Georgina Smith- SEN Jigsaw Interview
Dyslexia assessor and tutor, Georgina Smith, the author of CodeBreakers® is also the co-organiser of the SEN Jigsaw Conference. Read on to find out about her workshop at the SEN Jigsaw. How whole word recognition does not support all our learners.
Please could you tell our readers a little about yourself?
I’m Georgina Smith a dyslexia assessor and tutor and have many years experience working in my own practice. I’ve also written CodeBreakers® a multi-sensory, synthetic phonic reading and spelling programme, based on best practice of years of teaching. It is a programme for students from age 5 to post 16 and is suitable for those with dyslexia who are looking to boost reading and spelling capabilities. It’s been found to particularly engage older students who perhaps don’t have the same access to a wide variety programmes which appeal to them as many are seen to target more of a primary school age group.
Why do you do what you do?
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After studying in Law and working abroad, I returned to the UK and decided to do some volunteer work at the local college. My father is dyslexic and I always had an interest in adult literacy. I was then asked to train as a teacher. Following this I took a job in adult education. At this point I discovered my students weren’t really learning and it was then I discovered dyslexia. I took myself off to MMU to study to become a dyslexia assessor and tutor.
What will your workshop be about at the SEN Jigsaw?
My workshop will be about how whole word recognition and look, say, cover techniques don’t always work for all students. I will show how a structured synthetic phonics programme, presents students with a more logical way of decoding and encoding for reading and spelling. I will show how this will enable students to spell and read more words than those learned by whole word recognition. It will particularly be useful to parents and supporting their child at home, who are challenged each week by the school spelling test.
What will your delegates take away from your workshop (in terms of learning)?
Delegates will be able to identify different techniques that will enable students to learn to read and spell. They will also learn more about overlapping learning difficulties.
How can our readers find out more about you?
For more information about me and my work readers are invited to take a look at my website for CodeBreakers® which can be found by clicking here , and more about my tuition and assessment here . I’ll be available to answer any questions also by simply coming to the SEN Jigsaw Conference and attend my workshop. Click here to book your ticket.
