The learning success blog

Has your child ever been told by his or her teacher to "just try harder"? Have you thought that their difficulties with reading, maths or inability to keep up in class would be fixed if they would just put in a bit more effort?

While this may be a common reaction by adults to a child they think could do better, it is not the answer for children with learning difficulties. No matter how hard they try, a child with learning challenges just can't achieve the desired result because their brains won't let them.

Does your primary school child come home on Monday with a spelling list to be done each night and taken back to school on Friday?

Have they been instructed to “look, cover, say, write & check” each word?

If they are doing well with spelling, that’s great. But if they have trouble learning to spell, is this system helping them?

Therese is the mother of three boys who go to Narooma Public School, on the NSW South Coast.

She recently spoke with LearnFast about how Fast ForWord helped her youngest son learn better and made his attitude to school much more positive. The results were so good she now has her middle son on the program.

Her youngest (Matt, Year 3) did Fast Fast ForWord in Terms 1 & 2 (2014), and his brother (Joe, Year 4) is doing the program in Terms 3 & 4 (2014).

Why was Matt selected to do Fast ForWord?

If you could look inside the brain of a struggling reader, you would notice it is not the same as the brain of a child who finds reading easy.  How do we know this?

Well, thanks to advances in neuroscience and brain imaging technology, scientists can actually "look inside" brains. Here is a really good infographic (courtesy of We are Teachers & Scientific Learning Corporation) which explains the key differences.  

Includes four tips for teachers (and parents) to help overcome dyslexia in children.

Celebrating its 125 year anniversary this year, Narooma Public School, located on NSW’s south coast, has seen a lot of changes since the first students started in 1889. The slate boards and chalk in the classrooms of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have been replaced by electronic whiteboards, computers and the Internet.

The current Principal and teachers at Narooma have not only kept pace with the changes, but they are leading the way by using the latest neuroscience based educational tools to help their students build their learning capacity and read better.

What is maths learning disability? This disability, known as "dyscalculia", is not as well known as other learning disabilities, such as reading disability, but it can effect more than one in 12 children.

Here are some facts that experts say about maths disability (courtesy of the USA National Center for Learning Disabilities).

Brodie's Story Part 1

"I would never have begun to imagine that he could make progress on the scale that he has. It 's been absolutely incredible".

That's Heather Walker, grandmother of Brodie, an 11 year old severely dyslexic boy, describing the extraordinary improvements that the Fast ForWord program made to his reading.

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) and Dyslexia are related conditions. LearnFast interviewed Dr Martha Burns, international expert on dyslexia and APD, about how they are connected and how we can treat them.

Key points from the interview included:

• A child identified with APD in kindergarten is likely to show signs of dyslexia in year 3
• Auditory processing disorders are treatable
• There are various kinds of dyslexia
• Dyslexia is a learning difference, not a disease

Thanks to the astounding developments in brain science over the past few decades, we now understand much better how we develop our language and learn to read.

In this video, Devon Barnes, speech pathologist and literacy specialist, discusses the brain science of language, learning and reading. She also explains how neuroscience programs, in particular Fast ForWord, can help develop the thinking and language skills vital for our students success at school.

Key points from the interview included:

• Reading is a language skill
• Parents who reinforce baby babble help them develop language
• Thinking skills (memory, attention, processing speed and the ability to sequence) plus language skills are the foundations for reading & learning
• Fast ForWord can enhance the learning capacity of all students

What is “hearing acuity”? What does it have to do with auditory processing disorder and our ability to learn?

LearnFast asked Devon Barnes, speech pathologist and Auditory Processing Disorder specialist to explain the links between a child’s ear structure, their hearing acuity, auditory processing disorder and learning ability.

 Key points from the interview included

• Hearing acuity refers to the very softest sound we can hear across a range of frequencies.
• Hearing is fundamental to learning language.
• Ear infection or “glue ear” can cause problems for children