Reading and Writing

The reading and writing processes are closely integrated. To be able to process such functions, it is necessary to encode and decode. At Excel Read and Learn we pay special attention to encoding and decoding as part of our reading and writing exercises.

Not all children learn to read in the same way and at the same time, yet there are predictable relationships between some of their steps.
Decoding and encoding and their inter-correlation play an integral part in a developing reader.

With the teaching of letters and sounds, the skill known as phonological awareness develops. Children show their phonological skills when they can recognize and manipulate letter sounds in specific ways, like beginning, middle and end sounds of words, words that sound the same, and syllables.

This manipulation takes us to the final step in teaching reading – putting these concepts together to instruct children how to read words or, as we mentioned above, decoding. It requires children to process several steps:
• Recognise the letter.
• Associate the sound of the letter.
• Understand how the letter sounds work together to make words.
• Blend the letter sounds together to create speech.

You’ve probably forgotten how challenging this is to a reader in the earliest stages. Decoding a simple sentence, such as ‘She is happy’ means the child needs to know all the letters contained in the sentence, the sounds assigned to each letter, and the way we put these sounds together to read.

The same process is not used when readers take this knowledge and write. Instead, they are encoding, somewhat reversing the process.

Look at the steps:
• Understand how sounds work to form words.
• Take a word apart sound by sound.
• Remember the letter that goes with the sound, including what the letter looks like.
• String or blend the letters together on paper to create words.

When children are encoding, they are using the same skills in reading but in a different process.

Gross motor co-ordination

Balance plays an extremely important part in concentration and focussing. Excel Read and Learn offers unique gross motor co-ordination exercises to stimulate balance which will have a positive effect on concentration (we do offer Focussing and concentration techniques in addition to this too).

Dyslexia

Dyslexics are:
• bright,
• highly intelligent
• extremely creative

Dyslexia is not a structural problem in the brain, it is a functional problem. Therefore, it cannot be “cured” but can be corrected.