Simply put, no reading method or commercial program is best for teaching reading to children with reading disabilities. Every method or program has flaws. As Richard Allington, past President of the International Reading Association, has noted, no program is complete, no program is as important as the teacher:
From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
Reading materials alone can’t ensure high quality reading instruction. Such instruction requires teachers to consistently use sound instructional practices. To assess this, you might discuss your child’s program with his teachers, observe his classes, or have a private reading specialist do both as part of a reading evaluation.
For the moment, let’s assume you hire a reading specialist. Before the specialist discusses your child’s program with his teachers, the two of you should agree on the questions you want answered. Dozens of such questions are listed in Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds. Here are a few:
Parents often ask me to recommend a specialized school or reading program for their child, who they say has “dyslexia.” Usually, they’re surprised by my first four questions: Who told you that your child has dyslexia? On what did they base their diagnosis? How did they define dyslexia? What is it that your child has difficulty doing? The reason I ask these questions (and more) is that many private reading services, including private schools, are ideologically committed to the concept of dyslexia. Whatever the nature of the child’s reading problem, they attribute it to “dyslexia.” Rarely do they use “dyslexia” in ways that have instructional value.
