Child reading
Photo by toymanron/MorgueFileMacungie, Pa. -- The Hillside School hosts nationally recognized cognitive neuroscientist, researcher, teacher, and author, Dr. Maryanne Wolf, who will lead a workshop and lecture titled “How What We Know About the Reading Brain Informs How We Teach,” from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009, at the Sheraton Hotel & Suites, 3400 Airport Road, Allentown.
During the lecture, Wolf will provide a historical overview of the history of literacy and discuss how the brain’s design supports the acquisition of reading. She will provide an overview of the precursors to reading development and what needs to be learned before reading is taught. She will also discuss the reasons that some children struggle to read and how knowing can contribute to how reading should be taught, particularly to children with dyslexia.
In addition, she will share about her years of experience helping children learn to read and developing programs to help children with problems such as dyslexia. She will share practical advice for parents and teachers and discuss how reliance on the internet and other emerging technologies could influence reading skills.
“Parents, educators, psychologists, health care professionals, and speech and language therapists are among those who will benefit from Dr. Wolf’s wisdom, insight and research,” said Sue M. Straeter, Ed.D., Hillside’s Head of School. “Dr. Wolf is committed to helping children read, and has spent the better part of her life researching cognitive neuroscience to find answers to the question of who can and can’t read and why and how to help every child become a strong reader.”
Wolf is professor of child development at Tufts University, where she holds the John DiBiaggio Chair of Citizenship and Public Service. She is also the director of the Center for Reading and Language Research and professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts. She earned her Ed.D., from Harvard University, where she began her work on the neurological underpinnings of reading, language, and dyslexia. She is a world-renowned expert on dyslexia, developmental psycholinguistics, and reading development and intervention.
She has received numerous awards for her research and teaching, including the National Teaching Award for Four Year Universities from the American Psychological Association and the Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award from the Massachusetts Psychological Association. She earned a Fulbright Fellowship as well as the Norman Geschwind Lecture Prize from the International Dyslexia Association, both of which were to conduct research on dyslexia. With several colleagues, Wolf was awarded the NICHD Shannon Award for Innovative Research and several multi-year NICHD grants to investigate new approaches to reading intervention, including the RAVE-O reading intervention program which Wolf created to stimulate how the brain learns to read.
She is the executive editor in the United States for Dyslexia and author of numerous scientific publications. Her most recent book for the general public, “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain,” received numerous awards, including Best Books of the Year kudos from Publishers Weekly and the Library Journal and an Acclaimed Book of the Year title from U.S. News and World Report. The book also received the Marek Award from the New York International Dyslexia Association for the Best Book of the Year on Reading.
Wolf’s book will be available for purchase following the lecture and she will be on hand to sign copies and interact with attendees.
To register, call The Hillside School at 610-967-3701. The registration fee is $80, with a $5 discount per person for a group of at least 10. Act 48 credit is available for teachers, and a certificate of attendance will be issued to participants.
