Using Shape Coding to teach grammar

30th June 2011 Dyslexia Action conference

Susan Ebbels
Moor House School, Hurst Green, Surrey, UK www.moorhouseschool.co.uk and Division of Psychology & Language, UCL

Dyslexia and language impairments

Approximately 50% of children diagnosed with dyslexia have language impairments and vice versa (McArthur et al, 2000) Language impairments often affect the ability to understand and form grammatically correct or complex sentences Shape Coding can help children learn the rules of English grammar

Visual coding systems

Implicitly based on following hypotheses: 1. Children with grammatical difficulties have not learned language implicitly in the normal way 2. They can learn language using taught strategies 3. They have visual strengths 4. They can be taught language through these visual strengths

Shape Coding
1. Codes parts of speech with Colour Pattern Scheme colours (with a few modifications) 2. Codes phrases with shapes (drawn in black). 3. Codes verb morphology with arrows

Shape Coding - colours

Colour Pattern Scheme colours (with a few alterations)
Noun / Pronouns Det / Possessive pronouns Verb Adjective Preposition Adverb Coordinating conjunction Subordinating conjunction (boy, table, I) (the, a, my) (push, melt) (hard, sad) (in, through) (quickly, carefully) (and, but, or) (because, if)

Shape Coding - shapes

Phrases grouped with shapes and linked with colour, a question and a symbol Subjects and objects have different shapes
Who? What? NP: Subject Who? What? NP: Object Where? What doing? Verb Phrase What like? How feel? Adjective Phrase

Extra shapes
How? When? Aux or Modal Clause What happening?

Prepositional Phrase

Shape Coding
Ben was putting an apple in a bowl

The apple

is

tasty

The sad boy is putting his tasty apple

in her bowl

Narrative
Plan ideas in the relevant shapes, e.g., Setting: Where, When, What like? Main characters: Who? Actions / Events: What did? Makes links between narrative and grammar

Narrative
Where? Who? When?

What happened or will happen? 1. 2. 3. 4.

What like? How feel?

How is Shape Coding introduced to new children?

1. SV sentences
Who is what doing

2. Teach that can have >1 word per shape and the correspondence to the question word is key to coding
John is cleaning the car John is putting the car in the garage

3. To reinforce the meaning of the shapes, give exercises where the shape changes according to the meaning
John is sleeping vs. John is tired

4. What, but

and

answer questions of Who or belongs inside other shapes

5. Specific shapes inside hexagons (verb phrase) depend on the individual verb and need to be learned with the verb.

Examples of verb types

sleep put push pour go fill feel or feel with

Basic sentence Templates

Learning vocabulary
To really know an item of vocabulary you have to know its
1. Phonology 2. Meaning, including
a) multiple meanings (use colours to show different meanings which belong to different grammatical categories) b) if it is an irregular plural (double red line) or past tense (vertical arrow at the left) or past participle (horizontal arrow pointing left)

3. AND be able to use it in a sentence, for this you need to know its
a) Part of speech (use the colour) b) Argument structure if it is a verb (use the shapes)

For example
light = not heavy, easy to lift This box is light light = object which helps you see when it is dark The boy is touching the light light = make something burn The boy is lighting the fire

Part 2: verb morphology

Subject verb agreement

Double red line used for plural nouns Double blue lines used for plural verb
The man is happy

The men

are

happy

The man and the lady

are

happy

Verb tenses
Vertical arrow = finite verb (in the middle=present, left=past tense) he eats he ate

zig-zag at right end = progressive participle

he is eating he was eating

horizontal arrow pointing left = past participle he has eaten he had eaten

Intervention: verb tenses

Ebbels (2007)

PAST

PRESENT Coding used to reinforce which form of the word is present and which is past Signing also used with verbs to indicate tense

walked was walking drink ank was drink ing

walks is walking drinks is drinking

Teaching past tense to class

Start with time line Establish position of present and past Think of words which could be used for past times
e.g., yesterday, last week, this morning, 10 years ago List verbs in present progressive versus past progressive Introduce simple past tense Class identify tense of different verbs in isolation or in sentences Class change words/sentences from past to present tense Class correct adults bad sentences Class correct own free writing

Unaided free writing

Percentage of verbs used in past tense when required 100% 90% 80% 70% Se t 60% 50% Jan 40% Feb 30% 20% 10% 0% A B C E F G H I J

Uses of morphological coding

Teaching
Concepts of tense and agreement Grammatical rules e.g., every clause must have one tensed verb = every cracker must have one down arrow Need to have an auxiliary (diamond) to carry tense (down arrow) with a present or past participle Consistency of tense throughout a piece of text (arrows should be in the same place middle or left of blue line)

Correcting work
Use coding system to mark work This enables children to see their own mistakes Increases independence as can correct own mistakes

Points to note
Shape Coding is a tool, not a programme You need to gradually withdraw the shapes to get automatic use or understanding of the grammatical structures:
 Activities with shapes  Activities without shapes, but bring shape templates back to check answers  Activities with no use of shapes

Evidence of effectiveness
Comprehension of wh questions and passives (Ebbels & van der Lely, 2001) Comprehension of datives (Ebbels, 2007) Use of past tense in written work (Ebbels, 2007) Production of verb argument structure (Ebbels et al., 2007) Comprehension of coordinating conjunctions (Ebbels et al., 2011)
Ebbels, S. and van der Lely, H. (2001). Meta-syntactic therapy using visual coding for children with severe persistent SLI. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 36(supplement), 345-350. Ebbels, S.H. (2007). Teaching grammar to school-aged children with Specific Language Impairment using Shape Coding. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 23, 1, 67-93. Ebbels, S.H., van der Lely, H.K.J., and Dockrell, J.E. (2007). Intervention for verb argument structure in children with persistent SLI: a randomized control trial. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 50, 1330-1349. Ebbels, S.H., Mari , N., Murphy, A. & Turner, G. (2007). Can we improve comprehension of grammar in secondary-aged students with language impairments? A randomised control trial of therapy for coordinating conjunctions. Poster presented at Lost for Words: Lost for Life? conference on SLCN in older children and young people. 15-17 June 201, City University London, England.

More information
Email: ebbelss@moorhouseschool.co.uk Website (CD of resources & References): www.moorhouseschool.co.uk/shape-coding-course Discussion group + info re future courses: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shapecoding/ or email: shapecoding-subscribe@yahoogroups.com