Thursday 5 February 2015 at 7.30pm

Rhodes Theatre, RE Kefford Building, Barker College, including light refreshments

RSVP 30 January 2015 www.trybooking.com/GSHL

The Barker Institute was established by the Head of Barker College, Mr Phillip Heath, at the end of 2014. It combines the latest educational research, professional learning and emerging practice for staff and the broader Barker College community. The Institute aims to develop its work locally, nationally and globally. The Institute is directed by Dr Brad Merrick.

Keynote Address by Dr Bartek Rajkowski PhD

Why too many Australian students struggle with reading and what we should do about it: insights from the latest in research on reading acquisition and dyslexia that every educator must know.
In this important and topical keynote, passionate speech-language pathologist and literacy expert Dr Bartek Rajkowski will summarise what the latest research tells us about the most important skills involved in learning to read. The presentation will include an overview of reading difficulties and dyslexia, and summarise Dr Rajkowski’s doctoral research, which was an investigation of the relationship between reading ability and the brain’s aptitude for storing and processing information about the speech sounds of language (phonological processing skills).

Dr Bartek Rajkowski is a leading Australian speech and language pathologist with over 15 years of experience in helping students with reading difficulties. He is the director of Adelaide Speech Pathology Services, a clinic specialising in reading difficulties and dyslexia. He is also the creator of Reading Doctor literacy improvement software. Bartek is passionate about research-based assessment, identification and remediation of reading difficulties. He is especially interested in developing software-based approaches to literacy instruction and remediation.