The National Center for Learning Disabilities broadcast the announcement below. If you ever find yourself in a dispute over services for your child, you’ll need to hire expert witnesses. Thus, for you it’s critical that Congress pass the bill below–the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act. If Congress does not, and you win in court, you will not get reimbursed for your experts and may have to pay tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket. If the bill passes, the school may have to reimburse you all or part of your experts’ fees.
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
Is there a secret to helping preschool and older children develop the kind of listening and speaking skills so important to life and to reading and other academic success? Yes. And from the day your children are born, make the secret a daily part of their lives.
The secret: Hold lots of interesting, meaningful conversations with your children. Throughout the day, stress several important words they heard and used in their conversations. Don’t treat this like a secret. Instead, share it. Treat it as an important part of daily life. Read more...
Chapters 7 through 13 of Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds discusses federal special education laws and shows how you can apply them to improve the odds of getting and monitoring the services your child needs.
Parents often complain that teachers and IEP Teams won’t make the changes needed to help their child. Learning consultants, reading specialists, school psychologists, and other members of IEP Teams often voice similar complaints: teachers resist change; they refuse to implement “really great ideas.”
Complaining about resistance does little to improve the situation. Demanding change often backfires. Believing that “I alone know what change is needed” often smacks of arrogance. Understanding why teachers and IEP Teams resist—and looking for rational reasons—may help you, your child, his teachers, and his IEP Team. Read more...
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
This week I was thinking of what to say about the school budget in my town, Voorhees, NJ. I strongly believe that only a yes vote will help the children. Read more...
House Republicans used their supermajority to handily approve legislation that will dramatically change the way teachers in Florida are hired, fired and rewarded.
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
Why is fluency important?
Often, teachers do not consider reading rate an important issue if students understand what they read. However, chronic slow reading, even if coupled with some understanding, can lead to problems. First, slow readers have to put more time and energy into reading than do their more fluent classmates. It takes them longer to complete assignments, and they are often painfully aware that their peers have finished reading although they are only half way through. This may cause them to avoid reading, and, as we mentioned earlier, fluency primarily develops through wide reading. Thus, slow readers may avoid the very thing that would contribute to their reading improvement. (Caldwell & Leslie, 2005, p. 76) Read more...
Our next post will provide helpful information on fluency, especially for parents who are having difficulty getting fluency instruction for their children.
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
Here’s why your child’s future is in immediate jeopardy, and why special education and all educational rights may become hollow, unfulfilled promises that hurt rather than help children. In other words, your child may well be hurt by the political and ideological philosophy of “let’s fire teachers and librarians, demonize and demoralize the remaining ones, put children in large classes, cut services, and sacrifice ‘kids who don’t count’ so we can give tax cuts to the richest people in the country, the people who fund our election campaigns (Republican and Democrat).” Read more...
Reading2008.com and Reading2008.com/blog do not offer legal advice or advice about particular children or situations. For legal advice, the reader should seek the counsel of an attorney; for advice about particular children or situations, the reader should seek the help of relevant experts.
