The Phonological Deficit
Phonological awareness is one of the best predictors of reading success. But most schools fail to teach this crucial reading skill.
Most people with dyslexia have 'The Phonological Deficit'. This means they struggle to hear sounds in words. E.g. they find it very hard to hear that goat contains three sounds - g oa t. Breaking words into sounds is necessary for reading, and even more necessary for spelling.
Fluency Builder is a phonological awareness intervention, which improves the phonological deficit. A phonological awareness intervention actually changes which parts of your brain are activated when you read. It helps you activate the parts of the brain which are necessary for fluent and effortless reading.
While you suffer from the phonological deficit, conventional learn to read phonics programs won't be effective. Because they require you to hear individual sounds, and blend them together to make words.
Fluency Builder can get amazing results. Reading age can improve by up to 3 years after 50 ten minute lessons.
Distorted Hearing
Most people with dyslexia have slightly distorted hearing, as you can see in this audiogram:
Right Ear
Left Ear
The audiogram shows how well you hear in the normal speech frequency. Perfect hearing would be a straight line at zero. Below 20 decibels indicates hearing loss. The areas above zero are hypersensitive, which can be painful, like fingers running down a black board.
The other thing to notice is how distorted it is. Like listening to two different crackly radios.
Distorted hearing can be improved by Auditory Integration Training.
Here are the post treatment audiograms for the same child:
Right Ear
Left Ear
Auditory Integration Training has eliminated hypersensitive hearing, and given her a much flatter and more balanced response in both ears.
Her auditory discrimination also improved from 20% error rate to 5% after treatment.