Programs, Materials And Techniques

Abstract

The Teaching Box by Elizabeth Hathaway is one of the better sources of phonetic materials to which teacher or tutor can refer for sequential ‘phonics/linguistic’ information. On the diagnostic side at the academic level thePeabody Individual Achievement Test is a high-quality wide-range test of attainment. Those intelligent older students with learning disabilities, who would like a college degree but view the reading requirement with dismay, should look into the three year old College of the Ozarks program, as well as the new Parsons College program. We need more college degree programs for LD students so the spatially-talented, genetic dyslexics will be able to find a niche in the occupational world. Nancy Stevenson has developed a program entitledThe Natural Way to Reading which, it is claimed, can be used by parents—even though it seems a bit complex. TheLearning Disabilities Handbook tries to compress too much information into too few pages and suffers considerably in the process. AlthoughThe Psychological Assessment of Children by James Palmer leaves out detailed evaluation of learning disabled children, it is a valuable, extensive text on the assessment of children's personalities. The information on tests is useful. In conclusion, I have written a section entitledDo Not Teach the Alphabet. It is a plea to all parents and teachers of children between the ages of two and seven, not to teach them the alphabet names. It is much better for young children to learn to recite phonemes.