Dyslexia: Mediation and Internalization in PREP (PASS Reading Enhancement Program)

Allowing the child to discover the rules with the help of a teacher or an instructor is a standard procedure in our program. If the child cannot work out those rules by him or herself, they are internalized by the child through the mediation of the instructor. The teacher, then, becomes a facilitator. Instruction becomes a combination of the teacher’s interaction with the learner and the learner’s discovery of the tricks for doing the task. Vygotsky (1978) was a great advocate of guided discovery learning, where the child is helped through prompting, but only in accordance with his needs.

Eventually, through the mediation of the adult, the principles of the tasks, such as sequencing or successive processing, become internalized. So, internalization and mediation become the two central activities that help children to learn, and the two modes of thinking that the teacher tries to facilitate.

Ideally, therefore, children in a good remedial program are engaged as active learners and as reflective learners. They are engaged in the activity and think about what they are doing. This has been the common procedure intended in many remediation programs, but the theory behind it has not always been clear. This lack of understanding may result in a mechanical approach being promoted.

The interaction between the child and the teacher is framed within social cognition, that is, remediation becomes a collaborative activity. The instructor and the child work together, attempting to understand each other’s intentions and modifying their activities accordingly. All learning, as Vygotsky said, is a sociocultural act. (And hence, ZPD [Zone of Proximal Development] is often quoted as the central point of remediation following Vygotsky.) We transmit culture through such collaborative activities, and rightly so, because human civilization is based on the transmission of cultural knowledge acquired in one’s own generation to the next generation. A remedial procedure, therefore, reflects the world of cultural transmission in a microcosm.

What we have discussed is a long-winded answer to the question, “Is there a remedy for learning disabilities?” To summarize—the answer is yes, there is a remedy, but, first of all, the cognitive processes that may be lacking for learning to read must be recognized. Tasks and situations that promote the use of the cognitive strategies must be designed carefully so that they provide a structure for the discovery of strategies to occur.

The strategies may vary from individual to individual and, therefore, there is no one correct strategy that needs to be taught. This is a departure from the usual teaching mode where there is only one right answer. The teacher’s role is to facilitate the discovery of whatever strategy works for the child. The child is actively engaged in this search and also reflects on the activity with the collaboration of the teacher.

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