Evolve Literacy

Hi everyone, sorry we have been MIA from Facebook for a while, we’ve been busy Evolving!
We have slightly adapted our model to incorporate Executive Processing, an area we previously included under Memory and Attention; and included two important ‘assumptions’ under our model:
1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs are met
2. A developmentally appropriate early learning environment is provided

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a theory in psychology that looks at what humans require from their environment and caregivers to be motivated to engage in life and/or learning. In terms of literacy development, children must have their basic needs met before they can learn, these include: rest, food, shelter and security. We also felt it was necessary to include the provision of a developmentally appropriate learning environment in our model, with the perpetually frustrating debate around play and learning continuing. See my post from 4th April (in response to ABC Perth Radio episode of ‘Focus’) on the play debate for more on how we feel about play, learning and literacy.

We have also held several workshops with families at Ngala and a Women’s Health and Development Program in the Perth Hills; focused on the Science of Early Reading & practical and fun ways to engage children in critical early literacy skills at home.

Ann attended the OmOz conference in Darwin last month focused on middle ear disease and conductive hearing loss. We know from longitudinal studies that the children at most risk of literacy difficulties as a result of conductive hearing loss are those children who experience ear disease in the 0-3 year age range, even if the disease was medically resolved. This is because 0-3 years is a critical period in the development of the speech processing system and children who experience hearing loss during this time can learn and remember sounds inaccurately. This makes identifying sounds and mapping our alphabetic code to them extremely difficult. Sometimes children compensate really well for their hearing loss and it can be difficult to detect. If there are any concerns around a child’s speech, vocabulary or learning then get a hearing test. Even babies can be tested for hearing. Parents and Families play a huge role in supporting children who have had any compromise in hearing early in life. Catching hearing difficulties and learning how to bolster early language and literacy skills can prevent literacy problems and avoid anxiety around literacy when these children start school.

We have also been working on our BOOK!
“The Story of Reading (For Adults)” which brings together the best of the longitudinal and current evidence across linguistics, anthropology, neuro-science and educational psychology to tell the story of how humans learn to read; and how understanding this process can help everyone support anyone learning to read. The idea for our book was born from our years of experience working with families who wanted to know how to best support their children’s literacy development and ultimately avoid or reverse anxiety around reading and spelling. Knowing that humans learn best through engaging multi-sensory experiences, we have incorporated a variety of elements into our Storybook for adults to make this important research accessible and help you deeply understand the complex process of becoming literate. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue working on it!

We are just getting started with our new business in Perth. This is a brief introduction to our service as we work on finishing our website. We hope you will get some sense of how interesting and exciting the science of reading can be!

Evolve Literacy is an innovative collaboration between a senior speech pathologist and an early childhood teacher specialising in early literacy. We have over 40 years of combined experience working with children, families and schools.
During this time, we have identified a significant lack of clarity around how children become literate, as well as a lack of access to the science that can inform and empower families and educators to support the development of functional reading and spelling skills in young children.

We believe that interventions that give answers are temporary solutions, but teaching parents and educators the science that lead us to those answers empowers them with the ability to create their own solutions in the future.

The body of knowledge around how the brain learns to read crosses a diverse range of disciplines (including neuro-science, psychology, linguistics, anthropology and educational pedagogy). Years of research across these disciplines combined with our experience working with children, parents and teachers has led us to developing a successful method of communicating this complex science to families and educators.

At Evolve we know that learning to read is very complex and requires an inter-relationship between the home environment, the child’s capacity; and the standard classroom environment and curriculum (See Evolve Model “A Holistic view of the factors that predict early literacy”). In our Workshop, ‘Unpacking Early Literacy’, we discuss the contribution each of these integral factors play in the development of functional literacy.

Participants will learn how children can be supported from birth to develop a strong foundation for learning to read and spell using our ‘Speech to Print’ model, and what they can do to identify and problem solve challenges along the way. We recognise the critical role of play-based learning in early childhood literacy and our workshops reflects a deep understanding of how children learn and retain skills with hands-on games and activities that are enjoyable and purposeful.

By facilitating parents and teachers to deeply understand the scientific evidence behind how children become literate, how the reading process really works, and the factors that predict early literacy success; we know we can contribute to removing the frustration around reading for parents and schools and reducing the levels of anxiety around literacy in our young children and students.
We are opening a limited series of workshops for late February and early March, details to follow.