Davis Method

Yup…it doesn’t work…It is a “different” way of seeing dyslexia but IMHO it doesn’t remediate.

This method has helped some. I wouldn’t rule out anything as there are some many differences with each child. Check it out.

Amy, Linda Silverman has a book called “Upside-Down Brilliance” in which she quotes in detail from some report of teachers who implemented Davis methods on their own with great success. There are some very specific numbers there - it’s worth getting the book for the other info it has about learning styles and strategies as well. The book is available from http://gifteddevelopment.com/ and is one source of objective information from someone not associated with Davis.

Linda Silverman is also author of “Counseling the Gifted and Talented” and her exposure to Davis methods is in connection with her work with visual-spatial learners, which is the subject of her new book. Although her background initially was with gifted children, one thing she reports in Upside-Down Brilliance is that her research has shown that the visual-spatial learning style is not particularly associated with profound giftedness (as her early work had led her to believe), but that some 38% of students in the local districts where she was able to do her research appeared to have this predominant learning style. A good part of this book explains why students with visual-spatial learning styles tend not do well with phonics-based strategies.

If you are working with younger children, an abstract of research into the Davis Learning Strategies primary level program is available at http://www.davislearn.com/ That program employees the same strategies modified for younger children, and is geared for at-risk kids rather than those who have already been identified as LD. In a study that spanned 7 years, none of the kids from the Davis K-3 classrooms later needed special ed placement or remediation.

Thank you. There are just so many methods out there!

Yes there are. And there’s “whole-language” reading, and “see and say” reading, and “language experience” reading, and “sentence method” reading, and … and… and they don’t work, don’t teach kids.
Many authors have a wonderful way with words, but that doesn’t mean much when it comes to whether kids learn or not. Davis gets questioned because as yet there is no *objective* proof that the method does anything for learning.