudut pandang objektif.  Daftarnya akan terlihat seperti ini, tentu saja tergantung pada minat setiap anak:

‘Hal yang Paling Pandai Saya Lakukan’ (GOOD AT)
o berenang
o menyelam
o bola basket
o merawat kelinci saya
o menggambar
o membuat lukisan
o mengumpulkan perangko
o bermain dengan anak-anak lain
o membersihkan meja
o membuat orang tertawa
o softball
o bersikap ramah kepada kakek
o mengetahui tentang ruang dan planet-planet
o dll

‘Hal-hal yang Tak Terlalu Pandai saat Saya Lakukan’ (NOT GOOD AT)
o ejaan
o membaca
o menulis
o matematika

Saya menaatap wajah Indra untuk memastikan ke dia bahwa ada banyak hal yang ia pandai lakukan daripada hal-hal yang ia anggap sulit. Indra tidak mungkin bodoh. Dia jelas-jelas orang yang bakal sukses dengan segala kemampuannya.

Tapi di matanya seakan muncul pertanyaan: apakah kelemahannya itu adalah hal-hal yang penting dalam hidup. “Jika aku tidak bisa mengeja, bagaimana aku bisa lulus ujian dan mendapatkan pekerjaan?” Ini adalah tahap di mana saya harus berdebat dengannya, dan saya yakinkan bahwa saya menghargai semua jenis kualitas yang Indra tonjolkan, terutama kemampuannya untuk menjadi pribadi ramah, memikirkan orang lain sebelum diri mereka sendiri dan seterusnya. Bukan karena dia tidak mencoba atau bahkan orang tua memberi klaim bahwa sang anak itu bodoh (seperti, sayangnya, ucapan sang kepala sekolah Indra di sekolah lama).

Membangun kepercayaan diri sang anak bisa menjadi satu titik balik – berapa pun usia nya – yang penting bagi  fondasi pembelajaran khusus; yaitu mengeja dan menulis dengan lebih mudah.

Teachers and parents of dyslexic children find hope through new, hands-on correction programs like the Davis Dyslexia Program, according to Cathy Cook M.Ed., Licensed Davis Facilitator.

Ronald D. Davis, founder of the Davis Dyslexia Correction Program, spoke at the Woodcrest Chapel on Saturday about his ability to overcome extreme autism and dyslexia. This event was founded by Columbia’s Davis Program, the OnPoint Learning Center.

Throughout his lecture, Davis described to his audience the frustration of living with dyslexia and the years it took him to finally realize a solution to his problem.

“Because I have dyslexia, my mind does not speak to me in a language, it speaks to me in pictures,” Davis said.

Davis then led an exercise, asking his audience to visualize elephants, home and finally the letter “a.”
“The confusion you experienced when I asked you to visualize ‘a’,” Davis said. “Is the confusion that dyslexic children experience every single day.”

Parents and teachers found the methods and the explanations to be very helpful in dealing with their own children.

“We just came today, hearing about it a couple days ago, not knowing what to expect. And this has just been such a wonderful thing,” said Amy Surdin, whose son has autism. “I wish we could find him another school because the public school system is not doing anything for him, but at least there are programs like this.”

According to French neuroscientist, Dr. Stanislas Dehaene, it is not surprising that some readers have difficulty reversing letters when they read, the particular neurons we must use for reading are designed to be “dyslexic”. In the natural environment this left/right scrambling of objects is an asset, but to read we humans must re-train a part of the brain that is wired for a different visual purpose in our illiterate evolutionary ancestors. Other primates couldn’t care less if they see a “b” and a “d” as the same thing; in fact, it is important in the natural environment that mirror images of shapes are perceived as identical!
When you think about it, mirror-image “dyslexia” is an amazing synthesis. Why should completely different patterns on our retina (b and d, for example) be perceived as the same object? How is that possible?
As Dr. Dehaene explained in his November 12, 2009 lecture to the public on “Reading in the Brain”, held in Melbourne, Australia, reading is a very new skill in evolutionary terms, which developed only about 5000 years ago. Reading requires rapidly recognizing specific shapes (letters or characters) and associating them with a specific meaning. Recognizing the alphabet utilizes areas of the brain that are designed to recognize specific objects in our natural environment.
When you see a chair you recognize it instantly whether it is facing right or left, even though the shape of the image focused on your retina is entirely different if the chair is oriented differently in space. Whether it is a wooden kitchen chair, an upholstered Lazy-boy, or a molded plastic patio chair, we still recognize these objects instantly and effortlessly as a chair. Imagine programming a computer to identify a chair in any orientation or style in a complex scene among the jumble of all the other objects. This difficult discrimination is far too sophisticated to be accomplished in the retina, or even in the lower visual centers of our brain (the cerebral cortex at the back of our head). Enormous computation and analysis are required to recognize an object no matter how it is oriented or varied in design.
This higher-order visual computation takes place in a specific part of the cerebral cortex. Here individual neurons become specialized to recognize a particular object, no matter where it is in the visual field or how it is oriented. By recording the electrical responses of individual neurons in this part of the brain, scientists can see a single neuron fire in recognition of a cup and nothing else. No matter how you present the cup–handle on the left or right, a coffee mug or a beer stein–this neuron will fire in recognition. A neighboring neuron may be wired to recognize a fork, but be blind to the cup, and so on.
This spot is located in the same place in everyone’s brain, no matter what culture you may have been nurtured in, what language you speak, or whether you read left-to-right or right-to-left. It is located in a small area in the left cortical hemisphere in the temporal region. Damage to this spot of the brain caused by small strokes renders people unable to read a word. Humans have had to “recycle” neurons in this part of the brain, which is shared by monkeys and other primates, to now recognize specific letters of the alphabet.
The problem is that these neurons recognize the mirror image of an object as being identical. This creates a problem in reading, where the same visual circuits are wired to respond equally to mirror images of objects. In learning to read we must un-do the intricate wiring that took years of evolution to enable these neurons to see mirror images of objects as identical. Now this neuron must recognize the letter b, regardless of font, handwritten or typed, capitalized or lower case, yet suppress the natural tendency of these neurons to see the mirror image “d” as identical. This is one reason learning to read takes so long, and it explains why children normally reverse letters in reading and writing until they have reprogrammed these visual circuits to defeat the mirror image recognition that is vital to survival in the “real world.”
After his lecture I asked Dr. Dehaene if people with dyslexia have some compensatory abilities as a result of their weaker capacity to discriminate mirror images. He told me that in fact there is evidence that dyslexics are superior at tasks requiring mirror imagery. For example, dyslexics are over-represented among astronomers, artists, and mathematicians.
For more on this subject see Dr. Dehaene’s new book Reading in the Brain.  www.readinginthebrain.com

We have looked at what dyslexia is in an earlier post.

What can be done?

How we teach these skills may change, but the what will not change!

1) Strategies to support self-esteem and motivation – pupils with dyslexia experience daily, even hourly, failures at school which can be crippling

• Emphasise areas of strength
• Find positive role models
• Make it clear that literacy skills are not linked to ability – Einstein!
• Understand that having dyslexia can be very frustrating
• Make use of access strategies
• Set realistic homework
• Allow access to books of interest through shared reading

2) Access/coping strategies

• High frequency & key/topic words clearly displayed
• Scaffold writing tasks
• No copying required
• Enlarge/simplify reading material
• Use pastel coloured paper
• Separate composition from transcription – allow for alternative methods of recording
  • Allow a scribe for the child
  • Draw pictures
  • Mime/act a sequence of events
  • Create a mind map
  • Power point presentation
  • Sequence pictures
  • Use voice recorder & voice recognition software
  • Use computers/spell-checks – they allow mistakes to be easily corrected and the child can produce work that looks good!

3) Targeted teaching – literacy intervention

• Phonics: synthesis and segmentation, reading/spelling regular words
• Visual strategies: sight words, spelling choices
• Application of knowledge
• Direct instruction – structured and systematic (modelling, then do it together, then child on their own)
• Cumulative learning – even when moving to more complex areas, keep practicing the things that have already been learnt
• Little and often – 2 sessions of 5mins across a day will aid retention more than one session of 10mins
• Teaching to fluency – some children will never reach fluency – we can improve accuracy but not always fluency
• Application of knowledge – shared reading with teacher reading parts/words the child can’t read
• Multi-sensory teaching – using magnetic letters, sand, tapping out sounds

What is dyslexia?

Dyslexia was first noted in 1895 in the British Medical Journal. Reference was made to ‘Percy’ who was described as having ‘congenital word blindness’.

More recently, the Rose Report on dyslexia defined it as “a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling”.

• There isn’t one specific cause
• Focus on reading and spelling difficulties
• Moves away from the idea that dyslexia is linked to low intelligence – the mechanism for reading is separate from issues of intelligence. High-achieving, and low-achieving children have been shown to experience the same issues in memory and decoding in reading
• There is no one test for dyslexia – dyslexia is best identified by ongoing teacher assessment
• Dyslexia is a continuum – everybody has difficulties with reading/spelling to one degree or another

In order to read and write effectively, children must be able to do the following five things:

1. Synthesis, and segment, phonemes
2. Progress in their knowledge of graphemes-phonemes from individual letters to letter combinations
3. Recognise high frequency words
4. Make correct spelling choices (a visual memory issue)
5. Apply these skills in context (fluency)

So we need to assess abilities in all of these areas. Teachers, or psychologists, will look for the following things when making a dyslexia assessment:

Reading aloud

• Is the child fluent, or is their reading laborious?
• What strategies is the child using? (pictures/context? Grammar? Partial phonic/visual information?)
• Does the child apply phonics to all words? Ruth Miskin – different colours used to highlight sight words
• What is causing their errors?
• Does the child understand what they are reading? Decoding without understanding is pointless.

Underlying visual problems

• Pattern glare caused by contrast eg black on white (again, this is a continuum)
• Fixation difficulties
• Tracking abnormalities
• Fusional disturbance where words jumble or move

Behaviour around reading/writing

• Any task avoidance?
• Issues with concentration/attention to reading/writing?
• Issues with motivation/interest/disaffection?
• Fear of taking risks with reading/writing?

Child’s view

• What do they think about their reading and writing?
• What do they find difficult?
• What makes it easier or is helpful?
• Are the books they read at the moment too difficult, too easy, just right?

Parent’s view

• Issues around homework?
• How does the child view reading/writing at home?
• Find out about outside interests/strengths
• History of glue ear or speech and language difficulties?

Abstract The present study examined intake data from 384 participants with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and a comparison group of 100 participants with dyslexia on nine standardized measures of decoding and comprehension. Although diagnostic groups were based on parental reports and could not be verified independently, we were able to observe significant distinctions between subject groups. Overall findings confirm previous results of a disassociation between decoding and comprehension in ASD. Using a larger sample than previous studies and a greater variety of measures, a pattern of relatively intact decoding skills paired with low comprehension was found in autism, PDD-NOS, and Asperger’s. In contrast, the dyslexic group showed the opposite pattern of stronger comprehension and weaker decoding.

from the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Abstract This study investigated the effects of syntactic complexity on written sentence comprehension in compensated adults with dyslexia. Because working memory (WM) plays a key role in processing complex sentences, and individuals with dyslexia often demonstrate persistent deficits in WM, we hypothesized that individuals with dyslexia would perform more poorly on tasks designed to assess the comprehension of syntactic structures that are especially taxing on WM (e.g., passives, sentences with relative clauses). Compared to their nondyslexic peers, individuals with dyslexia were significantly less accurate and marginally slower on passive sentences. For sentences containing relative clauses, the dyslexic group was also less accurate but did not differ in response times. Covarying WM and word reading in both analyses eliminated group differences showing that syntactic deficits in adults with dyslexia are constrained by both WM and word-reading ability. These findings support previous research showing that syntactic processing deficits are characteristic of dyslexia, even among high-achieving students.

from the Annals of Dyslexia

The BBC reports a US study saying that children with dyslexia find it harder to hear in noisy classrooms than those without the condition. Here is the full article.

Pupils with poor reading skills were likely to struggle to retain information when there was background noise, researchers reported.

Children with the condition may struggle to process voices when there is competing noise. The researchers set about testing the theory by getting children to watch a video with background noise. At the same time, they were asked to repeat sentences they heard.

Lead researcher Professor Nina Kraus said the study was important in understanding the difficulties children with dyslexia face. “The ability to sharpen or fine-tune repeating elements is crucial to hearing speech in noise because it allows for superior tagging of the voice pitch,” she said.

The vast majority of school-aged children can focus on the voice of a teacher amid the cacophony of the typical classroom thanks to a brain that automatically focuses on relevant, predictable and repeating auditory information.

But for children with developmental dyslexia, the teacher’s voice may get lost in the background noise of banging lockers, whispering children, playground screams and scraping chairs, the researchers say. The study presents evidence that children who report problems hearing speech in noise also suffer from a measurable neural impairment that adversely affects their ability to make use of regularities in the sound environment.  Dyslexics’ brains lack the adaptive auditory system that continuously changes its activity based on the demands of context and consequently do not have the remarkable ability to tune into relevant aspects in the sound scape.

There will be many more youngsters who struggle to concentrate on individual voices – or sounds within words – within busy classrooms than just those with dyslexia. The incidence of glue ear, for example, is considerably higher than most teachers realise. And glue ear can be intermittent and thus easy to miss. Sometimes children turn off or become frustrated when they are uncertain what is going on because of poor hearing or slow auditory processing. As someone who wears hearing aids, I understand how stressful a noisy environment can be.

There are no simple solutions. The researchers suggest that placing children with dyslexia in front of the teacher could make a big difference, but 21^st century classrooms rarely have static teachers talking to passive audiences. Vibrant classrooms, full of activity, represent good pedagogy. Excluding children with dyslexia would deprive them of important social and educational benefits. However, there might be occasions when withdrawing an individual or group to focus on a specific task in a more peaceful environment or giving them headphones to block out extraneous noise when concentrating is the right option.

 The research provides some evidence to support the theories developed by Alfred Tomatis,  in the mid twentieth century, about the role the ear plays in reading. The Tomatis Method uses altered recordings of the patient’s mother and extensively uses electronically modified music by Mozart. Some people therefore call it the Mozart Effect. However, there is considerable debate about the efficacy of his Listening Programme, although a Support for Learning colleague in East Lothian sings its praises for learners on the autistic spectrum.

How students found out about the study guides

• How did you find out about the study guides?
• Would you have found/used them otherwise?
• Which study guides have you used?
• Why did you choose these in particular?
• Did you have a particular need or was it more of a random approach?

Students’ experience of the study guides

• What was your initial reaction to the study guides?
• Did you feel attracted by them?
• Did you enjoy using them?
• Did using them require a great deal of effort?
• Have you used these guides instead of seeing a Study Adviser in the AccessAbility Centre
• What advantages, if any, do these on-line guides have over the one to one support provided by the AccessAbility Centre?

How students have used the study guides

• Did you use them online or in other ways e.g. printing out pages, downloading to another medium?
• If these presentations were offered as podcasts, would you download them?
• Which format would you prefer – the online version with animation or a simple podcast?
• Did you go through them all at once or in small chunks?
• How easy was this process?
• Did you talk about them with fellow students?
• Would collaborating have been useful?

Usefulness of the study guides

• Did you find them useful?
• If so, in what way were they useful –reinforcing what you already knew, totally new tips and hints, boosting confidence?
• What elements did you find most useful or attractive – accessibility, appearance, variety, voiceover, text, content, examples, pace?
• If not useful, why not – appearance, content, pace etc.?

Impact of the study guides

• What impact do you think the study guides have had on your learning?
• Did you feel that you learnt what they were trying to teach you?
• Have the study guides changed your ways of working or your perceptions?
• Do you have any examples of how they have changed your working methods?
• Have these changes lasted over time?
• Do you think your results have improved because of using the study guides?
• Do you have examples of this improvement?
• Has anything else improved as a result – enjoyment of course, understanding, time efficiency etc?

Improvements

• Can you think of ways in which we could make these presentations more useful to you?
• Any other suggestions?

PBS’s FRONTLINE chronicles how scientists are exploring the recesses of the brain and finding some new explanations for why adolescents behave the way they do. In this 6-part video, find out more about your child’s brain: their inexplicable behavior, brain wiring, mood swings, feelings of being misunderstood, and sleep patterns. Also, get some valuable lessons for parents.

Watch the video:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=frol02p392&continuous=1