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Visiting UK dyslexia expert, Dr Jenny Guise, is speaking at a series of workshops in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne during March. The workshops will particularly focus on practical activities to explore working memory in students.
The workshops will begin with some discussion of the key features of working memory (WM). The focus will be on how we can spot WM difficulties, through tests and also observation. Jennie will also look at how we can support students to improve their skills and adapt their strategies.
In the workshop, Jennie is going to talk about how our knowledge of working memory can inform practice, and in particular about why, and how, we would use that knowledge to identify difficulties in the classroom setting.
Dr Guise will discuss a few tests, but the main aim is to be able to get some idea, from the pupil’s work and performance in class, of whether there might be working memory difficulties. In her practice Jennie often sees pupils whose difficulties, for a number of reasons, have not been identified until quite late on in their education. When we can see the everyday impact of working memory difficulties, we have a better idea of the things that might help that particular pupil. So Jennie will be talking about techniques that are targeted towards improving the external environment for the young person, so that he or she is more likely to remember what is being taught.
Dr Guise will also be looking at ways to improve the young person’s memory skills, and more broadly at developing the pupil’s knowledge of how he or she learns, and how strengths can be used to improve recall and demonstration of the knowledge gained.
The workshop will include practical activities to explore both auditory and visual aspects of WM, and practical methods of providing support, across different subject areas, to students in Primary and Senior School.
Speaker Biography
Dr Jennie Guise is a Practitioner Psychologist and author, with extensive experience of assessing for Specific Learning Difficulties in Primary and Secondary Schools, Further Education, Higher Education and in the workplace.
She has worked in research, and now in applied practice as founder and Director of Dysguise Ltd (http://www.dysguise.com). She has recently published two excellent books on dyslexia assessment and activities to unlock the learning potential of dyslexic students.
She works in the UK and internationally, carrying out independent assessments for parents, schools, colleges, universities, and corporate clients, and providing seminars and workshops on dyslexia and related issues.
Dr Guise’s main interests are in identifying what will help individual learners to progress, and in working collaboratively with educators, and workplaces, to apply that knowledge in practical ways.
