From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
Stephen M. Lange, Ph.D., Psychologist
Pine Ridge, SD
Perhaps you had this experience: You approached your child’s school about your kindergarten age child, expressing concern that he or she may have a learning disability. While sympathetic, your school’s psychologist, reading specialist, or other diagnostic expert responded that learning disabilities cannot be diagnosed until a child has been unable to succeed academically despite conscientious instruction. Several years later, you attended a meeting with your school’s multi-disciplinary team who explained that your child indeed does have a learning disability. Your emotions felt chaotic – a mixture of relief, worry, sorrow – and perhaps frustration or even anger that years had passed since you recognized that your child’s development was not typical, but rather different from his peers in subtle yet important ways. Read more...
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From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
In our last post, we described the emotional devastation that unsuitable homework assignments can cause children with learning disabilities. For new readers, we present the opening of our last post. For all readers, we then present 6 more suggestions for personalizing homework so that children, parents, and teachers benefit.
Our Last Post Read more...
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Learning Disabilities: The Tragedy of Retention
From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
At this time of year, teachers and parents think about retaining children with academic problems. Those who support retention argue that these children will benefit from repeating a grade. Retention will give the student an opportunity to review the material, or mature socially and emotionally. It will motivate the student to do better, to avoid future retention. Educators, politicians and parents who support “standards” and attack “social promotion” (automatically advancing students from grade to grade, despite poor achievement) vigorously support retention. They argue that retention sends students the clear message that they must master what was taught to advance to the next grade. In one sense, retention advocates have been very successful—almost 50% of students are retained by grade nine. In another sense they have failed—these children do not improve academically. Moreover, retention is extraordinarily costly. It hurts children and wastes untold dollars. Read more...
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From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
Can sustained silent reading help children with reading disabilities? Generally, yes. But overemphasizing it can shortchange them.
Many schools involve struggling readers in some form of sustained silent reading. In such programs, all students, including struggling readers, read silently for some 15 to 45 minutes daily. As they read silently, so does the teacher. The teacher models silent reading, showing that she values it and enjoys it. If done right, sustained reading is important practice for children, an important way for teachers to communicate they value reading, a way of helping children become competent, motivated readers. Sustained silent reading goes under different names, such as Drop Everything And Read (DEAR), Super, Quiet, Uninterrupted, Independent Reading Time (SQUIRT), Sustained Silent Reading (SSR), and Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading (USSR). Read more...
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A Guest Column by
Patrick McCabe, Ph.D.
Coordinator, Doctoral Program in Literacy
St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY
There is a strong correlation between the size of a child’s vocabulary and his reading ability.
In fact, one of the best predictors of success in reading is the quantity of words children know. While there is a correlation between words known and reading ability, and good reading comprehension requires a good vocabulary, a good vocabulary does not insure good reading comprehension. In other words, just teaching your child vocabulary words does not mean that she will automatically comprehend what she reads. Reading comprehension requires more. It requires the ability to relate ideas presented, not just knowledge of what individual words mean. 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 Column by Patrick McCabe, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, St. John’s University
Lucinda (not real name) is a fourth grader who does well in class. She likes to attend school, does her homework, and pays attention. But there is one thing that she does not like about school: standardized tests! Read more...
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He’ll probably need to master phonics and other decoding skills, but first he’ll need an evaluation from a reading specialist. The evaluation should include diagnostic teaching and observations of him in several classes. Probably, he’ll need intensive instruction from the specialist. It’s unlikely that his content-area teachers, such as his history and science teachers, have the expertise, time, or opportunity to provide the core of his reading instruction.
To help you understand your child’s problems of sounding-out words, and to get him the services he needs, we’ve listed several quotations from the National Institute for Literacy’s guide, What Content-Area Teachers Should Know About Adolescent Literacy. We’ve also commented on several of these. Read more...
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Hello Everyone,
By now you’ve probably read many of our posts. If you think that our blog can help people you know, please share this press release with them. It’s one way that Gary Brannigan and I can help parents and teachers help children with reading disabilities beat the odds.
Many thanks,
Howard Margolis
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Helping Children Overcome a Devastating Disability: Reading Disabilities
One in four children struggle to read. Many read so poorly that by ninth grade they’ve been held back one or more times. In despair or anger, many quit school. Read more...
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About.com, a New York Times Company, has an excellent website that provides parents and teachers with valuable information that can help them help children. It’s at http://learningdisabilities.about.com. By reading this frequently updated website and our blog, you’ll increase your chances of helping children succeed academically, socially, and emotionally. In other words, the more you learn, the more likely your decisions will help children.
To get a sense of http://learningdisabilities.about.com, we recommend that you read these three posts:
1. What Is a Learning Disability?
http://learningdisabilities.about.com/od/whatisld/a/whatissld.htm
2. How Are Learning Disabilities Diagnosed?
http://learningdisabilities.about.com/od/learningdisabilitybasics/a/LDdiagnosproces.htm
3. Learn How to Advocate for Your Child
http://learningdisabilities.about.com/b/2008/11/10/advocacy-academy-learn-how-to-advocate-for-your-child.htm Read more...
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