We asked the parents and teachers who frequent our web site for their ideas about how to encourage kids, especially those who aren’t excited about books, to do more reading. Thanks to all you tip-sters out there, we received tons of advice, which we’ve summarized in the seven tips below.
The U.S. Department of Education developed this brief guide for reading tutors. It lists ways that tutoring helps both the learner and the tutor, and provides practical tips that can help tutors be more effective in their work.
In this article especially for parents of English language learners, get answers to your questions about parent-teacher conferences and find tips about how you can prepare for the conference, including suggested questions and topics to discuss.
Discover simple at-home activities you can use to help your child understand the connection between the letters of the alphabet and the sound associated with each letter.
A mother describes the warning signs for dyslexia in her daughter that she didn’t see clearly. She also shares the life-changing resources that helped her understand what dyslexia is and how to get her daughter the support she needed to thrive.
Get the basic facts about what it takes for a young child to learn to read, best practices in teaching reading, the importance of oral language in literacy development, why so many children struggle, and more in this overview.
Discover ways to support literacy skills such as predicting, inference, cause and effect, and categorizing, as well as build STEM vocabulary and background knowledge, at home and in the classroom.
Browse this list of organizations and web resources focused on advocacy, information, and support for families and educators of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. We’ve also identified helpful federal agencies and ASD projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.
Sound walls support students with learning those tricky high-frequency words. They also support students in retaining and learning to read unfamiliar words on their own. A sound wall does the work of matching our articulation of speech sounds/phonemes to the letters/graphemes that represent those sounds. Learn more about why you should make the switch from word walls to sound walls.
In order to make reading instruction research-based, the research itself must be trustworthy, teachers must be prepared to understand and use it, and efforts must be made to translate research findings into recommendations for instruction. This article describes the issues involved in each of these three areas.
Thinking about the sounds in words is not natural, but it can be fun. Here are some games children can play to develop phonemic awareness, as well as a method for segmenting words that prevents children from distorting the pronunciation of the phonemes.
Whether a tutor is reading aloud, talking, or writing with a child, there are strategies for making these interactions even more valuable. Learn about these strategies in these tips for tutoring preschool and kindergarten children.
Whether reading to a child, sharing reading, or listening to a child read aloud, there are many strategies a tutor can use to improve the skills of a young reader. Learn about the strategies — from modeling to K-W-L — that are useful for tutoring children in grades one through three.
Beginning readers are not usually fluent, but classroom practices can help them develop this important skill. This article describes both direct and indirect methods for increasing fluency through classroom instruction.
Researchers have identified three kinds of developmental reading disabilities that often overlap but that can be separate and distinct: (1) phonological deficit, (2) processing speed/orthographic processing deficit, and (3) comprehension deficit.
Through Universal Design for Learning and a model of inclusivity, the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation helps all students, including students with autism, succeed together.
Learn what reading fluency is, why it is critical to make sure that students have sufficient fluency, how we should assess fluency, and how to best provide practice and support for all students.
This article, from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, distinguishes auditory processing disorder from other disorders. Symptoms and treatment are described. An explanation is provided of the role of the multidisciplinary team and the role of the audiologist, which is the only profession that can legitimately diagnose auditory processing disorders.
Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects a child’s handwriting. Children with dysgraphia usually have other problems such as difficulty with written expression. Learn more about causes, the importance of early assessment, dysgraphia and spelling, and effective instructional strategies that strengthen written language skills.
Professional school counselors can be more effective in their work with parents of students with disabilities — as well as with the students themselves, their teachers, and other students — if they understand parent perspectives. Parents’ areas of concern are described, and implications for school counselors are discussed.
This overview from the PACER Center walks parents through each step of the special education process, describing what happens from the time a child is referred for evaluation through the development of an individualized education program (IEP).
