I have had to teach him how to turn all text into audio. The reality for some with learning disabilities is that no matter how hard they try - for one reason they will never be comfortable with reading. Myself I also have a reading disability - however I can read anything with the computer when it is enlarged or in large print.

The value of auditory listening can't be denied, but for those without the issue I can see how the old school thought still focuses on focusing on the weaknesses of the learner not the natural gifts they may have learning only by watching, doing and listening. We are all in fact very unique when it come to learning.

As a high school teacher and a LD survivor, I believe reading is a MUST skill for kids to excel in school and when I say reading, I mean full text from which meaning has to be derived not the bits and bytes that we see in modern mediums such as the web.

Fortunately my eldest daughter is not the reading dullard I was as a kid and it looks as though my youngest will be competent as well. They were fortunate enough to get their mothers looks and brain.

As for the listening part of your article, I firmly believe that had it not been for my text books being transcribed to audio, I probably would have had a much more difficult time graduating from University. Because of coding difficulties, my reading is painfully slow and the audio books helped immensely BUT I had the maturity to understand that the audio was to be used to help me read the text and understand the content.

In the case of a child who is having reading difficulties and is given a listening option to help develop their reading skill, more than likely they will choose to listen only. Passively listening is much easier than following the text along with the audio to help develop reading skills. As we all know kids will follow the path of least resistance regardless of the benefits of the more difficult path.

Reading from books is essential as it activates the 'whole brain', unlike watching TV, which only activates the occipital lobe, the visual processing center. Why do children prefer to watch TV? Because it requires little effort. It's easy! Whereas, whole brain activities such as reading demand greater effort. And like any other activity, no pain, no gain!

As a mature dyslexic student (too mature some would say:))I can tell you that it is difficult overcoming language disabilities at 48-years-of-age. The brain remains plastic until old age, however, there are fewer spare connections to reorganise function to overcome disability (to develop new strategies). Education in 1970s UK didn't recognise learning disabilities as we do today. You were either bright or dim and streamed accordingly. So thank goodness for commentators like yourselves. You can see potential in all children and your views unite for the common good.

I agree that phonics should be taught as soon as possible and correctly, beginning with the alphabet, to make sense of words that cannot be memorised, especially in orthographically inconsistent languages such as the English Language.

All my best,
Alan

Have you seen the "Cambridge study" that scrambles the words, keeping only the first and last letters constant? The reason we can read this jumble is interesting, but on the flip side, if a person has only learned "whole word" reading, they may have no idea if something is spelled wrong, or which/witch word is right/rite. Insist that your child is taught phonics if their school is relying on "whole word" reading. make it part of their IEP if necessary. Individual Education Plan isn't to make it an easier workload, it is to make sure that they can learn everything that they need to learn, with all of the tools they need to succeed as an adult, in a way that makes their learning complete.

If they learn something new by hearing it, have them read out loud into a tape recorder to then play back. They hear it once as they are recording it and again as they are playing it back. But, they need to be the ones actually recording it, not someone else reading it for them.