Who can we help?
-Adults or children with reading and spelling problems including those diagnosed with dyslexia
Special Educational Needs students, at a school where the Word Wasp underwent extensive trials, suffered from a wide range of literacy problems. Almost all of the students were statemented: and of those statemented, almost all had been diagnosed as dyslexic. Some students began the text without any discernible reading or spelling age. The Word Wasp teaches the rules and structures of English through reading and spelling and it is suitable for all students. It is used extensively with dyslexic students throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and both hemispheres of the wider world.
-Adults or children needing to learn English as a second language
The Hornet and Word Wasp have been used by students from Mongolia, Vietnam and China. These students did not share the same oral traditions of Western European languages; received sound was of little help. However, the basic phonic structure of both the Wasp and Hornet became central to their learning process. Their own traditions of learning sounds before words dovetailed with the structure of the Wasp and Hornet and their reading and Spelling skills flourished. A five year old Mongolian girl, now seven, became top of the class in English at her primary school.
-Schools needing a literacy intervention programme which can be delivered one-to-one by learning support staff, parents or volunteers
Effective help for busy teachers – Get the best from your LSA’s and Volunteers!
The successful delegation of important tasks to assistants and volunteers can help to create an integrated and motivated class of students. Literacy is at the very core of all classroom enterprise. Teaching literacy skills needs a comprehensive effective and user friendly programme in which progress is accountable and easily monitored.
The Word Wasp and Hornet programmes allow teachers to place one-to-one coaching in the hands of parents, assistants and volunteers without ancillary training programmes.
The coach is guided through each exercise with easy to follow colour-coded instructions and diagnostic marking system.
Parents enjoy using it!
Easily monitored!
Inexpensive!
The Wasp gives you time!
-Private Literacy tutors
Whilst creating our texts we spent a lot of years working as private tutors. The texts are the perfect resources to use with your student:
-One to One!
-All round literacy manuals starting with basic alphabet sounds and finishing with Latinized and Greek suffixes.
– Easy to use!
– No planning needed
– Highlights the areas of weakness
– The simple coaching boxes and marking system make it suitable for combined home and tutor lead tuition.
– Everything is contained within one book!
“I’m really impressed with the structure, with the fantastic amount of practice and mastery built in and the simplicity of use and built in record keeping, with the balance of work through reading and spelling and the teaching of structure/rules”.
-Parental home educators
Our texts teach students and they also teach parents to be literacy coaches. Our texts allow home tutors to teach every child, including those deemed to have Special Ed. Needs, to standards beyond their chronological expectations.
“They are simple, yet well thought-out, logical, quick to do with your child and promise results based on the success of those who’ve previously completed them. As much as I like to think of myself as an intelligent and resourceful person, I would never have the time, experience or know-how to put together such a programme myself – so I particularly like that with Word Wasp all the work/research has been done for me and I just have to follow it. I also like the fact that the input required from me on a daily basis is minimal – 20 minutes for each child, per day, on Word Wasp is doable for me and bearable for my children, where a 2 hour stretch of work might not be. Most home educators are like me – with multiple kids’ needs to juggle, different activities to get to and a house to run – so I imagine Word Wasp will appeal to other home educators for similar reasons”
-Parents who are anxious to give their children a head start
All children starting primary school will benefit from beginning their education with a language primer as easy and effective as the Hornet. Those students without problems will be catapulted into literacy whilst those requiring a little more encouragement have a fighting chance of catching up.
-Adults or children with short-term memory problems / Autism / ADHD
Unlike systems based on memory training and word recognition techniques, the Wasp/Hornet deals with structures and rules. Dyslexic students and those with weak literacy skills may have short-term memory problems but that ‘cuts no ice’ with the Wasp which teaches literacy skills like chess skills. The vowels are the court pieces, the consonants are pawns. You would be amazed at the number of dyslexic students who cannot spell their own address properly yet they are wizards on a chess board!
During our trials we coached students who had Autism and ADHD. We don’t claim to be experts in this field. However the structure of the Word Wasp/Hornet is perfectly suited:
-It’s one to one!
-The instructions are clear and direct!
-Both text deal with structures and rules that are introduced and practiced and reintroduced at specific intervals.
– The elements are introduced gradually and colour-coded in order to highlight significant patterns.
-Blending, phonemic articulation, and segmenting are at the heart of the programme.
-Students are offered graspable handles.
-It’s free from patronizing gimmicks!
“After struggling with the tears and failure of the weekly spelling test and a five year gap between his spelling test and a five gap between his spelling and reading age, I felt compelled to write this review when he told me this morning “I love this! This is working.” He’s on the autistic spectrum and the rules that he is learning from the system are really sticking.”
-Adults or children with Auditory discrimination / Speech problems.
The most frequent underlying problem, which affects reading, spelling and speech, is one of auditory discrimination; the ability to identify sounds. Without this ability, students are unable to initiate the thinking process. Sequential thinking is at the root of cognitive development. These processes often remain underdeveloped in both children and adults with reading and spelling problems.
Students with speech problems benefit greatly because we teach sounds and the phonic composition of words (including vowel discrimination and unstressed vowels and digraphs exercises). Students, particularly dyslexic students and those with auditory discrimination problems, who have not been taught the phonic structure of words, have to rely on the vagaries of received sounds in the formation of words which causes inaccuracies, frustration and embarrassment.
