NOW! Grammar and Writing was developed by Dr. Ann Alexander, founder of the Morris Center in an attempt to fill the gap between reading sentences and interpreting the meaning of those sentences. We found that children with dyslexia often have a hard time understanding what the most important pieces of a sentence are and subsequently have a difficult time imaging sentences. NGW also is used as a precursor for addressing writing.
As implied in the name, this program is also multi-sensory. It brings together several modalities: auditory, visual and kinesthetic. The client discovers the role of individual words in a sentence and colored blocks provide a visual association for that role– for example, a green block represents an action verb. In the beginning portion of NGW, clients learn to identify and use verbs, subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, adjectives, adverbs, linking verbs, helping verbs, prepositional phrases and word groups (e.g. clauses). Clients analyze a sentence and place the color-coded blocks above the words to emphasize the role of the parts of the sentence. With this increased awareness of the mechanics of a sentence, the client is better able to understand and produce written language. The client is then ready to proceed to Mental Imagery for the analysis of paragraphs and essays. The NGW therapy continues to a higher level with the discovery of the parts of a paragraph and finally an essay. The client then learns semantic mapping / webbing in order to create paragraphs and, finally, essays.
Your child will not just memorize the parts of speech; he will discover what each part means, how each part functions in a sentence, and how each part adds to the overall meaning of the sentence. Once your child is able to break down and understand what he or she is reading, an accurate mental image can then be created and stored away in his brain for future use.
