di: Update on Zig

[Joe Kuhn]

A tribute to Zig:

I failed to learn to read in my first half year of first grade. It wasn't
until later that I learned you can't learn the skill by studying diphthongs
(blends), vowels and consonants. My father taught me to read by sounding
out the words. Except for some minimal difference confusions, this worked
pretty well and got me to Marty Siegel's graduate level class on Conceptual
Learning at the University of Illinois. I remember Zig's little yellow
book. I bet there are still some copies out there.

I followed the truth in that book to the U of O and took every class I
could from Zig and his team. I graduated with a Masters thesis on teaching
mute children to speak and worked with three children in the course of that
study. One child went into first grade on time after we worked through his
severe stuttering problem. One other child learned 12 sounds he had never
spoken in about a year and I am sure I was only able to do this because of
what Zig taught me about effective instruction. We also reduced this boy's
tantrums, a worthy start in life.

After realizing the world of curriculum design hadn't been keeping up with
Zig and Doug, I switched careers to computer programming, taught myself the
skills by looking at minimal differences and positive example ranges and
successfully raised a family of my own. Both of my children learned to read
from "100 Easy Lessons".

For all of this, I am forever grateful to Zig and his wonderful team of
dedicated coworkers. I see that several of his family are carrying Zig's
work forward, a most worthy cause.

Just last summer I helped my neighbor here in IL with her mute child of
four. She's a doctor and was frantic about his inability to speak. I
modeled some speech about things we could see and touch in the world. They
purchased a talking toy with animal pictures on a dial that spoke with via
a pull cord.  They continued working in their home on his speech. Just last
week my wife gifted the boy with a mini lunch box of toy vehicles my son
used to play with. He later came to my wife and had a conversation with her:

I want to thank you.

Thank me for what?

I want to thank you for the trucks you gave me.

His mom says, what kind of trucks?

A police car, a tow truck, a garbage truck and a dump truck.

And then his mother smiled the biggest smile in all the world.

Thank you Zig. Thank you team.

Joe Kuhn
U of I, 1976
U of O, 1979


On Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 5:58 PM Bryan Wickman <bwickman at nifdi.org> wrote:

> Listmates,
>
> On behalf of the Engelmann Family, I regret to inform you that Siegfried
> "Zig" Engelmann passed away peacefully in his home early this afternoon.
> The family has appreciated your support for Zig these past several months.
>
> We will pass on information regarding a memorial once arrangements are
> finalized.
>
> Sadly,
>
> Bryan
>
>
> --
> Bryan Wickman,
> Outreach Coordinator
> 541.485.1973
> --
> Bryan Wickman,
> Outreach Coordinator
> 541.485.1973
> _______________________________________________
> di mailing list
> di at lists.uoregon.edu
> https://lists-prod.uoregon.edu/mailman/listinfo/di
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists-prod.uoregon.edu/pipermail/di/attachments/20190218/92993726/attachment.html>