FREE CONFERENCE CALL WITH DR. RICHARD SELZNICK,
AUTHOR OF THE SHUT-DOWN LEARNER
When: Thursday, February 3, 2011 @ 9 pm EST
Phone number: Call (661) 673-8600
Use Access Code: 899615# (remember the #)
Length: Approximately 1 hour
Dr. Selznick is a licensed psychologist, nationally certified school psychologist, university professor of pediatrics, Director of the Cooper Learning Center, Department of Pediatrics, Cooper University Hospital, and author of The Shut-Down Learner: Helping Your Academically Discouraged Child. In this call, he will discuss shut-down learners and answer your questions about how to motivate discouraged children. Read more...
academic problems, Learning Disabilities, Motivation, motivation problems, struggling learner
In Part 1 of 2 we discussed the importance of phonemic awareness, phonics and reading specialists. In Part 2, we’ll focus on teaching strategies and recommendations for action. As in Part 1, the quotations come from the National Institute for Literacy’s publication, What Content-Area Teachers Should Know About Adolescent Literacy. You can download it from www.nifl.gov.
Teaching Strategies
“Research on phonics indicates that certain phonics instructional strategies improve the reading abilities of both younger and older readers” (p. 6). Read more...
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He’ll probably need to master phonics and other decoding skills, but first he’ll need an evaluation from a reading specialist. The evaluation should include diagnostic teaching and observations of him in several classes. Probably, he’ll need intensive instruction from the specialist. It’s unlikely that his content-area teachers, such as his history and science teachers, have the expertise, time, or opportunity to provide the core of his reading instruction.
To help you understand your child’s problems of sounding-out words, and to get him the services he needs, we’ve listed several quotations from the National Institute for Literacy’s guide, What Content-Area Teachers Should Know About Adolescent Literacy. We’ve also commented on several of these. Read more...
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I’m often asked, “Are early intervention programs likely to help kindergartners or first graders at risk for reading disabilities?” Before I describe some of the signs I look for, let’s focus on the definition of “at risk.” My definition is simple: Is the child likely to have difficulties learning to read? Likely means that we can’t be certain, but we’d better work hard to prevent the problem. And carefully and frequently we’d better monitor the child’s progress to ensure that we adjust the program to meet his needs. Read more...
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Hello Everyone,
By now you’ve probably read many of our posts. If you think that our blog can help people you know, please share this press release with them. It’s one way that Gary Brannigan and I can help parents and teachers help children with reading disabilities beat the odds.
Many thanks,
Howard Margolis
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Helping Children Overcome a Devastating Disability: Reading Disabilities
One in four children struggle to read. Many read so poorly that by ninth grade they’ve been held back one or more times. In despair or anger, many quit school. Read more...
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Children with reading disabilities and other learning disabilities need intensive instruction. Usually, this statement generates little or no controversy. The definition of intensive, however, does. Recently, Robert E. Slavin and his colleagues (2009) critically evaluated the relevant research on the effectiveness of programs for struggling readers. Their key findings should help to define the word intensive: Read more...
- One-to-one tutoring works. Teachers are more effective as tutors than paraprofessionals or volunteers, and an emphasis on phonics greatly improves tutoring outcomes.
- Although one-to-one phonetic tutoring for first graders is highly effective, effects last into the upper elementary grades only if classroom interventions continue past first grade.
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If your child struggles to recognize words, should he memorize the “rules” of phonics? Generally, no. Here’s why.
Many of the “rules” of phonics are not rules, but overgeneralizations. The number of exceptions makes them highly fickle, highly unreliable. Often, they don’t work; they confuse children with reading disabilities. That’s why we put quotation marks around the word “rules” and why it’s often better to teach children with reading disabilities how to pronounce common spelling patterns. Read more...
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Many myths surround phonemic awareness and phonics. These myths hurt children, especially children at risk for or with reading disabilities. By understanding the better scholarship about phonemic awareness and phonics, you may be able to protect children from harm.
The quotations below summarize much of the better scholarship. If you’re involved in making decisions about phonemic awareness or phonics, we suggest that you study these quotations, review the sources, and, if appropriate, share these quotations with others. Read more...
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Yes, it’s important if he struggles to recognize words.
One of the many abilities critical to a child’s reading success is his knowledge of the sounds that letters make, and his ability to use this knowledge to figure out unfamiliar words. This is phonics.
Phonics is critical, but it’s not everything. It’s not the child’s comprehension of what he reads, or the fluency with which he reads, or his ability to understand words he hears. But it directly effects each of these. Here are some reasons: Read more...
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Can music therapy help? Maybe.
Emotions affect learning. And many children with reading disabilities have extremely negative emotions about reading. Maybe your child is depressed about his struggles. Maybe he keeps telling himself:
- I can’t read. I’m stupid.
- I’ll always fail.
- I’ll never read. No sense trying.
The longer such self-destructive thoughts and emotions plague children with reading disabilities, the longer their mental health, motivation to read, and their achievement will suffer. To reverse this, it’s critical to help them replace their negative, pessimistic emotions with positive, optimistic ones, ones that make them want to read, want to make the effort, want to enjoy a good book. For some children with reading disabilities, music may be key. Read more...
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