Teaching Reading
What is reading?
How do children learn to read?
What are the roles of phonemes and graphemes in decoding?
What is the importance of phonics in decoding?
What are “word callers?”
What are “context readers?”
What are basic sight words?
What is a sound reading program?
How do you get children to do independent reading when they hate reading and think it is too hard?
Learning Disabilities
What is the best age for involving the young person in person-centered planning?
What is listening capacity and why is it important?
If a learning disabled student is showing signs of being a highly sensitive child, how does this issue affect reading remediation?
If a student with academic skill deficits is not diagnosed as learning disabled, can they still have an IEP and receive special services?
How can it be determined if someone has directional confusion or crossed laterality?
How can children with directional confusion be helped?
How can an artistically inclined student with specific learning disabilities like dyslexia build reading skills and comprehension creatively?
Working with parents
What are ways to communicate with parents who feel their children are not meeting their expectations?
What is the appropriate way for parents to structure time for homework?
How can basic sight words be promoted and reinforced effectively in the home for a dyslexic student?
If a dyslexic student goes for a long period in a reading remediation program without showing gains, how do the teachers and parents know that the child is making progress?
How do you find a qualified tutor if your child needs one?
How does anxiety reduce a child’s ability to read?
What is person-centered planning?
Teaching Reading
Simply put, reading is the ability to interpret connected print fluently and with understanding. This involves two basic skill areas: decoding, or being able to connect sounds with their printed symbol, and comprehension, the meaning of the words and text. Learning to read is an associative process. Children must learn to associate words, and their meaning, with their printed forms.
How do children learn to read?
Reading starts with the most important first skill of learning the names of the letters of the alphabet. Learning the names of the letters, and later the sounds of these names and their combinations, is called decoding. When the native English speaking youngsters enter school, they have a speaking vocabulary of many words they can say and to which they attach meaning. They might say a word like “bird” and know what a bird is. Now, as they begin to learn, they must associate the word bird as they say it with its meaning and the printed form of the word bird.
What are the roles of phonemes and graphemes in decoding?
Decoding involves children learning the sound of letters with their written letters. The sounds of letters are phonemes and the written symbols of letters are graphemes. When they associate the sounds (phonemes) of the language with the printed symbols (graphemes), they are decoding. When children say the word bird, for example, they are giving the sound of some of the letters of the alphabet. When they can make the link between saying bird and seeing bird in print, they are decoding.
What is the importance of phonics in decoding?
Our English-speaking alphabet is made up of consonants and vowels. Of our 26 letter alphabet, 21 of the letters are consonants. The remaining five are the vowels a, e, I, o and u, and sometimes y. There are approximately 44 sounds (phonemes) in English and only 26 letters (graphemes) to represent them. It stands to reason, then, that some of the letters of the alphabet (graphemes) are going to have to combine to represent more than one sound (phoneme). This is the job of the vowels, which change sound and meaning by being long (“cake”), short (“cat”) or irregular, as in vowels that follow an r (“star”). Phonics instruction help students to gain the repertory code of consonant, vowels and their various combinations that represent language in print.
Mastery of phonics is essential to learning to read. However, if students do not also bring meaning to the sounds and symbols of words, they are word callers. A word caller is a reader who can successfully decode connected print fluently, but does not have a satisfactory understanding of what they have just read. Word calling can result from reading programs that drill phonics skills so heavily that vocabulary and comprehension skills are neglected. This is a particular problem if children also have limited experiences or capacities to build direct and personal associations with a wide array of words, concepts and their meaning.
Children who do not read connected print fluently, but they have a good understanding of what they have read, are diagnosed as context readers. Context reading is the result of a reading program with a heavy emphasis on vocabulary development and other comprehension skills, so that decoding skills are short-changed. Children with specific learning disorders in interpreting sound-symbol relationships can sometimes mask their disability in the classroom through context reading, particularly in early grades.
There are 220 to 400 basic and high frequency sight words in English. Most of these words that must be recognized at sight and cannot be sounded out and taught phonetically. Reading researchers Edward Dolch and Edward Frye identified these words, which make up 50 to 75 percent of all words in basal readers and are among the frequently occurring words seen in all print (conduct a key word search for these words on the internet).
What is a sound reading program?
A sound reading program is one that has a balance of decoding skills and comprehension, with family and community support for independent reading practice, reading for pleasure and shared reading experiences.
How do you get children to do independent reading when they hate reading and think it is too hard?
One of the most difficult things for a parent or teacher to do is to get a child who does not like reading to do independent reading. Bribery, threats, or punishment do not work and only make the situation worse. When children have had a difficult start with reading, supportive adults must be attuned to the genuine interests of the learner. The adult cannot create such interest; they must respond to the desires of the student and create an environment where reading materials at the student’s independent level (books, articles, magazines, newspapers, computer-based materials) are readily available. Children may explore many interests before their passions emerge. Sometimes children are excited about something, like basketball or drawing, that they want to do rather than read about. These types of hands-on interests often are best accessed through experiential learning that incorporates reading, writing and numeracy through more physical activities like collecting, experimenting, scrap-booking, or youth-group activities. We also recommend that the adult actively enter into independent reading with the child, sitting together side-by-side and taking turns reading alternate pages, pausing to listen to the child’s comments and questions. Despite busy and sometimes hectic schedules, adults need to value and model independent reading. Children frequently emulate what they see their parents doing with their own time.
Learning Disabilities
What is the best age for involving the young person in person-centered planning?
Person centered planning begins at birth. Whether the process has been orderly or haphazard; each one of us has created (or has stumbled upon) a preferred lifestyle and a unique plan for our life. That plan was not handed to us. We created the plan for ourselves with the help of people who are significant in our lives. No one came with a life plan already prepared for them, but every one of us has figured out goals for ourselves as we went along and we have struggled and sometimes soared as we attempted to reach them. With the input of parents, teachers, and friends we set goals, try to reach them, sometimes fail, sometimes revise our plan, and always persevere in planning for ourselves in a process that begins at birth. Therefore, no one is too young or too old to be involved in making choices and understanding the consequences of their person-centered plan.
What is listening capacity and why is it important?
Listening capacity is the ability of students to understand material when it is read to them. Listening capacity helps establish the student’s level for understanding concepts taught and discussed orally in the classroom. It is important for diagnosing the true ability of reading disabled students to gain knowledge and skills through experiential learning.
If a learning disabled student is showing signs of being a highly sensitive child, how does this issue affect reading remediation?
Highly sensitive children are ones that are often hyper-alert to their environments. Their senses and perceptions are acute. This can result in their sensory feeling that their clothes itch, for example, or deep intuitive awareness of their differences from classmates or siblings due to a difference in learning capacity or styles. This may result in their being fearful of or overly stimulated by novel events, noise, or bright lights that do not disturb the average youngster. Highly sensitive children generally respond well to calm settings, modulated voice tone, predictable routines and teachers and parents who establish security, trust and safe boundaries.
If a student with academic skill deficits is not diagnosed as learning disabled, can they still have an IEP and receive special services?
A student does not have to be diagnosed with a learning disability in order to have an individual educational plan. We support IEPs for all children in a classroom, and it is fundamental to good teaching that each student’s educational goals and needs are incorporated into the teacher’s instructional planning. The reason that children receive individual grade cards with recommendations for their improvement is because it is commonly accepted that each child should be individually assisted in setting and reaching appropriate educational goals. However, there are schools and districts that have highly specific requirements for allotting special education services, such as reading interventions. In these circumstances, the family benefits from having an independent educational diagnosis to document legally whether the student meets the special needs criteria. If not, the parents still have the right for appropriate classroom instructional adjustments and cooperation with an outside tutor.
What does it mean when students are diagnosed with directional confusion or crossed laterality?
Directional confusion means confusing left and right. It is a genetic disposition and primarily the result of a person not having a dominant side; e.g., the person’s dominant hand and dominant eye are on opposite sides of the body. This condition is referred to as crossed laterality. As a result, the person may reverse letters, numbers and words such as was for saw, or on for no. This condition also is characterized by the person not have a sense of direction and orientation. Reading in English is a left to right orientation. When parents and teachers see students reversing their orientation, they tend to caution them to read from left to right. Since these children confuse left and right, doing this becomes frustrating for the adult as well as the students.
How can it be determined if someone has directional confusion or crossed laterality?
One simple way to check for directional confusion is to ask individuals to put their right hand on their left shoulder. With directional confusion, they may just as likely put their left hand on their right shoulder. These children do not “feel” the difference between left and right – not in the intellectual sense, but in the bodily sense.
How can children with directional confusion be helped?
Since left and right are abstractions to students with directional confusion, they need something concrete to establish the left-to-right orientation of English print. This is easily accomplished by providing these children with an ID bracelet that you put on their left wrists. Do not ask them to read left to right. Instead, instruct them to read from the bracelet hand to the other hand, then return to the bracelet hand for the next line of print. A child does not go through life with the bracelet. By using the bracelet, you are patterning the brain to go left to right automatically. Remember to avoid using the terms left and right until the patterning is complete.
How can an artistically inclined student with specific learning disabilities like dyslexia build reading skills and comprehension creatively?
It is a natural tendency for children to be creative. Some have advanced talents or a passion for drawing, painting, building and story-telling while others develop interests around systems like collecting, cataloguing and sorting. All types of creative interests or capacities of the child support multi-sensory learning approaches that involve repetitious learning strategies using different tactile elements. A variety of computer-assisted instructional approaches are available that appeal to children’s creativity, and traditional arts materials also support the crucial hands-on learning needed by students with dyslexia. For all children, it is essential to understand their desires and help them develop their strengths and talents.
Working with parents
What are ways to communicate with parents who feel their children are not meeting their expectations?
Some parents are concerned that their children are not meeting their potential. They may reveal fears and frustrations about their child or even label him or her. In these circumstances, reframe the information to bring insight to the parents. It is absolutely crucial not to use parent information to justify a lack of progress or even the teacher’s own frustration with the child. For example, a teacher should never say to parents, “You said yourself that Ira is a scatterbrain who pays no attention to your directions.” More appropriate would be the statement, “We see that we need to help Ira with following directions. Let’s both focus on breaking directions down to the smallest steps, and praising him when he succeeds in responding.” Most importantly, the educator must help parents understand when their concern is affecting their child’s enjoyment and efficacy of learning and how they can more proactively address their child’s needs.
What is the appropriate way for parents to structure time for homework?
The child who struggles with homework does need structure, but this structure must be flexible with the child’s ability to succeed. We recommend that families do establish a consistent time period for homework. However, the parents must observe and be sensitive to signs of fatigue and frustration. All the good that might result from 45 minutes of engagement may be destroyed by forcing students to stay in their seat for a specified hour or more. It is also crucial to coordinate homework plans with the classroom teacher. All homework should be focused on increasing automaticity and mastery, NOT new learning at the instructional or frustration level. It is the role of the teacher to structure and advance the student’s level of instruction in the classroom, and the role of the parents to help reinforce the learning concepts at the child’s independent level of reading and learning. Homework time and structure can be an important part of person-centered planning with the student.
How can basic sight words be promoted and reinforced effectively in the home for a dyslexic student?
Much the way students must learn their address and telephone number, sight words are learned through repetition and coaching as well as being reinforced through independent reading. Parents can make or purchase a box of flash cards containing a basis sight per card. You then spend a few minutes each day going through 10 to 20 of these basic sight words with the child. Be careful not in keep the cards you are using in the same orcer each time. Mix them up, otherwise the child comes to know the words due to the sequence. When the child has learned the first 20 words you started, select another 20 cards, and so on, with frequent mastery reviews. Cards can be taped up around the house, and words can be used for sight word bingo. Have patience and do not rush to get to the end of the cards.
If a dyslexic student goes for a long period in a reading remediation program without showing gains, how do the teachers and parents know that the child is making progress?
Progress with dyslexic students tends to be slow. This slow and incremental progress often makes teachers and parents feel that the intervention process is not working and their thoughts turn toward switching to differing methods. Switching methods only causes confusion in the student. The basic way to check on a child’s progress, however slow, is to use the CRI and test the child’s growth in decoding and knowledge of basic sight words. Even though progress may be slow at the start, the CRI will pick up whatever progress there is. Another way to check on progress is to observe any changes in the student’s attitude toward reading. Does the child appear more positive aobut reading and more willing to develop decoding skills? These changes, however, subtle, are a sign that progress is being made.
How do you find a qualified tutor if your child needs one?
To find a qualified tutor for your child, we recommend that you find one that has institutional support. Tutors are not licensed, and those recommended through a school district, university or medical institution have the backing of organizations with standards and credentialing. We particularly recommend parents to check the websites or call nearby universities and ask for the Dean of the School of Education. The Dean’s office can refer you to diagnostic specialists in the Reading Department. Sometimes this department is called something other than reading, such as Language and Literacy, for example. Almost all Reading Departments have advanced students, often teachers completing graduate degrees, who do tutoring. If no university is nearby, parents can call a local hospital and ask for the Children’s Unit. They usually keep a list of qualified tutors and references, which again provides you the confidence of institutional support.
How does anxiety reduce a child’s ability to read?
When children are anxious, their attention and mental energy are partially diverted to dealing with fearful feelings of inadequacy. The anxiety tends to block those skills that the child does, in fact, possess. In addition, they come to associate reading and learning, which should be inherently positive growth experiences, with unpleasant feelings. Therefore they often want to avoid the anxiety by avoiding reading, which dampens the very mastery and automaticity they need for feelings of success and self-confidence.
What is person-centered planning?
Person Centered Planning is a value. In the old style of planning, the system (medical, educational or other service system) was at the center of the plan. That meant that people had to choose between a narrow range of services created on the “one size fits all” model. As you know, the old style of planning created problems for professionals who really wanted to help someone. The new style of planning is to put the person with the special need right in the center of the plan. Now, using person centered planning a plan can be built on the person’s talents, strengths, and abilities.