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PADIA is delighted to announce the return to DIA of Joanna Jeffery founder of Dyslexia Access UK and creator of trugs - a game to teach reading using games as guest speaker at our Coffee Morning.

Reading and Dyslexia Coffee Morning - Report

On 28 September 2009, a full house of 40 DIA parents enjoyed a presentation by a fantastic speaker: Joanna Jeffery, founder of Dyslexia Access UK. Joanna talked about her experience helping children with difficulties learning to read, and demonstrated TRUGS, a board game she designed to make learning to read fun. In about one hour, she made us understand the feelings and distress of a child having trouble reading, showed us some ways to make reading fun, and let us play TRUGS. You probably heard us laughing as we had a lot of fun playing the different TRUGS games!

A tremendous event and a great lady!!!

Here is the answer! A structured phonic reading resource for teachers, parents and carers

If you have been searching for a simple, effective, fun and quick game to play to boost reading ability, with children of all ages, at school or home, you need look no further than this. Trugs 'does exactly what it says on the tin' – Teach Reading Using Games. The use of this mnemonic is not the only evidence that these games have been devised by a specialist teacher with 30 years' experience of teaching children with reading difficulties. The games are carefully designed to sustain interest: they are fun and each one only takes a few minutes; they progress cumulatively from simple to more complex phonic elements and use a multi-sensory approach thus allowing learning through simultaneous visual, auditory and kinaesthetic activities.

So what is the magic? The box contains five separate stages with four games at each stage. The first stage is CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, the second initial consonant blends, the third final blends, the fourth ar/or/er and the final stage comprises closed syllables and revises the first four stages. Within each of the stages are four games: 'Match it', for up to four players, where sets of coloured suits may be switched by the use of a joker or using the numbers on the card; 'Take it', is for two players (although I have played it with three), with the objective to build sets of words but by drawing someone else’s colour from the pack you may steal their cards (this leads to much hilarity and enjoyment); 'Guess it', for two players , improves memory skills as it requires guessing unseen cards and remembering which have gone; and 'Use it' for two or more players, is a fun way of building sentences and improving comprehension and vocabulary. The common key to all the games is that you can only play if you are able to read the words as you play.

Also included is a miscue analysis Monitoring Booklet for the adult together with a similar Reading Booklet for the student. There are ten stories altogether, two at each stage, with each story being exactly 50 words. This means that progress can be monitored and assessed throughout the whole process.

If you have been casting around for the ideal game to buy that teaches, is hugely enjoyable and fast, then you need look no further – here you have 20 all in one box!

Review by Polly Bennett, primary school SpLD teacher