Guild Gallery May 2018

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Thursday 10am-4.15pm – standard rate booked after 04.05.18
Thursday only (members) £125 inclusive of VAT*
Thursday only (non-member) £150 inclusive of VAT*

You MUST be logged in as a Guild member BEFORE you book for your discount to be applied.

For more details of our agenda and to download the brochure, see our webpage here

*payments not made online by debit or credit card at time of online registration are subject to a £25 plus VAT charge.

The course runs over a period of four weeks with a special offer to Guild members, find out more here

Coming Soon:

• Developing Placement Processes to Effectively Target Specialist Support available July 2018
• Developing Phonemic Awareness in Learners available September 2018
• Promoting Word-building and Sentence Analysis Skills in Learners available November 2018
• Working with Syllables – Using Syllable Patterns to support the reading and spelling of longer words available January 2019

Applying for and renewing an Assessment Practising Certificate

This specialist assessment CPD training course covers current best practice in report writing and preparation for those looking to gain or renew an Assessment Practising Certificate (APC). It will give you insight into the SASC requirements before you apply for your APC Certificate.

The course is recognised as fulfilling the 5 SASC Approved assessment cpd hours (of the 20 hours) required for renewal of APC. Book now for 16 May or find out more

A new study by researchers at the University of Iceland have found their may be a connection between dyslexia and face recognition. Findings indicate that people with dyslexia see just as well as people without dyslexia, however, past experience does not play the same role in their vision systems. Having seen something before does not necessarily help people with dyslexia process what it is that they are looking at or to remember it later. Researchers said, “We speculate that reading difficulties in dyslexia are partially caused by specific deficits in high-level visual processing, in particular for visual object categories such as faces and words with which people have extensive experience.” The research group behind this study have also recently completed research on visual perception at the Icelandic Vision Lab and will continue to research the topic, including the role of visual perception in reading and reading disorders.

In a new study of languages spoken in 43 different populations worldwide, Yale School of Medicine researchers and their colleagues identified variants of a dyslexia gene that correlates with consonant use, establishing a role for genetics in language differences between populations. The brain uses distinct strategies to process and encode vowels and consonants, which are modified by at least one dyslexia gene, according to the study.

“READ1 is a highly variable and powerful control element embedded in a gene called DCDC2,” said Jeffrey Gruen, M.D. Professor at Yale School of Medicine, who adds that both READ1 and DCDC2 have been associated with reading disability and specific language impairment as well as normal reading performance and phonological processing studies of children whose primary language is English, Italian, German, Mandarin, or Cantonese.

“While conventional theories mostly attribute language changes to random fluctuations, historical conquests, and migrations, these results suggest that genetic variants affecting auditory processing may also be important,” said Gruen. More can be read at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, here

Books Unlocked

The scheme also supports community reading groups, schools and libraries, to read for enjoyment and share their thoughts on the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted titles

Learning Zone

Learning Zone is an online, professional platform for teachers and researchers to discuss learning topics. This free online forum allows teachers to chat to educational researchers and other teachers about the science behind learning and how research applies to the classroom. They have different topics each fortnight. The platform is ideal for any SENCOs or class teachers keen to engage more with research.

More details here

Picture Dictionary from Microsoft

Picture Communication Symbols (PCS) have been introduced to Microsoft’s Learning Tools. Those who have used Texthelp’s Read&Write or ClaroRead’s Spell Check will already be familiar with symbol and picture support. PCS are now available at no extra cost and are built-in to the Immersive Reader within Word Online, OneNote Online, Outlook Online, OneNote for Windows 10, and OneNote for the iPad.

Immersive Reader is part of Microsoft’s Learning Tools, and will offer six different colour backgrounds and fonts, options to change text size with a slider bar, nouns, verbs and adjectives can be customised or highlighted, text-to-speech, and line focus acts to aid concentration. For more details and an easy to read summary see the excellent CallScotland website

CALL Scotland for Assistive Technology workshops

The latest research for the National Literacy Trust shows a link between improved literacy levels and life expectancy. The report, Literacy and Life Expectancy, is the first research to show a correlation between the two. It was drawn up by analysing existing data and found that children born in areas where literacy levels are low are more likely to live in areas of deprivation; to do worse at school; grow up to be less financially well-off; and have poorer health – all of which combines to reduce life expectancy.