How Can I Choose The Right Reading Program To Help My Child To Catch Up?
May 2nd, 2012
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This is a topic which I receive emails about very often. It’s a good question, because not every reading program suits a child or a student who is struggling.
It is important to get our choice of reading program right because after a day at school, a child with dyslexia is often mentally exhausted. Adding on long hours of ineffective formal tutoring after school can be extremely stressful and debilitating for a struggling learner.
My advice to parents and to teachers is usually this.
- Ensure you have your child or student diagnostically assessed by a dyslexia trained educational specialist (teacher) or an educational or neuro psychologist who specialises in learning difficulties or disabilities. A thorough diagnostic assessment will indicate a child’s learning and cognitive weaknesses, but it will also highlight their learning strengths. This is often called their learning profile and in children with dyslexia this profile can look like a spiky line on a graph, known as their spiky profile. This is because they will have areas of learning that they find very difficult, but they will also have areas where they do well. Choose a program that uses the child’s strengths to overcome their weaknesses. This way the program will be effective and the child will make good gains. You will find a list of Australian dyslexia assessors in the members area on my website.
- Ask the diagnostic assessor which programs will provide your child with the most effective learning gains based on their learning profile. For further advice you can contact your local dyslexia association and ask to speak to the person with the best knowledge of reading programs and also computer based reading programs. You can also try dyslexia trained tutors and assessors for advice. Finding the right program and also making sure it is age appropriate can be life changing for a struggling learner.
- When you are using reading programs at home break the sessions down into 10-20 minute blocks. Try to do a little of the program every day. Brain training science research tells us that 10 minutes practise every day is much more effective than one or two hours per week for longer periods. Short tutoring sessions also fit in with other life and school commitments. They are achievable when a child is already mentally exhausted and can be done at almost anytime of day and almost anywhere to save time. Another added bonus is that it leaves time after school for the child to get on with doing the things they are good at, whether that be an academic subject area, a sport, a hobby or an artistic or creative pursuit. Children need to be defined by the things they are good at to remain confident and resilient, socially and in life. When a child feels confident they are capable of achieving amazing things and overcoming incredible obstacles.
- Make sure the program you choose is one where the children can see that they are making progress. In other words they are making learning gains from day one. A child must be motivated to continue to want to improve and reading programs must provide them with feedback.
- See the American article in The Dyslexia Discovery Day Newsletter No. 7, which can be found in the Members area of the website, this is about the specifics of choosing a learning program. Of course there are many more programs to choose from than are mentioned here, but again you can go to my website to find links to many more.
- I’m working on an online reading program called The Ten Minute Tutor, it can be found by clicking this link, and will be available in late May 2012.
All The Best,
Liz Dunon
Categories: Helping Children With Dyslexia
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