Section 1 Cognitive Abilities

1. Initial Post: M6:A2
Susan Gendron
Psy 360
08/08/09
How will “Word Superiority” effect change as function of his development?
In terms of the changes resulting from “Word Superiority” and its effects
on a child’s growth and development associated with cognition and learning
language, the “whole-language approach” (Argosy, 2009, p.6) facilitates this
process because it enables the student to indulge himself/herself into a vast world
of “language and print by enhancing reading comprehension and linguistic skills
of the English language.” (Argosy, 2009, p.6). “This approach presents text in its
complete form, and the students learn to read whole words by sight and context.”
(Argosy, 2009, p.6)
Phonetically speaking, students affected with congenital reading disabilities
have great difficulty with formulating the sound to accompany a letter. For
example, my nephew has difficulty articulating the letter /N/ in the word “Nanny.”
(Argosy, 2009, p.1.) The best approach I would utilize to enhance my nephew’s
linguistic difficulty would be to focus on his pronunciation of the entire word
“Nanny” in the “social context” correlating it with a positive event such as
(I.e. Nanny is canny when she takes you to the beach to snorkel with the fish.)
This should alleviate my nephew’s difficulty by redirecting his thoughts onto the
word Nanny and concentrating his efforts on rhyming it with another word. In doing
so, he will engage into “word superiority” (Argosy, 2009 p. ) with the end result
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2. raising his self-awareness that he achieved a great victory with a single step. The latter
represents his potential to broaden his language developmental path through the
expansion of his “mental lexicon.” (Argosy, 2009, p.5).
The approach I would implement with my nephew would be making time for
learning phonics through a video presentation for five to ten minutes. Six year old
children are pre-kindergarten age and learn more efficiently by hearing other rhythmic
sounds of words with the letter /n/ correlated with the word “Nanny.”
According to researcher (Bailet, 2009), dyslexic children struggle more than normal
children to succeed with reading words. They often experience feelings of angry,
depression and irritability. Providing consistent one-on-one time with a teacher’s aide
combined with engaging them in a “buddy system” by mainstreaming the dyslexic child
with a known diagnosed reading disability with a normal for peer in-class support.
Linguistic instruction regarding having my six-year old nephew pronounce the word
[Nanny] refer to the articulation of the letter /n/ as a “nasal stop” because the air flow is
blocked by the tongue, using the “oral cavity” of the mouth as a “resonant chamber” to
create the sound “nnn” in the word Nancy. (Bailet, 2009, p. 1.) For example, I would
have my nephew draw a picture of a word with one vowel to lessen his visual and
auditory perception ability. Next I would stage the learning instruction process by having
my nephew view various colored photos of images that correlate with the
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3. words that contain the consonant /n/ with one vowel to accentuate the phonetic
pronunciation of rhyming words.
Thirdly, I would engage the child into making letters with colored clay and shaping
the clay into the word “Nanny” to start the learning process. Lastly, I would have
my nephew touch and trace each colored clay letter while pronouncing the letter
simultaneously. This “tactile” and “visual” learning exercise should yield positive
reading growth and development.
In closing, combining reading, tactile, visual and art therapy facilitates the learning
process of phonetics with six-year old children associated with teaching the child
“word superiority.” The latter will broaden the child’s perception and understanding
of learning words by associating them with tactile formation of letters and then
showing them a drawing to represent the word or a flash card with photo of a
visual object representing the word itself. The combination of these multi-sensory
styles of learning mediums correlate with (Beaugrande’s, 1984) “parallel-stage
interaction model of writing” (Argosy, 2009, p.9) and John Bradford’s multi-sensory
kinetic methods of teaching reading to dyslexic children.
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4. References:
(http://myeclassonline.com); (Argosy, 2009), Word Superiority, p.7; “Whole Language
Approach”, p.6; Language and Production, “Parallel-stage interaction model of writing,”
p. 9; “Words”, “Mental Lexicon, p. 5.
(http://www.dyslexia-parent.com/mag30.html), (Bradford, J.), Teaching Methods
for Dyslexic Children: “Multi-sensory Teaching Methods”, “Kinetic” (touch therapy
with clay) p. 1, National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development.
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