Dr Kerry Hempenstall: 'Literacy and mental health (updated 2018)'

Downloads and links to relevant research and articles, along with book recommendations.
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Dr Kerry Hempenstall: 'Literacy and mental health (updated 2018)'

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Dr Kerry Hempenstall's site is a 'must visit' - truly - if you want to know the findings of a huge body of research:

https://www.nifdi.org/resources/news/he ... tal-health

Literacy and mental health (updated 2018)

Dr Kerry Hempenstall, Senior Industry Fellow, School of Education, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

First published Nov 5 2012, updated 19/8/2016, 12/6/2018

All my blogs can be viewed on-line or downloaded as a Word file or PDF at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/olxpifutwcgv ... irR8a?dl=0

The relationship between mental health and literacy is not easy to disentangle, as studies are usually correlational in design. Certainly, there does appear to be a link - but does illiteracy cause mental health problems, or might mental health problems impede literacy development? Or perhaps a third variable affects both domains. One obvious candidate for a causal link involves extended failure caused or exacerbated by inadequate instruction, particularly in that first big educational hurdle – literacy development.

David Boulton of the Children of the Code fame writes about the unfortunate subjective experience of children with sustained educational low achievement, suggestive of an impact on self-esteem, mental health, and preparedness to persevere. His writings can be found by Googling the heading: Stewarding Healthy Learning.

What does it mean that most of our children are chronically improficient in the skill areas most critically important for success in school?
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