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What is Dyslexia?

1. Dyslexia is a learning disorder. Dyslexia affects areas of the brain that processes language. It is a condition that has no cure. On a positive note, with the right support and strategies in place, people with dyslexia can live a fulfilling life and be successful.

2. Dyslexia does not determine one's intelligence at all.

3. Students with dyslexia can tap into their creativity as their left brain have compensated for the lack of activeness in their language processing regions of the brain. Hence, they should leverage on this.

As an AED LBS, I can:

Incorporate visuals to help students in understanding language/concepts better.

Being more creative and visual learners, incorporating picture-embedded methods into word reading instructions will motivate them in their learning and help them transfer words from working to long-term memory.

While placing strategies in place, I should be patient and encourage celebrating little milestones.

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Dyslexia has reading and spelling difficulty but nothing to do with intelligence. It can be trained. Dyslexia’s brain structure are different but some part of yje brain can be retrain and develop.  Dyslexia can be discovered when child is young. It is a lifelong issue.

SLI has language difficulties but not due to brain damage.  It do nothing with IQ. Need ongoing support.  Have difficulty in socialize. Identify student with SLI. Create supportive systems such as visual system, present info in various ways.

Both Dyslexia and SLI will benefit from explicit teaching and customised support.

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1. Dyslexia is a problem with working with and understanding language. It has nothing to do with intelligence. Early on, a child who has dyslexia may display traits as such not recognising that words are made up of several sounds (e.g. can’t tell elephant is made up of 3 sounds).

2. Students with dyslexia are very good at drawing three dimensional objects.

3. Students with SLI may not be able to understand information/other people or express themselves easily can lead to bullying, social isolation and anger management issues.

As an AED LBS, I can create a supportive learning environment through:

Providing visuals to promote students’ understanding of concepts taught. I can also work with the teachers to place these visuals in the classroom that not just SEN can use, but other students in the class as well (this is so that it would not be too obvious that the student with dyslexia is receiving additional support).

Present information in a variety of ways, and capitalise on students' individual strengths such as their creativity (e.g. if they like art, I can possibly use art as a medium for teaching)

Work with class teachers to create lessons that includes explicit opportunities to build speaking and listening skills.

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3 Main Takeaways

1) Signs of dyslexia can be observed before children learn to read
- They can become skilled readers and strong learners
2) Support can be beneficial for people with dyslexia and ADHD
- Acceptance of your condition helps reduce effects of isolation and helps people identify ways to achieve their goals
- Greater empathy for students’ with learning disabilities because they have the same conditions
3) Flipped Classroom can benefit students with SLI
- New resources such as RALLI that create awareness of language impairment

What can I do?

1. Reflect and re-evaluate on the types of accommodations we use with our students. It should be individualized as much as possible and not be a one size fits all solution for e.g., every student with SEN gets extra time. Different students will require different levels of support.

2. Remind students that despite their learning difficulties they do have strengths! Support them in their journey of self-discovery and this will help boost their self-confidence.

3. Look out for signs of anxiety in students with SLI and ensure they get the support they need from the school counsellor

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A. [HOW] Positive Mindset & Attitude?

- We need to display the same positive mindset we would like to see in them.
- Make lessons engaging and let them see the importance of language.
- Remain calm and patient when a student.
- Set an attainable and progressive goal for our students.

B. Can or Cannot?

- It is NOT alright if it happens consistently.

As an educator,
- We have the responsibility to call out such behavior (among our colleagues) if they happen often.
- We need to be honest with ourselves and with others.
- We need to be aware of who and what we say.
- We need to consider the reason for such behavior. It shouldn’t be out of hate.
- We should have our own space to regulate ourselves.

What can we do?
- Take a proactive approach to ask our RO of our areas for improvement.

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What are your collective thoughts after watching this series? How does it help to reframe or reinforce your thinking as an AED LBS who looks into language and literacy?

- Allow students to set their SMART goal. As language & literacy can be a demanding subject, we need to bear in mind to keep activities simple but engaging.

- Audience plays an important role to help student achieve their goals. AED(LBS) can use the audience to play an active role in the whole process of achieving the goal.

- Provide explicit teaching. AED(LBS) need to be flexible with various ways of teaching to cater to student’s needs.

- Provide regular check in with student to keep their emotions in check. It is important to remember that we are not just teaching EL but also expressive and communication skills.

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3 Takeaways
1. Same same but different
Individuals with dyslexia may process words and letters but are in no way less than the rest of us and they should not be treated as such.

2. No cure
Dyslexia cannot be cured and improvements cannot be made just by focusing more. They can make improvements via specific reading interventions

3. Language as a form of expression
We have to be cognizant of the fact that we teach language not just for them to pass their tests but also to be able to communicate with others.

What can I do?
Lessons can be made fun and engaging to motivate students to want to learn and speak. I wouldn't want my students to come into my session going "not this again...".

Goals should be made attainable and progressive so students can see their improvements and be praised for every single milestone that they hit. Lessons should also be planned up in a way that they are set up for success.

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3 things that I have learnt
1) Dyslexia is a lifelong issue that impacts reading, spelling and writing. It involves trouble connecting sounds with the letters in words.
2) Having dyslexia has nothing to do with intelligence. When given the right support, they are able to succeed just like anyone else.
3) Even though dyslexia is a brain-based condition, with effective reading interventions, they can change their brains to become better reader.

What I can do as an AED(LBS)?
I can teach sounds and letters relationship by using explicit instructions and giving tasks that are developmentally appropriate. Tasks need to be structured and carefully planned. The use of multi-sensory approach activities such as watching videos, writing on sand or clapping to the sounds can be alternative ways to engage them and help them recall easily. Tapping on students' interest and associating their favourite song or movie with sounds or words learnt can be effective in memory retention as well. As an AED (LBS), I need to ensure that students are aware of the support given to them, and that we are there to help them manage not only their academics but also their socio-emo.

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My three takeaways:

1. Dyslexia is not a disease or disorder. It is not a dysfunction of the brain or the lack of willpower in an unmotivated or lazy student. But it is a brain that is wired differently.

2. Work on the strategy that will work on the student by understanding on their strength and weaknesses.

3. Intervention for students with dyslexia need to be explicit and structured. It has to be customised based on their needs.

As an AED (LBS), I can:

I need to empower my students and motivate them to do their best.

I have to understand that every child had their own individual needs therefore I need to customised my lesson to suit them.

I have to constantly upgrade myself to have abetter knowledge on how to support my students so that they can benefit from it.

Make use of the resources available eg. multi sensory resources to make their learning more enriching.

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1. Dyslexia is a condition that affects a person’s ability to read. They have difficulty in decoding, but with the right strategies, they can overcome their challenges. A way to help them is to be explicit in teaching letter sounds.

2. People with dyslexia can be more creative because their left brains are more stimulated than those without dyslexia. People with dyslexia are good at visual-spatial awareness and can see and draw things in 3d.

3. The brain is malleable and changes over time with the skills we engage. Reading is one skill that engages a process that changes the brain. When involved in reading, the brain would change to improve skills such as decoding. As such, it is essential to keep practicing targeted skills.

First and foremost, I should keep in check that my teaching instructions should be explicit. With the knowledge that our brains are malleable, all I must do is provide more practice opportunities to develop skills such as reading. Additionally, knowing that they have a disposition in visual-spatial awareness, I should build teaching resources that include pictures and things that spur their interest.

For one, like an AED (LBS), it is vital to have empathy. It is not easy for people having language impairment. With that knowledge, we should have the compassion to understand their difficulties. Especially when the prominent people we work with are our children. We should aim to teach them how to be advocates for themselves and while we are doing so, be advocates for them until they can be independent. Knowing their difficulties, we can build their perseverance and teach them to turn their weaknesses into strengths. We should foster in them the value of not giving up on learning or any challenges they may face.

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Three take-aways:

1. Dyslexia is a multi-faceted condition involving different functions of the brain but it does not affect intelligence.

2. Learners with Specific Language Impairment have difficulties in understanding complex languages. Phonemes production is immature/irregular.

3. Research has shown that our brain is malleable if we provide structured intervention to target a learning difficulty.

How to enhance effectiveness as an AED (LBS):

1. It is important that our students with SEN embrace their difficulties. We can do so by highlighting their strengths and celebrating small successes. To mould a healthy self-concept is essential as that confidence and self-esteem would be their pillar of strength to journey on.

2. Explore different strategies to cater to individual needs. No one strategy fits all.

3. Understand that results won’t be immediate.

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Ep 1

Surprised that 10% of the population is actually illiterate.

There are many ways to cope with dyslexia, to get past life without being able to read and write but people with dyslexia will still feel nervous and unconfident when required to read and write.

Lack of practice results in weakening of literacy skills. People who have difficulties with language will likely experience difficulties in their jobs and face hurdles in promotions.

It is important to set achievable goals which ties in with the objective of learning to motivate learners

Ep2

Being literate is important because not being able to communicate well inevitably affects our ability to connect with other people and in turn, affects our quality of life.

Literacy is not just an academic skill, we need to be able to read/write in daily activities

Learning will not be productive when learners do not understand the word or the meaning of it. Learners have to resort to memorizing and putting in much more effort in achieving their objectives.

If we do not understand the needs of our students and exclude them from learning, they will lose interest and confidence in learning.

Ep3

Don’t need to expect them to do things completely without support, can progress in steps, set a goal to reduce support by just a bit (e.g. Stephen only contact his wife once a week for work instead of twice)

Goals were meaningful to them, motivated them to improve

Show evidence of improvement as encouragement

How to sustain progress?

More than a teacher - be a friend

Achievements builds confidence and increase eagerness to learn

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a) 3 key takeaways

1. Dyslexia is a brain based condition that affects a child’s reading abilities. But that does not mean that a child with Dyslexia is any less intelligent than any other child.  Children with Dyslexia find decoding challenging. However, with the right intervention and more time to learn, they will be able to overcome their difficulties and become better readers. One way to help them will be to explicitly teach them the relationship between the letters and the sounds as they lack phonemic awareness.

2. Children with Dyslexia have their own talents and strengths. Thus, it will be good to tap on their strengths when teaching them.

3. Specific Language Impairment (SLI) hinders a child’s language and social growth. This can cause a child to have poor friendships and can even lead to behavioural problems.

b) How I intend to use what I have learnt:

As an AED (LBS),

-I need to understand that every child has his/her own needs. I need to understand my student’s needs before planning my intervention for him/her.

-With effective intervention, I will be able to equip my student with the right skills to overcome his/her challenges. Thus, I need to plan a well-structured intervention after considering my student's needs.

-Apart from looking at my student’s needs, I will consider his strengths and use them as part of the intervention as that will further enrich the intervention process.

-I will praise my student even for the smallest progress he/she makes.

-Students learn better when multisensory approaches are used. Thus, I will adopt a multisensory approach in my intervention.

-I will advocate for students with SEN. Creating awareness about SEN will help create a better environment for them.

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3 things that I have learnt:
1) Dyslexia is a multi-faceted condition involving different functions of the brain. However, it doesn't affect a person's intelligence and research shows that the brain is malleable/adaptable if we provide structured intervention to target a learning difficulty. It's never too late!

2) Rather than a "disability", dyslexia, SLI or any SEN condition can be empowering for an individual when they accept it as part of their identity. They are able to turn something 'negative' into a positive by using their condition to inspire and guide others. Being part of a community with the same SEN condition can be extremely comforting and empowering.

3) People with SLI have broader language difficulties, so it may be difficult to identify. It may remain 'hidden' or manifest as behavioural or social difficulties.

How to enhance my effectiveness as an AED (LBS):
- Advocate for my students. Help school leaders and teachers understand the difficulties students with SEN face.
- Teach my students to advocate for themselves. Guide them to understand their own strengths and areas of improvement. Build their confidence as individuals who are valued.
- Effective intervention is key. Need to identify the best method of instruction and assessment for students.
- Carefully consider Access Arrangements for my students. AA are more than just exam accommodations; they could make all the difference for a student to learn more effectively and experience success in their studies.

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-          Children with dyslexia is as smart as any other children even though they may not be able to read like other children.

-          It is important to understand more on disabilities and treat them like any normal child and give them the same respect as any other. Like the teacher in the video mentioned when people said to him: if you have a disability why are you trying to teach people He replied, “I feel like when my disability is easier for me to teach people because if somebody is having problem I can kind of like say ok! I understand”. It is easier to step into their shoes to understand their problem and help with your full effort.

-          We need to work on skills to train the students to have the mindset to you what exactly they need instead of just telling teachers they need help.

Give the students a chance to voice out their thought and learn no matter how tough it may be. Using the various techniques that I learn to put into the greater good of teaching students with special needs. This Orton Gillingham method as well as any other methods which are proven effective are always worth the time and effort to be used to teach children.

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A) As educators, it is extremely important for us to keep an open mind when working with students with SEN. The belief that everyone can learn will motivate us to provide the support needed for the students. As AED(LBS)s, we should keep in mind that the process in supporting the students is not easy. It takes time for us to see progress when working with students with SEN. We should focus on achieving small goals at a time and not to be too harsh on ourselves. Other that than, we should also work closely and collaborate with other colleagues in school. We should manage our expectations. By taking good care of ourselves, we then can provide for the students that we are supporting.

B) Firstly, our group believe strongly that a person’s ethics affects one’s choices, behaviours and judgement. By passing negative remarks openly about others reflects a person’s unprofessionalism, showing that this person is not a good role model as he/she is unable to manage his/her own emotions. It also shows one’s inabilities to display good judgement when managing students. Secondly, from the teachers’ creed, quality relationship must be built on care and respect. In order to be an effective educator, one has to be respectful towards others, building positive relationships and having faith in our students. Therefore, our group feels that even though an educator can be well versed in his/her content area or teach well, he/she must display professionalism and to have the heart for others in order to be an effective educator.

As educators, we should do our best to be mindful of our own words and actions, be it online or during face-to-face interactions. Messages sent via Whatsapp reflects a person’s ethics, not only reflecting badly on the sender, it also reflects badly on the others in the group chat.

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Takeaways
1. Students with dyslexia and ADHD don't have lower intelligence, they just need more time to decode and process texts

2. Its essential to understand and adapt to the students strengths and needs to achieve an optimal level of learning

3. It is important to provide a positive environment for the student through support of parent, teachers and peers

As an AED LBS I will build rapport with my students and try my best to understand their strengths and needs. Having that information will allow me to draft and individualised plan for each of them. I will also use different approaches such as the multi sensory approach to engage the different parts of the brain. Adding on, I would be an advocate for these students and increase the level of awareness (on SEN) amongst teachers and students

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Saiful, Shajutha, Radhiana and Hang Chi 

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Saiful, Shajutha, Radhiana and Hang Chi 

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It is shocking to know that there are adults struggling to read or write in Singapore. Most of them only have education at the Primary level and from the video, little support was given to them when they were young. There are so many daily tasks that involve reading, it makes wonder how this group of people adapts to their challenges. It is interesting to see how the participants find alternatives to solve their issues, such as using Siri and Google translation.

Hang Chi shared about her experiences in learning English. When she first came to Singapore, she had a hard time learning the language. Instead of getting additional support from her teachers, she was laughed at and it was traumatizing for a young child. Because of that incident, she was reluctant to use the language. This was also shown in Steven, who mentioned about avoiding certain tasks that involve writing. From the video and our own experiences, we learnt that support is important to those who are struggling in learning language. Jega’s manager is encouraging, and he sees Jega’s strength, and therefore was enable to empower him by assigning suitable tasks. Steven also has the support from his wife, who managed to look beyond his challenges. Another important point to note is motivation. In the video, all participants set a goal to work towards to. Motivation plays an important part in learning.

AS AED(LBS)s, it is important to believe that everyone has the capability to learn. We should start from understanding and assess their needs, and using suitable teaching tools and strategy that caters to different learning styles. Instead of focusing only on the difficulties faced, we should also find their strengths. This will help us in planning suitable interventions for the students. Other that than, we should also provide real word context and examples for our students. Opportunities should be given to the students to apply what they have learnt. We should also help to create a safe environment to learn for our students, and using various strategies to motivate them.

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My takeaways
- It is important to do up interventions or teaching resources catered to students with dyslexia or ADHD. The strategies used should be direct, minimal usage of words and structured.
-These students need the fullest support form people around them. From their parents, siblings, teachers, schools and even community.
-students with dyslexia or ADHD works better with visuals. Hence using visual aid helps during intervention and teaching.

What can i do?
As and AED LBS it is important for us to understand the students' needs. We need to be very open in the different type of resources of material used during intervention.
it is also important to continuously praise and give encourage them, ensuring them that they are doing a great job.
Using multisensory method is a great way to support these students.

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A)How do we as educators always maintain a positive mindset and attitude towards our students with additional needs? [We are only human, so how can we ensure this? Is there a way?]

1. Making time for self-care. It is only after we have taken care of ourselves, then we are able to care for others.

2. Communicating with our colleagues and school leaders to ask for more help and support when needed.

3. Training and up-skill in order to be better equipped and stay relevant

4. Attend motivational workshops

B)Can an educator still be a good and effective educator to his or her students with additional needs if he or she is often rude, or ridicules or passes negative remarks about others (e.g. his or her colleagues / peers / superiors) – even if it is just in jest? Will such actions be alright as long as he or she does not do this to his or her students? Will such an educator be a good and effective educator if such ridicules happen not in person but only via WhatsApp’s Group Chats?

- The Code of Professional Conduct for Educators states that educators "we have direct access to students and are placed in a privileged position of trust and respect, thus we have a special responsibility in maintaining the trust and respect that parents and the community have accorded us."
- Even though the educator can deliver and assist the child well, he has failed to uphold the code of professional conduct.

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What are your collective thoughts after watching this series?

1. Learners need to be motivated in order to learn well and make progress

2. We need to be aware of our students’ struggles and scaffold well to help them learn better. Fluency helps increase comprehension when it comes to reading.

3. It is never too late to learn something new as long as you’re determined and have the right attitude and support!

4. It is very heartening to know that the driving force of learning and education can be a simple thing called passion.

5.  It is important for the education system to help people recognise learning disorder and encourage and promote learning for everyone.

6. Learned helplessness may be something students with learning difficulties encounter, thus it is important for people around them to be aware and provide the necessary support and encouragement.

7. Others are afraid to render help and support even when they notice them. This is to avoid shaming and embarrassing those with learning difficulties.

How does it help to reframe or reinforce your thinking as an AED LBS who looks into language and literacy?

1. We need to know our students' strengths and weaknesses and cater to their needs accordingly

2. Be willing to journey and support them in their path towards success

3. Everyone's journey to success is different and we all take different paths to reach our destination.

4. We need to believe in their ability!

5. Never give up on our students!

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Dyslexia

Dyslexia not a vision problem. Function of the brain, nothing to do with intelligence.structured and explicit instructions to teach. Poor in sequencing .Early intervention and support is key to identifying and helping them. Exposed the to reading, nursery rhyme, audiobooks etc early with books that are engaging and to their interest.  With technology there is much hope in helping to overcome the deficit. Brain is everchanging and they can learn if proper support is given. But they excel in visual spatial tasks, pictures, drawings and seeing the whole picture.

SLI – Specific Language Impairment

SLI – early identification and intervention is important. Learning must be explicit. Require lots of support through the school going age. They struggle with literacy and academic achievements. Usually anxious, has low self-esteem. Adopt multisensory teaching will be better with SLI pupils. Gear the lessons towards building listening and speaking skills. Here DI will be beneficial to pupils with SLI. Whole school approach is necessary towards helping pupils with SLI. There are many other good strategies shared in the video.

SLI handout – will provide a useful reference if we want to know more about SLI. How to identify and the support needed.

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1. Students with dyslexia find reading difficult as it uses different parts of the brain to sound out unfamiliar words, recognize familiar words by sight, and have to think about how to pronounce the word.

2. Dyslexia has nothing to do with intelligence. Students with dyslexia are just as smart as other children. With the right intervention, they will be able to overcome it.

3. With appropriate access arrangements (such as extra time, isolation room, readers etc) provided for students with dyslexia, it makes learning less tedious and stressful for these students.

As an AED LBS, I can adopt the Orton-Gillingham multisensory phonics technique to teach reading during withdrawal sessions. As an AED LBS, I should understand the strength and weakness of my students and ensure that proper access arrangements are provided for them during assessments.

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1. Reading is a manual process for people with Dyslexia. Difficulty with decoding and speed of processing are what people with Dyslexia experiences during reading.

2. Accommodations and arrangements allow students with special needs to fulfil their potential. Educators’ role is not only to provide the AA for them, but to facilitate and implement interventions that can help them with their difficulties.

3. Learners with SLI have difficulties in understanding complex language when speaker speaks too rapidly. They have immature or irregular production of phonemes.

What I can do

Present classroom with a variety of ways (Muli-sensory/Multiple intelligences). Plan lessons which include explicit opportunities to build reading, speaking, and listening skills. Differentiate content, process, and product for learners according to their readiness level. Provide organisational and social skills support for students with special needs to ensure they can excel academically and socially.

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How do we as educators always maintain a positive mindset and attitude towards our students with additional needs?

Self-care is important. We need to know when to step away from work and take a break, recharge and re-energise ourselves. After all, we cannot pour out of an empty cup. We need to have regular refills to be able to impart to others.

We also need to recognise that there is a limit to what we can do. We should not take it personally when we cannot reach out to and help every single child. Sometimes, factors that are not within our control may impede our work but we just need to do our level best.

Have a strong network of support with fellow AED LBS and like-minded colleagues. These people can empathise with us more easily and are able to hold space for us and to offer advice and suggestions if we need it.

Can an educator still be a good and effective educator to his or her students with additional needs if he or she is often rude, or ridicules or passes negative remarks about others (e.g. his or her colleagues / peers / superiors) – even if it is just in jest? Will such actions be alright as long as he or she does not do this to his or her students? Will such an educator be a good and effective educator if such ridicules happen not in person but only via WhatsApp’s Group Chats?

It is not okay to be rude or to ridicule others, even if it is not done in front of the students or over WhatsApp. Such behaviour should not be normalised or we may end up doing it subconsciously. As educators, we should walk the talk as far as possible and role model for our students.

When using WhatsApp, we need to be even more mindful as it is not possible to read the other person's non-verbal communication (tone, body language etc). It is important to make sure as far as possible that our messages cannot be misinterpreted.

It is also important to deal with our emotions using appropriate methods (e.g. exercising, reading a book, eating good food). Even when sharing about our frustrations, we should always approach it from the facts and not make personal attacks on the people involved.

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1. Understand the individual strengths and weaknesses and work on the strategy to teach.

2. Although they are older and they are brave enough to come forward to seek out their learning needs. Learning should not be stopped until we achieve our goal.

3. Students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia still can perform various job except something to do with reading and writing.

As an AED(LBS), I will understand my students' needs and the difficulties they are facing. Moving on, I will apply appropriate strategies to work on the weakness. This could lower down students' stress levels and bring up self-esteem.

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What are your collective thoughts after watching this series?

It is never too late to learn and to work on yourself. The participants were all adults, aged 33 - 60, and all of them were able to achieve their goals and make progress from where they started.

Support can come from many sources, but we realised that family support has the greatest influence. Stephen's wife never looked down on him. Xiao Ling's love for her daughter spurred her to give her best. Jega's family was able to empathise with him when they discovered he has dyslexia. Jimmy decided to settle down because he wants to take care of his mother.

The participants had a goal to work towards, and we realised these were all simple goals for a neurotypical person. However, these were very strong sources of motivation for the participants.

How does it help to reframe or reinforce your thinking as an AED LBS who looks into language and literacy?

Being an AED LBS, we may encounter students who are surfaced for intervention at a later age than usual. Other than working on their needs, we have to find a way to not make them feel ashamed of their needs.

We can tap on our students' interests and strengths to help them grow to love language and literacy. Language is present across all parts of life and there will be something that works for everyone.

Being diagnosed with a learning disability does not mean the end of learning. As AED LBS, we have to find ways that work for them.

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How do we as educators always maintain a positive mindset and attitude towards our students with additional needs?

a. We need to make sure to take care of our own needs.
Set boundaries. Knowing how much you can give and when you need to take a pause.
Share workload or share your concerns with stakeholders because we’re not the only one who is trying to help the students.
Understand that how much a student progresses is not a reflection of our own capabilities.
Keep a personal diary to journal down tough times or feelings.
Have hobbies outside of work.

Can an educator still be a good and effective educator to his or her students with additional needs if he or she is often rude, or ridicules or passes negative remarks about others?

b. No. If your personality is as such, you may subconsciously condone similar actions done by your students. There’s a difference between talking about an actual issue vs gossiping.
If you say negative things about other people behind closed doors, it will affect your r/s with the student when they eventually find out.

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What are your collective thoughts after watching this series? How does it help to reframe or reinforce your thinking as an AED LBS who looks into language and literacy?

- As AED (LBS), we should be open to different methods that we can employ to teach students, instead of only using one method, because not all students will be able to learn well with the same mode of instruction or delivery.
- It’s important for AED (LBS) to educate teachers on the appropriate language to use with SEN.
- We take reading and writing for granted. And the videos showed a first-hand perspective of the intensity of the challenges that people with dyslexia face.
- Seeing how the host taps into their different interests, we could use this when teaching SEN as well.
- Need to find a factor that is motivating enough for students to put in the effort to reach their goals. Once you have a motivation, you should create a goal around that motivation, so that the process of working towards the goal would be specific and clear.
- Important to prioritise increasing students’ confidence as well (e.g. can be through theatre training), as their lack of confidence would impact their motivation to learn.

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Three takeaways

1. Effective interventions for kids with dyslexia or with low literacy skills will be to first teach the relationship between sounds and letters in a very explicit and structured way. This is important as they would need to know the sound that each letter makes when they decode and sound out the letters in a word. From there will the student only be able to blend letters efficiently.

2. There has been research that people with dyslexia are better at seeing bigger pictures and visuals. We can tap on this strength when we are teaching students with dyslexia by using visual aid. Allow them a different way to express their understanding such as drawing

3. It is important to be aware of the student's needs and make accommodations that are able to meet their needs.

Moving forward,
It is important for us an LBS to be an advocate for our students with special needs. Make other teachers be aware of the accommodations the students need. Other than that, I think it is important for us to get our students to recognise their capabilities instead of focusing on their perceived deficits

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A.
Personal growth:
Adopting a growth mindset. Having a habit of growth mindset is a skill that will improve overtime. It will transition into a belief that can overcome any struggles and set back.
Looking at challenges as an opportunity to develop ourselves as a person

Self Regulation:
Having a buddy at work to rant keeping in mind to maintain students’ confidentiality
Be reflective by taking students’ frustrations as feedback instead of negativity

Self-care is important. Only when you are full can you fill other people’s cups.
Reward yourself after a day of hard work

Working with shareholders:
Share responsibility with other colleagues (teachers, LBS, parents etc.)

Student centric workflow:
Looking at the strengths of the SEN students instead of their additional needs

Incorporate their strengths, make sure to have fun activities that both educators & students will enjoy to build rapport, see beyond their behavioural challenges, value them as a person first - their interests, family needs etc.

Celebrate small successes of students, praise for process of learning instead of results

B.
An educator can still be a ‘good and effective educator’ outwardly, in terms of content and instruction to their students, even if they are rude to others etc (assuming they are not like this in front of their students).

However, such actions, such as being rude, ridiculing others, are not acceptable. If there is any qualms the issues have to be handled professionally and should not be personal. Being jest can create vague scenarios and people would misjudge what was said in jest can be taken seriously.

When one practices such actions, it might spill over and show how one carries oneself. Students are highly perceptive and are able to see therefore it is not alright even if behaviour is not shown to students.

Educators should be role-models and should model the values they would want to see from our students regardless of the platform or environment they are in.

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Three takeaways:

Just as the multisensory and multimodal approaches are helpful for neurotypical children, it is even more important for children with dyslexia/ADHD/SLI. It helps to engage other parts of the brain.

Structured intervention and explicit teaching is important to help students acquire fluency in decoding and reading. This is helpful even with adults

Always check in on the well-being of our students, and remember all of them are special in their own ways. The story of Joe Stutts made me sad when people doubted him and accused him of cheating when he managed to taste success using another method.

As an AED (LBS), I can:

Empower my students to advocate for themselves. Teach them the skills and equip them with the language to be able to help themselves if no adults are there to help them with it. Ultimately, education is to prepare them for life, so it is important to teach them to be independent.

Advocate for my students. Reach our to other educators and influence them, try to get buy-in and help to create a more inclusive school environment.

Try out various methods in my lessons with my students, and to share these with TSNs and other teachers who may be teaching children with SEN.

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My three takeaway are:

Intervention and strategies are needed to support dyslexia and ADHD children. They need to be explicit, catered, structured and intensive in instructing children about reading.

Effective reading interventions can change the brain of kids and adults. As our brains are changeable, Even adults with dyslexia can change their brains to become better readers.

They need full support from the school, teachers, community and to accommodate their learning.

b)how do you intend to use what you have learnt to enhance your effectiveness as an AED (LBS)?

There was one conversation between Ben Foss and Jason that resounded in me. Ben said to Jason "When you say to me I'm going to try harder, focus more. That sounds to me like you are a person in a wheelchair saying I'm going to go up the stairs by trying harder and focusing more on it". "Instead, you need to say I'm going to learn to talk to people and say I need a ramp".

Their conversation had me reflect that students with dyslexia and ADHD, do not know how to find their learning strategy and cope with their learning difficulties. They believe if they try to work hard and focus more than their peers they can make a breakthrough and overcome their learning difficulties.

As AED (LBS), I must educate them that every student learns differently. I will support them by introducing a strategy to accommodate their learning such as using multisensory tools and instruction to teach phonological awareness and blending. They may require resources from the school like assisted reading platforms and text to speech programs.

We know dyslexia is more of a visual-spatial learner. So I can work with teachers to use more visual aids, colour coding, an organisational chart with explicit classroom rules and expectations to support students with dyslexia and ADHD.

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3 takeaways:

1. Explicit teaching can help students with Dyslexia learn better.

2. Student with Dyslexia are talented in many other ways other than writing or reading.

3. Teachers hold a very important role in creating a conducive learning environment for them.

Future application

1. Incorporate Visual-aids when introducing new strategies - includes pocket size visuals for easy reference.

2. Explicit teaching - use graphic organisers and less word!

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Learning Points:
The video "Headstrong Nation" about people with Dyslexia and ADHD left a deep impression on me. It gives viewer a better understanding on the stress and pressure faced by people with Dyslexia and ADHD. One important point mentioned in the video is that  persons with LI should accept their difficulties and not to be afraid of requesting for accomodations. Very often we only look at how we can support children with SEN, but not alot of focus is placed on educating these children to be open in talking about their difficulties, or building the right mindset.

From the videos, I learnt that our brains are very changeable. Whenever there is a child who is being diagnosed with Dyslexia, we are always very quick to focus on his/her inability to read, relating his/her condition to poor academic results. I'm glad to learn that there are so many strategies that can be used to support these students, for them to overcome challenges faced when learning language.

SLI is complicated to understand and can affect other areas such as oral fluency. There is a range of different difficulties that a student might faced, leading to behaviour problems.

What can I do?
As an AED(LBS), it is important for us to be an advocate for children with SEN. We also need to teach these children to be confident in accepting their difficulties. There is a need to change their mindset and focus more on their strengths. Every child is different and they each have their own strengths.

The video mentioned about Orton Gillingham Approach, whereby teaching is multisensory. As an AED(LBS), multisensory methods can be adopted when we support the kids. We should not only use the worksheet provided by the teachers, but to design the withdrawal sessions in a way that caters to the child's needs.

Close collaboration with teachers in supporting the children with SEN, letting the teachers know more about the challenges children with Dyslexia and ADHD faced is important. It gives teachers more information to work with, helping them to design differentiated materials.

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The videos have reiterated my knowledge that dyslexia has nothing to do with one’s intelligence. But rather, how one’s brain works to understand and work with language. When we read, we use different parts of the brain – one for sounding out the words, one for recognising the words by sight and another to pronounce how the word sound like. All these parts have to be activated when we read and people with dyslexia has parts of the brain that are not activated, making it hard for them to read. But from the video, I learnt that our brain is malleable and even adults with dyslexia can change their brains to become better readers.

This can be done by giving very explicit instruction in teaching about the rules of phonics and understanding how language is structured. People with dyslexia need to learn about the relationship between the sounds and the letters in a more concrete manner as they lack phonemic awareness. We need to know what is effective and what is not in order to help them thrive.

I was touched by the video about dyslexia and ADHD, and it made me realised how important access arrangement is. One lady shared that with the extra room and time, she was able to organise her thoughts and read the questions out loud. Another also shared about attending school that had accommodations for her disability and it helped her stayed on the dean’s list.

From these resources, I feel that other than providing the right supports, it is important to teach the students to self-advocate. They need to learn to speak up about their condition. What really hit me was when one of the guys (Jason) mentioned that he will try harder and focus more, but the interviewer (Ben) replied that when he said that, it was akin to a person in a wheelchair saying that he is going to go up these stairs by trying harder and focusing more. But what Jason need was to really learn to go and talk to people and say he needs help. I do recognise that not everyone is comfortable doing that and sometimes the other party on the receiving end might not take it well. Hence, after watching the videos, it made me feel that AED (LBS) have this bridging role to play, especially when our students are still young or not matured yet. The video on SLI also gave me some insights on how to support a person with SLI. For example, to include a student with SLI in class-wide activities by keeping responses anonymous, having small-group interventions for them to build self-esteem, more peer or one-to-one support. Students with SLI are usually more vulnerable and withdrawn due to their inability to express themselves well. Hence it is important to help these students form a strong network of support and AED (LBS) can work with the teachers in terms of more explicit lesson delivery.

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Dyslexia is a brain condition and it is life-long and genetic. The brain is malleable and a person with dyslexia, young or old, if given intervention, can learn to overcome difficulties he faces in reading, spelling and writing.

SLI affects reading, writing and oral language capabilities. Students with SLI may be disorganised and face difficulties in getting their thoughts across to others.

As an AED (LBS), I can
·       Provide intervention in ways the students can learn better. This could be through sensory methods like writing in the sand, forming words with pipe cleaners or plasticine or through pictures as these students learn better visually. Teaching through songs and singing can also tap on their strength in listening skills to teach phonemic awareness.

·       Remind the student to get a homework diary to organise what they need to do. Teach the students to break things down to more manageable word load. Work with the parents and teachers to see how access arrangements can help the students.

·       Get their buy-in by being empathetic to their needs. Learning about the person, what his likes/dislikes are so that teaching materials may be tailored to his needs using his interests. Validate the students’ frustrations that it can be frustrating to learn, spell or write, but continue to encourage them to persevere and tell them that they have strengths as well.

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1. Students with dyslexia have speed and accuracy issues in processing and decoding information.
2. Students with SLI have similar issues in language learning but the cause of it is unknown like dyslexia.
3. However, these students are teachable and have their own strengths.

What I would do as an AED:
I will use proven strategies to help them learn during my withdrawal sessions. Breaking down big tasks into smaller, succinct ones would also help these students and I will give teachers examples of how that can be done. May also help teachers create differentiated assignments for these students. Will teach students skills to derive meaning from sentences (e.g. explicitly teaching connector words that these students usually have trouble understanding because of how these words have no connecting images to them) so that they can read and understand most things. May personally help and guide a student in class to break down tasks and make sure he receives the help he needs to start his work.