In the last few weeks, several parents have asked us about reading evaluations. To help out, anyone who signs up for our mailing list at www.reading2008.com can download chapter 5 of our book, Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds. The chapter, Using Reading Evaluations, shows parents and teachers how they can use reading evaluations to help children. We encourage parents and teachers to download it, read it, discuss it, and share it with other parents and teachers. (The release is for private use only, not for commercial use or for making more than 3 copies.) Read more...
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From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
Parents often ask, “Is my child’s teacher competent?” Unfortunately, science has yet to produce an errorless formula for answering this question. And it’s an important one that test scores and the new rage, “value added equations,” can’t answer.
Fortunately, there are legitimate ways to begin assessing the competence of your child’s teacher. One way is to observe how she presents lessons to your child’s class. This can tell you a lot, but not everything, about the quality of her instruction. Read more...
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Struggling Writers: How to Improve Their Writing
From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
Very often, writing is taught to struggling writers in very haphazard and unscientific ways. Such instruction produces very little progress and often promotes student beliefs that for them writing is too difficult and will always be a struggle.
Fortunately, however, writing can be taught in systematic and scientifically-supported ways that promote progress and student beliefs that they can succeed. One such systematic and scientifically-supported method is Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD). SRSD removes the mystery of how to write. It shows students the steps they need to practice to succeed. Read more...
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From Reading and Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan & Dr. Howard Margolis
Parents of struggling writers worry about their children’s struggle. They want to know, “How can I help my child?”
If your child struggles with writing, this post might help you and your child’s school identify the type of writing instruction your child needs. It will do this by first discussing critical but often ignored areas of diagnosis, then discussing a typical but inadequate diagnostic process that can do more harm than good, and finally suggesting actions you can take. A follow-up post will outline one effective, well-researched method for helping struggling writers improve their writing: Self-Regulated Strategy Development. Read more...
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The Question
Recently, a tutor of a struggling reader sent us this question: “Do you have any advice on things to say to calm my student down? Sometimes my student gets in a loop of thinking. He cries and says he hates this tutoring, he can do harder stuff than this, his anger and sadness causes him to be in a place where he cannot learn. I plan to have a variety of activities and books available to have an option when one activity isn’t working. Two sessions ago I stopped the session, because my student could not calm down. We made an agreement that day to stop using the books he didn’t like. I continued the session yesterday, but I’m not sure how much he learned. I didn’t want him to think I’m going to give up.” Read more...
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The RAVE-O Program
Guest Post
by
Melissa Orkin, M.A.
Clinical Fellow
Center for Reading and Language Research, Tufts University
As a Clinical Fellow at the Center for Reading and Language Research (CRLR) at Tufts University, I regularly speak with parents who are frustrated with the development of their child’s reading skills. Many of the families have children who have been diagnosed with reading disabilities yet others have found that although their children can adequately sound out words, they are struggling with fluency and comprehension. Read more...
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From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
What’s wrong with him? In most cases, nothing. Lots of struggling readers resist reading. After years of failure, they expect to fail; they’ve given up, they’re protecting themselves from more failure and embarrassment. From their perspective, resistance is rational. Here’s Dr. Sebastian Wren’s explanation: Read more...
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Yes. His thinking may cause him to quit, or rebel, or ignore what’s taught. This undermines learning and the growth of self-regulation, so important for independent functioning.
Because emotions and actions are often driven by conscious thoughts, we’ll emphasize some of the thought processes involved with self-regulation. But first we’ll define self-regulation, a concept that schools often ignore at the peril of children with reading disabilities. Then we’ll discuss the consequences of two common thinking patterns. Finally we’ll recommend three books to help you help your child.
Self-Regulation Read more...
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Many children suffer emotionally because they cannot cope with academic demands. But they can develop specific skills to help them cope effectively. By doing so, they increase their motivation for learning and decrease their emotional distress.
These skills form the basis of “self-regulation,” which Lyn Corno and Ellen Mandinach (1983) broadly defined as the effort put forth by students to deepen, monitor, manipulate, and improve their own learning. Clearly, such activities are important for learning, which in the final analysis depends on the learners’ willingness and skill to meet the demands placed on them. Moreover, self-regulated learners understand the important links underlying what they think, what they feel, and what they do or don’t do. Read more...
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In Part 1 of 2, we discussed five ways to minimize feelings of intimidation. We recommend that you take all or some of these steps well before the IEP meeting: Read more...
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Study the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA-2004), especially the sections that explain the requirements for IEPs and IEP meetings.
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Send the IEP Team any new information you have that identifies your child’s needs.
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Examine your child’s school records.
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Meet with a private expert to review all reports about your child and a copy of his school records.
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