Will my struggling reader ever catch up?

Will my struggling reader ever catch up?

Although children do develop at different rates, attributing a struggling reader 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 comprehension skills necessary by the end of first grade, most of these children will avoid failure.

 

Reading intervention in kindergarten and first grade is more effective than intervention in fourth grade and older.  This is because early intervention takes less time and resources to close the reading gap than using remediation strategies in reading later on.  According to The National Institute of Child Health and Human Department, 90% of poor readers can increase reading skills to average reading levels with prevention and early intervention programs that combine instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, reading fluency, and reading comprehension provided by highly qualified and well-trained teachers.  It takes four times as long to improve the skills of a struggling reader in fourth grade as it does to do so between mid-kindergarten and first grade.  In other words, it takes two hours a day in fourth grade to have the same impact as thirty minutes a day in first grade.  If intervention is not provided until nine years of age, approximately 75 to 88 % of these children will continue to have reading difficulties throughout high school and their adult lives.

 

Although there is a crucial window of opportunity (kindergarten to middle of first grade) parents need to know that it is never too late to help a struggling reader.  Older children can be taught to read but the instruction may be harder to arrange, it will take more time, and it will require an intensive effort from the teacher, the student, and the parent.

 

On the whole, delayed intervention is costlier to everyone, including the child.  These children will be more likely to develop confidence, enjoy reading, read more, and read better if they get off to the right start.

 

Learn more about the New PRIDE Reading Program

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Karina Richland, M.A.,  is the Founder of PRIDE Learning Centers, located in Southern California.  Ms. Richland is a certified reading and learning disability specialist and speaks frequently to parents, teachers, and professionals on learning differences.  She is also the author of the PRIDE Reading Program, an Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching reading, writing and comprehension.   You can visit the PRIDE Learning Center website at: www.pridelearningcenter.com

 

 

 

 

 

Our Favorite Reading Comprehension Strategy – SWBS

Our Favorite Reading Comprehension Strategy – SWBS

 

Is your child having difficulties with reading comprehension?  Need a reading comprehension strategy that helps your child understand what they have just read?

 

Well, try using the SWBS reading comprehension strategy. It is our favorite reading comprehension strategy.

 

Somebody – Wanted – But – So

 

The SWBS is a fantastic and easy to implement reading comprehension strategy that helps children understand plot elements such as conflicts and resolutions.  It also allows the child to summarize the elements of a story and develop the summary into a retelling of the story.  It can be used as a “during reading” or “after reading” strategy.  I also like to use it as a quick reading comprehension assessment with my students.

 

The SWBS reading comprehension strategy is basically a summarizing technique. Summarization requires a student to pull out the main idea, focus on key details, use key words and phrases, and break down the larger ideas.  Summarizing is an extremely difficult task for most students.  Many children require instruction and practice in summarizing before they are able to produce good oral and written summaries of text.  The SWBST strategy helps children first orally summarize what they have read and then put the summary down onto paper into paragraph form.  It works with both fiction and nonfiction text. So here is how it goes:

 

Somebody – Wanted – But – So

 

 

Procedure:

 

1.  Have your child read a story (independently or with help is fine)

2.  Write down the following:

 

Somebody…

Wanted…

But…

So…

 

3.  Fill in the sentences together with your child relating to the story that they just read.  Somebody relates to the character of the story.  Wants is the goal or motivation that the character exhibits.  But refers to the conflict in the story.  So is the resolution of the conflict.  Do it first orally then in written form.

 

4.  Have your child write out the sentences in a paragraph form.  Younger students can add just one sentence while older students can add detail with 1-3 sentences.

 

It is AWESOME – right?  The key to getting your child to memorize this summary form is through repetition.  Doing it just one time won’t work.  Doing it all year long – it will “stick.”  Good Luck and let me know how it goes…

 

boy reading

 

Learn more about the New PRIDE Reading Program

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Karina Richland, M.A. is the Founder and Director of PRIDE Learning Centers, located in Los Angeles and Orange County.  Ms. Richland is a certified reading and learning disability specialist.   Ms. Richland speaks frequently to parents, teachers, and professionals on learning differences, and writes for several journals and publications.  You can reach her by email at karina@pridelearningcenter.com or visit the PRIDE Learning Center website at: www.pridelearningcenter.com

 

 

 

 

 

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