Reading difficulties are the source of so many childhood problems. Homework is stressful, test results disappoint, and academic progress is held back. Reading issues can undermine self-esteem, create anxiety, and trigger avoidance behaviors that give rise to even more issues. When you are not good at the one thing you need to do as a child – and that is, to learn – childhood is no walk in the park!
Most reading difficulties can be traced back to cognitive skill gaps, mostly language processing delays, that impact reading automaticity. When reading is not automatic, when it is labored, it consumes concentration needed for reading comprehension, thereby holding back reading growth. Until reading is a subconscious, automatic skill, reading comprehension is compromised.
The most common responses to labored reading are phonics instruction and extra teaching. Unfortunately, both are band aids. They address the symptoms of delay, not the causes. The fact that most eighth graders (per NAEP Report Card) read below grade level tells you all you need to know about their effectiveness.
It is true though that phonics is the key to reading automaticity. It’s difficult to recognize and read text syllables if you can’t hear them in everyday language. Phonics instruction falls short because most struggling readers do not process well enough to pick out phonemes. To them, /ba/ and /da/ sound the same, no matter how many times we repeat them!
While instruction can help marginally in this standoff, the bigger factor is time passing, students maturing. Hearing language every day eventually stimulates processing skills to the point where phonemes come into focus. However, this maturation can take years. Meanwhile, struggling readers are stuck in the early phases of learning to read, while their peers progress.
This is where cognitive skills training and neuroscience can help. The most effective way to treat reading delays caused by cognitive skill gaps is to target those skill gaps, not the symptoms of those delays. Gemm Learning does that using Fast ForWord software at home for struggling readers of all ages.
Fast ForWord is an adaptive learning and reading program developed by neuroscientists to remediate the cognitive and language skill gaps responsible for most reading problems. It combines cognitive research on how the brain reads with neuroscientific knowledge about how the brain learns. Fast ForWord has helped 3 million students worldwide and is backed by hundreds of white papers.
Creating individualized protocols to meet each student’s unique needs, and then managing that student through the selected exercise sequence takes professional oversight and years of experience. That’s where Gemm Learning comes in. Learn more at https://www.gemmlearning.com/
About Gemm Learning
Gemm Learning provides Fast ForWord and other interventions at home, with remote monitoring, coaching and support, in the United States and Canada. It has protocols to address reading and learning delays, including dyslexia, auditory processing disorder, working memory delays and ADHD.
Media ContactCompany Name: Gemm LearningContact Person: Geoffrey NixonEmail: Send EmailPhone: 877.914.4366Country: United StatesWebsite: https://www.gemmlearning.com/
