From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
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
Thanks for sharing this post! I am happy that people like you take the time to write materials that help kids learn to read. I agree that when kids are struggling with their reading progress or are just frustrated in general it is best to give them a break.
After their break from reading, whether a few hours or a few weeks, try and set small goals for reader to help him/her be excited about learning one thing at a time. When you put their learning into small bits it is easier to feel a success after accomplishing one section.