Susan Gathercole

Dr Tracy Alloway has been awarded the prestigious Joseph Lister Award from the British Science Association. 'The authors have written a guide for practitioners that is both highly practical, and yet based upon sound theoretical principles….This book achieves a successful, yet often elusive, link between theory, research and practice, and deserves to have a high readership. I will have no hesitation in recommending it to a range of readers' - Jane Mott, Support for Learning 'This book fulfils its aim to explain working memory and the limits it places on children's classroom learning. For teachers it gives a very clear guide and fills a gap in understanding that can only lead to more child-centred approaches to teaching and learning' - Lynn Ambler, Support for Learning 'A clear and accessible account of current theory and research, which is then applied to children's learning in the classroom....The range of strategies...are well grounded in theory derived from research and sit within a coherent conceptual model' - The Psychologist 'An easy to read yet informative book that explains the concepts clearly and offers practitioners ways to support those with poor working memory in the classroom' - SNIP `The topic of working memory nowadays tends to dominate discussions with teachers and parents, and both groups can helpfully be directed to this easy-to-read but serious text … (it) is likely to prove a turning-point in the management and facilitation of hard-to-teach children. In a situation muddied by ever-multiplying syndromes and disorders, this book delivers a clarifying and reassuring isolation of the major cognitive characteristic that cuts across all the boundaries and leaves the class teacher and SENCO empowered. I think very highly of the book and shall be recommending it steadily' - Martin Turner, Child Center for Evaluation and Teaching, Kuwait Susan Gathercole is winner of the British Psychological Society's President's Award for 2007 A good working memory is crucial to becoming a successful learner, yet there is very little material available in an easy-to-use format that explains the concept and offers practitioners ways to support children with poor working memory in the classroom. This book provides a coherent overview of the role played by working memory in learning during the school years, and uses theory to inform good practice. Topics covered include: - the link between working memory skills and key areas of learning (such as literacy & numeracy) - the relationship between working memory and children with developmental disorders - assessment of children for working memory deficits - strategies for supporting working memory in under-performing children This accessible guide will help SENCOs, teachers, teaching assistants, speech and language therapists and educational psychologists to understand and address working memory in their setting.

Dr Tracy Alloway has been awarded the prestigious Joseph Lister Award from the British Science Association. 'The authors have written a guide for practitioners that is both highly practical, and yet based upon sound theoretical principles….This book achieves a successful, yet often elusive, link between theory, research and practice, and deserves to have a high readership. I will have no hesitation in recommending it to a range of readers' - Jane Mott, Support for Learning 'This book fulfils its aim to explain working memory and the limits it places on children's classroom learning. For teachers it gives a very clear guide and fills a gap in understanding that can only lead to more child-centred approaches to teaching and learning' - Lynn Ambler, Support for Learning 'A clear and accessible account of current theory and research, which is then applied to children's learning in the classroom....The range of strategies...are well grounded in theory derived from research and sit within a coherent conceptual model' - The Psychologist 'An easy to read yet informative book that explains the concepts clearly and offers practitioners ways to support those with poor working memory in the classroom' - SNIP `The topic of working memory nowadays tends to dominate discussions with teachers and parents, and both groups can helpfully be directed to this easy-to-read but serious text … (it) is likely to prove a turning-point in the management and facilitation of hard-to-teach children. In a situation muddied by ever-multiplying syndromes and disorders, this book delivers a clarifying and reassuring isolation of the major cognitive characteristic that cuts across all the boundaries and leaves the class teacher and SENCO empowered. I think very highly of the book and shall be recommending it steadily' - Martin Turner, Child Center for Evaluation and Teaching, Kuwait Susan Gathercole is winner of the British Psychological Society's President's Award for 2007 A good working memory is crucial to becoming a successful learner, yet there is very little material available in an easy-to-use format that explains the concept and offers practitioners ways to support children with poor working memory in the classroom. This book provides a coherent overview of the role played by working memory in learning during the school years, and uses theory to inform good practice. Topics covered include: - the link between working memory skills and key areas of learning (such as literacy & numeracy) - the relationship between working memory and children with developmental disorders - assessment of children for working memory deficits - strategies for supporting working memory in under-performing children This accessible guide will help SENCOs, teachers, teaching assistants, speech and language therapists and educational psychologists to understand and address working memory in their setting.

In order to read sentences, children must first be able to decode the individual words. Failure at this stage will lead to later problems, even in the case of an intelligent child who has good comprehension skills. The Reading Decision Test consists of two tests, The Word Decision Test and The Letter Decision Test, that together provide a rapid and sensitive measure of reading during the early stages of learning, allowing the early detection of children who are having difficulties. There are two versions of each test, which allows the same child to be tested twice in the same session, and also minimises the chance of copying when groups are tested (if alternate children are given different versions of the same test). The Word Decision Test assesses children's ability to make decisions between known meaningful words and nonsense words. This test is suitable for children with a reading age of between five and eleven, and can be given either individually or to a group of children. It takes just four minutes to complete, and gives a reading age for each child. Children whose reading age is clearly below their chronological age can then be tested on The Letter Decision Test to identify whether their problem lies at the letter or word level. This test assesses children's ability to recognise written letters, takes a total of just three minutes and is suitable for children with reading ages between four years and eight years, seven months. The Reading Decision Test also includes an instructor's manual which gives step by-step instructions on how to administer and score the test, as well as providing details of it's standardisation, test-retest reliability and validity. This test will be a valuable tool for researchers in the fields of cognitive, developmental, and educational psychology; facilitating the rapid assessment of word decoding ability in both individuals and groups, and detecting problems during the initial stages of learning to read.