People who don’t read well usually don’t feel very good about their intellectual abilities. They don’t know that perfectly, wonderful, charming, clever, intelligent, adults sometimes have reading problems. In our society, if someone isn’t good at math, they can approach someone with a “cutesy attitude” and say that they can’t figure something out, everyone chuckles, and works out the problem. But we have little tolerance for someone approaching us with help in filling out a job application because of poor reading abilities. Reading struggles are taken personally, with low self-esteem as an added struggle.
The good news is that it isn’t just kids that can get the help they need. If you’ve heard the old saying, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” you can forget it. Research has proven over and over again that people really can change! We all build neural pathways (instruction sheets) for the different processes we learn over our lifetimes. When the pathway for reading is less than 100% correct, we generate less than successful reading. However, if put in a situation where a brain is compelled to comfortably read and understand a variety of text over and over, there will come a time when the brain recognizes and acknowledges that “there is a better way to do this, and I’m capable.” The brain will then continue experimenting trying to find the strategies that were used during the intervention in order to eventually internalize the best strategies. There is actually a physiological change in the neural pathway that was originally incorrectly built by the well-intentioned brain.
The changes are internal and implicit, and occur over time. Given the appropriate materials and methodology, with an integrated assessment tool, adults can become successful readers at virtually any age!
This product with adults
Can you point me towards any studies that have looked at using this product and the theory behind it with adults? I know (from experience) that what you have here can work but I would like to have empirical data to back up my claims at board and funding meetings.
Supporting research
There are two pages on the Score 4 website that refer to the research that was consulted when developing the assessment and the intervention. This methodology was actually developed with adults in mind.
I used to be a part-owner of a workforce literacy company and the thinking behind Score 4 is highly appropriate for adults as well as children. The basic premise is that these are bright, capable people who already know what they need to know in order to read well. They are not missing information; instead, they are inappropriately integrating the information they already have. Because they are adults, it would be insulting to drill them in vocab, or language structure, or the visual symbols on the page.
The stories have been put through readability scales and are grade-leveled. However, they are the appropriate complexity and high interest for any age. I've learned some interesting things myself when reading these stories, both about animals and world events.
I'm glad you are out there looking at these issues. Jill
Learning Disabilities?
Do you have any research on how your program has worked with students with learning disabilities? Such as Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Mild MR, Autism.
Learning Disabilities and Score 4
I started out in a workforce literacy program and we often worked with adults that had a variety of learning disabilities, including the ones you have mentioned. The thinking behind the Score 4 methodology does take into account the needs of these types of learners. Score 4 is being used in a number of pilot studies through special education departments and they are reporting success with these readers. As long as the readers have the cognitive abilities to understand the text, we can help them to learn to access the information comfortably, in order to understand it when they are reading independently.