• wednesday, 15 november 2017—12:15

    Reading as Functional Coordination – A Framework

    Thomas Lachmann, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany

    I will introduce the Functional Coordination approach to literacy development. This approach describes the processes involved in learning to read as a form of procedural learning. Pre-existing perceptual and cognitive functions, mainly from the visual and auditory domain, are (1) recruited, (2) modified, and (3) coordinated to create the specific procedures for reading text, which form the basis of subsequent (4) automatization. Developmental dyslexia is explained within this framework as a Functional Coordination Deficit, i.e., a consequence of automatization of suboptimally developed functional coordination. This integrative approach is a mere framework, rather than an explanatory theory, and is open to multi-causal explanations. Rather than solving the puzzle, the framework offers a structure for integrating various theories on reading and dyslexia. Furthermore, I will introduce the recently developed and published training program LAUTARIUM (lautarium.com) for supporting beginning readers and dyslexic children.

    external seminar