NILD Educational Therapy

[Tokyomarie]

Hi all, I just read through the thread titled "Dyslexia help." In it, the OP asks about how O-G and NILD are related. I didn't want a post describing NILD to get lost in the already very long thread, so I've created a separate post. 

Before I talk about NILD, I want to do some introduction for those who do not recognize my username. I was a homeschooling parent to three children for many, many years. I started by afterschooling my older two when they attended public school in the Japanese system. Later I homeschooled full-time. I've been on TWTM boards for many, many years now (about 20yrs). My younger two children have dyslexia and related learning challenges. Both children worked with professionals at various points, but I did the lion's share of their instruction over the long haul. In 2013, when my son was in the upper high school years, I started training to learn both traditional O-G and NILD Educational Therapy. I am now a Professionally Certified Educational Therapist (PCET) with NILD and hold IDA's Certified Dyslexia Therapist (CDT) designation. In May, I graduated with an M.Ed. in Exceptional Student Education from Southeastern University. I did the NILD concentration and the regular ESE courses. I am also an Associate Member of the Association of Educational Therapists (AET) and am working toward the next level of certification. Why do I do all this? Because I want to have the tools in my toolbox to work with students who have more complex profiles than many students with a "garden variety" version of dyslexia. Many students respond quickly to basic O-G instruction; others don't for a variety of reasons. My own son has a complex profile and I struggled to meet his needs effectively. I knew that I wanted to serve other students like him. Because I am now working full-time, I don't actively participate on the boards anymore, but I pop in to read every so often. 

Now for NILD: NILD Educational Therapy is an intervention which can address the reading and writing challenges our children with dyslexia have, but also addresses many of the underlying cognitive, perceptual, and emotional challenges. NILD is not necessarily one-stop shopping for all of the needs students with complex profiles have. However, through an individually designed program (based on the component techniques), NILD addresses all the major aspects of reading, writing, and math plus helps students with thinking skills, memory, visual and auditory processing, executive functions, and their mindset and emotional responses to learning in general and learning tasks/routines, specifically. All of the instructional strategies we use are thoroughly research-based and in line with the multisensory, structured learning principles listed in the IDA Fact Sheet that was linked. NILD's reading instruction is considered to be a modified O-G approach. Anna Gillingham and June Orton were involved in the early development. NILD Educational Therapy does not follow the typical O-G lesson plan, but it does address all the concepts present in O-G style reading instruction. NILD uses diagnostic and prescriptive teaching using those O-G principles. It should pinpoint students' current level of skill and move them on from there.

Training/education in NILD theory, principles, and methods requires a minimum of the 3 graduate level NILD courses spaced out over a minimum of 3 summers, several hundred hours of working with students, attendance at conferences and webinars, and working with a mentor to reach full certification. To maintain certification, an NILD Educational Therapist must continue to accrue 200 hours of student work/year plus engagement in professional development activities. NILD strongly encourages therapists to complete a master's degree in an education-related field. There are two degree programs that incorporate the 3 NILD courses. 

Regarding the Associative Keyword Approach: Traditional O-G instruction does use associative keywords to cue students for letter sounds and spelling, but frequently these keywords are limited to the short vowel sounds and any other patterns that students are having particular difficulty learning. NILD extends that to include keywords for the vast majority of English spelling patterns. We use the keywords to cue students in decoding and spelling, but our work with the Blue Book Method also addresses thinking and memory strategies and helping students to identify and verbalize patterns.

There are 5 Core Techniques in NILD: Rhythmic Writing, Blue Book, Buzzer, Dictation and Copy, and Math Block. There are many others (including various visual puzzles) that address a variety of needs. The Buzzer technique is where the Morse Code card comes in. Buzzer incorporates auditory processing, memory, and visual processing using Morse Code; it also addresses spelling analysis (using Blue Book keywords), vocabulary development, parts of speech, and sentence level oral and written production. 

Prior to beginning instruction, the student should have an assessment that includes IQ, visual-motor integration (VMI), standardized academic achievement, an informal reading inventory, and other informal tests to assist in the development of their program. If a student comes to the educational therapist with the standardized testing complete, then the therapist only needs to do the informal assessments. If a student does not have the standardized testing on file, then the family will need to work with the educational therapist and a psychologist to complete that testing.

The average age for students to begin NILD Educational Therapy is about 8-10. However, many students who are 7yo are very successful. NILD can be used even with adults at the other end of the age range. NILD also has an intervention called Search & Teach that is used with K-1 or K-2 students who are at risk for learning difficulties. The average length of time students continue in NILD is about 3 years. Some will finish in 2 years, others take longer. Our goal is for most students to be able to navigate the grade level classroom and curriculum independently or with a minimum of accommodation. This goal often takes longer to reach than the goal of bringing basic decoding skills up to grade level. However, it is totally dependent on a number of factors, such as both student and parent participation, faithfulness in practice at home, the student's profile at the beginning of educational therapy, and whether there are significant behavioral or emotional roadblocks in learning that require remediation as well.

If you have questions, feel free to post. If you have very specific questions feel free to PM me or contact me through my FB business page: https://www.facebook.com/3clearning/

     

[Pen]

Could you explain more about what is done for executive functions? That is currently my main interest with regard to LDs. 

And I also wish you would explain more about the paragraph that starts, “There are 5 core techniques” including Morse code use, which sounds both mystifying and intriguing. 

[Kanin]

Thank you so much for that explanation.

[Tokyomarie]

Hi Pen, 

Within the regular NILD Educational Therapy framework, the various executive functions are addressed by the way we interact with our students- the type of questioning we do and the feedback we give the student- throughout the different activities we do. We are intentional about helping our students recognize opportunities for goal setting, planning, organizing their thinking, initiating tasks, sustaining engagement in the learning task even when the task is not one of their preferred activities, and being flexible in thinking. But this is all integrated into our responses to the student during each of the activities we do with them. The NILD session is a fast-paced session, with activities changing frequently, so students rarely spend more than 10 minutes in a single activity, which helps with student engagement. 

NILD does have a workshop which helps ETs build an EF coaching program which can address certain specific areas like organizing binders and backpacks, dealing with schedules, etc. This is separate from the NILD Educational Therapy framework. 

Regarding the Buzzer technique, I'll defer on further description since specific instructional routines are proprietary. Rhythmic Writing addresses fine motor control in handwriting as well as working memory (amongst other abilities) through tracing the eights, writing motifs, and learning cursive writing. The Blue Book, Dictation & Copy, and all other related techniques address the basics of reading (including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, & comprehension), spelling, and written expression. Math Block addresses both fluency and problem-solving in math.   

[4KookieKids]

Wow this is a lot of information! Thanks!

[Tokyomarie]

4KookieKids, 

I replied on the other post but edited out some detail. Hopefully, you saw that post before my edits. Please feel free to contact me if you want to talk about any specifics. 

[SharonUF]

Congratulations! I just finished ET level 1 at SEU. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Tokyomarie]

28 minutes ago, SharonUF said:

Congratulations! I just finished ET level 1 at SEU. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Nice to meet you, Sharon! Let's connect via PM! 

[ET/L,Nancy]

Hi Tokyomarie, I just completed NILD Level I training in July 2018 also. Your post and thread are very informative. Would you mind if I added a link to it and added a discussion question for an online tech. lesson assignment? I'm working on my MEd. 

Thanks,