Tenderness at a Child's Rebuke

AS I read a story to my son during his bedtime routine, I received a sharp albeit respectful rebuke. All I had said was the street, "Riverbank Close." It did happen to be "Riverbank Rise," so he simply said, "Riverbank Rise!" to which I said, "Yes, that's what I said," not thinking. "No," he said, "you said Riverbank Close!" "Yes," I said, having given it further thought, "you're right, I did get it wrong." There was no gloating in him as he heard me say that, just the body language of thankfulness that he had been heard.

I stood corrected. I granted him the fact that he was right and promptly acknowledged it.

There have been times when, as a father, I would have said, "Now, that's enough of that, remember who is Dad (i.e. the boss... and the boss is never wrong)!" Times when my pride has risen up and demanded 'respect'.

And how just would that have been had that happened? How many times have we cut our children off simply because they were right, yet we couldn't accept their letting us know? How many times has pride won the order of the day, only for the children to have to wear the sting of injustice again? Sure, it's happened to us all and, if we're parents, we've all probably executed those same injustices.

A parent engages in powerful parenting when they overturn power structures in the execution of justice against themselves to advance truth; to say we're sorry when we ought to be; to give the benefit of the doubt; to elevate truth above our 'right' to misuse our power.

In the situation above, how could it be fair other than to acknowledge he was right and I was wrong? It cost nothing to be honest, and in being honest I was able to express my gratitude for having been corrected.

Children learn justice best through their experience of it in their own homes.

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ADHD and ADD - Improve Reading and Learning Through Brain-Based Accelerated Learning Strategies

Children with ADHD or ADD can improve reading and learning using new brain-based accelerated learning strategies. Often, students with ADHD or ADD struggle with reading or learning. They are often the ones put into Special Ed classes, Title 1 classes, and remedial reading classes. Parents are often frustrated because despite being pulled out of their regular education classes for special reading help, they fail to improve reading.

One of the reasons children with ADHD or ADD do not improve reading and learning is because parents are convinced that ADHD or ADD medication is the solution. But pills do not teach students how to read or how to learn.

The solution lies not in the pill, but in the child's brain. Every child has his or her own unique way of learning. If your child is a kinesthetic or tactile learner or a right brain learner but is being taught in a visual and auditory learning style or a left brain approach, that can cause reading or learning problems. If you discover a child's best and fastest way of learning and use it, it can accelerate the speed at which the child learns. In fact, reading improvement and learning can be so dramatically accelerated that students with ADHD and ADD have raised their reading level several years above their grade within weeks to several months. Children with ADHD and ADD have gone from struggle to extreme excellence within 6 weeks to 6 months. In fact, their reading improvement and learning has been raised so high many of those students no longer ADHD or ADD medication.

Every person has their own unique way of learning. Once this personal way of learning is discovered, students can learn to read, improve reading, and improve learning in the shortest possible time. They have a chance to be successful in learning, and raise their self-esteem, and motivation. These students improve behavior and discipline. They become engaged learners and develop a joy of reading and learning.

Any parent whose child is diagnosed with ADHD or ADD should not lose hope. There are ways to turn their struggle into success. It begins with an accurate assessment of how the student's brain learns. Once that is established, it is essential for the parent to help his or her child with homework and studies in the child's best way of learning. This will reduce family stress and tension because the parent knows how to communicate with the child. It will also ensure better parenting skills, better family communication, and more joy and happiness within the home.

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Could A 'Reading Whisperer' Change Lives And Improve Student Behaviour and Academic Success?

ANYONE who can hear and speak can learn to crack the reading and spelling code using the alphabetic code, for quicker understanding and skill acquisition. Reading and spelling are unique in that skills needed to crack the English alphabetic code must be taught directly, systematically and explicitly. Children cannot 'discover' reading and spelling without guided teaching. However to reach the highest number of children teachers should not only be taught about reading and spelling but 'how' to teach it. This means transitioning from a teacher with knowledge into a 'reading whisperer'.

Since the widespread fame of the Dog Whisperer a 'whisperer' has become used to describe someone with a natural empathy and understanding of a particular subject. They are not only highly knowledgeable but can also connect with the person, group or people or animals he wishes to work with. He is able to bring about change by using this connection, so that the 'learner' works with him rather than against him. Increased self-confidence and calmness of the 'learner' are often by-products. A 'Reading Whisperer' could therefore be used as a term to describe someone who truly understands the reading (and spelling) process, as it relates to the English language and can also connect to students learning to read and spell, in order to bring about success for that individual, regardless of their unique difficulties or needs.

Reading Whisperers would have the ability to really 'reach' individuals who are already often lacking in confidence and motivation. In order to learn students would first need to develop an excellent rapport with a teacher, and trust them. This would need to be a teacher who has empathy for each individual and who approaches their students by listening to them and understanding their emotional state regarding the reading and spelling process. As so many children who are reading also have behavioural difficulties, as shown by numerous studies, this is vital. These children are often already 'switched off' and lacking in motivation to learn to read.

The 'methodology' used by a 'reading whisperer' is much easier once they have established this relationship, often seen in inspirational teachers, for whom this 'whispering' ability seems to come naturally. However this is something all educators can learn from, and incorporate into their own teaching.

"Reading competence is foundational, not only for school-based learning, but also for children's behavioural and psychosocial wellbeing, further education and training, occupational success, productive and fulfilling participation in social and economic activity, as well as for the nation's social and economic future" AU National Inquiry into the Teaching of Reading 2005.

However the statistics for high levels of reading difficulties are alarming, in all countries. In the United States for example around 34% of children are below expected literacy levels at grade 4. As reading levels at grade 3 predict with around 80% accuracy how they will do in high school this is something we should not ignore. We need to offer our children more. They cannot start reading to learn if still learning to read in grade 3 and 4. It might be useful therefore to explore the concept of developing 'reading whisperers' in today's society. Those who know the theory but can also effectively teach this.

All government reports recommend that a systematic approach to the teaching of phonics is used as the foundation for early reading teaching. This is also often called 'Synthetic Phonics'. However many struggling or non-readers are very confused with terminology and concepts. It is why a Reading Whisperer could offer them a 'fresh start' to reading and spelling, and make everything as easy to understand as possible. In our English language we use a range of sounds, when speaking, to create words. In order to move away from the concept of alphabet 'letters' (the names do not help a child to read or spell) a 'Reading Whisperer' might choose to call these 'Sound Pics'. Simply put, that pictures of sounds (letters) represent the spoken sounds of our words.

A whisperer will start with the spoken language - as this is the foundation for reading and spelling. Reading and spelling are simply used to record our spoken words. So they may teach by starting with the child and what they already know. A 'Reading Whisperer' could help the child 'crack the code' by working it out for themselves through quality instruction. 'Sound Pics' could help children better understand the concepts and skills required to read and spell with confidence. This is demonstrated for example on the Read Australia YouTube channel where a ten year old child who is not spelling (and therefore struggles to write) is shown how learning the 130 or so 'sound pics' in the English language (the alphabetic code) will help him. The clips indicates that teachers can confuse children by teaching 'sounds' incorrectly - eg that in the word 'frog' there are 3 sound fr + o + g. There aren't.
There are 4 sound pics - f+r+o+g. The word 'ship' has 3 sound pics however- sh + o + p.

A 'Reading Whisperer' could make a huge difference as they do not just understand how to identify issues but also what to do about them. Think of the best soccer players in the world. They may have enormous talent and knowledge of the game, but could they ALSO share this with others, and coach others to play at the same level? Only a few could become 'Soccer Whisperers'!

Reading Whisperers would no doubt focus very much on auditory discrimination at first- rather than what's on paper- and have been trained to listen to each child and to assess their learning styles, emotional and verbal intelligence.

Anyone who struggles with reading and spelling will talk of the shame that comes from not being able to decode. And yet a Reading Whisperer would not give up on them- they would teach with passion, actually giving any non-reader the skills they need. And yet many teachers focus on comprehension, fluency and vocabulary. If you can't read a word however you can't possible learn it's meaning.

Programs such as the Your Baby Can Read program (under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising) encourages parents to believe that 'reading' is linked with memorising sight words - also known as 'flash cards', and that doing this will somehow help the child with their reading skills. It won't shape reading and spelling brains. The time spent with the child is helpful, but this isn't reading - and certainly won't help the child to learn to spell. The thousands of toddlers apparently reading, as shown on clips uploaded by proud parents to YouTube, show how many fall for this marketing nonsense, and are willing to part with their money in the quest to develop early readers. They believe that their child is actually reading because he can look at a word and tell them what it 'says'. Often the child can heardly even say the word as their language skills are not yet developed. You can see a popular YouTube clip where a toddler says 'belbow' when looking at the word elbow, and has been taught to then touch her elbow. What a great party trick! But this isn't reading. The idea of children learning to read by memorising sight words is also known as the 'whole language approach' which has been discredited by reading professionals for well over a decade. However it seems to 'work' when parents are led to believe that memorising flashcards is actually reading. If the child being taught the word 'elbow' as a sight word has such dedicated parents they could, instead, be spending the time teaching their toddler to actually read and spell. For free! They too could learn to be 'reading whisperers'.

Shown below a 'real' word. How do you work it out if you can't memorise it as a sight word, or guess what it is from the pictures, or by 'leaving it out and then working it out from the context of the sentence?' - as so many teachers advise struggling readers.

Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonopte ephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon

How did YOU read this word? You decoded it. It doesn't matter if you don't know that it is a fictional dish mentioned in Aristophanes' comedy Assemblywomen! At least you could read it. A reading whisperer would realise that this is what is important; giving children the skills to FIRST be able to read the word, by using de-coding skills. If this word was listed in the Your Baby Can Read program we would raise eyebrows. Why are we not doing the same for shorter words, such as 'elbow'. The concept is the same. Memory only takes you so far. At some point you have to actually learn to read and spell!

We know that poor reading achievement and delinquency go hand in hand. Some US prisons are apparently using Year 3 and 4 reading scores as a way, in part, to predict future intake requirements. Schools talk of how poor the behaviour is of so many of their students who also cannot work in a classroom setting as they cannot keep up with their peers. It is understandable that 'acting out' is preferable to looking 'stupid'. A Reading Whisperer would connect with those youths, and teach them to read and spell because they would want to learn under this guidance. Under an approach of kindness and acceptance rather than judgement. Again, this is why learning to be a 'reading whisperer' changes lives. They can reach the kids others can't. And also help adults who have struggled their whole lives. Imagine their future when they finally learn to 'crack the code'.

We should, as a society, recognise how important reading and spelling is to the very fabric of our existence. Anyone who can learn to read can then read to learn. There should be proactive preventative approaches in place to ensure that every child is able to read and spell by 6, and attempts to help those who are older, and struggling. One way to do this is for Reading Whisperers to share their secrets, their knowledge, their strategies. The ripple effect of change would be life changing for so many.

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