Literacy

Every child can learn to read and write. Some have more difficulty than others.

In our practise we have worked with thousands of children and teens who have had literacy difficulties. Most of these children have been bright, intelligent children.

Some children have difficulty with very early literacy. Others make a start but come unstuck later when the language demands become more complex. Some children can seem to read, but not be able to answer comprehension questions. We see many children who can read to some extent but do not read for pleasure.

Reading, writing and spelling require good auditory (sound) processing skills, visual processing skills, working memory and solid underlying language ability. Reading and writing require a high level of multitasking in real time. If any part of this skill set is missing then literacy is hard work.

There are many parts to the process of reading. At least thirty cognitive processes need to occur at the same time. And writing requires even more processes. It is one of the most complex tasks our children are expected to perform effortlessly.

Writing requires even more processes to be happening simultaneously. Some children have difficulty forming letters or coordinating their letter to sound knowledge. At a higher level some children cannot organise their thoughts or get their ideas down onto paper.

Some children enjoy creative writing but can’t remember what words look like to spell them.

It is possible to work out why there is a breakdown and what is causing your child to have difficulties. It is essential to do this before it is possible to fix the difficulty. We will sort the underlying processing deficits. Our program will then take them in increments through the process of acquiring fully functional literacy.

We have a solid grasp of the neurology involved in acquiring literacy, and have developed our program to grow your child’s neural pathways for efficient and effective reading, comprehension, spelling and writing.