July 10th

Today we had a discussion about the reading process, drawing on the research readings, several interesting video links, and of course Barbara's - and class members' - extensive experience in resource.  It is amazing, given all the processes that must be activated, that anyone can read at all.  The system is so complex, and depends on so many systems working simultaneously.  My "take-home" from this class was the importance of attention and focus throughout the reading process, which in turn depends on adequate regulation of sensory and emotional input.  You cannot read if you cannot filter out all of the many distractions competing for your attention.
I made the following graphic to try to summarize what we learned:

 

I put the main processes in boxes - affective aspects (emotional connection to text), auditory processing, visual processing, comprehension, and physical aspects.  Mixed in are various forms of memory: short-term. long-term, working memory, and visual and auditory memory. Behind it all I put the focus, emotional regulation, and sensory regulation, as well as the automaticity which must accompany all of these processes in order for them to be effective.  The arrows represent the connection between these processes, which I believe has to do with executive function: coordinating all of this!  The diagram is by no means complete!

In the last part of class we got a snapshot of some of the reading apps that are available.  We also discussed remediation vs. compensation, and when to do each.  I have always thought that we work hard on remediation in the younger grades, and move to compensation in middle school, once the student has been diagnosed with a learning disability.  But it is now clear to me that we should begin a process of compensation much earlier! As soon as a student is losing out on learning due to his or her disability...then that is when we should be bringing in Assistive Technology to help them access the learning material that their peers are accessing.   This doesn't mean that we don't still remediate in the meantime, but we do it along with compensating.