From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

Paired Reading: A Guide For Parents—Part II

Keith Topping, Ph.D.

THE DESCRIPTION

As described in Part I, in Paired Reading “the parent and child begin reading aloud together and continue until the child makes an error. The parent supplies the correct word, the child repeats the word and rereads the sentence, and simultaneous (“duet”) reading continues. When the child feels ready to read alone, he or she gives a prearranged signal [e.g., a thumb up], and the parent stops reading while the child continues” (Rathvon, 2008, p. 193).

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From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

Paired Reading: A Guide For Parents—Part I

Keith Topping. Ph.D.

In March, we published two posts on Paired Reading. Consequently, several  parents and teachers wanted more information. Graciously, Dr. Keith Topping, Director of the Centre for Paired Learning and Graduate Educational Psychology at the University of Dundee, Scotland, allowed us to republish his guide.

First we’ll briefly describe Paired Reading, Then, in the next two posts, we’ll provide Dr. Topping’s guide, with slight modifications.

The Description

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As a follow-up to our first post on Paired Reading, Dr. Topping suggested that interested professionals, education majors, and parents visit his university website to get free resources about Paired Reading:    http://www.dundee.ac.uk/eswce/research/projects/trwresources/

Once on the site, click Paired Reading . You’ll also see valuable resources about Writing, Spelling, and Thinking. You can download most of these resources.

Visiting the site and studying the materials will give you information that may help you make better decisions for children who struggle with reading.

Howard Margolis © Reading2008 & Beyond  www.reading2008.com

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Parents of children with reading disabilities often ask, “How can I teach my child to read?”

I often respond with three suggestions:

  • Don’t try to teach him anything new if it’s likely to cause friction, or fighting, or excessive anxiety.
  • Read to him daily. Make sure it’s something he likes, and then, if he wants, and only if he wants, have him read it silently or read a sentence or more back to you. Don’t pressure him to read aloud. If he has trouble with a word, tell it to him.
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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:

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What you want from and ask an evaluator depends on her specific discipline. It addition to reading and special education evaluations, children with reading disabilities may need evaluations from applied behavior analysis specialists, clinical psychologists, neurologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, psychiatrists, school psychologists, social workers, and speech and language therapists. The list can be long, seemingly too long. It might also include allergists, art therapists, music therapists, and nutritionists. Of course, your child should be evaluated only in areas that might be causing him academic, social, emotional, or health problems. By itself, too many evaluations can create problems.

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Assessing small improvements in word recognition and fluency requires weekly assessments. One quick and valid way for teachers to assess progress in word recognition and fluency is to ask the child with reading disabilities to read aloud, once weekly, for 60-seconds, from material at or slightly below his instructional level. As he reads, his teacher (or an aide) counts the number of words correctly pronounced. This figure is charted.

If, for several weeks, the number of words read correctly on these 60-second oral reading probes continues to increase, your child is probably making progress; if, however, it remains flat or decreases, he’s probably having difficulty. This requires school personnel to investigate the problem, collect and analyze relevant data, and probably modify his program.

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