Reading & Writing – All tutoring is customized to student’s needs. Our reading and writing program is based on breaking words down in order to gain a better understanding of how the letters work together to form words. To accomplish these goals and master reading, we use a multi-sensory approach. A magnetic phonics board allows the student to manipulate the magnetic pieces. The magnetic pieces are moved by the student, while he or she verbalizes the sound changes. Our multi-sensory approach allows the student to see sound changes in a word, make sound changes, and hear sound changes in a word. This multi-sensory approach when used with one on one tutoring leads to better understanding and independence in reading and writing.
Each tutoring session is individualized so that students can focus and master areas of individual need. We find that, with one-on-one tutoring in conjunction with using our methods, students are able to break down and “decipher the code” of how words are spelled, written and read. Clinical results show students are able to move several grade levels in 4-6 weeks. Education Therapy teaches reading based on Hawaii Department of Education Content, Performance Standards and Benchmarks, and the National Reading Panel’s Essential Elements of Reading. Our reading program focuses on a one-on-one approach, with teacher and student using a phonics board to assist in our multi-sensory approach. Tutor and student sit facing each other, and the teaching process is interactive. The tutor is focused on prompting the student, and constant positive feedback is crucial to the process. A program of “paying” students play money is added for motivation. The play money can be redeemed for small prizes to create a reward system that motivates students to learn and makes learning “fun”.
The phonics board we use comes from the F.A.S.T. Reading System, which combines the best of systematic phonics, auditory processing, and literature-based instruction to create a streamlined, multi-sensory program that includes immediate reading application with high interest and phonetically controlled books. The F.A.S.T. Reading System has been successfully implemented in schools nationwide.
Our methods for teaching reading are based on Diane McGuinness’ work, Why Our Children Can’t Read, Jeanne Chall’s Learning to Read: the Great Debate, and Marilyn Jager Adams’ Beginning to Read.
From research in the classroom and the clinic, we have discovered that when the sequence of reading and spelling instruction is compatible with the logic of the alphabet codeand with the child’s linguistic and logical development, learning to read and spell proceeds rapidly and smoothly forall children and is equally effective for poor readers of all ages (Adams, Lindamood, McGuinness C., Alexander, Fletcher, Juel, McGuinness, D., Williams, J.P.).
Research is now showing that phonemic awareness must be taught first in the teaching of reading; the child needs to be trained to hear the order of sounds within syllables and words and then taught how to spell these sounds. Marilyn Adams evaluated the research on phonics and reading, as well as the phonics instructional programs of the 1990’s. The developers of phonics curricula have never analyzed the structure of the spelling code, so that phonics programs are not only seriously impoverished but chaotic…phonics logic is backwards and the code cannot be categorized with this logic….One traditional way to teach phonics is to teach ‘sounds’. The other way, which doesn’t have a name, teaches the ‘sounds of language’ and how these sounds are mapped to the letters. This is the methodology of our clinic.
We have taken the approaches of Lindamood- Bell, Orton-Gillingham, F.A.S.T. (Steve Tattum of Denver Academy), Allographs, and developed our own highly effective program for low-performing students.
We have adopted Dianne McGuinness’ major components for a good beginning reading program:
1. Phoneme awareness (training in awareness of phonemes in speech and the ability to segment and blend isolated phonemes in words.)
2. Alphabetic principle (teach the alphabet code the way it was written; from sound to print.)
3. Sound to symbol association (teach how to connect phonemes in words to individual letters and letter combinations.)
4. Logic (instruction is sequenced in a logical order from simple to complex and conforms to the child’s developmental level. It includes the entire spelling code, not just a fraction of it.)
5. Curriculum (materials cover all possible skill areas: phoneme analysis, segmenting, blending, reading, writing, spelling. Materials are related in content. Reading and spelling are reversible.)
6. Pedagogic style (we teach by exposure and example, using brief, clear multi-sensory explanations and practice. Child is actively problem solving, not passively. Error correcting is both positive and immediate.)
7. Fail-safe (we constantly monitor and document the child’s reading process and performance.)
please call our office at 1-808-893-0590 or visit the contact us page for alternative way to reach us.
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