Parents of children with reading disabilities often ask, “How can I teach my child to read?”
I often respond with three suggestions: Read more...
- Don’t try to teach him anything new if it’s likely to cause friction, or fighting, or excessive anxiety.
- Read to him daily. Make sure it’s something he likes, and then, if he wants, and only if he wants, have him read it silently or read a sentence or more back to you. Don’t pressure him to read aloud. If he has trouble with a word, tell it to him.
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The RAVE-O Program
Guest Post
by
Melissa Orkin, M.A.
Clinical Fellow
Center for Reading and Language Research, Tufts University
As a Clinical Fellow at the Center for Reading and Language Research (CRLR) at Tufts University, I regularly speak with parents who are frustrated with the development of their child’s reading skills. Many of the families have children who have been diagnosed with reading disabilities yet others have found that although their children can adequately sound out words, they are struggling with fluency and comprehension. Read more...
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Reading Fluency: Part I
A Guest Post by
Timothy Rasinski, Ph.D.
Professor, Kent State University
A recent survey of “What’s Hot and What’s Not” in Reading found that reading fluency is no longer a hot topic and that it should not be hot. As a person who has written widely about reading fluency and have done a fair amount of research into fluency, I found this a bit disturbing. From my work in the Kent State University Reading Clinic, I know that many children who experience significant difficulty in reading have problems in fluency. When appropriate fluency instruction is provided, overall reading achievement improves, sometimes dramatically. Read more...
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Guest Post by Francesca Lopez, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Marquette University
francesca.lopez@marquette.edu
We all know that reading is one of the most important skills our children need to be successful. We are familiar with how reading to our children prepares them to love to read, and how a love of reading prepares children for academic success in the long term. But what if a child has reading difficulties? How can we as parents ensure a love of reading when reading is difficult for our child?
Read more...
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Parents and teachers who want to study a well-organized, well-written, well-researched book on reading disabilities should take a serious look at Thomas G. Gunning’s Assessing and Correcting Reading and Writing Difficulties. Every chapter of Dr. Gunning’s book deals with an important topic that can drastically affect the success—and the failure—of children with reading disabilities. Although the book is written primarily for graduate students in reading or reading disabilities programs and for teachers, it offers great value to parents who need to advocate for their child with reading disabilities. By understanding its contents (as well as that in our book, Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds), parents can more fully understand what a reading evaluation should look like, what good instruction involves, what their child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) should include. Read more...
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As you ride through town, you see words, words everywhere. Environmental print, as it is called, occurs in public places like restaurants, stores, on billboards along interstates and along streets throughout town, and in many other places. Most of us regularly traverse the same route; therefore, the environmental print which we encounter presents ideal opportunities to help children learn to read. Below are some ways in which parents can utilize this abundant and free reading material to encourage their child to begin to read or to become a better reader. Read more...
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If your child struggles to recognize words, should he memorize the “rules” of phonics? Generally, no. Here’s why.
Many of the “rules” of phonics are not rules, but overgeneralizations. The number of exceptions makes them highly fickle, highly unreliable. Often, they don’t work; they confuse children with reading disabilities. That’s why we put quotation marks around the word “rules” and why it’s often better to teach children with reading disabilities how to pronounce common spelling patterns. Read more...
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Many myths surround phonemic awareness and phonics. These myths hurt children, especially children at risk for or with reading disabilities. By understanding the better scholarship about phonemic awareness and phonics, you may be able to protect children from harm.
The quotations below summarize much of the better scholarship. If you’re involved in making decisions about phonemic awareness or phonics, we suggest that you study these quotations, review the sources, and, if appropriate, share these quotations with others. Read more...
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Yes, it’s important if he struggles to recognize words.
One of the many abilities critical to a child’s reading success is his knowledge of the sounds that letters make, and his ability to use this knowledge to figure out unfamiliar words. This is phonics.
Phonics is critical, but it’s not everything. It’s not the child’s comprehension of what he reads, or the fluency with which he reads, or his ability to understand words he hears. But it directly effects each of these. Here are some reasons: Read more...
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On another blog, someone commented that adults should allow children to read whatever they want. Here was my response:
I agree that it’s usually best to let children read what interests them. But I would add a caveat: Adults must discuss with children the pros, the cons, and the values inherent in what they read. Gradually, as children, including struggling readers, develop positive emotions about reading, adults can introduce new topics. These topics should differ slightly from what the children typically read. Slight differences are usually attractive; major differences are not. Thus, if a child likes reading about dogs and has read several books about them, introduce him to a book about wolfs, and later, perhaps one about coyotes. Read more...
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