My name is Åsa and I work as a special education teacher at Ballsta - and Uusimaa School in Kramfors. We are currently training our first batch of students. Before the training, we screened all middle school students at both of my schools. A full 50% of the students showed symptoms of attention deficit disorder.
Selection of students
When I was going to select students for the training, I had initially planned to take students from grade 6. However, this turned out to be impossible due to the school's focus on the national exams and the spring semester grades. Instead, I focused on grade 5. The selection was based on the students' results on the Imvis consensus test and students with low reading speed. A student in grade 2, with confirmed hidden strabismus, was also included. The offer to participate was sent home to the parents via information letter.
Practical training
I have gathered the students during the school day and have chosen to vary the training times so as not to disturb the same subject every time. At the beginning and during testing, the students met individually, which was time-consuming. The training took place in different group rooms, often on sofas where the students could sit or lie. In connection with the training, we collected the students' mobile phones, which are collected at the beginning of the school day.
To ensure quality and minimize interruptions, we chose to use SVT's commercial-free programs as training videos.
One of the students also trained at home during holidays and weekends. Committed parents are a prerequisite for this to work.
Training evaluation
Apart from Imvis' tests, we are also measuring reading speed ourselves to evaluate progress. It looks promising and we look forward to doing new tests before the end of the semester!
Working with Imvi has been a learning experience, and I look forward to continuing to follow the students' progress and contribute to their reading development.
