Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: The best insight, instant feedback, accountability. The all new Talk Radio Freedom 106.5. Good morning to you, Ms. Paula. Welcome to Freedom. Let's talk a little bit about ALTA and this summit. The importance of this summit that's coming up.
You have to unmute your mic.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Lovely. Okay. Area. Thanks. All right, so the summit happened already.
So what we were doing recently was reporting on what happened at the summit. And that summit was the World Literacy Summit that brings together everybody in the field of literacy, from academic researchers to teachers practicing in the field, to nonprofits like Alta who are running programs for specific groups of people. And it really was a worldwide presence there. There weren't that many people from the Caribbean. I think there were just three of us from the Caribbean, but we certainly had from the Americas over to the Far east represented there at the summit. And this is the first time AALTA was invited to the summit. It really was an honor to be there. We met so many leading persons in the field of literacy and learned quite a lot about what is happening.
And I guess one of the takeaways for me was that AALTA is on the right track.
You know, what I was hearing confirmed both our methodology and our approaches, how we go about working with adult students. And now, of course, we have expanded to work within schools now that we have the AALTA online program and with teams. We've been working with teens in a program in partnership with Nalis since 2010.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: Let's talk a little bit about the importance of literate. Now we're talking literacy, and I want you to define it for our listening public.
The importance as parents are listening to the program. Why is it important to get your children? At what age should you start teaching your children to read and understand? Now, reading is one thing, but understanding what you read, you know, let's talk about the importance of it and how early parents should engage their children in it.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: So first, let me just talk about what's involved in this skill that is a combination of reading and writing that we call literacy. So reading is one side of it and writing is the other. They all come from the development of. Of taking speech when we hear language and words that developed many thousands years ago. And when people now started to say, right, we need to hold on to what has been spoken. What has been spoken is here and gone.
So what we need is some way to record this and you develop a writing system. The key important factor about the writing system is that it is based on the sounds in words. So we have 44 sounds within the English Language. And those sounds are represented by little squiggles, little shapes that we now have come to call letters. But we know we only have 26 letters, right? And we have 44 sounds. So you see the problem already. It's not a one on one relationship. So the phonics, which is the relationship between sounds of the spoken language and the letters that represent those in print, that is what is very complicated in English and poses a lot of difficulty both for reading. That is where you look at print and you have to decode it, you have to break the code and say, okay, I see these three letters here, S, A D. No, we don't want to say sad, we want to say oh, sad. And then you can figure out what the word is by breaking the code of what the letter represents, what sound.
And then when you come to spell, it's the reverse, right? You know the word. Let's say you have the word fun, you want to write fun.
And you have to first see and then you have to match it to each letter to arrive at writing F U N. So it is a complex phonic code that has to be learnt.
Children learn to speak naturally. You talk to them, they start babbling, they develop the sounds, they say words, and there's a progression there. Any child who does not have a disability when it comes to speech will learn to talk naturally from being exposed to talk.
Does not happen for everyone with reading. There's a very small percentage, like 5 to 10% of persons who if you read to them as children, they will automatically develop reading. Their brains are wired for reading. So there's always the exceptions. But the research shows, and again, when I went to the summit, it confirmed this research that 50% of the population, that's one out of two children that come into the school system are going to have difficulty learning to read and spell. And they need a particular type of teaching and the type of teaching that is now recommended. And one of the things that was over and over again emphasized at the summit was that you must adhere in your teaching practices for reading and spelling to the science of reading.
The science of reading is a term that has been coined over the last two to three years, but actually it rests upon like 40 years of research in linguistics, in psychology, in education.
All these areas of research have come together in a body of studies and information and data, evidence based data, saying, look, this is how we learn to read and spell, so this is how we need to teach it, right? So you now have a very sound scientific basis for how you are going to teach reading and spelling. And what's interesting for me is that I learned most of this in the early 1990s from the dyslexia association of Trinidad and Tobago. And this research has been there coming from the development and the figuring out of how do we teach dyslexics?
Because while I there mentioned, 50% of the population has difficulty learning to read and write of that, another 15% within that 50 has severe difficulty with it. And they simply will not learn by just being exposed to stories and reading and print. They need very explicit teaching. They need the teaching that is sequential. So you teach the phonics T, P, N, A, S, you do it sequentially, and you really emphasize for them the link between sounds. So it is where they must be told that the sound and in fact discover it for themselves that when you see T, this is T.
Right? So there is a whole science to the teaching of reading that very fortunately, because I was exposed to that scientific approach coming from where it developed first with those people, those children who were simply not learning to read at school.
This is when all this research started being done. So it started with the dyslexics. And now what we see is it's moved from just persons who have dyslexia and are diagnosed as such really into the mainstream. So the message for parents here is that reading is a very complex task. For some people, it comes easily.
And if you are one of those people for whom reading and spelling was easy, you know, you just look at a word when you got those 10 words or 50 words for spelling, for whole mood, you just look at it and you'll find, oh, yeah, I could do that. And it just makes a picture in your head. That's you in the 10%, right? Or maybe in the 25% for whom it's fairly easy. But one out of two children in our school system are going to need explicit instruction in decoding, reading and spelling. So it means that parents can't really teach their child to read. But. But although they can't teach them and we should not expect them to teach them, that is the role of the school. The parent has a key supporting role, a really, really important role.
So once the parent or some family member is able to read efficiently, exposing your child to that language of books is really important.
And there are those who say, start reading to your child when she's in the womb, right? Because they will hear.
They will hear, right? And that exposure. So in the research coming out from Dr. Gabrieli, one of the things that he emphasized is Back and forth conversations.
So maybe your reading as a parent is not that great and you find it difficult to read stories to your children.
You can still help them with their literacy because you talk to them, but you don't talk to them, you talk with them. It's what Dr. Gabrielli said is a back and forth conversation. You must always get responses from your child. Right? And even if you are reading to them, stop and say, but why do you think he did this?
Right? Get the response so that at all times children are interacting and engaging with language. It's one thing to hear, right?
That's receptive language. What we want our children to develop is expressive language where they can do the talk themselves.
So those are two things that are really important that a parent can do. And of course, engage with the school. Engage with the school.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: You know, one of the things, I don't mean to cut you and I thank you so much for saying that.
I think about myself oftentimes and try to remember, which I can't seem to remember, who taught me to read.
Even when I started becoming a news presenter, presenting news on national radio into the early parts of my career, I remember going, learning the basics, fundamentals. I remember some mentors from the news departments of various media houses taking part and lecturing to us and giving us the correct pronunciation of words and how we should present a news item. The difference of writing something for a newspaper as opposed to something that goes on air, breaking it up in syllables. It's not good government, but it's government and it's not he says, or he says, but is rather the prime minister says, not says. You know, the different pronunciations. And I, I try to remember, when did I learn this? When did I learn to read so well? And then I came and I had two sons and I'm being told, you know, you have to teach your children to read. And I'm thinking, how do I do this?
Yes, you know, how do I teach him? And then I started realizing, even in the school system today, the way I we would have learned to say the timetables.
1, 1, 2 is 2. 2 twos are 4. 3, 2 is a 6. 4 twos are 12. And we going down the list, they are now learning it.
One, two is two. Two into two, one. I didn't know it like that. And two twos are four, two into four, two. And it's been recited differently where I would teach my child, okay, the word is freedom. F, R E E D O, M. Spell it three times, you learn to spell it. You're going to school, you pass your spellings and their mother will teach them identification, how to identify and break it up in syllables. So there were two different methods. I see jolly phonics came out. And I want you to reiterate on the point for parents again that they shouldn't beat up on themselves if they can't teach their children to read.
Reiterate and tell us again what is needed when it comes to teaching someone to read. You know, let's just talk a little bit more about that very quickly to our listening audience, especially parents this morning.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Yeah, so one of the things is keeping in touch with your child's teacher. So if you think, okay, there's a period of time before your child goes to school and that is where you're doing what I was mentioning, you know, these back and forth conversations as much as possible, reading to your children and pointing as you read so that they, you know, they are, they are seeing that there's the connection between the word that you see and how it's represented here in print. But that certainly is not going to create a reader for everybody, not for the 50% of the population who have more difficulty and need the explicit teaching of the phonic code. Right. So the parent really is reliant upon the school and the teacher to be teaching the skills of reading. So when you break it down, there's a few methods that are used. One obviously is phonics.
There is in my mind a better way to teach phonics, which obviously is what I have implemented in Alta, where we start with the sounds, we link the sounds to the letters, we have a card with the letter on it and we practice with that letter saying, you look at it and it may be the letter T. And you will have a word to help you remember it and you will say 10t and that will link. So the idea is to build that neuron pathway in your brain between when you see that letter, that shape, and you immediately have a link to T. So it becomes automatic. And that's what happens when you're reading. You see letters and your brain just throws up the sound that is the match for you. And then it gets more and more complicated because you come to see and it could be K, it could be S. And if you teach explicitly, okay, if the letter E, I, O, Y comes after the letter C, then you say S. So you get into much more complex phonics. Now when you see your child coming home with some of that, it's to ask them, okay, what did their teacher say? About this and try to understand what method is being used and support it. Right. It does become, I mean, I know now as a grandmother I do have some differences in how my grandchildren may be being taught. But what you do is you support what's being taught.
Important thing is that the child you follow up and you are that presence. That said, when you come home from school, let's hopefully sit together and do the homework. I know parents don't have time for that.
We know a lot of us are working two jobs and we don't have the time to spend with our children. But even if after they do the work, doesn't matter whether you can read what they wrote or not, so long as you show that interest, you say, let me see your books. Okay. You have really neat handwriting here. Good.
Even if you can't read what is on that page that you yourself need help with, your literacy, you support.
Right? And when there is a meeting in the school, you try or somebody in the family, you really try to go, you know, we are working with schools now and the biggest hindrance I think to getting change is that the parents are not engaging. You know, schools are calling a meeting with parents of, let's say all of form one and they get 10 people, right? This is the problem, you know, and yes, we now have tools. We can have a zoom meeting, right? We can have a WhatsApp chat group. We can send out voice notes. Right? You can send voice notes, but you need to engage with the school. That to me is the key thing. And then of course, you know, try and limit the screen time because when you have screen time, it means you are robbing from what you could be doing, reading, writing, spelling. But if your child is going to be having screen time, here's a tip. Try to find where they have the text, subtitles, captions, whatever you call them coming up. And one of the things in the summit is they have developed something called caterpillar captions, which is what they call literacy grade captions. So you know, half the time when you're looking at subtitles, you can't really see the letters. It's white against, you know you're trying to read when you're watching a foreign language thing. So the transformation will be moving forward that hopefully more and more of these children's programs. So there's one called Moonbug that, that has it already, it's on, it's a web based one where it actually has a box with a pale yellow background with black text, which is how we normally see print and it's there on the screen all the time as the child is watching.
It's not going to mean that instantly your child is going to learn, but it's going to be a level of reinforcement. And it's kind of where they don't even notice the text. It's not really interfering with them watching whatever cartoon that they are looking at, but the text is there and it's unconsciously reinforcing. So that's just something easy to do. Turn on the subtitles. Wherever there is the option for subtitles, just turn it on. That's something a parent can do. That's really easy.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: And as we conclude and get set to wrap the interview this morning, I want to ask you about adult literacy now with Alta. You know, we have a lot of adults in society that can't really read and write per se, and some of them feel embarrassed about it. One person said to me, this is just before this interview came up about a couple weeks ago, where, Look, I done 40 something already. You know, why I need. With reading and writing again, I can't learn that again. You know, I want you to reiterate and stress on the points as to why it is important for adults to learn to read. Not because we want you to teach someone, but for your own benefit and whether or not there's any shame in it. You know, people feel embarrassed. Should you be ashamed if you can't read something and you ask somebody to help you?
And persons enrolling in ALTA should not feel embarrassed. And could you share some insight as to how they can do that? And what are some of the positives and negatives that can derive from not being able to read as opposed to being able to read as an adult?
[00:19:52] Speaker B: Sure. So when you look at it now, what the science of reading is telling us is one out of two people are going to have difficulty with reading and writing. So you are part of a very big group if you are having difficulty with reading and spelling. And you know, the teaching of reading has advanced. And a lot of it when we were young was about look and say, you look at the word, you're supposed to say it. There was no teaching of the code.
So this is what you have to learn. So even if you say, well, you know, they taught me to read in school and obviously I can't learn because, look, I can't read. How they taught you then is not how Alta teaches you now. So the method is completely different. And what you find is when people come, they say, nobody ever taught me this. Right. Especially when we look at how we teach them the rules for breaking words into syllables. Students always talk about. They say, but how come I didn't learn? Nobody told me this. Now I could do it, right? So what you find is, it's like a revelation that now they understand the process of reading the code. And an interesting thing with the students, right? Some of the statements that I hear all the time, yes. They say, I'm a better reader, I'm a better speller. I could do things that I couldn't do before. I'm going for this cooking course. I got my license, I. I got all these things I wanted to do. They say that, but they also say, I am happier, I am a happier person. I am a better woman today. All those are quotes, right? People say that, right? I feeling real sweet, right?
So you have people telling you it's about how they feel about themselves and about their opportunities. One student recently told me, my future is great now. My future is great. You know, you just get this change in how you look at yourself, how you look at your life. And I remember somebody saying to me when she realized this person, this friend of hers from years and years was going to altar, and she said to me, you know, about two years ago, I noticed she started smiling.
And now I realize that's when she started the altar class, right? So it really is a transformative experience because so much of this unwarranted, there is no reason for shame because one out of two people gonna have problems, right? Especially how. Especially if you have a few years on you. You're 40 something, but think about the impact it has on you. And I have a lot of students who say, and see this. I have to read the Bible before I go and read my hanker, you know, So I come in and they come in, no matter what age they are.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: I have a call coming through. I like that. I didn't read the Bible, so must I learn to read. Let me take this quick call. Hello.
[00:22:41] Speaker C: Morning to you, Davey. And morning to your guest, Ma' am. I'm really grateful for this interview this morning, but I do know, I was thinking that, you know, we invest so much in pre education, especially post secondary early childhood. I mean, could you say what age you can detect children's inability to read?
And what regarding root cause? And what do we have besides the basic school system that could enhance that inability?
The fact that it could be detected early? I listen out there, of course.
[00:23:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So what you can sometimes tell from quite early if a person is dyslexic? Or has difficulty with the whole language. Right with it. And this is why children are taught nursery rhymes. So rhyming is one of the, the indicators may be if a child can't rhyme, so you know, bat, cat, sat mat, they can't do that. Right. That would be one of the indicators that maybe their brain is not wired for reading. But here's the thing, even if your brain is not wired for reading, you can successfully be a reader and a speller if you are taught in the way that is going to fit the way your brain works. Right. So there are those people who can get it easily. And then what we need to have in our school system is really a more systematic, structured way of teaching reading and spelling. The two go hand in hand.
So detection is good early on. But in my experience that detection often really only comes when you realize, okay, the child has fallen behind and they are age 7. That's when it really starts to show when you're in primary one, primary two, right. Age seven, age eight. And then of course our school system is a high pressured, very fast system because everybody is being propelled towards the sea. So the sea is a highly destructive element of our primary schooling that is responsible for children not having the time and the specific instruction to acquire reading and spelling skills and just being propelled through and then entering a secondary system where there is no backup. Now if you didn't get the skills at primary school. So this is where I have placed my focus on looking at children from age 8, 9 in the primary system, bringing Aalto online to them and likewise maybe children in Form 1 in the secondary system who have entered, and we know the infamous 30% mark, persons below that. And those children tend to be congregated in certain schools which causes huge problems. So what I look at is not so much measuring what the problem is or saying how to detect the problem.
Once a child reaches a certain age, it's clear that they have problems with reading and writing. So what I look for is solutions. So we have the solutions for adults, which is our classes, our community classes, 20 venues around the country which registration is now open for. And you can call the number 341-866-8 to register for our community based classes or for our zoom classes. We have I think 16 Zoom classes still running with students currently and teachers. And then of course we have outer online. And for children who are having sexy with reading and spelling, now is the time with, you know, July, August right there where they're not in school for parents to think about, okay, how can I boost My children's reading and spelling skills. We have Alto Online where once you have a device and you have Internet, you can go on. You have your own username and password. And we have a Java sale on now, so you get it 50% off. So instead of $600 for a book, you're getting it $300 for a book. And parents who know and who are paying for lessons know that sometimes one lesson could cost a hundred dollars.
So this is a very cost effective because here you have 16 to 18 lessons, each two hours long, that the child is doing. And here's where the parent can be key. Just keeping the child motivated to finish those lessons. And that can make the difference. You get them onto Aalto Online now and you have them through July, August, especially if your child has done sea. And when you get a result, and it's not a result that you want, you want to make sure that child is reading and spelling better when they go into the secondary school. Because while we have our program in about eight or nine secondary schools in form one, it is not there for everybody. And even in those schools it's only for a handful where we can get the sponsorship for them. All right, so it is something. That's what parents can do.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: Final call before we wrap on this ALTO interview. Good morning. Quickly, please.
[00:27:54] Speaker D: Good morning.
First of all, let me commend you on the good work that you're doing. And of course there has to be a cost. You know, people have to eat.
But I disagree that the SCA program is destructive.
I always support programs that allow the strong to go forward, that promote excellence.
And this is. The SDA is a separator and it was always meant to be. But we must have programs for those who can't cope with it.
We must have that. But we must not criticize the SEA because everybody is not coming out of. It's not meant to be that way. And I think we must have programs for excellence and that's the program for that. Thank you.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: Great. So I think maybe if you make it optional and those who can cope with that and who are gearing towards a highly academic future, those persons can opt to do the sea. But we want to make sure that we, we not only serve the strong, and this is the feeling in our education system, we serve the strong. We serve that top 10 to 15% of the population whose brains are wired for reading, because reading is the basis of academic success. You don't have a brain wired for reading. You will not have academic success in all. But we do produce persons of great excellence. I myself have gone through the system and benefited from it immensely, immensely.
[00:29:21] Speaker A: All right. So with that, thank you so much for chatting with us this morning.
Reiterate finally contact info and website information very quickly before we wrap please.
[00:29:32] Speaker B: Great. So you're calling or WhatsApping, 3418668 right. So, 341-8668.
And of course if you Google Alta Trinidad you will get our website and all the information is on there on our classes and on Aalto online. And you can also call at any time on this 341 number or WhatsApp US voice note as well. Will do.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: Thank you so much. Please contact us indeed. So 341-866-8 is the number. Thank you so much for chatting with us this morning. Do have yourself a very spirited and literacy day.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: I always do.
All right. Bye bye.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: The best insight, feedback, accountability, the all new Talk Radio Freedom 106.5.
