Download Reading: cracking the code PPT

Reading: cracking the code
Reading: cracking the code
Written words are a code:
Visual symbols = elements of speech
人 = ‘man’ in Chinese
Σ = the sound ‘s’ in Greek
Reading is about cracking the code
Reading: cracking the code
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Two ways of coding words:

Logographic (symbol = word/syllable)


Eg Ancient Egyptian, modern Chinese
Alphabetic (symbol = sound)

Eg: Ancient Phoenician, Arabic, modern
European language
Reading: cracking the code
Two ways to decode text:

By

木 = ‘tree’
Used more for logographic scripts
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
山 = mountain
Harder to learn but easier to read once
you know what each logogram means
By

You read by sounding out the symbol

Used more for alphabetic scripts
How do we read?


Reading involves
three areas on the left
side of the brain
All three areas of the
brain should be
working together at
the same time when
we read
How do we read?
Green area
(inferior frontal gyrus)
Starts process of recognising
individual letters or groups of
letters that represent different
sounds (phonemes)

eg T stands for the sound ‘t
This is where we sound out words
 in our head or
 out loud
How do we read?
Pink area
(parieto-temporal region)
Word analyser


Pulls the words apart even more
Breaks words down into
syllables and individual sounds
Eg Ti – ger
T - i – g - er
How do we read?
Yellow area
(occipito-temporal area)
Automatic word detector


Recognises word forms without
having to sound them out
If this is working well, we can glide
through print without hesitation
Reading difficulties

Dyslexia means difficulty with words:


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Dys comes from the Greek word for difficulty
Lexia comes from the Greek word for word
Dyslexia is an information processing
difference probably hard-wired into brain from
birth.
5 – 10% of the school population are dyslexic
There are two types of dyslexia:


Visual dyslexia
Sound (auditory) dyslexia
Visual dyslexics

Words blur, move or disappear . . .
. . . . like this

Find it difficult to read groups of words



may see only half a word at a time 
unable to skim or scan well
Find it difficult to judge distances

Poor at ball sports or driving

Suffer from tiredness, headaches, irritability

Cells in mid-brain region are not processing
visual information from eyes correctly
Visual dyslexia

Visual dyslexics are highly sensitive to certain light
frequencies:


Glare from white paper, bright lights, computer screens
Special coloured lenses can help the problem
Boy copying sentence
without lenses
Boy copying sentence with
coloured lenses
 Different coloured paper can sometimes help too
Auditory (sound) dyslexia
Most dyslexic people:

Have difficulty activating:



Rely more on:


pink (word analysis) area
yellow (automatic word recognition) area
green(sounding out) area
and right side of brain



shape of word
context – making imaginative guesses
picture clues
Famous people with dyslexia
Dyslexia is not related to intelligence
Dyslexic people are not lazy
 Albert Einstein
 Bill Gates
 Michael Faraday
 Hans Christian Anderson
 Leonardo da Vinci
 Walt Disney
 Richard Branson
 Pablo Picasso
 Henry Ford
 Jackie Stewart
 Ann Bancroft
 Jamie Oliver
(Polar explorer)
Improving decoding skills

English uses over 1 million words


Remembering each whole word by
how it looks is very difficult
Modern English has just over 40
different sound elements (phonemes):


25 consonants
15+ vowel sound
Improving decoding skills
Practise these skills:
1. Breaking spoken words down into their different
sounds
Recent brain research shows you need to be able to
sound out words to read alphabetical languages


Say tongue-twisters
Talk to each other in Pig Latin
alktay otay eachyay otheryay inyay igpay atinlay

Play Hink Pink
What is a plate for tuna? A fish dish!
Name a small, stinging insect. A wee bee!
cat
Sing songs and rhymes with younger children to
tune your ear to the different sounds of spoken
language

Improving decoding skills
Practise these skills:
2. Recognising letters and blends
used to code each sound (phonics)
Help younger children learn to read
Going back to basic phonics will improve your
own ability to recognise the different letters
and blends that make up each sound
3. Using knowledge of phonics to break down
words into elements of sound
Play word games:
Boggle, Pass the Bomb, Scrabble,
Wordsearches, Hangman