Effective reading programs include both explicit and systematic phonemic awareness and phonics instruction. Wherever possible these programs should be delivered using a range of multi-sensory activities with a significant increase in intensity (e.g. one-on-one or small group). This is particularly the case for struggling students. The Alpha to Omega program is considered to be a very effective, highly structured program that achieves excellent results. It has the added benefit of linking to the very popular computer program WordShark.
Participants in this workshop will be introduced to the Alpha to Omega program and will have the opportunity to trial a number of the component activities.

Presenter: Kim Bloor, BA (Hons), MPsych (Ed. & Dev.), Dip. Ed, (Spec. Ed.). Kim is a Psychologist at DSF Literacy and Clinical Services where she assesses children, teenagers, and adults with learning difficulties and disabilities. She also consults with parents on appropriate evidence-based classroom and individual strategies to improve literacy.

To download the registration form please click on the link below:
115I Alpha to Omega

Children with learning disabilities typically struggle to make progress in the regular classroom environment. They require structured, sequential programmes with far more opportunity for revision and practise than does the child who has no difficulty with literacy. This is best provided in an individual or small group situation. This three day course will cover:
• The causes and defining features of specific learning disabilities
• Phonological and phonemic awareness
• Assessment tools
• Understanding and using a psychologist’s report
• The use of structured, sequential multi-sensory methods of teaching
• The use of computer programs
• Techniques for older students and adults
This course will prove useful for any teacher who works with students with literacy difficulties.

Presenters: Mandy Nayton is the Executive Officer of DSF Literacy and Clinical Services. She is an educational and developmental psychologist and qualified teacher with extensive experience in the field of literacy education. Mandy supports schools with literacy planning and recommends appropriate classroom-based and individual strategies for struggling students. She also runs workshops on literacy acquisition, vocabulary development and learning difficulties for DSF, UWA and Curtin University.
Kelly Fullarton is a Psychologist at DSF Literacy and Clinical Services. She assesses children, teenagers and adults struggling with acquisition of effective literacy skills and recommends appropriate classroom-based and individual strategies. Kelly is passionate about finding practical and often stress-free strategies to improve literacy skills in children and adults.
Margie Backhouse [BA(Ed) GradCert(LrngDiff) MEd(LrngDiff)] is a Senior Administrator at DSF, an experienced primary school teacher, and a specialist in learning difficulties. In recent years she has lectured at Edith Cowan University in the primary teaching program and prior to that was the Centre for Inclusive Schooling’s Learning Difficulties Team Leader at the Western Australian Dept. Education.

To download the registration form please click on the link below:
115L Individual and Small Group Teaching etc

Improving Reading Comprehension:

The effective teaching of grammar and text comprehension strategies.
A workshop for teachers, school psychologists and speech pathologists.

Presented by internationally renowned literacy expert and author Dr. Louisa Moats

In this full-day interactive workshop Louisa Moats will take the participants through a range of evidence-based strategies and successful teaching approaches that have been found to significantly improve reading comprehension outcomes. In particular, she will focus on:

Grammar for Reading and Writing

• comprehension begins with sentences
• teaching sentence sense with an emphasis on functional aspects of grammar and syntax
• types of phrases and sentences
• using sentence builders, sentence elaboration, sentence combining, anagrams
• spoken to written language

Teaching Successful Comprehension Strategies

• what does comprehension require, and what distinguishes good from poor comprehenders?
• Identifying aspects of academic language that are difficult for students to process
• surface comprehension, the text base, and construction of the mental model
• using the Comprehension Planning Guide to formulate before, during, and after reading instructional plans for a given text
• the art of querying; helping students read like detectives

Presenter: Dr. Louisa Moats has been a teacher, psychologist, researcher, graduate school faculty member, and author of many influential scientific journal articles, books, and policy papers on the topics of reading, spelling, language, and teacher preparation. After a first job as a neuropsychology technician, she became a teacher of students with learning and reading difficulties, earning her Master’s degree at Peabody College of Vanderbilt. Later, after realizing how little she understood about teaching, she earned a doctorate in Reading and Human Development from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Moats spent the next fifteen years in private practice as a licensed psychologist in Vermont, specializing in evaluation and consultation with individuals of all ages and walks of life who experienced reading, writing, and language difficulties. In addition to the LETRS professional development series, Dr. Moats’ books include Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers (Brookes Publishing); Spelling: Development, Disability, and Instruction (Pro-Ed); Straight Talk About Reading (with Susan Hall, Contemporary Books), and Basic Facts about Dyslexia.

Louisa Moats will present second workshop in Perth titled Romance and Reality in the Treatment of Dyslexia on Wednesday the 18th of March, 2015. Click here for more information and to register.

This workshop are part of Louisa Moats’ Australian tour, see the links below for workshops in cities outside of Western Australia;

Click here for Sydney

Click here for the Gold Coast

Click here for Brisbane

Click here for Melbourne  – Saturday,  21st March 2015

Click here for Melbourne –  Monday 23rd March 2015