Cant read ,cant write Channel 4

[Beauregard]

Anyone else watching?

I think the labels are irrelevent. Isn't disgusting that there aren't entry level courses basic enough for these people.

Its barmy that the courses seemed to be aimed at immigrants who have no learning difficulties, but just can't read in English. There is no point in trying to teach literacy critque to someone who can't read the word "log".

Its sad that adult courses seem to be just about qualifications when being able to read is so much more.

it's tragic.

i think it's downright sad how poor James was just written off like that.

I think the snooty woman in the college summed it up when she said 'well they pass an exam at the end of it - that's what matters' I think not

I cried when that lady read The Hungry Caterpillar. Amazing. Word up to Jolly Phonics.

My mum used to do adult literacy evening classes when we were little for extra cash. She had loads of stuff at home for adult learners which were very basic - as basic as that guy was saying he needed.

There were classes (and one to one tuition) at this level back then (1970s). Why not now?

Actually, there are - a colleague runs one at my work, although certainly not enough and I agree, some of the learners obviously needed daily, one to one support.

I found the programme fascinating, and really moving. Reading was the one thing I "got" very early so it's difficult to put myself in their shoes. I suppose if you were dumped somewhere where all the writing was in arabic or japanese it might give you a slightly similar sense of disorientation and panic.

I loved it where the lady was made up because she could go in the shop and read the word 'ham' and 'Mars' - it must have felt amazing

How do you pronounce l then? I thought ull type sound was right.

There are two ways of pronoucing the "l" sound. Once which is soft ie. "ull" and a hard verion ie. "le"

You tend to use the soft version more than the hard version. ie, in a word like "blunt".

You would only use the hard version at the start of a word like "lamp". I can't think of any words that use the hard version of "l" in the middle of words.

I thought that Phil got the letter sounds like. Ie. he said pure sounds ie if you put a "uh" then its almost impossible to pick out the word when blending.

Thanks. My mum used to be a bit obsessed about this

I think he was a bit unfair to criticise the woman at the adult college - the class we saw and the materials were clearly for ESOL. And they've got different needs to the people in the programme - and it probably works for them. I would hope that a literacy class (not for ESOl) would have more relevant teaching.

Ditto the basic point that spending 20 mins a day with a capable tutor/helper/parent is key. I hope the young lad finds a helper.

I thought the older lady who went to the library and read a book for the first time was amazing. She made fantastic progress in only 3 weeks - it just goes to show that with the right materials / teaching what can be achieved. But how sad that she's had to wait til now.

This could so easily be my DH. He couldn't read until he was 10. He had been taught using Look and Say which is a word recognition reading programme, which doesn't work for so many children. He is the same age as Lynn.
MIL was told they were not allowed to use any other system, so she got him a tutor that taught phonics. Nowadays he would probably have been diagnosed dyslexic as our Ds is.
DS was taught jolly phonics and reads well, but still has problems with writing.

Schools tend to use a mixture nowadays with synthetic phonics. My dc's were taught using Jolly phonics which is the same programme used in the Channel 4 programme, plus sight words.
Some children have no problems wth word recognition my duaghter didn't and just absorbed reading, but there are a large number of children for whom this method will never work.

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Watched this tonight. He was not using pure sounds when he introduced the letters (buh, duh etc) Why didn't they get someone who was actually trained to teach people with reading difficulties. What point are they making? Those adults crying - a trained teacher would not have subjected them to something that they couldn't do in the first place.
He can come round here and get my ds to read a book, if he's as good as he thinks he is.

I think that this week is terrible. Fancy asking someone to spell a word like "Trouble", why not start off with simple three letter constanent - vowel -constanent words and then build up.

What is the point of Phil telling a single mother to find specialist dyslexia schools when she has no way of paying for it.

Carrying on the theme of diagnosing Linda with stuff, I thought she might have some kind of synaethesia -where the senses get mixed up - she kept talking about how the words were 'beautiful' to her and she could 'feel' them. I remember reading a book about a guy with this (he was also autistic) and him saying that he could see numbers and letters - they all had different shapes and colours to him. I was fascinated when Linda was talking about how walking dow the street is now a much more invasive and demanding experience because she is now surrounded by words. The stories in this programme are heartbreaking, been in tears both weeks.

Carrying on the theme of diagnosing Linda with stuff, I thought she might have some kind of synaethesia -where the senses get mixed up - she kept talking about how the words were 'beautiful' to her and she could 'feel' them. I remember reading a book about a guy with this (he was also autistic) and him saying that he could see numbers and letters - they all had different shapes and colours to him. I was fascinated when Linda was talking about how walking dow the street is now a much more invasive and demanding experience because she is now surrounded by words. The stories in this programme are heartbreaking, been in tears both weeks.

Carrying on the theme of diagnosing Linda with stuff, I thought she might have some kind of synaethesia -where the senses get mixed up - she kept talking about how the words were 'beautiful' to her and she could 'feel' them. I remember reading a book about a guy with this (he was also autistic) and him saying that he could see numbers and letters - they all had different shapes and colours to him. I was fascinated when Linda was talking about how walking dow the street is now a much more invasive and demanding experience because she is now surrounded by words. The stories in this programme are heartbreaking, been in tears both weeks.

The whole thing is annoying me. Especially that poor bloke who still isn't making any progress. That Phil bloke isn't trained to teach people with learning difficulties, despite all the 'wacky' ideas he's coming up with. I feel so sorry for that guy (james?) - it must be soul destroying for him.

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He wears converse trainers with his suit. That's enough proof of tosserdom for me.

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I am just frustrated at the big gaps between the progs. Just how have they made the progress?? I still think it's very interested though - as I am just learning all about multi sensory learning for my dyslexia course.

They aren't really doing multi sensory learning though are they? He said they were, but they aren't.