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Give the Gift of Reading This Year

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Give the gift of reading to your child this holiday season.  Since reading is foundational for academic success, your child’s reading needs to be on or above grade level.  Here are three ways you can help improve your elementary age child’s reading.

First, trust your instinct and seek understanding. Most moms (and some dads) instinctively know your child’s reading is behind.  Teachers have good intentions but I repeatedly have a scenario play out when parents come to me even though the teacher says, “Don’t worry.” We test and uncover the child has dyslexia.  Honestly, smart kids compensate for weaknesses.  Also, it’s a ton of work for a teacher to refer a child for school-based testing so some teachers keep pushing kids along without getting to the root cause. Come in for testing to give yourself understanding, peace of mind, and direction. If you on the fence about testing, first read “Overcoming Dyslexia, Second Edition” by Dr. Sally Shaywitz.

Next, you can teach your child using a specialized reading approach.  The Barton Reading and Spelling System was designed for parents and educators to use one-to-one with children.  Learn more at BartonReading.com.  If you prefer, hire a specialized reading tutor to teach your child since many kids work better with someone other than a parent. I have a list of professional reading tutors at JimForgan.com/tutor.

Third, provide a fun way to read. With your younger child, build a pillow fort and read inside the fort. Create a ‘secret’ reading space, tree house, or unique area for reading.  Regardless of age, read to your child. As you read aloud, periodically stop and discuss what each person is picturing in their mind. This develops reading comprehension.  Older kids might like to listen and read along using Audible.

We offer dyslexia, learning disability, and ADHD/ADD testing to help you give the gift of reading to your child. Call us today at (561) 625 4125

Common Causes of Reading Problems

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Common Causes of Reading Problems.  Reading is a critical life skill but up to twenty five percent of kids struggle with learning to read. Common causes of reading problems include having a breakdown in one of the five main areas of reading.  These areas are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, or comprehension. Testing your child can identify the problem so you can provide specific support.  Then your child will gain reading confidence.

Phonemic awareness is the awareness of sounds and how they work in words.  This is a foundational reading skills and a breakdown can interfere with reading and spelling.  Phonics is understanding the relationship between letters and their sounds.  A breakdown here interferes with your child’s ability to quickly and automatically sound out unfamiliar words.

Your child’s reading fluency is important because fluent reading frees up your child’s thinking power to focus on understanding what is being read.  If your child lacks fluency they spend so much mental energy on pronouncing the words that they often don’t understand what they read.

Some children read words but don’t understand their meaning.  For example, “The pig did a jig.” Your child might not know a jig is a type of dance so a vocabulary weakness interferes with comprehension.  Reading comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading and in kindergarten through second grade kids learn to read but from third grade on kids read to learn.  Your child will struggle in most academic areas if he or she struggles in reading comprehension.

Additional causes of reading problems include weakness in memory, attention, language, or processing speed.  Let’s figure out your child so you can provide support where it’s needed and build areas of strength.  With the right help your child can become a strong reader and even love to read.

We offer reading testing for dyslexia, learning disabilities, and processing problems.  Ready to help your child? Call 561-625-4125.