Newsletter | May 2025
Greetings everyone, and welcome to Term 2! I hope you are all feeling rested and ready for another term of non-stop action. Term 1 was filled with a lot of behind-the-scenes work here at Read3. When we weren’t running training and responding to enquiries we were strapped to our desks making resources and spreadsheets, and editing our new comprehensive professional user guide.
A highlight was my recent visit to Sheldon College. Now entering their third year of Read3, in 2025 the school made the decision to offer Read3 intervention four mornings a week just prior to the commencement of the school day. Prioritising intervention early in the day is a great way to ensure children are fresh and engaged, and we are VERY excited to see such an innovative model being put into place. It was an absolute pleasure to connect with this dedicated team, review some session footage and answer their specific questions around Read3 implementation. Our heartfelt thanks to Sheldon College for their continued commitment to maximising intervention for the most at-risk, and for choosing the Read3 program for your students.
Also, a quick shoutout to Helen Dimond, our consulting speech pathologist, who recently presented at the 2025 AGOSCI Conference in Adelaide. Helen, along with the team at Move and Play Paediatric Therapy in Mackay shared findings of their research into experiences of a multimodal learning program for Alternative and Augmentative Communication (and were particularly thrilled to have their work quoted later by Keynote Speaker Gayle Porter!) Congratulations to all involved.
Spreadsheet for FISH fluency screener just released!
In recent months we’ve received some fantastic feedback about FISH, our fluency screener, and are pleased to announce that it’s just got even better with the addition of our new comprehensive spreadsheet!
Available in both Excel and Google formats, the spreadsheet enables you to review the oral reading fluency of your older struggling readers and make intervention decisions in a matter of minutes.
FISH stands for Fluency Indicators in a Story Hierarchy. Ideal for students aged 8 years and over, FISH offers a unique series of short, decodable passages that are designed to pinpoint where a student's phonic knowledge starts to break down.
Our new FISH spreadsheet was designed to make screening even simpler! Minimal data entry is required – for each story read, just enter the number of errors and the time taken to complete it and everything else is done for you! Hasbrouck and Tindal's updated fluency norms are built-in to the formulas, and instructions on where to progress to next are included on each sheet.
The spreadsheet includes the following features:
- a separate sheet for each year level with pre-loaded fluency norms
- ability to track performance at beginning, middle and end of year
- a colour-coded, printable summary of student results per year level
- a visual indicator per story if the oral reading fluency is at benchmark, below benchmark, or needs to be monitored
- an additional red flag to alert you if reading accuracy is low
- digital walkthrough of spreadsheet included.
PLUS, we have incorporated a very simple way to identify at which Step of the Read3 program (or level of phonic code) to commence intervention. Just enter the number of last story to reach the fluency benchmark, and voila!
If you already have the FISH Screener:
PURCHASE SPREADSHEET HERE
If you are not yet using FISH:
PURCHASE SCREENER + SPREADSHEET HERE
Helping kids read better, faster:
focus on what really moves the needle!
When using a reading program, we are encouraged to demonstrate ‘program fidelity’. This simply means you should stick to what has been outlined in the program for maximum success. And that's generally true! However, when you're helping a child who finds reading really tricky, it’s not always that cut and dried.
The Read3 program stems from a therapy-based model that recognises every child progresses at their own pace. The level of scaffolding and repetition needed will differ from child to child. That’s why Read3 includes a variety of activities at each step.
But not every child will need every activity. Intervention time is precious, so make sure you are focusing on what will really move the needle forward, not rigidly completing every activity in the program.
Read our latest blog for tips on how to achieve this.
READ LATEST BLOG POST
A new analysis kit for the CHIP Screener in the pipeline!
Research indicates we can identify those at-risk of long term reading difficulties on entry to school by screening four key areas:
- phonological awareness (PA)
- letter-sound knowledge (LSK)
- phonological working memory (PM)
- rapid automatised naming (RAN)
And that’s what CHIPS (Check How I Process Screener) aims to do. In just 10 minutes you gain an understanding of the nature and severity of key reading risk indicators.
| Since its inception in 2022, over 13,000 copies of CHIPS have been downloaded worldwide for FREE! |
The catch of course is finding the time to interpret and make sense of all the data... The good news is our new CHIPS Analysis Kit will remove the guesswork regarding who requires Tier 2 or Tier 3 intervention. Enter the student data and your students will instantly be triaged into intervention/risk categories, and a single-page student report per student will be generated automatically! We’ve also included adjustments for EALD, and added the flexibility to screen just PM and RAN if other data has already been collected.
We are excited to be bringing you this new and exciting addition to CHIPS. Keep an eye on your inbox for more details!
Read3 Journal Club:
the one where they tackled Statistical Learning!!
We buckled in recently for Read3 Journal Club and tackled the topic of statistical learning and its possible connection to dyslexia. Typically the articles chosen for Journal Club are Meta Analyses, so we decided to mix things up and discuss a Review.
Statistical learning is like your brain's secret code-breaking ability. It's how we pick up on patterns in our environment, from the sounds of language to the order of letters in words. It’s a domain general cognitive skill, which for the non-Psychologists amongst us means it’s a skill that is broadly applicable across tasks. So statistical learning isn’t just necessary for reading, it’s also important for maths, visual perception, music, social cognition and so on.
If you'd like to learn more about the link between statistical learning and dyslexia click below.
LEARN MORE
Read3 training for Speech Pathologists
Block #1 saw another 40 speechies complete Read3 training and now it’s time for Block #2!
Training starts 2 May, 2025. and consists of four x 2 hr sessions, and replays are made available.
Participants will have access to Module 1 Step 1 of the Read3 program throughout the training block so they can practise what they learn.
REGISTER FOR SLP TRAINING
Read3 training for schools
If the prospect of training and budgeting for individualised intervention seems a little daunting, never fear!
While the Read3 program is ‘individualised’ it does not have to be administered one-on-one. Our games-based approach lends itself well to a small group setting, and detailed instructions, scripts and videos support all team members.
Training is available in a self-paced format to enable greater flexibility amongst your team. Learn a little, practice, then learn a little more.
If you are thinking about stepping up your intervention game, please reach out for a training and licence proposal..
ABOUT SCHOOL TRAINING
Want to know more about Read3? Just Ask!
If you are not yet using Read3 or the Easy Alphabet, but are keen to know more, reach out via support@read3.com.au or book a phone call at a time that suits you. We're always happy to help.
Cheers for now,
Kate Andrew
Co-Founder, Read3 Literacy
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