Unfortunately, many children with reading disabilities feel hopeless and helpless about learning to read; they believe it’s better to give up than to try and to fail. Fortunately, schools and parents can do many things to change your child’s belief that he’s incompetent and that he’ll never learn to read. Only by getting your child to believe he can learn if he makes a moderate effort will he begin to work at becoming a competent reader.
One reading authority who has dedicated his career to answering this question — “How can we change children’s beliefs that they’ll never learn to read into beliefs that they can if they try?” — is Patrick McCabe, Ph.D., of St. John’s University (Jamaica, NY). From the large body of research on self-efficacy, the beliefs that people have about their ability to succeed on particular tasks, like learning to read, Dr. McCabe has developed several principles that teachers and parents can use to strengthen children’s beliefs about their ability to learn to read. Here are three of them:
- Teachers should give your child work he can succeed on if he makes a moderate effort and they should show him how this work resembles work on which he previously succeed. If, for example, his teachers give him materials to read for homework, they should be at his independent level, the level at which he can quickly recognize 99% of the words and understand 90% of what he reads. If they’re teaching him to read something new, by himself he should be able to quickly recognize 90%, even 95% of the words and understand 70% or more of what he reads. Before assigning the homework, his teachers should show him how it resembles classwork on which he already succeeded.
- Praise him for his effort and for correctly using the right learning strategies. If he makes a reasonable effort, you and his teachers should praise him for it: “Liam, you worked hard on this, and because you did, you figured it out. Good job.” If he used the right strategy, praise him for it: “Not only did you work hard, you reread the part that confused you, and then you understood it. Good job.” And if he tried hard, but stumbled, praise him for the effort and show him how to use the learning strategy: “Liam, you worked hard on this. Nice going. But to get it right, you need to use the strategy we discussed. Watch me. First I’ll look for three words I might not know. Then I’ll circle them…. Now you try it.”
- Persuade him. If your child views his teachers and you as credible, knowledge adults who care about him, what his teachers and you say before he attempts to learn something can give him the confidence to try, if … if with a moderate effort he’s likely to succeed on the materials and assignments. Here are two slightly altered examples from Dr. McCabe’s article on convincing students of their ability to learn: “Because you watched me yesterday, you found the root words. Watch me again and you’ll do just as good a job.” “Because you studied the root words, you figured out their meanings. If you use the same strategy to study these new words for ten minutes, you should be just as successful. Let’s try.”
If knowledgeably and skillfully and continuously implemented, these principles alone can encourage many discouraged students with reading disabilities to make a sustained effort to improve their reading. Some students with reading disabilities, however, will need much more. Future postings will discuss what else you and your child’s teachers can do.
In the meantime, here are two good resources that you may want to share with you child’s teachers:
- McCabe, P. (2006). Convincing students they can learn to read: Crafting self-efficacy prompts. The Clearing House, 79(6), 252-257.
- McCabe, P. (2009). Enhancing adolescent self-efficacy for literacy. In K. D. Wood & W. E. Blanton (Eds.), Literacy instruction for adolescents: Research-based practices (pp. 54-76). New York: Guilford.
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