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 Butterfly Park  Early Literacy | Research & Resources |
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Dyslexia
What it is: Dyslexia is difficulty with reading and speaking. It is a language-based disorder, not a vision disorder. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin and is often inherited. This disability makes it difficult to decode words.
Butterfly ParkTM Early Literacy and Dyslexia:
Why it is important: Dyslexia is the most common cause of reading, writing and spelling difficulties. It affects up to 1 in 5 school children and approximately 2 million people in the United States. The most successful programs focus on strengthening the brain’s aptitude for linking letters to the sounds they represent.
To Learn More:
International Dyslexia Association @ www.interdys.org
Birsh, J.R., Ed.D (1999). Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills,
Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/learning_problem/dyslexia.html
What it is: Letter sounds are the sounds which letters represent. For example, the sound for the letter m is mmmm not muh or mah. The name of the letter m is pronounced em.
Butterfly ParkTM Early Literacy and Letter Sounds: Butterfly ParkTM Phonics, Introduction to Letter Sounds was created specifically to teach letter sounds accurately. In addition to the written instructions in the book, a CD is provided to demonstrate correct pronunciation of each letter and letter combination taught. The Butterfly Park Blending Train and letter cards along with the word lists in each lesson provide opportunities for children to sound out simple words.
Why it is important: When teaching beginning reading, children need to say letter sounds accurately so that words can be decoded correctly. Letter names are not useful for sounding out words. Saying see, A, tee does not help in figuring out the word cat. Approximately 80-85% of English words can be accurately sounded out if the correct pronunciation of letters and letter combinations is use.
To learn more:
Birsh, J.R., Ed.D (1999). Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills,
Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Lower Case vs Upper Case Letters
What it is: Lower case letters make up 95% of the text we read. Upper case letters are used at the beginning of words for specific purposes, such as identifying the names of people and places.
Butterfly ParkTM Early Literacy and Lower Case Letters: All the letters are presented in their lower-case form since that is the form most useful for reading. Upper case letters are taught in handwriting and journaling.
Why it is important: Since lower case letters are used in 95% of the text for beginning readers they are more useful to learning to read and write than upper case letters. Marching and Cross Lateral Movements
What it is: Marching movements are movements in which the left arm moves with the right leg and the right arm moves with the left leg. Cross lateral movements are those in which the left arm crosses over to the right side of the body and the right arm crosses over to the left side of the body.
Butterfly ParkTM Early Literacy and Marching: Our program uses marching to teach the first three letter sounds--l, h, and d.
Why it is important: Marching and swinging arms and legs across the middle of the body are more than simply fun activities for children. They help improve the connections between the right hemisphere of the brain with the left hemisphere. When both hemispheres of the brain are activated, the ability to think and remember is improved. Learning is easier and more effective.
To learn more:
What it is: Multisensory teaching is teaching in such a way that children learn through a variety of their senses--eyes, ears, mouths, and entire bodies.
Butterfly ParkTM Early Literacy and Multisensory Teaching: We use a multisensory approach to teach all the letter sounds. Children listen to the stories, see the letters, say the letter sounds, and act the stories out with their whole bodies.
Why it is important: Every child has his or her own unique learning style. Some children learn more easily through listening, some through seeing, and some by getting their whole body involved. However, all children learn most effectively when more than one sense is involved.
This quote from Dr. Vernon A. Magnesen (1983) says it best:
Visit the Brain Gyms website: Brain Gym - Education Kinesiology Foundation.
Hannaford, C. (1995). Smart Moves, Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head,
Arlington, NJ: Great Ocean Publishers.
Movement is the door to learning Paul E. Dennison
The more closely we consider the elaborate interplay of brain and body, the more clearly one compelling theme emerges: movement is essential to learning. Movement awakens and activates many of our mental capacities. Movement integrates and anchors new information and experience into our neural networks. Carla Hannaford, Ph.D.
Birsh, J.R., Ed.D (1999). Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills,
Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
It has ...long been evident in various experiments, ... that it is easier to integrate multiple sources of information during learning when the material is physically integrated, auditorily and visually, than when information is presented to each modality (sense) separately. (Mousavi, Low, & Sweller, 1995)
What it is: Reading begins with phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is being able to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in words. It is being able to notice that the word cow has two sounds: /c/ /ow/, the word cat has three sounds: /c/, /a/, /t/; and the word frog has four sounds: /f/, /r/, /o/, /g /. The ability to identify the beginning sound (not letter name) in a spoken word is the strongest indication that a child is ready to learn the sounds associated with the letters of the alphabet. Phonemic awareness skills can predict reading success more accurately than anything else, including IQ.
Butterfly ParkTM Early Literacy and Phonemic Awareness:
Our Hands-on Phonemic Awareness program teaches phonemic awareness using objects and full-body motions. Our Farm Animal Games teach phonemic awareness through pictures and games while transitioning them into matching letters with the first sound in words. In Introduction to Letter Sounds, children learn the sounds each letter represents and how to blend those sounds to make words. Butterfly ParkTM Handwriting provides practice with blending sounds into words and segmenting words into sounds as children print letters and words.
Why it is important:
A large number of scientifically conducted research studies have determined that children who have good phonemic awareness skills are likely to have an easier time learning to read and spell. In fact, phonemic awareness skills can predict reading success more accurately than anything else, including IQ.
To learn more:
Do an on-line search for Put Reading First and you can access the Teachers Guide or the Parent Guide for the National Institute for Literacy findings and conclusions of the 2000 report of the National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read.
Phonemic awareness instruction
Phonics
Butterfly ParkTM Early Literacy and Phonics: Our program systematically and explicitly teaches more than just one sound for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet. It teaches two sounds for each of the vowels (a, e, i, o, u, y); two sounds for c, g, and s; as well as sounds for the important letter combinations of th, sh, ch, wh, oo, ou, and ow.
Why it is important: According to the National Reading Panel Systematic and explicit phonics instruction makes a bigger contribution to children’s growth in reading than instruction that provides non-systematic or no phonics instruction.
To learn more:
"Systematic and explicit phonics instruction:
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