vocabulary

What I think about when I meet a child who can’t read

3 November 2019 by David Kinnane

Too many students have significant reading comprehension problems. When working with a struggling reader, you need an evidence-based plan.

But, before you can plan, you need to know what you’re looking for, and why. In this short video-blog, we outline the key mental models we apply when assessing students with reading difficulties.

We hope you find it useful!

Our free eBook: Reading Problems and what to do about them

Banter Speech & Language

Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Concord West, North Strathfield, Rhodes, and Strathfield, and all other suburbs of Sydney.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the PreLit early literacy preparation program by MultiLit, the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP). David is a part-time Associate Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney’s Graduate School of Health. David sits on Speech Pathology Australia’s Ethics Board and Professional Standards Advisory Committee.

My child struggles to understand what she’s reading. Should I give her a text-to-speech tool?

31 March 2019 by David Kinnane

A confession: my navigation skills are abysmal. I’ve been known to get lost in car parks and Mario Cart. But, since downloading Google Maps a few years ago, I’m rarely lost (for long) these days. I’ve used a cheap technology to compensate for a skill gap that really bugs me.

In the same way, text-to-speech and read-along software tools are being used in many homes and schools to help students and others with reading comprehension difficulties.

Are they a good idea? As with many tricky questions, the answer is that “it depends”.

What do text-to-speech tools do?

Software, such as Classmate Reader or Texthelp Read&Write, can ‘translate’ written text into spoken words, enabling you to listen to text while reading along, or simply to listen.

The idea itself isn’t new: we’ve had audiobook tapes and CDs, for several decades, for example. But recent, major improvements in voice recognition software – including some of the technologies underpinning Artificial Intelligence-enabled tools and apps aligned with products and assistants like Google Cloud Text to Speech, Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, and Cortana to name a few – are making text-to-speech (and voice-to-text) tools much more accessible and potentially much more useful and socially accepted than in the past.

Remember that reading comprehension problems are not all the same

We’ve written at length about reading comprehension difficulties. To recap the most relevant points:

Reading comprehension difficulties are caused by two main things:
- difficulty ‘decoding’ (or translating) written letters, words and sentences into speech sounds and spoken words and sentences; and/or
- difficulty understanding the language used in written texts (e.g. the vocabulary, sentence structures, or inferences to be drawn in a particular reading task).

Some people experience only one of these problems, i.e. decoding problems or language disorders. Others have difficulties with both. The “Simple View of Reading” implies that:
- when decoding skills are poor, they limit reading comprehension; and
- when decoding skills are stronger, language comprehension becomes a more important influence on reading comprehension.
“Dyslexia” or “specific learning disorders with impairments in reading” are both normally used to describe children with significant decoding issues. Poor reading accuracy and rate has a direct negative effect on reading comprehension and may leave fewer cognitive ‘resources’ free to try to figure out the meaning of texts (e.g. Smythe, 2005). Even fairly small gains in decoding skills for poor readers can have big positive effects on reading comprehension (Lervåg, 2017).
During the school years, oral language comprehension and reading skills ‘piggy back’ on each other (Snow, 2016). People with decoding problems may have problems learning new words and higher level language skills, which can then hamper their oral language development. Poor decoding skills can drag down higher level language skills that students learn as they read to learn.

Why are text-to-speech tools potentially helpful

Text-to-speech tools remove the need to decode reading material. This helps people with decoding issues understand the material. For example, ‘read aloud’ tools might help students who have decoding problems complete assessment tasks at school (much like human readers in exams help many students with reading difficulties).

Text-to-speech and voice-to-text tools are no longer fringe technologies

Voice-to-text and text-to-speech software used to be hampered by poor accuracy, poor voice selections, and poor speech naturalness.

Now have a look at this amazing chart:

In 2018, Google’s machine learning word accuracy rates exceeded 95% for the first time. Some of their competitors are not far behind. Many of these technologies now sit nested in home and electronic devices: tools like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri. Increasingly, I’m writing notes and even blogs using Google voice-to-text, plugged into apps with voice-to-text features like Evernote or Google Docs.

These technologies can also be used the other way around to read text using artificial voices (or even clones of your own voice): artificial intelligence-driven voice technologies like those developed by Lyrebird, Baidu and Mozilla and Google’s DeepMind are coming along in leaps and bounds. It’s an exciting time to be involved in communication science!

Back to the current state of play: what does the peer reviewed research evidence say?

The research base lags the use of text-to-speech tools, and is far from cohesive at this point. There are a few reasons for this, including:

the fast rate of technology advances;
different research goals: some studies look at text-to-speech tools as a way of compensating for decoding issues; and other studies look at text-to-speech tools as a way of improving decoding skills. (The goal of compensation is to help students access texts they would otherwise not be able to read because of decoding problems. The goal of treatment is to improve decoding skills.);
the number of different commercial programs available, including:
the number of different features that can be manipulated in differences services, including reading rate, voice type, document tagging, dynamic highlighting;
the different populations of people that researchers have looked at, e.g. people with unspecified disabilities, reading disabilities, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder and many other disabilities; and
the different outcome measure used in different studies to measure effects.

In 2014, two meta-analyses were published on the compensatory effects of read-aloud accommodations on assessments:

Li (2014) looked at the effects of read-aloud accommodations on reading and maths assessments, comparing their effects on children with and without disabilities (broadly defined and not restricted to children with reading difficulties alone). Li found positive effects for both groups on reading and maths tasks, but smaller effects for maths.
Buzik & Stone (2014) looked at the effects of read-aloud accommodations for students with and without disabilities on standardised assessments. Again, read-aloud accommodations helped both groups with reading and maths tests, with smaller effects for maths.

In 2018, Dr Sarah Wood and colleagues from Florida State University published a more focused meta-analysis of 22 studies on the effects of text-to-speech technologies on reading comprehension for students with reading difficulties (see citation below). They found that text-to-speech technologies may assist students with reading comprehension. However, as noted by the authors, the findings were limited by the small number of studies on the issue to date, the diversity of the tools and measures, the lack of detail in many studies about appropriate dosage, and the lack of controls for placebo effects and bias.

Clinical bottom line

For children with reading comprehension problems caused by decoding issues, text-to-speech tools may help children to understand texts that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to read. The evidence is not clear for children with good decoding skills and poor language comprehension skills. We don’t yet know exactly how or why text-to-speech tools help some children. But students with normal oral language comprehension are likely to benefit from having the text read to them when decoding is the bottleneck.

When advising parents and students about text-to-speech tools, teachers, speech pathologists, education psychologists and others involved in helping students with reading difficulties should think hard about:

the main factor(s) contributing to the student’s reading difficulties – decoding, language comprehension, or both;
the goal(s) of using the tool – i.e. is it to compensate for a student’s reading difficulties (e.g. in an assessment), or is it intended to help improve reading skills? (and if so, how?);
the positive functional impact using the tool might have on the student’s participation in class and access to the curriculum; and
whether the time spent using the tool might better be spent working on improving decoding skills through explicit synthetic phonics instruction, which has a higher level of evidence at this point. Just as a physiotherapist might temporarily tie up a patient’s “good arm” to encourage her to use and rehabilitate her injured arm, might we be better off in some cases working directly on decoding skills and turning off tools that might enable the patient to avoid using them.

Fundamentally, we all want people we care about to succeed and participate at school, work and in life. And let’s be honest. As these technologies become more mainstream, people with reading difficulties will no doubt turn to their smart phones and other devices to help them to understand what they’re reading – regardless of what experts may think about the merits and evidence base.

In exactly the same way that I turn to Google Maps to find a destination.

Important note: We do not have any commercial relationships with any of the text-to-speech products or services referred to in this article, and make no recommendations about them. They are provided as examples only.

Related articles:

Principal source: Wood, S.G., Moxley, J.M. Tighe, E. & Wagner, R. (2018). Does Use of Text-to-Speech and Related Read-Aloud Tools Improve Reading Comprehension with Reading Disabilities? A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 51(1), 73-84.

Image: https://tinyurl.com/y2fvujsk

Banter Speech & Language

Starting high school? 6 practical, evidence-based principles to help students succeed at STEM subjects

25 March 2018 by Brittany Richardson Leave a Comment

My undergraduate degree is in science, so I’m keen on:

supporting clients to study and succeed in STEM subjects – Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics; and
using the latest cognitive science research to help clients achieve their school and life goals.

Starting high school is an exciting time – new school, new teachers, new friends, new subjects. I remember being overwhelmed, with 11 different subjects in my timetable, including English, Maths, History, Geography, and Science.

So much to learn!

STEM courses contain lots of specialised vocabulary and new concepts. Many students – including students with language, reading and other learning disorders – struggle with STEM subjects because of their limited vocabulary, conceptual, and categorisation skills.

So how can we help these students?

Here are six key cognitive science principles supported by research evidence:

Principle 1. Identify student misconceptions and prior knowledge

Students bring a range of misconceptions into the classroom. These can include:

factual errors (e.g. “the Sun revolves around the Earth”);
misunderstood vocabulary (e.g. “perimeter means the size of a shape”);
simplistic models (e.g. “animals are things with legs”); and
lack of understanding of scales (e.g. “the stars and the moon are the same distance from the Earth”).

These misconceptions need to be identified and corrected to help students to learn. Ideally, these misconceptions will be addressed before the introduction to a new topic. In reality, this can happen at any stage.

How?

(a) Identify what students already know, and what they think they know about the topic. You can do this with a general discussion, or a pre-quiz. For example: in a biology unit on “life”, you could ask the question “what does it mean for something to be alive?”.

(b) List misunderstandings. For example, a student may think that movement is a key feature of life. This may mean the student thinks that non-moving things (such as trees and flowers) are not alive.

(c) Correct these misunderstandings. Adult-driven explanations are not enough to do this (Schunn et al., 2018). Students need to overcome their own misconceptions. Adults can support students by:

comparing student predictions with actual results. (e.g. If a flower isn’t alive, what might happen when we cut it from the root? If it is alive, what might happen?)
structuring case comparisons. (Comparing properties of different examples from a category for similarities and differences.) (See Principle 2.)
using visualisation. (Teaching students how to interpret images, tables, and graphs themselves, rather than relying on an adult.) (See Principle 3.)

Principle 2. Make Comparisons

This is simply the process of contrasting cases to identify similarities and differences. It:

improves understanding of course content and test results (Alfieri et al., 2013);
prepares students with basic conceptual understanding and can help address misconceptions; and
is an especially important skill for students who have difficulties with semantic (meaning) knowledge and categorisation.

There are several templates available freely online which help students:

learn about similarities and differences; and
learn to compare and contrast concepts.

Free resources:

We like the (free) “Semantic Feature Analysis Grid” from Reading Rockets. This can be customised for any level of vocabulary or concept.

For younger students, our free resource is useful for discussing attributes of objects.

Example:

Begin listing various features (e.g. appearance, location, what it does) of different objects. For example, “tree”, “ant” and “dog”. These all fall within the category of “life”, while only “dog” and “ant” are animals. By examining similarities, students can begin understanding which features are necessary for “life”, including the fact they all:

are composed of cells;
reproduce;
are found on Earth; and
are not man-made.

Some features only apply to dogs and ants, not trees. For example, only dogs and ants:

have legs;
eat food; and
are able to move around.

These differences help students understand subcategories of “things that are alive”, such as plants versus animals.

For students who have trouble generating features, using a range of ‘wh’ questions can help structure their thinking (e.g. “What is it made of? What does it do? Where do you find it? When would you use it? What does it look like? How does it feel/smell/taste?”).

Principle 3. Complete visualisation Exercises

Many students have difficulty interpreting illustrations, which are often critical to understand content. Visualisation exercises help students learn how to interpret different aspects of visuals. For example, you can look at a diagram discussing the use of:

colour;
scale;
arrows;
axis titles;
text boxes; and
other conventions of diagrams and graphs.

How?

(a) Start with images that have only one feature requiring interpretation (e.g. scale or colour).

(b) Discuss what that feature represents and how to interpret it, as well as common conventions. For example: “Look at the legend to see what each colour means when interpreting a graph.” or “The overlapping part of a Venn diagram illustrates the similarities. The non-overlapping parts represent the differences.”.

As students become more familiar with interpreting different features, begin introducing more complex illustrations. For example, create a Venn diagram of different things that are alive, and what they have in common (see Principle 2 for how to help generate these).

Principle 4. Interleaved practice

Blocked practice – where you study one subtopic or type of problem for a single long block of time – can lead to confusion between similar content. For example, between:

different science concepts (e.g. gravity versus mass versus weight);
different math techniques (e.g. calculating perimeter versus area versus mass); and/or
different vocabulary (e.g. illusion versus allusion, compare versus contrast).

As we’ve discussed previously, “interleaved” practice – where you mix up subtopics and different problem types – encourages comparison and contrast of content. (See Principle 2). It requires the student to understand when and how to apply the content (Rohrer, 2012).

How to do it

When teaching a new concept, e.g. in mathematics:
- first, give several problems with the same formula. (This helps the student learn to apply the formula);
- then, give a mix of math problems that need the student to decide which formula to use.

While studying/revising:
- don’t spend your whole time on one type of problem. This encourages rote completion of the task rather than active engagement; and
- instead, practice over several days and do a variety of questions each day. This helps the student learn to discriminate between problems. They also learn when to apply each concept.

Principle 5. Over-learning

When do you stop a study session? After one correct answer or three?

Research suggests that it all depends on how long you have left before the test!

“Overlearning” means studying more after the student has “mastered” the content (e.g. continuing to practice vocabulary after one correct response). “Overlearning” helps in the short-term, but the gains fade rapidly over time. So:

if there’s only one week until the test – overlearning appears to be beneficial. Cram away!
if the test is a longer time away – say more than three weeks – it may be more time efficient to move on to another concept. You can then revisit concepts after a break (see Principle 6).

Principle 6. Spaced Testing (spacing + testing combined)

This is aimed at avoiding ‘forgetting’. It’s a combination of two evidence-based study tips:

“Spacing”- revisiting concepts after a delay; and
“Testing” – quizzing yourself on content, which is more beneficial than simply reviewing content.

In the main study cited below, the authors completed “Spaced Testing” by:

daily ‘warm-up’ questions; and
end-of-section quizzes, with questions from current and previous sections of the unit. (Notice how this also incorporates “Interleaving”- see Principle 5!).

Clinical Bottom Line

There’s a range of ways to support students with (and without) language disorders across STEM subjects. One way to help students is by applying cognitive science research principles. It’s likely that there is a cumulative impact to using these techniques together, rather than in isolation.

Related articles:

Key References:

Schunn, C. D., Newcombe, N. S., Alfieri, L., Cromley, J. G., Massey, C., & Merlino, J. F. (2018). Using principles of cognitive science to improve science learning in middle school: What works when and for whom? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 32(2), 225-240.

Alfieri, L., Nokes-Malach, T. J., & Schunn, C. D. (2013). Learning through case comparisons: A meta-analytic review. Educational Psychologist, 48(2), 87-113.

Rohrer, D. (2012). Interleaving helps students distinguish among similar concepts. Educational Psychology Review, 24(3), 355-367.

Rohrer, D., Taylor, K., Pashler, H., Wixted, J. T., & Cepeda, N. J. (2005). The effect of overlearning on long‐term retention. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19(3), 361-374.

Image: https://tinyurl.com/ybe4uofl

Banter Speech & Language

Brittany Richardson holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Neuroscience/Linguistics from the University of New South Wales. Brittany is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).

Brittany is Hanen-certified and trained in the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering. Brittany’s experience includes working in a community health setting to assess and treat a range of speech, language and fluency disorders in children. Brittany is particularly interested in speech sound disorders and early language development. Brittany sees clients at Banter Speech & Language on Thursdays and Fridays.

Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Rhodes, Strathfield, as well as all other suburbs of Sydney.

Free resources to help our preschoolers and primary school-age kids to read

20 January 2018 by David Kinnane Leave a Comment

To help our kids to read, we need good tools to put independent, peer-reviewed research into practice. Decades of evidence-building tells us that kids need phonological awareness, vocabulary, synthetic phonics, comprehension and fluency skills to read well; and that oral language comprehension and morphological awareness are important, too.

Putting theory into action

The key challenge is how to teach these skills to kids with reading difficulties. It’s time-consuming (and often expensive) to find quality, evidence-based reading resources. But, there are researchers out there focused on how to implement evidence-based reading practices.

You just have to know where to look.

One of our favourite organisations is the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR): a multidisciplinary research centre based at Florida State University.

Free reading resources, activities and ideas

The FCRR houses a goldmine of free pre-reading and reading resources, ideas, and activities.

Most of the resources we use are found in two sections:

The Voluntary Prekindergarten Learning Activities: This section includes great activities and resources for important skills like alphabet knowledge and letter-sound knowledge, early phonological awareness skills, and oral language skills, including vocabulary skills.
The Student Center Activities for kids from kindergarten until fifth grade. This section includes free, downloadable activities and resources for phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, including morphological awareness and oral language comprehension (including lots of resources to teach story grammar and explanatory texts. The materials are divided into three groups based on (US) school years: K-1, 2-3, and 4-5. We particularly like the fluency and morphological awareness resources.

So check out the FCRR! We hope you find their marvellous free resources as useful as we do.

Related articles:

Key source: Florida Center for Reading Research, reviewed by Carol Westby, Word of Mouth 28:5 May/June 2017.

Editor’s note: we’ve used US spelling conventions for FCRR’s name; and Australian spelling conventions for everything else.

Image: https://tinyurl.com/y7ufaan8

Banter Speech & Language

10 great words to teach young high-schoolers (and why) – with brilliant free resources!

13 January 2018 by David Kinnane 2 Comments

Welcome to 2018, dear readers!

Over the last years, we’ve published hundreds of free articles, and ebooks summarising some of the latest research about speech, language, reading, stuttering, accent management and voice. You can access them all, anytime, on our new website.

This year, we’re committed to bringing you more free, Plain English, evidence-based information. But, this year, we’re going for something different.

Based on reader feedback, you’ll see fewer long articles covering theoretical academic debates in minute detail. You’ll see more short, sharp articles summarising practical strategies and tips you can implement at home, at school, or in your clinic.

So let’s get started!

Based on the terrific work of Dr Sarah Spencer and colleagues, here are 10 words we should teach young high-schoolers (12-14 year olds) and older children with language or reading difficulties.

1. Which words should you teach?

Interpret
Evaluate
Exclude
Sustain
Discriminate
Infer
Contribute
Generate
Summarise
Consult

2. Why these words?

All these words are:

cross-curriculum words. In other words, they are used in high school across multiple subjects. Cross-curriculum words are also known as “academic words” or “tier 2 words”. You can read more about these words, find out why they are so useful, and access longer words lists and other free resources here;
highly functional. They can be used in all sorts of places, with all sorts of people in the “real world”; and
verbs. Verbs are harder to learn than nouns, especially for children with language, learning or reading difficulties (e.g. Nash & Snowling, 2006).

To date, vocabulary interventions show that you can teach kids new words with lots of effort. But choosing the right words is really important because:

it takes lots of work for a child to learn a new word, especially if the child has language, learning or reading difficulties; and
learning a word doesn’t seem to automatically help a child learn other words (e.g. Snow et al., 2009).

3. How should the 10 words be taught?

Intensively: at least an hour a week, with home exercises between sessions.
Teach one word at a time, e.g. spend a teaching session talking only about “consult”.
Define the word explicitly (you can teach children to use a dictionary at the same time), e.g. “consult means to seek information or advice from, or to seek permission or approval from”.
Use lots of repetition, in lots of different contexts, e.g. you can consult a rulebook, the teacher, a school counselor, the principal, an umpire, a dictionary, Ikea instructions, a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a psychologist, a speech pathologist, an accountant, a weatherman/woman, a psychic (although not recommended!), Centrelink, the Department of Housing, a website, etc.
Teach to small groups (3-5 children) so they can work together and discuss the words based on their real world experiences.
Give children lots of opportunities to use the word in different ways.
Focus on different aspects of the word including the:
- meaning of the word;
- speech sounds and syllables that make up the word /kənsʌlt/, rhyming words (e.g. cult, adult, result);
- grammatical role of the word, e.g. “consult is a verb” – it’s something you do;
- morphology of the word, including the word origin (Latin meaning “take counsel”), its prefix (“con” meaning “with”) and root (“sult”, meaning to leap upon), as well as different word forms, e.g. consult, consults, consulted, consulting, consultant, consultation; and
- spelling of the word (c-o-n-s-u-l-t).
Use activities the kids like to increase motivation and engagement (e.g. by consulting “experts” on YouTube or Reddit).
Act out the word (there is some evidence that miming an action while saying the word can help younger children to learn verbs e.g. Riches et al., 2005).
Give the kids personal challenges at the end of the session where they have to use and act out the word at home or out and about.

Final tip: when teaching kids new words, go for depth of word knowledge, rather than breadth.

4. Where can you find free resources to teach these words to young high-schoolers?

For more information and resources (including free lesson plans!), go to this wonderful, evidence-based website run by Dr Spencer, a Lecturer and Speech and Language Therapist at the Department for Human Communication Sciences, at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. Free lesson plans and resources for each of these 10 words can be found here.

5. How can you assess whether your high-schooler has learned the words properly?

Check out Dr Spencer’s Word Knowledge Profile here.

Clinical bottom line

Young teenagers at risk of school failure often have poor knowledge of cross-curriculum words like the 10 listed above. Knowing cross-curriculum words can be a big help at school and in life. We should teach cross-curriculum words to teenagers, especially those at risk of school failure. Thanks to the wonderful research and resources provided by Dr Spencer and her colleagues, we’re well equipped to teach at least 10 of these words.

Principal source: Spencer, S., Clegg, J., Lowe, H., Stackhouse, J. (2017). Increasing adolescents’ depth of understanding of cross-curriculum words: an intervention study. International Journal or Language and Communication Disorders, 52(5), 652-668. Abstract link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1460-6984.12309/abstract

Further reading and free resources:

Image: https://tinyurl.com/ybaufb2o

Banter Speech & Language

My loved one has reading problems. Where can I find evidence-based answers to get help? New free eBook

13 August 2017 by David Kinnane Leave a Comment

Instantly download our new, 188-page, free eBook here:

What is it?

There’s so much information out there about reading difficulties, including dyslexia. It’s hard to sort:

the good stuff – based on independent, peer-reviewed evidence; from
the nonsense – the fads, the snake oil, patent-protected “systems”, “special lenses”, and expensive products and courses that are not backed up by independent evidence.

We wrote this book for parents, carers and other loved ones who have a family member or loved one with reading difficulties.

This book is fad-free. People with reading difficulties don’t have time to waste on stuff that doesn’t work. This book is designed to help you find the quality information you need to get good help, quickly.

What’s in it?

Evidence-based, plain English summaries answering our 24 most frequently asked reading questions.

How to use it

Read the bit (or bits) that seem most relevant to you, and then go from there. We’ve included hundreds of clickable links between the articles, so you can choose your own adventure through the book, at you own pace.

We hope you find it useful. If you have questions or feedback, please get in touch.

Banter Speech & Language

vocabulary

What do text-to-speech tools do?

Remember that reading comprehension problems are not all the same

Why are text-to-speech tools potentially helpful

Text-to-speech and voice-to-text tools are no longer fringe technologies

Back to the current state of play: what does the peer reviewed research evidence say?

Clinical bottom line

So how can we help these students?

Principle 1. Identify student misconceptions and prior knowledge

How?

Principle 2. Make Comparisons

Free resources:

Example:

Principle 3. Complete visualisation Exercises

How?

Principle 4. Interleaved practice

How to do it

Principle 5. Over-learning

Principle 6. Spaced Testing (spacing + testing combined)

Clinical Bottom Line

Putting theory into action

Free reading resources, activities and ideas

1. Which words should you teach?

2. Why these words?

3. How should the 10 words be taught?

4. Where can you find free resources to teach these words to young high-schoolers?

5. How can you assess whether your high-schooler has learned the words properly?

Clinical bottom line

What is it?

What’s in it?

How to use it

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