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Read Australia- overcoming the challenges of Dyslexia and promoting an inclusive education. Read Australia are based in Queensland and offer reading and spelling instruction and training across Australia- - teaching children to read and spell effectively from the start. Teach  children with dyslexia or other learning difficulties and Special Needs using phonics. Welcome to Read Australia- proud to promote  effective phonics programmes-increasing literacy rates across Australia!

Home Page ////Contact Read Australia /////How to Teach Reading and Spelling Books and Resources ///// About Phonics ////
Dyslexia and Learning Difficulties 
///// Worldwide Research into the Teaching of Reading //// About the Phono-Graphix Teaching Method //// About the Jolly Phonics Teaching Method ////About the SuperPhonics Teaching Method //// About the THRASS Teaching Method ////About Sounds Write //// About The Speech Sound (and Vowel) Set ////
Let Read Australia know of other effective methods ////
Useful Teaching Reading Site Links
** Read Australia Tutor Directory- Add Your Listing For Free **

Read Australia Founder

Emma Hartnell-Baker

Read Australia was created by Emma Hartnell-Baker who has a BEd Hons with a Specialism in The Early Years (1992) and Post Graduate qualifications in Special Needs (Behaviour Management, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Counselling and Helping People and Dyslexia)  She has a Masters Degree in Special Needs from Nottingham University and is a professional life coach

Emma Hartnell-Baker
and also known as

The Child Listener

Read Australia was created by Emma Hartnell-Baker who has a BEd Hons with a Specialism in The Early Years (1992) and Post Graduate qualifications in Special Needs (Behaviour Management, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Counselling and Helping People and Dyslexia)
She has a Masters Degree in Special Needs from Nottingham University and is a
Professional Life Coach

Read More About
Emma Hartnell-Baker

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using Jolly Phonics
- A Guide For Teaching
Reading And Writing

 


Superphonics - Ruth Miskin
Visit the Books and Resources Page
for the whole range of
Super Phonics reading
and spelling books and activities


 


 


 

 


Success starts with learning to read- teach your child to read and spell in the most effective ways! Read Australia will show you how!

Email info@ReadAustralia.com

Footprint Consultancy offer a range of Services to Parents & Teachers
- specialising in Early Years Education and Behaviour Support
for Children and Teens.

Read Australia and The Child Listener brought to you by Footprint Consultancy Queensland- Empowering parents and further developing early years and primary teacher effectiveness across Australia.

Emma Hartnell-Baker is also known as The Child Listener

Read Australia has been created to empower parents, and offer information relating to
what we know about effective methods of teaching children to read and spell.

Gold Coast (07) 5573 1015


 

 

Empowering parents and teachers - sharing research and useful information
relating to the teaching of reading worldwide, with a focus on Australia


The above course is especially useful to parents of children with dyslexia


What is Dyslexia?

Click here to visit the Read Australia Directory- reading and spelling tutors and related services including help and support for parents of children with Dyslexia


Historical Perspective

Before the National Institutes of Health began their research in the 1980's, the only definition of dyslexia was an exclusionary one. If a child's difficulty with reading could not be explained by low intelligence, poor eye sight, poor hearing, inadequate educational opportunities, or any other problem, then the child must be dyslexic.

That definition was not satisfactory to parents, teachers, or researchers. So here are three different definitions in use today.

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Simple Definition

Dyslexia is an inherited condition that makes it extremely difficult to read, write, and spell in your native language—despite at least average intelligence.

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Revised definition from the International Dyslexia Association

Dyslexia is a neurologically-based, often familial, disorder which interferes with the acquisition and processing of language. Varying in degrees of severity, it is manifested by difficulties in receptive and expressive language, including phonological processing, in reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, and sometimes in arithmetic.

Dyslexia is not the result of lack of motivation, sensory impairment, inadequate instructional or environmental opportunities, or other limiting conditions, but may occur together with these conditions.

Although dyslexia is lifelong, individuals with dyslexia frequently respond successfully to timely and appropriate intervention.

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Research definition used by the National Institutes of Health

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin.

It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition, and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.

These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction.

Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.
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Learning Disability

Learning Disability is not a specific term; it is a category containing many specific disabilities, all of which cause learning to be difficult. The following definition of "learning disability" is used for legislative, financial, and educational purposes only. It is NOT a definition of dyslexia, which is one specific learning disability.

The term 'learning disability' means a disorder in one or more of the basic processes involved in understanding spoken or written language. It may show up as a problem in listening, thinking, speaking, reading, writing, or spelling or in a person's ability to do math, despite at least average intelligence.

The term does not include children who have learning problems which are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or physical handicaps, or mental retardation, or emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

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Cause of Dyslexia

Dyslexia is an inherited condition. Researchers have determined that a gene on the short arm of chromosome #6 is responsible for dyslexia. That gene is dominant, making dyslexia highly heritable. It definitely runs in families.

Dyslexia results from a neurological difference; that is, a brain difference. People with dyslexia have a larger right-hemisphere in their brains than those of normal readers. That may be one reason people with dyslexia often have significant strengths in areas controlled by the right-side of the brain, such as artistic, athletic, and mechanical gifts; 3-D visualization ability; musical talent; creative problem solving skills; and intuitive people skills.

In addition to unique brain architecture, people with dyslexia have unusual "wiring". Neurons are found in unusual places in the brain, and are not as neatly ordered as in non-dyslexic brains.

In addition to unique brain architecture and unusual wiring, f/MRI studies have shown that people with dyslexia do not use the same part of their brain when reading as other people. Regular readers consistently use the same part of their brain when they read. People with dyslexia do not use that part of their brain, and there appears to be no consistent part used among dyslexic readers.

It is therefore assumed that people with dyslexia are not using the most efficient part of their brain when they read. A different part of their brain has taken over that function.

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Phonemic Awareness

Quotes from prominent NIH researchers:

"The lack of phonemic awareness is the most powerful determinant of the likelihood of failure to learn to read."

"Phonemic awareness is more highly related to learning to read . . . than tests of general intelligence, reading readiness, and listening comprehension."

"Phonemic awareness is the most important core and causal factor separating normal and disabled readers."

NIH research has repeatedly demonstrated that lack of phonemic awareness is the root cause of reading failure. Phonemes are the smallest unit of SPOKEN language, not written language.

Children who lack phonemic awareness are unable to distinguish or manipulate SOUNDS within SPOKEN words or syllables. They would be unable to do the following tasks:

  • Phoneme Segmentation: what sounds do you hear in the word hot? What's the last sound in the word map?
  • Phoneme Deletion: what word would be left if the /k/ sound were taken away from cat?
  • Phoneme Matching: do pen and pipe start with the same sound?
  • Phoneme Counting: how many sounds do you hear in the word cake?
  • Phoneme Substitution: what word would you have if you changed the /h/ in hot to /p/?
  • Blending: what word would you have if you put these sounds together? /s/ /a/ /t/
  • Rhyming: tell me as many words as you can that rhyme with the word eat.

If a child lacks phonemic awareness, they will have difficulty learning the relationship between letters and the sounds they represent in words, as well as applying those letter/sound correspondences to help them "sound out" unknown words.

So children who perform poorly on phonemic awareness tasks via oral language in kindergarten are very likely to experience difficulties acquiring the early word reading skills that provide the foundation for growth of reading ability throughout elementary school.

Phonemic awareness skills can and must be directly and explicitly taught to children who lack this awareness.

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Phonological Processing and Phonics

Phonemic awareness must exist or be explicitly and directly taught BEFORE phonics instruction begins. Otherwise, the phonics instruction will not make sense to the dyslexic child.

Phonological processing refers to understanding of sounds used in our language, ranging from big chunks of sound (words), to smaller chunks (syllables) and eventually to phonemic awareness (every sound within a syllable). Both phonemic awareness and phonological processing are auditory processing skills. Therefore, they can (and should) be taught before letters are introduced.

The goal of teaching phonics is to link the individual sounds to letters, and to make that process fluent and automatic, for both reading and spelling. In other words, phonics teaches students symbol-to-sound and sound-to-symbol.

But for phonics to work, a student must first have solid phonological processing and phonemic awareness.

http://www.dys-add.com/define.html


Therefore it is crucial that ALL children are taught phonics effectively
- so that we are promting an inclusive education, using methods that are more
likely to work for the greatest number of children.
Join us on one of our 'Read Australia' Workshops in Queensland Australia.

 


Home Page / About Phono-Graphix / Contact Read Australia / Rates and Services/ Next workshops and courses
for parents and teachers
/ In-service Training for Day Care, Kindy and Schools/ Books and Resources /
Dyslexia and Learning Difficulties / Research / Site Links


Read Australia - - training parents and teachers how to teach children to read
quickly and effectively using methods that work with all children INCLUDING children with dyslexia
and other learning difficulties & Special Needs. Offering reading and spelling training and workshops across Australia.


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We are now based on the Gold Coast, Queensland Office.

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Learn to use phonics in your school and childcare facility- offer the children the very
greatest chance of success- teach them to read and spell well, from the start!
Reviewing teaching methods such as Jolly Phonics, SuperPhonics, THRASS and more!
Helping parents of children with Dyslexia
Getting Australia reading- and loving it!
www.readaustralia.com


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