The BRPOD ANNEXE
BR's OLD LEGACY SITE and BLOG
WHAT IS BEHAVIOURAL READING™?
Behavioural Reading™ methodologies provide teachers, coaches, tutors and parents with simple techniques to work with their struggling readers.
These techniques have been based on reading clinic trials and studies involving neurological connections and cognitive processing - i.e. our ability to focus attention, use language, store, access and manage memory, how and what we perceive, problem solving, creativity and critical thinking, among other processes.
Behavioural Reading™ techniques correct unhelpful learning behaviours. Fluency, Comprehension, Vocabulary Growth, Reading Speed, Spelling, Working Memory Management and Neural Sequencing are all addressed in this reading methodology.
Behavioural Reading™ is especially targeted toward any student that needs to build neural behaviours that may be underdeveloped which is essentially hindering their progress.
40% of readers in Australia are considered to have reading and comprehension levels under that which is needed for tertiary education. (www.abs.gov.au)
So, these techniques are not only for poor readers. Early readers will benefit from these techniques to ensure they become strong and fluent readers that can adapt to new texts to take their learning further.
WHY BEHAVIOURAL READINGâ„¢?
Behavioural Readingâ„¢ is research based. The techniques that make up this methodology have been implemented in our reading clinic over eight years and are interchangable with other reading and learning strategies. These techniques enable the Australian school curriculum.
Learning to read is the single most important skill that affects future learning performance.
Any student who is not reading above peer level can benefit from Behavioural Readingâ„¢ methodology.
If you work with students who are:
· emerging readers (early level readers)
· not reading at peer level
· reading one word at a time and can't move to fluency
· can't focus their attention
· have learning difficulties
· have diagnosed learning issues
...then these techniques are important to your student's future learning capacity.
Don't let your students fall behind in subjects because their learning capacity is not where it could be. Help them to imporve their learning ability using these simple techniques.
Behavioural Readingâ„¢ techniques complement your adopted teaching strategies. You will see fast results providing your targeted audience can work in a positive and focused environment.
WHICH BEHAVIOURS DO THESE TECHNIQUES TARGET?
Behavioural Reading™ engages the following reading behaviours:
Visualisation
Visual Reading Accuracy
Working Memory
Auditory Processing
Long Term Memory
Short Term Memory
Sequencing
Fine Motor Skills
Gross Motor Skills
Comprehension
Reverse Spelling
Pencil Grip
Fluency
Reading Speed
Expressive Prosody
Critical Thinking
Executive Functioning
Automaticity
HOW DO I USE BEHAVIOURAL READINGâ„¢ TECHNIQUES?
WORKBOOKS, WORKSHEETS, GUIDEBOOKS and TRAINING VIDEOS
We believe in providing a strategic implementation plan for SCHOOLS. Let us join you in creating your own specific solution to meet the needs of your students.
For teachers, parents and tutors we have endeavoured to make all of our materials self explanatory. If you need further explanation you are welcome to call us for support at any time. JOIN us for updates
Behavioural Readingâ„¢ can be implemented in a class or one-on-one environment.
WORKBOOKS are designed to provide you with guidance while introducing these techniques. You should read through the WORKBOOK first to gain an awareness of the steps involved and how much you might complete with a particular student. Each student will have their own learning style and you might find that one particular technique is more challenging for one student than another. If so then this is the technique that you might need to repeat several times, make more simple or revisit.
There are four GUIDEBOOKS to provide you with further insight into the research areas of cognition, neurology and how these techniques address these particular areas of research and discovery.
EziReaderâ„¢ disks make class implementation easy, quick and fun for you and the students.
IS BEHAVIOURAL READING™ ENOUGH?
Students using the complete set of Behavioural Reading™ techniques tend to be struggling readers. They already understand the basics of phonics but can't seem to put them into practise. Reading can appear ot be slow, disjointed, halting, and stressful. Lack of focus and concentration can be indicators of reading difficulties.
So, a basic understanding of phonics should be a prerequisite. For most students this is enough. In the more extreme cases some students may need more succinct phonics and/or phoneme support once you have assisted their neurological development. Only then will they be open to continue creating good reading behaviours with further reading knowledge.
Programs like STARS are great for in-depth training through the early reading 'rules'.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE?
We could easily say it will take ten minutes a day. However every individual student (especially struggling readers) will have a particular area of difficulty.
You may find that you overcome, what seems to be, a very difficult problem very quickly and the student may move to fluent reading within a week or two of only a few minutes a day.
Alternatively you may build several developmental milestones in another student in the first 2 weeks and spend another 2 weeks repairing another reading behaviour.
It is important to note that the older the student, the more vocabulary they have to catch up on. Extreme vocabulary growth comes at the end of these techniques. So while this will appear to take longer, the students will become a much more independant reader and will eventually do most of this work themselves.
WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE THAT BEHAVIOURAL READING™ WORKS?
Until now this methodology and it's techniques have only been available in private practice.
WE WANT THIS TO BE AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE.
WE WANT TO EMPOWER TEACHERS.
As a teacher, I think of Behavioural Reading™ as a learning tool. It's not curriculum content. It's a tool that will give you specific teaching capacity that you haven't had before.
I know I've said it before but I'll say it again....'Learning To Read' is the single most important skill that effects future learning performance.
Our students have moved from reading one word at a time to 4 word fluency within one week and complete fluency (automaticity) within a number of weeks.
These methodologies have been developed based on research in the fields of neural, cognitive and neuropsychological research. Some of them are not unlike some of the methodologies and techniques used in current working memory learning platforms. However working memory is only a very small part of the neural behaviours required for learning to read. Our targeted improvement strategies create good reading behaviour connections. Each set of exercises provides an opportunity for you to individualise the learning for each student.
CAN BEHAVIOURAL READINGâ„¢ BE USED FOR EARLY INTERVENTION?
Training new reading behaviours to be 'good' reading behaviours is an essential part of Behavioural Readingâ„¢ program.
All techniques can be used for emerging readers. Implementing these techniques at the emerging reader stage will:
1. prevent students from developing poor reading behaviours
2. encourage the development of good reading behaviours faster
3. allow the teacher to notice those students who need further individual coaching to prevent poor reading behaviours from forming.
Essentially, if Behavioural Readingâ„¢ techniques are implemented at the emerging reader stage, when students are also working through a good phonics program, then all students should continue to perform at peer level or above through their early years.
Students who do not reach and maintain peer level with these techniques should be referred to a Speech Therapist as they may need specialist intervention. The perecentage of this has been witnessed as very low. For example, in a classroom environment where we implemented BR to high school students requiring support, out of 50 students we only recommended one student to attend speech therapy. This was due to the age of the student and speed with which she could improve with a Speech Therapist's intensive phonological support.
