This presentation will discuss - The Whole Language Approach to teaching literacy.  

Areas of Memory and The Whole Word Approach will be reviewed.  This is sometimes called the Look and Say Method.  Course will also cover the Phonics Method.  Discussion on the various challenges that arise from these approaches and finally lecturer will talk about a Hybrid Method that tries to circumvent the challenges of the above two methods.

Bio - Dr Pauline Cogan

Pauline Cogan (neé Kiely) is a native of Dungarvan, Co Waterford. She was educated at Mercy Convent, Dungarvan and trained as a Primary School Teacher in Carysfort Training College, Blackrock, Co Dublin in 1967.  She graduated with a BA in languages (1970) and a Higher Diploma in Education (1971) from University College Dublin.

Her marriage to Frank Cogan, a diplomat in the Department of Foreign Affairs brought her to New York, Geneva, Dublin, Brussels, Tehran, Rome and Vienna.  She worked as a teacher and studied Psychology, Neurology and Linguistics in these locations.  She obtained an MSc in Neurolinguistics from VUB (Free University of Brussels – Faculty of Medicine & Pharmacology) in 1995.

Pauline worked as a Neurolinguistic in a multi-disciplinary medical/paramedical team at Brugmann Hospital in Brussels where she was engaged in rehabilitation of individuals with brain trauma and strokes, assisting medical teams on the Locked-In Syndrome and she developed a test to help neurologists recognise the condition. 

Pauline has had a life-long interest in social and educational justice with a principal focus on learning difficulties.   For over a decade she has intensely studied the causes of literacy difficulties in children and has operationalised this knowledge into child and classroom friendly tasks.  She was awarded her PhD by Trinity College, Dublin, in 2012, through research in this field.

With the help of teachers, the school community, the DES and other bodies and driven by research, policy and practice, Pauline has developed TEST2r.  This is a comprehensive test used to screen and pin-point the emergent literacy skills which a 5 – 6-year-old child needs to be taught.  It also provides an individual report on each child and pointers to intervention/resources.

Pauline is an honorary member of the Board of Dyslexia International Tools & Technologies which is a portal to UNESCO.  She is on the National Executive Committee of the Irish Learning Support Association (ILSA) and is the Editor of LEARN – the peer reviewed journal of that body.  She is also a Chartered Psychologist of the Psychological Society of Ireland.

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