135 Prep children assessed in less than an hour. When assessing children in Prep for brains NOT wired for reading and spelling, we do not even need to show them any letters. Within SSP we deliberately do NOT teach letter names, and we do NOT teach capital letter sound pics other than for names, in the early stages. Letters do not make sounds. Start out with showing children letters, without first guiding them through SSP Orange (which can take a day or weeks) and they will not understand what reading and spelling actually is. They will not understand that writing is simply talking on paper. Looking at letters is a visual stimulation they dont need when moving towards SSP Green (Phase 2- Learning to Code). Children arent even ready to be introduced to the SSP concept that speech sounds are represented by PICTURES of speech sounds until they can hear those sounds in words. So not introduction of sound pics (letter strings) unless they are ready. Phase 1 is vital. This shows me assessing 135 Preps for poor phonemic awareness, to see which are red alert kids- they will not be ready for letters/ print until we overcome it. Also why SSP is a SPEECH to PRINT Approach and not Print to Speech. Most phonics programs start kids on print first, regardless of whether or not they have phonemic awareness- which is the number 1 predictor of reading and spelling difficulties. https://youtube/watch?v=Yc3Ss7bn_4g I had spent a few days making sure they understood my terminology. Do NOT introduce letter sounds to children if they cant use duck hands to at least split green level SPOKEN words - sat, spin, tin, pant, pants etc. And until he can show you where each speech sound sits on the lines. All brains thrive if you use SSP, even if the school isnt using it. Average gains 19 PM levels in 18 weeks if used at home only. So phase 1- speech and oral language/ phonemic awareness. Phase 2- learning to code. The code learnt rapidly within real sentences (for writing and reading) and comprehension is at the heart of this phase. 90 of the 200 or so sound pics used to represent the 46 speech sounds, as well as over 440 sight words (coded, not memorised) Introduction of punctuation and grammar, speedy/ efficient letter formation. Everything carefully scaffolded. Phase 3 - children are no longer learning to read and spell, so the focus is on literacy teaching. Over 90% of children go through Phases 1 and 2 in their Prep Year ie reading chapter books. Must be started in term 1. Year 1 is a consolidation year. No child to enter Year 2 still learning to read or spell. Within SSP Green first of 4 levels in phase 2) there are only 6 sound pics - all lower case. These are the first pictures the children are learning, to represent the 6 speech sound we have been listening for. Watch this Autistic 5 year old after a term of SSP, sifting through his Spelling Cloud keyring to explore All of the pictures used to represent the speech sounds. https://youtube/watch?v=6WwO-LPhKG0 Asking children to learn 26 letter NAMES, and not only the lower case but upper case - which is like learning 52 different ones!!- is not necessary before Prep, or in term 1. Focus, instead, on teaching them to read and spell. In fact it will slow down the learning to read and spell process for around 0 - 30% of any new Prep class. Asking them what sound does this letter name? is also setting them up to be confused. Poor phonemic awareness? Means NOTHING. They cant hear the sounds, so how can then understand that these link with the print? Also, they are very literal at that age. And letters dont make sounds. They are static squiggles on paper. If, however, you have been listening for speech sounds, and ask them to take out their magic speech sound camera, and think of what it might look like if we could take a picture of the speech sounds? Then those squiggles become meaningful. Especially if you also do this within the SSP story- ie the Speech Sound King and the Magic Ant. This story explains WHY reading and spelling was invented - so that we can talk on paper. https://youtube/watch?v=hWC1DFKEA6M https://youtube/watch?v=3OCSgiho5o0 So, if you say the word spin can the child show 4 duck hands, left to right, and draw 4 lines for those speech sounds, can he tell you which number p sits on, what sits on number 1? If you say p i n with a half second between can he tell you the word is pin? None of this has any letters. If not, he isnt ready for letters/ sound pics and needs to stay on Phase 1 for a little while longer. Otherwise those letters are just squiggles with no link to his speech - and he will be confused for months, if not years. Letters dont make sounds. So focus on Duck Hands Lines and Numbers - not anything with print- until he understands how we build spoken words- so that he is able to understand how our words are represented on paper. Writing is just talking on paper. https://youtube/watch?v=whL3LL7vAyQ Watch this 3/4 year old in phase 3 https://youtube/watch?v=fsQnoAslCFo Worth sending the SSP overview doc to your school. We can send children to school reading books, without them knowing even ONE letter name. Letter names are only used to label and (if a child asks me which picture of the sound eeee to put on the number 1 line - a cup of t_ its easier for me to say the letter names ea. Otherwise I have to go to the eeeeeee spelling cloud and point to it. But pointing to it is fine! Children are generally ready for letter names at around the end of the purple level, and it happens naturally. I wish teachers would explain to parents that they should not teach letter names at ALL - as this will slow down the process of learning to read and spell for around 20 - 30% of any Prep class. But most teachers arent told that, so they dont know either:-( Universities have a lot to answer for. So lets forget what has been used before, and prevent issues for ALL learners. This starts with a focus on speech and phonemic awareness. Not print. Em
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 02:46:40 +0000
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