A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

Sometimes, we need a vacation. We need relief from painful stressors. We need a breather. To recuperate our energy and optimism, we need to change locations, activities, and mindsets.

If your child struggles with reading, should you and his school give him a vacation from reading? The answer is found in answers to questions like those below.

The Questions

• Does reading usually frustrate your child?
• Does reading emotionally drain or anger him?
• Is his distaste for reading and school surging?
• Is his reading progress minimal or plateauing? Is he regressing?
• Does he resist reading? Does he do whatever he can to escape it?
• Is he much happier on school vacations than on school days?

If he needs a vacation, the length and nature of the vacation is found in the particulars of your child’s reading program, his typical day at home and in school, and his personality and likes and dislikes.

Recommendations

Consider working with your child’s school to give him a two or three week vacation from more than incidental reading. Replace reading with lots of activities he’ll enjoy and want to discuss, like playing volleyball, singing in a choir, and visiting a wildlife refuge.

During his vacation, work with the school to analyze his reading program. Seek reasons for your answers to the “vacation” questions. Learn why he’s frustrated, or plateauing, or resistant to reading.  Are his reading materials too difficult, is he embarrassed by membership in “the low” reading group,” does he think that even titanic efforts will not reverse his “reading failure?”

Outcome

If the vacation is handled correctly—if it’s long enough to give him a breather, if it helps him enjoy himself—he might return to reading more refreshed, more energetic, more optimistic. But this won’t last unless the school adjusts his reading program to effectively and efficiently meet his social, emotional, and academic needs.

For a struggling reader, the need for a vacation from reading often signals that his program is failing his needs. It’s not working for him; it’s working against him. So, consider his vacation an opportunity to give him a breather, to modify his program so he’ll likely succeed and feel successful, and to energize his optimism (“I will succeed”). The questions in chapters 4 and 5 of Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds (www.amazon.com) can help. Chapter 6 offers guidance for helping at home.

Howard Margolis © Reading2008 & Beyond

howard@reading2008.com

www.reading2008.com

Strengthening Your Child’s Emotional Intelligence

Dr. John Pellitteri

City University of New York

To download, go to:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/specialneedstalkradio/2011/10/04/dr-john-pellitteri

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The Special Needs Talk Radio Network: It’s On The Air

The new Special Needs Talk Radio network (http://specialneedstalkradio.com/) is on the air. Each of its six shows is dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth with special needs and their families.

Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and I host Maximizing Your Child’s Potential (Mondays, 9 PM – 9:30 PM EST, http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential).

On Monday, October 10^th, our guest will be Dr. J. Richard Gentry, Educational Consultant, Raising Confident Readers: Birth and Beyond. Dr. Gentry earned his Elementary Education degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in Reading Education from the University of Virginia in 1977. For sixteen years he taught Reading Education at Western Carolina University where he directed the Reading Center. He is well known for his research and writing in literacy education and is currently an independent researcher, author, and educational consultant.

Over the next few months, our guests will include:

• October 17^th —Dr. Tim Rasinski, Kent State University, Overcoming Problems of Reading Fluency
• October 24^th —Susan Orloff, OTR/L, Occupational Therapist, Learning Re-Enabled
• October 31^st —Dr. Nancy Padak, Kent State University, Helping Your Children Overcome Reading Problems
• Dr. Richard Boon, University of Georgia, Helping Teenagers Improve Their Reading
• Dr. Erica Lembke, University of Missouri, Monitoring Your Child’s Progress
• Dr. Patrick McCabe, Mercy College, Developing the Confidence of Struggling Learners
• Staci Greenwald, Special Education Attorney, The Pro’s and Con’s of Public and Private School Programs
• Dr. Annmarie Urso, State University of New York at Geneseo, How Response-To-Intervention ( RTI) Can Unlock Your Child’s Potential

If possible, look at the Special Needs Talk Radio’s website (http://specialneedstalkradio.com/). See how its many experts can help you help the children and youth you care about.

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

In grades 4, 5, and 6, the reading problems of many struggling readers explode. Readers slam into walls of failure and frustration. Their struggles are not unexpected. They have well-known causes:

• Curriculum that fails to focus on what they need to learn to become successful readers
• Curriculum that doesn’t give them the kind of instruction and practice they need
• Language, memory, and organizational abilities that can’t readily handle the grade’s more complex and demanding tasks and language
• Frustration level texts and tasks, such as grade level reading homework that overwhelms them
• Greater amounts of independent work
• The unintentional hardening of ineffective, counterproductive learning strategies
• Inadequate social, emotional, and instructional support from school personnel
• Invidious self-comparisons with classmates and friends who appear to achieve effortlessly
• Pressure to succeed on No Child Left Behind tests
• Derisive or indifferent peer actions and statements
• The lure of non-school activities, such as gangs, sports, and video games.
• Inadequate support from families
• Discouragement, resignation, humiliation, and resistance to reading caused by years of failure

Unless intervention is effective early on, success becomes far more difficult and labor intensive.

• Small gaps in reading abilities at the elementary school level often become large ones at the middle and high school level…. Students who are behind in reading get further behind; those who are making gains continue to make gains. (Bowman-Perrott, Herrera, & Murry, 2010, p. 98.)
• It is clear from our [federally funded] longitudinal studies that follow good and poor readers from kindergarten into young adulthood that our young poor readers are largely doomed to such failure from the beginning. By the end of the first grade, we begin to notice substantial decreases in the children’s self-esteem, self-concept, and motivation to learn to read if they have not been able to master reading skills and keep up with their age-mates. As we follow the children through elementary and middle school grades, these problems compound…. These individuals constantly tell us that they hate to read; primarily they hate to read, primarily because it is such hard work, and their reading is so slow and laborious. As an adolescent in one of our longitudinal studies remarked recently, ‘I would rather have a root canal than read.’ (Lyon, G. R., 1997).

And unless intervention is emotionally supportive and adjusts the level, type, and volume of work to match the struggling readers’ language, fluency, reading levels, and ability to work independently, readers may become overwhelmed.

• The reality is that students in the upper elementary grades [4 and 5] must learn to process texts that are linguistically more challenging and less concerned with their everyday experiences. Their fluency must become broader and more flexible. For students who do not continue to build fluency during this time, comprehension will surely not improve. (Walpole, McKenna, & Philippakos, 2011, p. 67)
• The comprehension demands of texts, as well as the sheer volume of reading expected of students, escalate dramatically in the middle and upper elementary grades. Thus, a component weakness that appears to have little impact on comprehension in one grade—such as mild vocabulary deficits or slow reading—may have a much greater impact in subsequent grades. (Spear-Swerling, 2006).

This situation strongly suggests that parents:

• Get reading evaluations for their children as soon as even slight reading problems are suspected.
• Quickly get quality reading help for their children as soon as even slight problems are found.
• Monitor their children’s progress, frequently and carefully.
• Provide their children with strong, continuous social and emotional support.
• Meet regularly with their children’s teachers to ensure that their children’s curriculum,  assignments, and supports meet their needs.

Chapters 6 through 13 of Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds (www.reading2008.com) discusses these issues in detail and offer numerous strategies to help parents help their children and get them the help they need.

References

Bowman-Perrott, L., Herrera, S., & Murry, K. (2010). Reading difficulties and grade retention: What’s the connection for English Language Learners? Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 26, 91-107.

Lyon, G. R. (1997 July 10). Congressional testimony of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD. Retrieved 9/3/2011, from  http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/no-longer-just-a-hope.htm.

Spear-Swerling, L. (2006). Assessment of Reading Comprehension, Retrieved 9/1/2011, from http://www.ldonline.org/spearswerling/Assessment_of_Reading_Comprehension?theme=pri.

Walpole, S., McKenna, M. C., & Philippakos, Z. A. (2011). Differential reading instruction in grades 4 & 5. NY: The Guilford Press.

Howard Margolis © Reading2008 & Beyond

howard@reading2008.com

www.reading2008.com

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The Special Needs Talk Radio Network: It’s On The Air

The new Special Needs Talk Radio network (http://specialneedstalkradio.com/) is on the air. Each of its six shows is dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth with special needs and their families.

Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and I host Maximizing Your Child’s Potential (Mondays, 9 PM – 9:30 PM EST, http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential).

On Monday, October 3^rd, our guest will be Dr. John Pellitteri of the City University of New York. Dr. Pellitteri will discuss, Strengthening Your Child’s Emotional Intelligence.

Over the next few months, our guests will include:

• Dr. Tim Rasinski, Kent State University, Overcoming Problems of Reading Fluency
• Dr. Nancy Padak, Kent State University, Helping Your Children Overcome Reading Problems
• Dr. Richard Boon, University of Georgia, Helping Teenagers Improve Their Reading
• Dr. Erica Lembke, University of Missouri, Monitoring Your Child’s Progress
• Dr. Patrick McCabe, Mercy College, Developing the Confidence of Struggling Learners
• Staci Greenwald, Special Education Attorney, The Pro’s and Con’s of Public and Private School Programs
• Dr. J. Richard Gentry, Educational Consultant, Raising Confident Readers: Birth and Beyond
• Dr. Annmarie Urso, State University of New York at Geneseo, How Response-To-Intervention ( RTI) Can Unlock Your Child’s Potential

If possible, look at the Special Needs Talk Radio’s website (http://specialneedstalkradio.com/). See how its many experts can help you help the children and youth you care about.

From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

Last night, Dr. Stephen Lange’s gave a great radio interview about helping children overcome sleep problems. It was chock-full of valuable, practical information.

To listen to or download it, go to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/specialneedstalkradio/2011/09/20/maximizing-your-childs-potential.

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The Special Needs Talk Radio Network: It’s On The Air

The new Special Needs Talk Radio network (http://specialneedstalkradio.com/ ) is on the air. Each of its six shows is dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth with special needs and their families.

Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and I host Maximizing Your Child’s Potential (Mondays, 9 PM – 9:30 PM EST, http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential).

This coming Monday, September 26th, our guest will be Dr. Richard Selznick, Director of the Cooper University Hospital Learning Center. If your child struggles in school, if he’s a “shut-down” learner, Dr. Selznick will offer insight and practical tips for motivating and helping him.

Over the next few months, our guests will include:

• Dr. John Pellitteri, City University of New York, Strengthening Your Child’s Emotional Intelligence
• Dr. Tim Rasinski, Kent State University, Overcoming Problems of Reading Fluency
• Dr. Nancy Padak, Kent State University, Helping Your Children Overcome Reading Problems
• Dr. Richard Boon, University of Georgia, Helping Teenagers Improve Their Reading
• Dr. Erica Lembke, University of Missouri, Monitoring Your Child’s Progress
• Dr. Patrick McCabe, Mercy College, Developing the Confidence of Struggling Learners
• Staci Greenwald, Special Education Attorney, The Pro’s and Con’s of Public and Private School Programs
• Dr. J. Richard Gentry, Educational Consultant, Raising Confident Readers: Birth and Beyond
• Dr. Annmarie Urso, State University of New York at Geneseo, How Response-To-Intervention ( RTI) Can Unlock Your Child’s Potential

If possible, look at the Special Needs Talk Radio’s website (http://specialneedstalkradio.com/). See how its many experts can help you help the children and youth you care about.

• Listen to Maximizing Your Child’s Potential
• Mondays, 9 PM to 9:30 PM EST
• At http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential

Monday, 9/19/2011,listen to Dr. Stephen M. Lange. Learn how to help your child overcome sleep problems, problems that can hurt him socially, emotionally, and academically. Click: http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential.

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

Why is music important for people of all ages and for all children in school?

Just take a dose of rock ‘n’ roll—it keeps you going. Just like the caffeine in your coffee, rock ‘n’ roll is good for the soul, for the well-being, for the psyche, for your everything. I love it. I can’t even picture being without rock ‘n’roll. (Hank Ballard)

It need not be rock ‘n’ roll. It can be “Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9,” Jay Ungar’s “Ashokan Farewell,” or Woody Guthrie’s “This is Your Land.” Music can teach and emotionally move us, it can set the mood, it can transform blue or down moods into energized or optimistic ones.

Music seems to offer a novel system of communication rooted in emotions rather than in meaning…. Music reliably conveys certain sentiments…. We may never know why music exists…. But even amid uncertainty about music’s origins, we can still use songs to pump ourselves up or calm ourselves down, ease pain and anxiety, bond with others or simply move people to tears. (Schrock, 2009)

The right music can do this to children with reading disabilities or other learning disabilities. It can “calm” them or “pump” them up. It can motivate them. It can increase their optimism that they can read, that they can succeed.

And when children are energized and optimistic, they’re more receptive to learning to read, especially when they like the topic and the material is at their independent or instructional level. At the right time, a “little bit of music here and a little bit there” can turn a sour mood into a happy one, a resistant child into a cooperative one, an unmotivated child into a motivated one. In short, a little music, wisely used, can make big, positive differences in children’s lives.

And if you have a child who’s eligible for special education services, think about weaving music into his Individualized Education Program (IEP).

So, let’s keep music in the schools and in children’s lives

Reference

Schrock, K. (2009).  Why music moves us. Scientific American Mind. Retrieved 10/29/2009, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-music-moves-us.

HM © Reading2008 & Beyond   www.reading2008.com

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Our New Radio Show

Maximizing Your Child’s Potential

Watch for information about our new Internet radio show, Maximizing Your Child’s Potential. It starts Monday, September 12, 9 PM – 9:30 PM EST. Guests include:

• Dr. Steven Lange, Child and Adolescent Psychologist, Helping Children Overcome Sleep Problems
• Dr. Richard Selznick, Cooper University Hospital, Helping the Shut-Down Learner
• Dr. John Pellitteri, City University of New York, Strengthening Your Child’s Emotional Intelligence
• Dr. Tim Rasinski, Kent State University, Overcoming Problems of Reading Fluency
• Dr. Nancy Padak, Kent State University, Helping Your Children Overcome Reading Problems

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Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds (www.reading2008.com)

Psychology Today.com recently wrote that Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds was one of the three “best books about education published in 2010. Recommend [it] to your friends.” On our blog, an English teacher and author wrote that Beating the Odds “is one of the best books, if not the best book on education published this year.” A Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism called it “a great book.” A parent wrote, “Your Reading Disabilities book is by far the best resource I have found regarding the IEP and IDEA and providing understandable and concrete suggestions and implementation strategies.” Another wrote, your book is “fascinating and effective.” On Amazon, a professor of special education called it “a fantastic resource… well-written, practical… an essential guide.” The Kansas City Examiner.com cited our blog as one of the ten best special needs blogs of 2010. We thank these and many other reviewers for their kind words.

And we hope that our book and blog helps lots of children, parents, teachers, IEP Team members, and schools. It’s why we keep plugging away. – HM & GB

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

Stress can severely damage a child’s ability to learn:

When the mind is under emotional stress, it produces the peptide cortisol…. Chronic high cortisol levels eventually destroy hippocampal neurons associated with learning and memory. Even short-term stress-related elevation of cortisol in the hippocampus can hinder our ability to distinguish between important and unimportant elements of a memorable event. (Creedon, 2011, p. 34, references omitted)

To reduce your child’s excessive stress and anxiety, it’s often best to first reduce or eliminate stress-provoking environmental factors, like disrupted sleep and frustration-level homework that emotionally overwhelms him (see our post, http://www.reading2008.com/blog/tip-the-right-amount-of-homework.htm ). After reducing or eliminating such factors, or in conjunction with your attempts, you might have a highly knowledgeable and skilled professional teach your child (and you) how to relax. Such strategies, like diaphragmatic breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and meditation, might help your child minimize stress and anxiety in situations that he or his Individualized Education Program (IEP) can’t control.

Many struggling learners find these strategies fun and easy to learn. They often have one or two strategies that they like or dislike. Stick with the one or two that your child likes. Progressive muscle relaxation is often a favorite of younger children because it’s physical exercise that can be taught like a game. Children can practice diaphragmatic breathing almost any place. It’s 100% portable; it can be used in school, on the bus, right before the next pitch. Meditation is best for older, more mature children, though I’ve seen it work with a variety of stressed children, youth, and adults with disabilities.

In addition to reducing stress and anxiety, relaxation strategies may even improve behavior and academics. The remainder of this blog will present some research on relaxation and reading; then describe diaphragmatic breathing, the simplest of the three relaxation strategies. In the near future, we’ll describe progressive muscle relaxation and meditation. Before using any relaxation strategy with your child, we urge you to learn it, practice it, and have a qualified professional, such as a licensed psychologist, teach your child how to use it and let you know if it’s appropriate for him. Occasionally, children and adults have an adverse reaction.

Research on Relaxation and Reading. The research is suggestive, not definitive. It strongly suggests that relaxation training can help some children, especially those for whom stress and anxiety interfere with reading achievement:

Frey found that relaxation training had a positive effect on the reading achievement of German boys … who attended an after school remedial reading program once a week…. According to Frey, ‘relaxed students … [could apparently] concentrate more easily and make better use of the learning aids being given them’…. Prichard and Taylor found that a combined remedial reading and relaxation-training program, administered to groups of students, dramatically improved reading achievement. In both silent (i.e., comprehension) and oral reading, better than 80% of the students made gains of a year or more…. Silent reading gains averaged four months growth per month of instruction. Margolis and Pica [found that with continued relaxation training] learning disabled students who listened to relaxation training audiotapes by themselves [improved their] oral reading performance…. Using a combination of progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic relaxation and cognitive behavior modification with hyperactive students of intermediate elementary school age, [Watson & Hall] found significant improvements in [reading] comprehension scores and hyperactivity after twelve half hour sessions of individual training. (Margolis, 1990, pp. 219-220, references omitted).

Diaphragmatic Breathing. This takes only a few minutes and can teach you and your child how to relax when faced with a stress or an anxiety-provoking situation. Here’s how Aggie Casey and Herbert Benson (2006) described it:

• Find a comfortable, quiet place to sit or lie down.
• Place one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen, just below your belly button. Take a slow, deep breath. Your lower hand should move more than the hand on your chest.
• Concentrate on letting your abdomen expand fully, drawing air down into your lungs. Notice your belly rising and falling with each breath.
• Now practice this breathing for several minutes. (p. 35)

Of course, in stress or anxiety-provoking situations, like classes, your child need not lie down. When sitting or standing, he can just breathe slowly and deeply from his diaphragm. He can breathe secretly from his diaphragm. No one need notice. It’s critical, however, that you and he practice it several times a day, even if only a few minutes at a time.

An Opportunity

Although life offers no panaceas, it offers opportunities. As part of a daily plan to overcome or minimize the destructive effects of chronic stress or anxiety, relaxation can be an opportunity. The strategies are simple, inexpensive, and can work. And if your child is relaxed, if stress or anxiety no longer dominates his thinking, he’ll probably make better decisions, pay better attention, and become a more successful learner.

References

Casey, A., & Benson, H. (2006). Harvard Medical School Guide to Lowering Your Blood Pressure (Harvard Medical School Guides). NY: McGraw-Hill.

Creedon, D. W.. (2011). Fight the stress of urban education with the arts. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(6), 34-36.

Margolis, H. (1990). Relaxation training: A promising approach for helping exceptional learners. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 37(3), 215-234.

Homework Links

http://www.reading2008.com/blog/using-ieps-to-solve-the-homework-problems-of-struggling-readers.htm

http://www.reading2008.com/blog/solving-homework-problems-three-unique-suggestions-2.htm

http://www.reading2008.com/blog/my-child-has-a-reading-disability-what-level-reading-materials-should-teachers-assign-him-for-homework.htm

http://www.reading2008.com/blog/tip-the-right-amount-of-homework.htm

Howard Margolis © Reading2008 & Beyond

www.reading2008.com

howard@reading2008.com

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Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds (www.reading2008.com)

Psychology Today.com recently wrote that Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds was one of the three “best books about education published in 2010. Recommend [it] to your friends.” On our blog, an English teacher and author wrote that Beating the Odds “is one of the best books, if not the best book on education published this year.”  A Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism called it “a great book.” A parent wrote, “Your Reading Disabilities book is by far the best resource I have found regarding the IEP and IDEA and providing understandable and concrete suggestions and implementation strategies.” Another wrote, your book is “fascinating and effective.” On Amazon, a professor of special education called it “a fantastic resource… well-written, practical… an essential guide.” The Kansas City Examiner.com cited our blog as one of the ten best special needs blogs of 2010. We thank these and many other reviewers for their kind words.

And we hope that our book and blog helps lots of children, parents, teachers, IEP Team members, and schools. It’s why we keep plugging away. – HM & GB

Stress is bad for children. It’s associated with health problems, school failures, and youth delinquency…. High stress levels have been associated with … asthma and depression…. Stress directly affects ‘attention, memory, planning, and behavior control.’ When the mind is under emotional stress, it produces the peptide cortisol…. Cortisol generally is a blessing because we don’t become controlled by our past negative experiences. However, if cortisol is not kept in balance, learning can and will stop. (Creedon, 2011, p. 34)

Preventing Stress

Children with reading disabilities or other disabilities become stressed and anxious when they believe they have no control over a situation or activity, believe they can’t succeed, and believe their lack of control and inevitable failure will harm them. If schools allow teachers to continuously adapt instruction to struggling readers’ current needs and abilities—which some schools forbid, but deny—teachers can often help them develop a healthy sense of control and a belief that with reasonable, moderate effort they can succeed. This helps prevent chronic, destructive stress. Teachers can do this by giving struggling readers:

• Materials at their proper independent and instructional levels.
• Limited choices with activities at their proper independent and instructional levels.
• Feedback that emphasizes recent successes, effort, and the correct use of strategies.
• Lots of opportunity to safely express their needs and concerns.

In previous posts we focused on giving struggling readers (and all readers) materials at their proper independent and instructional levels. In this post, we’ll discuss giving struggling readers (and all children) limited choices, constructive feedback, and opportunities to safely express their needs and concerns. All three suggestions can increase children’s sense of control, reducing stress and anxiety, and, in many cases, strengthening their motivation for schoolwork.

Your Role?

As you read our suggestions, ask yourself: How can I do these at home, in ways that will reduce my child’s stress and increase his confidence and motivation?

Our Three Suggestions

Limited Choices. Choice motivates. In studying the role of choice in motivation and achievement, Guthrie concluded:

• “Children need choice to develop independence…. Teachers who are successful at motivating students often provide myriad choices…. Choice is motivating because it affords students with control” (Guthrie, 2001).
• Choice can strengthen children’s reading achievement and comprehension (Guthrie & Humenick, 2004).

Limiting choices to two or three relevant, independent or instructional levels activities has the advantage of improving learning and being time efficient and manageable for struggling readers and teachers. Readers can quickly make the choices they prefer. By presenting children with two or three choices, teachers can motivate struggling readers to engage fully in the activities, increasing the joy of teaching. Regularly giving children choices goes beyond the moment; it helps them achieve three of education’s long-term goals: autonomy, independence, and motivation.

Here’s a choice that Mrs. McCormick, a fourth grade teacher, might give Liam, a struggling reader who needs to build his listening vocabulary: “Liam, your Dad said that for your reading homework, he’d like to read a book to you and talk about it. Here are three books on something you always like: dinosaurs. Take a few minutes and pick out the one you want to give your Dad.”

Feedback. Feedback should stress recent successes, effort, and the correct use of learning strategies. If materials and activities are at the struggling readers’ proper independent or instructional levels, they should have many successes for teachers to draw upon.

Once struggling readers have several recent successes, teachers can help them link the new activities to their previous successes. They can do this by explicitly showing and asking them how the new activities resemble their past successes and then reminding them of what they did to succeed. Linking the activities may well decrease stress and create the belief that “I did it before. I can do it again.”

If struggling readers expect success because they previously succeed on similar activities, and their new activities are at their proper independent or instructional levels, they’re likely to make the effort needed to succeed. This creates opportunities for teachers to make effort—a controllable factor—part of their feedback: “Liam, you made a good effort. You stuck to it. You didn’t quit. And this helped you succeed.”

Many struggling readers don’t know the sequence of steps—the learning strategy— it takes to succeed in academic activities, such as decoding unknown words. Thus, teachers need to explicitly and systematically teach them the strategies or secrets of learning that lead to success. If, for example, struggling readers are frustrated by their random, haphazard efforts to decode unknown words, they might well profit from learning Caldwell and Leslie’s Cross-Checking (2005, p. 67) learning strategy:

• Say the first sound or sounds of the word.
• Finish reading the sentence.
• Go back and think of a word that has the same first sound or sounds.
• See if the word has a spelling pattern that you know. If it does, use the compare-contrast strategy to figure out the word. [A previously taught strategy. The child might say, “If d-o-w-n is down, then t-o-w-n must be town.”]
• When you think you know the word, say it and finish the sentence.
• Reread the sentence with the word to make sure it makes sense.

If Liam uses the Cross-Checking strategy successfully, his teacher’s feedback might emphasize effort and his correct use of the strategy: “Liam, you made a good effort. You stuck to it. You correctly used the Cross-Checking strategy we worked on. Using it correctly helped you succeed. Great job!”

Listening. For struggling readers and many other children, school is stressful beyond endurance. Often, thoughts of school alone provoke extreme anxiety. It’s a place to avoid.  By giving a struggling reader lots of opportunities to safely express his needs and concerns, a teacher can help a struggling reader reduce his stress by feeling more in control of his life. Just by listening carefully—without quickly evaluating the reader’s comments or imposing her views on him—a teacher can often calm a stressed child. This can set the stage for helping him develop solutions to address his needs and concerns. But as children will sometime announce, listening alone is often enough.

In high school, Mr. Meiselman’s willingness to always listen to me talk about my needs and concerns, despite my severe stutter, probably kept me out of prison and helped me think about college. Though fifty years have passed, I remember this: listening works.

The IEP

If your child is eligible for special education, his Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team, of which you’re a member, must write a new IEP for him at least annually. Make sure that his IEP states that for homework and independent classwork, all reading materials must be at his appropriate independent level, and that for instruction, in which his teacher directly instructs and works with him, all materials must be at his appropriate instructional level. Except on rare occasions, when he requests more difficult materials on a topic he finds immensely interesting, teachers should not ask him to read such materials. Usually, they’re frustrating. Doing this is the basis for our other three suggestions.

Once proper reading levels are part of his IEP, ask that it include this post’s three suggestions. Even if they’re not included, discuss them with your child’s teacher. They might add immeasurably to the quality of his school life.

References

Caldwell, J. S., & Leslie, L. (2005). Intervention Strategies to Follow Informal Reading Inventory Assessment. Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon.

Creedon, D. W.. (2011). Fight the stress of urban education with the arts. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(6), 34-36.

Guthrie, J. T. (2001). Contexts for Engagement and Motivation in Reading. Retrieved 8/25/20, from http://www.readingonline.org/articles/handbook/guthrie/.

Guthrie, J. T., & Humenick, N. M. (2004). Motivating students to read: Evidence for classroom practices that increase reading motivation and achievement. In P. McCardle & V. Chhabra (Eds), The Voice of Evidence in Reading Research (pp. 329–354). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Howard Margolis © Reading2008 & Beyond

www.reading2008.com

howard@reading2008.com

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Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds (www.reading2008.com)

Psychology Today.com recently wrote that Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds was one of the three “best books about education published in 2010. Recommend [it] to your friends.” On our blog, an English teacher and author wrote that Beating the Odds “is one of the best books, if not the best book on education published this year.”  A Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism called it “a great book.” A parent wrote, “Your Reading Disabilities book is by far the best resource I have found regarding the IEP and IDEA and providing understandable and concrete suggestions and implementation strategies.” Another wrote, your book is “fascinating and effective.” On Amazon, a professor of special education called it “a fantastic resource… well-written, practical… an essential guide.” The Kansas City Examiner.com cited our blog as one of the ten best special needs blogs of 2010. We thank these and many other reviewers for their kind words.

And we hope that our book and blog helps lots of children, parents, teachers, IEP Team members, and schools. It’s why we keep plugging away. – HM & GB

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

As we mentioned before, frequent, extreme stress and the anxiety it produces can devastate children with reading and other disabilities:

If the stress is too severe or too prolonged … stress begins to harm learning…. Stressed people don’t do math very well. They don’t process language very efficiently. They have poorer memories, both short and long forms. Stressed individuals do not generalize or adapt old pieces of information to new scenarios as well as non-stressed individuals. They can’t concentrate. In almost every way it can be tested, chronic stress hurts our ability to learn. (Medina, 2008, p. 178)

Preventing Stress

Children with reading disabilities or other disabilities tend to become stressed and anxious when they believe they have no control over a situation or task, believe they can’t succeed, and believe their lack of control and inevitable failure will harm them. If schools allow teachers to continuously adapt instruction to struggling readers’ current needs and abilities—which some schools forbid, but deny—teachers can often help them develop a healthy sense of control and a belief that with reasonable, moderate effort they can succeed. This helps prevent chronic, destructive stress. Teachers can do this by giving struggling readers:

• Reading materials at their proper independent and instructional levels.
• Limited choices with tasks at their proper independent and instructional levels.
• Feedback that emphasizes recent successes, effort, and the correct use of strategies.
• Lots of opportunity to safely express their needs and concerns.

In this post, we’ll focus on giving struggling readers (and all readers) reading materials at their proper independent and instructional levels. In future posts we’ll discuss the other ways we listed for preventing stress; then we’ll deal with specific stress reducing strategies, such as teaching struggling readers to speak to themselves constructively, progressive muscle relaxation, and meditation. We’ll also present research to show that relaxation methods, such as progressive muscle relaxation and meditation, can improve struggling readers’ behavior and reading. But now, we’ll discuss the criteria for proper independent and instructional levels.

Criteria for Selecting Independent Level Reading Materials

If teachers ask struggling readers to do homework independently, or to do classwork independently, teachers should assign struggling readers materials on which they can easily and regularly achieve both these criteria for word recognition and comprehension.

• Reading word recognition is 99-to-100%. Independent levels refers to “the readability or grade level of material that is easy for a student to read with few word-identification problems and high comprehension…. Better than 99 percent word-identification accuracy … [is] often used as standards in judging if a reader is reading at this level.” (Harris & Hodges, 1995, p. 115)
• Reading comprehension is 90-to-100%. The independent level “is the highest level at which an individual can read and satisfy all the criteria for desirable reading behavior in silent- and oral-reading situations. At the independent level the child can read successfully on his or her own without any assistance. When the student is reading orally or silently at this level, he or she should be able to achieve a minimum comprehension score on literal and interpretive questions of at least 90 percent.” (Rubin, 1997, p. 168)

Criteria for Selecting Instructional Level Reading Materials

If teachers directly instruct struggling readers, give them supportive feedback, and immediately help them overcome difficulties, teachers should usually give them instructional level materials that are more demanding than independent level materials. However, the demands should not overwhelm or frustrate them. When reading instructional level materials, struggling readers should regularly and independently—without help, before instruction—achieve these criteria for both word recognition and comprehension:

• Reading word recognition in context (e.g., paragraphs): ………….    95 to 98% correct
• Reading comprehension: ……………………………………………………..    70 to 89% correct

In addition to achieving these percents, struggling readers should not show excessive difficulty with fluency (such as speed and expression) or excessive anxiety.

Cautions

The statistical criteria for independent and instructional levels are good, solid guidelines that should help improve the learning and motivation of most struggling readers. If however, your child is highly anxious about reading, he may need more lenient—easier—criteria for instructional level materials.

The independent and instructional level materials he’s asked to read may also need to be shorter than those of his peers. To help him avoid embarrassment, his teacher might ask him to read the same materials as other children in his group, but privately ask him to read shorter portions.

Don’t take for granted that your child’s teacher will assign him reading materials at his proper independent and instructional levels. In some schools, instructional policy requires teachers to use only the books they’re given, books that may well frustrate your child and diminish his chances of success. In schools where teachers can use whatever books they judge appropriate, not all teachers know how to match books to children. If your child’s teacher has little understanding of how to determine his proper instructional level, she should request the school’s reading specialist to determine his levels. If his school lacks a reading specialist (an unfortunate, but all-too-common occurrence) and if his teacher is amenable to suggestions, you might suggest that she administer the “3-Minute Reading Assessment: Word Recognition, Fluency, and Comprehension” for his grade (Raskinsi & Padak, 2005, http://www.amazon.com/3-Minute-Reading-Assessments-Comprehension-Three-minute/dp/0439650895/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311015995&sr=1-3). This will help her identify your child’s proper reading levels.

In any case, consider meeting with your child’s teacher to discuss his appropriate reading levels, his interests, his ability to work independently, and the frequency and nature of the progress reports you’d like to get. Generally, the earlier you meet, the better.

The IEP

If your child is eligible for special education, his Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team, of which you’re a member, must write a new IEP for him at least annually. Make sure that his IEP states that for homework and independent classwork, all reading materials must be at his appropriate independent level, and that for instruction, in which his teacher directly instructs and works with him, all materials must be at his appropriate instructional level. Except on rare occasions, when he requests more difficult materials on a topic he finds immensely interesting, teachers should not ask him to read such materials. Usually, they’re frustrating.

Control

When teachers regularly give your child interesting reading materials at his proper independent and instructional reading levels, they’re creating opportunities for him to succeed, to develop confidence, to develop the well-justified perception that “If I control my effort and attention, I have an excellent chance of succeeding.”  Simply put, properly matching reading materials to your child’s current abilities is a critical step in preventing destructive stress and anxiety.

References

Harris, T. L., & Hodges, R. E. (1995). The Literacy Dictionary: The Vocabulary of Reading and Writing. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Medina, J. (2009). Brain Rules. Seattle, WA: Pear Press.

Rubin, D. (1997). Diagnosis and Correction in Reading Instruction. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Howard Margolis © Reading2008 & Beyond

www.reading2008.com

howard@reading2008.com

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Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds (www.reading2008.com)

Psychology Today.com recently wrote that Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds was one of the three “best books about education published in 2010. Recommend [it] to your friends.” On our blog, an English teacher and author wrote that Beating the Odds “is one of the best books, if not the best book on education published this year.”  A Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism called it “a great book.” A parent wrote, “Your Reading Disabilities book is by far the best resource I have found regarding the IEP and IDEA and providing understandable and concrete suggestions and implementation strategies.” Another wrote, your book is “fascinating and effective.” On Amazon, a professor of special education called it “a fantastic resource… well-written, practical… an essential guide.” The Kansas City Examiner.com cited our blog as one of the ten best special needs blogs of 2010. We thank these and many other reviewers for their kind words.

And we hope that our book and blog helps lots of children, parents, teachers, IEP Team members, and schools. It’s why we keep plugging away. – HM & GB

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

In speaking of personal development, Daniel Goleman said it succinctly and brilliantly:

Self-awareness and empathy are (along with self-mastery and social skills) domains of human ability essential for success in life. Excellence in these capacities helps people flourish in relationships, family life, and marriage, as well as in work and leadership…. Of these four key life skills, self-awareness lays the foundation for the rest. If we lack the capacity to monitor our emotions, for example, we will be poorly suited to learn from them (2010, p. vii).

To successfully educate children for the 21^st century, schools must stress the life skills that Goleman identified. Though reading, writing, and arithmetic are critical, they’re no more critical than Goleman’s life skills.

What does this mean if you have a child with disabilities? It means that his program should help him develop competency in both academics and Goleman’s life skills. If not, he may wind up, as do so many young adults with reading and other disabilities, lonely, demoralized, unemployed or  underemployed. If he has difficulties in any one of the life skills that Goleman identified, be sure that his Individualized Education Program (IEP) offers goals and program components (e.g. related services) likely to help him develop the weak life skill(s). A key to doing this is to align Goleman’s life skills with your state’s “core curriculum standards,” usually available on your state education department’s website.

Unfortunately, many schools do not want to address the kinds of skills or competencies that Goleman identified. With savage budget cuts to education destroying many programs, it’s important that you respectfully but firmly advocate for quality education in these areas if that’s what your child needs. After all, the House of Representatives has yet to eviscerate a main purpose of Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA):

To ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for employment, further education, and independent living (H.R. 1350, emphasis added)

If the school’s members of your child’s IEP Team do not want to address Goleman’s life skills, or a similar set of skills, we suggest you read Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds, chapters 8 (Solving Conflicts), 9 (Special Education Evaluations), 10 (Program Planning and the IEP Team), 11 (the IEP), and 13 (Beating the Odds).

A note on our previous post: Why Is He Behaving “That Way?” The Answer: PEAT (http://www.reading2008.com/blog/3424.htm). In an upcoming post, we’ll introduce PEAT PLUS.

Reference

Goleman, D. (2010). Forward to Daniel J. Siegel’s Mindsight. NY: Bantam Books.

HM © Reading2008 & Beyond                                                                                           www.reading2008.com

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FREE CONFERENCE CALL ON

GETTING AND KEEPING SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICES IN TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES: PART II

MICHAEL INZELBUCH, ESQ., SPECIAL EDUCATION AND BOARD OF EDUCATION ATTORNEY

When: Thursday May 26, 2011 @ 9 pm EST

Phone number: Call (661) 673-8600

Use Access Code: 899615# (remember the #)

Length: Approximately 40 minutes

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A Note on Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds (www.reading2008.com)

Psychology Today.com recently wrote that Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds was one of the three “best books about education published in 2010. Recommend [it] to your friends.” On our blog, an English teacher wrote that Beating the Odds “is one of the best books, if not the best book on education published this year.”  A Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism called it “a great book.” A parent wrote, “Your Reading Disabilities book is by far the best resource I have found regarding the IEP and IDEA and providing understandable and concrete suggestions and implementation strategies.” Another wrote, your book is “fascinating and effective.” On Amazon, a professor of special education called it “a fantastic resource… well-written, practical… an essential guide.” The Kansas City Examiner.com cited our blog as one of the ten best special needs blogs of 2010. We thank these and many other reviewers for their kind words.

And we hope that our book and blog helps lots of children, parents, teachers, IEP Team members, and schools. It’s why we keep plugging away. – HM & GB