So how does ReadingDoctorâ Software work?
1. Teaches Letter-Sound Relationships
Learning letter-sound relationships is difficult for beginning and struggling readers because an association must be made between sounds and symbols with arbitrary relationships (there is no meaningful relationship between the way letters look and the way they sound). It is the process of teaching these sound-symbol relationships, the elemental building-blocks of reading and writing, and understanding the relationship between these symbols and spoken language, which poses a great challenge to educators. This challenge has led to the development of the ReadingDoctorâ teaching system.
“The most successful [literacy] programs focus on strengthening the brain's aptitude for linking letters to the sounds they represent. Some studies suggest that the right kinds of instruction provided early enough may rewire the brain so thoroughly that the neurological glitch [in dyslexia] disappears entirely.”
-Time Magazine, July 28 2003
ReadingDoctorâ Software uses a revolutionary, multi-sensory system for teaching and strengthening letter-sound relationships. Children are taught meaningful associations between the way that letters and letter patterns look and the sounds they make through a system of visual (shape), auditory (sound) and articulatory (the way you say sounds) memory aids, or mnemonics. The ReadingDoctorâ system identifies what a child knows, what the child does not know, and which patterns the child confuses. Using a unique and highly effective approach, the system teaches children to discriminate between confusing patterns, and strengthens weaknesses in letter-sound pattern understanding.
It is widely accepted that students with specific reading difficulties (otherwise known as dyslexia) have difficulties in understanding the relationship between the visual, written representations in language (the look of letters and words) and their sound representations (the sounds that letters and words make).
-Margaret Snowling, 2001 (Leading Dyslexia Researcher)
After learning letter-sound patterns using the ReadingDoctorâ system, letter-sound relationships are no longer arbitrary, difficult to learn relationships. The ReadingDoctorâ teaching system has identified and strengthened those patterns that were the most difficult for the student. The student now has strong visual, auditory and articulatory associations between the letters and the sounds they make, and the relationships between letters and their sounds are no longer abstract and hard to remember, rapidly improving reading and spelling skills. Furthermore, this learning has occurred during a highly enjoyable, motivating activity, which from the student’s perspective is not learning, but a fun game!
2. Teaches Blending and Segmentation
While ReadingDoctorâ Software is designed to guide your student through activities suitable for their skill level, every aspect of the activities in the program may be controlled by a parent, teacher, or literacy specialist. The program includes a large database of regularly spelt words divided into their corresponding letter-sound components. Each word has corresponding broadcast quality recordings of the words as well as the word's component sounds. Each word also has a corresponding picture and may be displayed according to letter-sound patterns. The software allows for the customisation of activities based on letter-sound patterns. For example, if a child confused "ou" as in "out" with "oa" as in "boat", it is possible to design an activity which contrasts words containing these patterns in a matter of two mouseclicks! Activities may be selected by
All student activity is recorded by the program for easy progress monitoring. ReadingDoctorâ Software incorporates a sophisticated assessment feature facilitating comprehensive monitoring of individual students using the built in testing modes. The testing feature provides detailed information about current and past performance, allowing parents, teachers and the students themselves to see the difference that ReadingDoctorâ Software makes. A printing facility allows the user to produce a ‘hard copy’ of this information. A report writing function allows parents, teachers and specialists to generate a written progress report with the press of a button. This report summarises all activities and tests undertaken since the student began using the software.
6. Includes Hundreds of Flashcards
The End Result...
Using ReadingDoctorâ Software, parents, educators and literacy specialists can significantly improve the literacy skills of children who are struggling with reading and spelling, as well as children beginning to read and write. Parents, educators and literacy specialists can offer children a fun, effective, and scientifically based learning experience in arcade-style format which children will thoroughly enjoy.
The method of teaching used in ReadingDoctorâ Software is so effective that parents and educators will observe noticeable progress after just a couple of hours of using the software. ReadingDoctorâ Software provides a return on your investment which far exceeds the price paid for the product - the establishment of strong foundation literacy skills leading to future academic success.
©2008 LearningScience® Pty Ltd. LearningScience® and ReadingDoctor® are registered trademarks of LearningScience® Pty Ltd. ReadingSounds™ and Rapid Learning Matrix™ are trademarks of LearningScience® Pty Ltd. This software is protected by a pending international patent.
In addition to learning the key letter-sound patterns in reading and spelling, ReadingDoctorâ Software also teaches children how to recognise the most frequent, irregularly spelt 'sight words' in English, such as "who, said" and "there". These words form around 5-10% of English words, do not conform to common letter-sound patterns in English, and are more difficult to learn for beginning readers and children struggling with reading and spelling. ReadingDoctorâ Software utilises a unique approach to teaching irregularly spelt sight words. The emphasis is on visual memorisation rather than using sound-symbol correspondence, with the system highlighting and assisting children to memorise the irregularly spelt letters (such as the "ai" in "said"), while applying the same revolutionary teaching method used in the other components of the software - areas of weakness and confusion are identified and strengthened based on the individual performance of each student.
After learning the most common letter-sound relationships, the software teaches students how to combine letter patterns which represent the sounds in language into words through specially designed 'blending' exercises in whichstudents practice combining letter-sound patterns together to form words. Students also practice the 'segmentation' of words into their component sounds and the letter-sound patterns that represent them. This is achieved through a unique approach which identifies areas of weakness and confusion in the student's knowledge. Keep an eye on this website in the coming weeks as we reveal screenshots, specific activities and teaching methods used in ReadingDoctorâ Software.
3. Teaches High Frequency Sight Words
4. Allows Full Customisation of Activities
indicating the word patterns to be practiced through a search engine (so for example, it is possible to indicate that you want your student to practice distinguishing between words that begin with "b, d" or "p", or end with "at", or have "igh" in the middle). You simply tell the software which word group you want your child to practice, and the software creates activities based on your requirements!
5. Includes Comprehensive Progress Monitoring
All of the material that is taught in ReadingDoctorâ Software may be printed as ‘flash cards’ from within the program. These flashcards may be easily customised to include visual cues to assist recognition. The flashcards may be used by parents, teachers or clinicians in activities such as card games to further strengthen and reinforce the skills taught in the software.
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We intend for this site to be a major source of useful information about literacy development for parents, teachers and literacy specialists, so please check back for updates soon!
