The said programme was a one hour weekly lesson. It is said to be a multi-sensory method of teaching. It incorporates reading, writing, and spelling as an integrated programme.
At the start of stage one, children like Jo would benefit from the lessons of sequencing, short vowels hard and soft ‘c’ and ‘g’ and wall words, along with the revision of more complex patterns such as consonant blends, vowel digraphs and homophones. Over learning and repetition dealing with grammatical structures are also included in the programme. To establish rapid recognition of words of sounds, letters, and spelling patterns, dictation is used in isolation and in context. Other activities are included to backed-up the core activities, such as games, worksheets, flashcards, and others.
The need of visual discrimination exercises are addressed to solved the difficulty with regards to the b/d directionality. An example is the cut-out letters of ‘b’ and ‘d’ out of sandpaper. This will help in the improvement of the child’s skill in rapid and accurate visual discrimination, including the correct recognition of words when reading, and to recall while spelling.
Dr. Strydorn’s colour blocks are also utilized to assist in the development of visual sequential memory. This is to answer the child’s weakness in recalling words. The exercises expand to cover auditory sequential memory in the latter part of the programme.
Another aim of the said programme is to develop the child’s short-term auditory sequential memory. This will be beneficial for the child in remembering longer spellings, writing words he had just heard, and writing from dictation. One game fitted for this is the ‘list game’.
Aside from the needs addressed above, concrete application of the segmentation procedure of the sounds in a word in its correct order is needed to complete the learning process. Games can also help in achieving this such as cutting of a written word (in cards) in its syllable components. The task is to arrange it properly and read it. And for the final task, the child is required to make a ‘funny’ new word out of it. This teaches him the essential skills needed, not only for reading but as well as spelling.
For the improvement of the fluency of his penmanship, some handwriting techniques will be included in the program. The encouragement of the child to write longer sentences instead of rows of single letters is also advised. This will aid the child’s letter formation, fine manipulative control, neatness and speed of writing.
And for the problem regarding the difficulty in remembering and retrieving from memory common sequences, alphabet wooden letters are used. Automaticity is expected to be achieved in the ability to lay them out properly and in correct order. This presents a natural progression to over learn letter sounds to aid sound blending particularly the vowel sounds. Also incorporating the days of the week and the months of the year is also advisable to be included since it addresses one of the difficulties of the child.
Assessment of the Difficulties Encountered
From the assessments results, it was found out that Jo has difficulties in different aspects of learning. This includes reading, writing, and spelling. This simply shows that he lacks the ability to carry-out literacy-related tasks. This was due to his limited working memory, which in turn slows down and limits his performance.
In answer to the said problems, the Alpha to Omega Programme was chosen to be the foundation of his lessons. At the start of the program, basic lessons in alphabetic activities were introduced so as to cope with the learning capacity of the child. The sequence then leads to more complex letter patterns as the programme progresses.
Over learning and repetition, which deals with grammatical structures, are also included in the programme. To keep hold of the child’s limited concentration span, a variety of short activities are devised to address the said issue.
The child’s b/d directionality was also improved as the lessons progressed. The difficulty of the correct formation of the letter ‘r’, as well as the other difficulties of the child, needs to be in a continued remediation level throughout the entire programme.
On the early part of the programme, it was also found out that Jo had fine manipulation difficulties. In response to this, different writing tools were introduced, for him to find one that is most suitable and the one that produces the best cursive script.
In addition to the said difficulties, Jo also made a complaint regarding the color of the paper he is using. According to him, the brightness of the color white causes inconvenience during reading and writing. Again, in response to this, the idea of overlaying was presented to him. To dull the effects of the white image, the overlay is being laid over the print. And as a result, he has chosen the color blue, as he feels a lot more comfortable using the said color. The Eye Science blue lined writing paper, in particular, was his personal choice for his writing purposes.
Progress Achieved as Shown on the Assessment Scores
For Jo’s writing skills, there are certain improvements on it. However, considerable attention on it is still needed. This was due to the assessment that his handwriting was still regarded as illegible. Simple things such as the proper seating position during writing should also be ensured for him to find ease during writing. A variety of writing tools are also utilized for his comfort. Basics on letter formation were commenced with a mixture of activities such as clay moulding and tracing of cut-out letters from sandpaper. This was used as an aid to the improvement process of letter formation. For the writing activities, it was improved from short sentences to dictation work. In the end, free writing exercises are introduced to demonstrate how well they progressed in terms of their writing legibility.
In terms of writing speed, Jo had manifested no improvement at all. According to the R. Hedderly Writing Single Speed, for the last three years, he got a raw score of 52. In its percentage equivalent, it is in the bottom 10%, which means a lot of effort is still needed since the programme seems to be not effective to him, as there is no foreseeable progress on his record.
In terms of spelling, his scores are still inadequate for his age. As the records show it, his latest raw score in the WRAT 3 Spelling Test of 30 is still far beyond the normal score for children his age. It can be seen on his age discrepancy result of 1.7-2 yrs. Therefore, a lot of improvement is still needed for him to catch up with his batch mates.
On the other hand, the results for his reading activities are as follows: for the M. Turner One Minute Reading Test – raw score of 101 with an increase of 8 pts. as of the previous one, discrepancy of 0.7 months from the previous result of 0.11 months; for the M. Turner Non-word Reading Test – raw score of 24 from a score of 22 last year, age discrepancy of 0.9 months from a previous result of 1.1-1.3 yrs; and for the WRAT 3 Reading Ability Test – a raw score of 39 (same as of last year), and reading age discrepancy of 0.5 months + from a previous result of 1.1-2 yrs. As a conclusion, although the figures show progress on his reading ability, it is still advisable for him to finish the programme. The results proved that the programme is effective on him and must continue until he can now read side by side with normal kids his age.
In terms of Jo’s reading comprehension, the weekly reading sessions of the said programme improved his word bank of sight vocabulary. The phonic material, which is also included in the programme, enables him to engage in word families’ recognition. The paired reading activity gave way for his improvement in terms of reading speed and confidence.
Future Intervention Recommendations
With relation to the said improvements, it is therefore recommended for Jo to continue the said programme. This was to further improve and build his relative strengths on certain skills which show considerable improvements. A writing programme such as Text Help on his PC is also encouraged to assist him in writing short stories without concentrating on handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and that what he says make sense. The said PC programme will eliminate some of his difficulties, in the same way as it encourages him on putting down his thoughts on paper.
A Dictaphone is also another great help for him. In here, he could use it to dictate his story first, and then type it out afterwards. This will help him focus on his story line without worrying about the spelling, writing, and keeping hold of his thoughts, all at once.
In the reading part, Jo had improved enough to make him now enjoy reading short story thriller books. It is therefore advised for him to continue his paired reading scheme to continue building up his reading skills. This will in turn improve his comprehension, automaticity, as well as his confidence and self-esteem.
For him to progress on his phonological awareness on learning further rules and patterns on spelling, he should proceed with the stage 2 of the structured lessons of the said programme. Also, the introduced RAWS strategy should be applied continually in order for him to have a strategy to use. PC games are also recommended for him to have fun while learning.
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