Comments on: Reading Disabilities: How To Calm A Struggling Reader

By: Danielle Levy, Psy.D.

Danielle Levy, Psy.D. — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 03:53:27 +0000

I really love this article and the suggestions you give! So often the anxiety and level of self-esteem play such a huge role in the task and isn’t addressed adequately enough. I’m sure I’ll use this information many times! I really appreciate it!

By: admin

admin — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 19:38:41 +0000

Hi,

In situations like this, I often ask:
1) Is the homework at his independent level for reading, writing, and working independently?
2) Is his confidence high or low for succeeding on the homework?
3) What is enjoyable about the homework?
4) How can the teacher modify the homework so it’s likely to strengthen his motivation to do it, and do it well?
5) Is a temporary program of applied behavior analysis needed?

In the blog’s search engine and in our book, look up motivation, self-efficacy, reinforcement, and homework.

I hope this helps. Good luck. — HM

By: Dara

Dara — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 14:30:47 +0000

I am a reading a tutor, and I have special training in LD awareness. But, as a mother, when I’m trying to get my child to learn how to read, it somewhat flies out the window. He has homework that must be completed, but he doesn’t even try to read. Instead he recites from memory. If we try to draw his attention to the page and the words, he flips out. We’ve tried to keep sessions positive, but he resists reading or even looking at the page. Any suggestions on how to get him to at least look at the words as we point to them?

By: Erika

Erika — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:51:03 +0000

These are all great suggestions. Sometimes we as tutors forget that reading struggles have a lot of emotional effects on the students. I appreciate your useful tips.

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By: admin

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:51:40 +0000

Thanks for your comments and willingness to try some of my suggestions. One method I didn’t mention was the Language Experience Approach (LEA). In some ways, LEA gives the student control of the content, which is motivating and usually eliminates comprehension problems. Your reading his composition to him, as many times as needed for him to succeed, jogs his memory and makes word recognition easier.

By: Michelle Breum

Michelle Breum — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:28:04 +0000

Thank you for addressing this issue! I copied your article , Self-Induced Relaxation. I read it and plan to give it to my student’s mom to look over and see if her son’s therapist would like to try some relaxation techniques. (There are some issues in other parts of my student’s day that cause some frustration and anger.) I read your article, What Tutors Can Do and Say. I’ll be reading it again after trying some of your advice. I plan to:
1. Praise effort, strategy use, and acheivement.
2. Increase self-efficacy by keeping learning at instructional level and allowing my student to feel successful.
3. I might try giving some type of reward.
4. Allowing some control. Have a back up plan if one isn’t working and let my student know to tell me if something is not working.
5. I’m trying some new stuff this Monday. More work with magnetic letters before reading a book. I’m also placing a small piece of wikki stix under letter combinations in books. I’m hoping to direct his eyes to the learned combination and decode the word from beginning to end.