Has my child reached the reading benchmarks for Kindergarten?
The Kindergarten school year is coming to an end and as a parent your thoughts are probably turning towards first grade. Is your child ready for first grade reading? How do you know? Here is a list of benchmark reading accomplishments for kindergarten that was included in a report prepared by a National Academy of Sciences panel titled Preventing Reading difficulties in Young Children, Catherine E. Snow. Knows the parts of a book and their functions. Begins to track print when listening to a familiar text being read or when rereading own writing. “Reads”...
read moreADHD, and the Importance of Accurate Diagnosis
Nearly 10 percent of children and 4 percent of adults in the U.S. have been diagnosed with ADHD. But studies suggest that while many people with ADHD still go undiagnosed, others are wrongly diagnosed with ADHD when they are instead suffering from a range of other disorders. ADHD is frequently portrayed and covered in the media and it is now part of the American lexicon. Many people notice that their children are struggling with a lack of attention and quickly assume that they must have ADHD. Often, parents and teachers can feel so certain that a child has ADHD that their strong beliefs...
read moreIt’s Parent-Teacher Conference Time! What should I discuss with my child’s teacher
Finally, you have a chance to sit down face-to-face with your child’s teacher. You have a lot that you want to talk about, and a limited amount of time. The better prepared you are going into the meeting, the more beneficial the meeting will be for both you and the teacher. Here are some questions you can think about and then ask your child’s teacher at the next upcoming conference to elicit information and make the rest of your child’s year more successful. How is my child doing keeping up in class? Start out by asking the teacher how your child is doing overall. Is he or she...
read more5 Questions you need to ask when extra reading help is offered at school
1. Will the help my child receives be provided by a trained teacher, paraprofessional or a parent volunteer? In many schools parents are trained to work as parent volunteers and aids to help the students who are struggling. If your child has been diagnosed with a learning disability, or you suspect a more severe issue than the school is acknowledging, then you will probably want to decline any help that is not from a highly trained reading therapist or reading specialist. A child with true learning difficulties will need instruction delivered by an experienced expert using an...
read moreWill my struggling reader ever catch up?
Although children do develop at different rates, attributing reading failure to immaturity is risky and usually unhelpful. Children, who are poor readers at the end of first grade, are most often still poor readers in fourth grade. Early signs of reading problems should never be ignored or passed off as a developmental lag. It is never a good idea to “wait and see” if a child grows out it. The safest assumption is that early, direct teaching designed to help a struggling reader will minimize risks later on. If a child is taught the sounds, letters, words, and language...
read moreSecrets to Successful Spelling
By Dr. David Raffle, PhD, CBIS I know many adults who truly believe that they cannot spell, saying “I can’t spell” in the same manner that they would say, “I can’t swim.” But spelling, like swimming, can be taught. However, while most teachers know how to test for spelling, very few know how to teach spelling. There is a misconception that spelling is a form of dyslexia, a disorder where one is unable to recognize words or sound them out phonetically. The acts of reading and writing occur mainly in the left temporal lobe of your brain – the part of the brain near your left...
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