LEARNING MADE EASY WITH LEXIA

The Educational Psychology Service within a London Borough has been using the phonics-based reading software by Lexia Learning for over a year in a number of its schools’ Learning Support Departments. The Psychology Service works in conjunction with both primary and secondary schools in the area to ensure that appropriate learning programmes are available to address the needs of students with special educational needs.

Christa Rippon, Principal Educational Psychologist, says, “As a Psychological Service, we use a wide range of strategies to help students. We are constantly looking for new ways to tackle learning difficulties because what motivates and supports one child might not help another. We have found that Lexia provides a structured, interactive and user friendly program which is very effective in supporting a wide range of pupils with literacy difficulties.”

The Educational Psychology Service is monitoring pupils using the Lexia Reading System in Key Stage 2 and above. Lexia is designed for students to work independently listening to verbal instructions and clicking on images or typing the answers.  Depending on the performance of the student, these interactive exercises branch off automatically to provide practice on specific areas of difficulty. Progression to the more advanced areas can only be reached when the student is ready.  Teachers can override this function at any time to specify program units or customise exercises for individual children. The activities are designed to be intriguing for the students, with formats and graphics that interest, motivate and make practice enjoyable.

“Many students’ reading skills have improved significantly as a result of using the Lexia Reading System and students often say how much they enjoy the exercises.  The different levels of the exercises also ensure students really practice and consolidate key skills and that teachers can focus on any problematic areas,” comments Christa.

“The immediate feedback the software provides is non-threatening and can provide additional benefits. Many students with reading difficulties become very anxious when faced with reading tasks and prefer working on the computer to having intensive support from an adult. The depersonalisation of the software and the positive reinforcement that it provides often seems to reduce their anxiety and facilitates their learning. The software is also flexible enough to be tailored to the individual development needs of the child and can give them some control over their own learning,” Christa continues.

In conjunction with the Lexia Reading System, the Quick Reading Test is also used in a number of schools. Taking less than 10 minutes to complete, the results provide detailed information about the strengths and weaknesses of a student, which can inform targets in Individual Education Plans

“We were particularly impressed with the test printouts that are well structured, ensuring that both the teacher and child can see areas that need improvement and then plan an appropriate programme.” Christa concludes, “Being quick and easy to administer means the test can also be used at regular intervals to check on progress and the records are very useful in monitoring progress and the effectiveness of the learning programme.”