Singapore Brain Development Centre
With an endless wealth of information and knowledge contained in books and other forms of writing, reading allows your child to discover and learn new things. It expands the imagination and develops the mind. The ability to write allows your child to explore and communicate what they think, feel and know. It enables your child to materialise their ideas and thoughts and empowers them to be understood.
Receptive language is the “input” of language, the ability to understand and comprehend spoken language that you listen to or read. If your child struggles with receptive language skills, they will struggle with reading comprehension, following directions, taking notes in class, etc.
Expressive language, in contrast, is the “output” of language, the ability to express your wants and needs through speaking or writing. If your child struggles with expressive language skills, he/she will struggle with sharing his/her thoughts, ideas and feelings.
Language, both receptive and expressive, forms the stepping stones to Literacy.
The Seeing Stars® program focuses on building the component parts of a functional and fluent reader, including phonemic awareness, word attack skills, and symbol imagery which enhances word recognition and reading fluency. Instruction begins by building the processing skills needed to learn naturally and progresses applying these skills to the reading process. (Source: www.lindamoodbell.com)
Master the Code ® is a reading and spelling program that develops phonemic awareness, visual awareness of words, and an understanding of the phonetic code of the language. MTC starts with blending, segmenting, and sound analysis. Practice is provided in segmenting words into isolated phonemes and also blending isolated sounds into words. Encoding (spelling), decoding (reading), and writing exercises are used so that the reversibility of the code is made clear. (Source: www.masterthecode.com)
Learning Ears ® is a program that uses an Auditory-Language stimulation method with specific ear-voice training to develop listening, language, communication, memory and basic literacy and learning skills. It is a tool used to improve a person’s ability to receive, understand, and retain incoming information. (Source: www.learningears.com)
The Talkies® program—the primer to the Visualizing and Verbalizing® (V/V®) program—is designed for students who need simpler, smaller instruction steps to establish the imagery-language connection. Talkies aims to develop the dual coding of imagery and language as a base for language comprehension and expression. Talkies is especially helpful for students with a limited oral vocabulary and/or limited ability to verbalize. (Source: www.lindamoodbell.com)
The Visualizing and Verbalizing® (V/V®) program develops concept imagery – the ability to create an imagined gestalt from language – as a basis for comprehension and higher-order thinking. The development of concept imagery improves reading and listening comprehension, memory, oral vocabulary, critical thinking, and writing. (Source: www.lindamoodbell.com)
Buzz has difficulty reading fluently, self-correcting, and spelling. Buzz sees the word “stream” but reads the word as “steam”. He struggles to learn sight words. Students with these symptoms may be labeled as dyslexic.
Sofie has strength in reading, but she doesn’t understand what she reads. She remembers only parts of what she reads and hears and has trouble following directions. Students with these symptoms may be labeled as having low motivation or short attention span. Students who experience great difficulty with comprehension may be labeled as Autistic.
Language is essential for children’s development of thinking and learning. The learning goals for our Literacy program are to help children to be able to use language to communicate with others and express themselves in everyday situations, and make meaning of and convey meaning using print.
We create environments that encourage your child to participate actively through verbal interaction which helps to nurture their interest in learning. Storytelling cards, Charades, Language development games, Picture Sequencing, and Kahoot Quizzes are some the activities that make literacy fun and interactive.
Our evidence-based programs are based on the cognitive science of learning, delivering what struggling readers universally lack—an effortless sensory connection to reading and comprehension. Educators are first taught why their students struggle, and then trained to identify and remediate the underlying causes of their difficulties.
We use an instructional approach that allows your child to explore their personal interests to acquire knowledge and skills. It is motivating and can lead to deeper and longer-lasting learning experiences. It also helps develop essential skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity.
Besides integrating our expertise in cognitive development and training, our literacy program also works on weak underlying cognitive abilities that might be the root cause of your child’s language and literacy difficulties. These include: Auditory & Visual processing skills, or Focus and Attention abilities.