Using CEM Assessments to Diagnose and Remediate Language and Maths Difficulties

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Using CEM Assessments to Diagnose and Remediate
Language and Maths Difficulties

• Christine.Merrell_at_cem.dur.ac.uk

www.cemcentre.org
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• Reading
• Word Recognition, Word Decoding, Comprehension
• Spelling
• General Maths
• Number 1, Number 2, Handling Data, Measures Shape
  and Space
• Mental Arithmetic
• Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division
• Picture vocabulary
• Non-verbal ability
• Attitudes

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Beginning to Read

• Children need different types of knowledge
• Global and cultural awareness
• Vocabulary and basic understanding of language
• Conventions of print
• Phonological awareness

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Reading an Interactive Compensatory Process
Word recognition/decoding
Comprehension
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Problems with Literacy Acquisition

• Dyslexia
• Found across the whole intelligence range
• Continuum of severity
• 3 males 1 female

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Types of Difficulties

• Phonological deficit
• Visual memory
• Speed of processing

These can overlap
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Maths Difficulties

• Institutional/Environmental
• Motivational
• Neuropsychological

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Standard Feedback
Achievement
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Standard Feedback
Developed Ability
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Standard Feedback
Reading Modules
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Standard Feedback
General Maths Modules
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Standard Feedback
Developed Ability Modules
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Standard Feedback
Attitudes
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Scores Charts
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Scores Charts
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Scores Charts
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Longitude Charts
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Longitude Charts

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Age Comparison Charts
Reading
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Word recognition decoding
Holistic Approach Whole Word Identification
Direct Phonics Instruction
Useful for building large sight-vocabulary
Recognition of 100 high-frequency words Enables
reading of 50 of all text
Large demands on visual memory and no strategies
for tackling unfamiliar words
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Word recognition decoding

• Phonics programme with whole word element
• E.g. Jolly Phonics
• Letter sounds
• Letter formation
• Blending sounds
• Identifying sounds in words
• Tricky, irregular words

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Word recognition decoding

• Sound Linkage by Peter Hatcher
• Young children with significant and persistent
  problems
• Dyslexia, Speech and Language
• A Practitioners Handbook,
• Edited by Snowling and Stackhouse, 1996,
• Whurr Publishers (www.whurr.co.uk)

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Fluency and Readability

• Word length
• Sentence length
• Viewing regions
• Use of graphics to reduce cognitive load and
  maintain readers interest

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Viewing Regions

• You are reading a sentence and deciding
• if you can skip a word

• Brain makes predictions
• Strong understanding of context helps brain to
  fill in words
• not directly fixated on

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Viewing Regions

• There once lived, in a
• sequestered part
• of the county of
• Devonshire, one
• Mr Godfrey Nickleby a
• worthy gentleman, who,
• taking it into his head
• rather late in life that he
• must get married, and not
• being young enough or
• rich enough to aspire to

the hand of a lady of fortune, had wedded an
old flame out of mere attachment, who in her
turn had taken him for the same reason. Thus
two people who cannot afford to play cards for
money, sometimes sit down to a quiet game for
love.
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Viewing Regions

• Holsten, before he died, was destined to see
  atomic energy
• dominating every other source of power, but for
  some years
• yet a vast network of difficulties in detail and
  application kept
• the new discovery from any effective invasion of
  ordinary life.
• The path from the laboratory to the workshop is
  sometimes a
• tortuous one electro-magnetic radiations were
  known and
• demonstrated for twenty years before Marconi made
  them
• practically available, and in the same way it was
  twenty years
• before induced radio-activity could be brought to
  practical
• utilisation.

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Comprehension

• Good readers use
• Cognitive strategies
• Re-reading difficult parts
• Utilising background knowledge, contextual clues
  and graphics
• Adjusting reading speed
• Some children use these spontaneously, others
  have to be taught

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Use of graphics
Scan path for separated graphics (Holsanova et
al., 2008)
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Use of graphics
Scan path for integrated graphics
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Use of graphics
Scan path for radial graphics
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Use of graphics
Scan path for serial graphics
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Comprehension

• Knowledge of text structures
• Vocabulary
• Background knowledge
• Fluent word recognition and decoding
• Task persistence
• Ability to understand verbal communication

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Vocabulary Knowledge

• Underline two interesting words per paragraph
• Explain why these are interesting
• Any interesting strategies to share?

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Task persistence

• Encouragement, praise, rewards, especially
• effective for children with ADHD

Cross-age peer tutoring www.fifepeerlearning.org
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How to help

• Instant Feedback
• Computer programs
• Peer tutoring
• Evaluate incorrect responses
• Encourage cautious children to try new strategies
• Memory aids for children with working memory
  difficulties
• Tackle comorbid literacy problems

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The Number Race

• Open source software www.unicog.org
• Reinforces link between number sense
• and symbolic number representations
• Remediation strategy but also useful for
• children in early stages of learning arithmetic