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How do I teach advocacy skills to children with LD?
It is critically important to help children understand themselves and develop healthy self-esteem. Some of the information below is written for adults, so be sure to modify it to make it age-appropriate for children.
- Explaining Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorder to Your Child
- A Teacher's Formula to Build Self-Esteem in Kids With LD
- Self-Esteem Builder
- Helping Your Child Build Self-Esteem
There are also excellent books available for children. The LD OnLine Kids section features a large selection of good books to help children handle learning and attention issues. For example, you’ll find Survival Guide for Kids with LD by Fisher and Cummings and The Creeps in Room 112 by Bennett, as well as books for much younger students. You can also find excellent articles written by children.
I teach English as a foreign language. What is the best way to teach kids how to read English?
Reading is a very complex process, which requires decoding, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. Decoding alone is also a complex process involving many sub-skills, including alphabetic knowledge, phonemic awareness skills, phonics skills, and sight word recognition. All of these components are necessary for successful reading. It is important to be sure that there isn't anything standing in the way, such as difficulty with one or more of the skills necessary for easy and accurate reading. The decoding components of reading must be solid, or the reader will spend too much effort sounding out words and will not be able to derive meaning and enjoyment from the story.
The following articles will give you more information concerning the processes involved in reading:
- Comprehension Instruction: What Works
- Reading Aloud to Build Comprehension
- Improving Comprehension for Students with LD
You might also find helpful information in our "Launching Young Readers" Series.
If you work with more than one student at a time, the following articles may help give you ideas for ways you can diversify your instruction to reach all of your students:
The most helpful advice about specific teaching strategies usually comes from other teachers. If you haven't done so already, talk with your colleagues, especially those who have worked with your students in the past, as well as specialists (such as special education teachers, reading specialist, speech clinicians and occupational therapists) who are currently working with some of your students. They can share with you the strategies that they have found to be helpful for the students in your class.
While we cannot endorse any specific reading programs, the following articles from our site address several different programs and their benefits:
- 12 Components of Research-Based Reading Programs
- 9 Components of Effective, Research-Supported Reading Instruction
Reading Rockets has two sister-sites: LD OnLine and Colorin Colorado. Colorin Colorado is a Spanish language site, and contains several articles which can be viewed and printed in English or Spanish. You can sign up to receive the Colorin Colorado newsletter in Spanish or in English through the site.
I think my child may have a learning disability but I'm not sure how to describe to the school exactly what I want assessed. What should I do?
If it is hard to verbally state why you have concerns, bring your child's work samples with you to the school to show what is hard to articulate. A full psycho-educational assessment should give you the answers that you seek.
Before going elsewhere, you might want to find out exactly what services the school system could offer you – and when they could provide them. If the timeframe or suggestions for providing needed services is unacceptable to you, there are independent educational testers that you can go to privately. The following articles will give you an idea of what to expect from the testing process:
- Special Education: Evaluation
- Stages of the Assessment Process
- Your Child's Evaluation
- 10 Steps in the Special Education Process
There are several national organizations that can help you through this process and provide referrals to local professionals. You can contact the International Dyslexia Association or the Learning Disabilities Association. In addition, you can look in your local phone book for “educational testing” or “psycho-educational testing” for someone close to you. LD Online has a Yellow Pages service that might be helpful. There are also educational consultants and educational advocates that can help you through the process locally.
Be a good consumer in this process. Ask potential testers, tutors, and consultants about their experiences and specialization before you choose a provider. You want to make sure that the person you choose will be a good match for your child.
Teaching Reading Well: A Synthesis of the International Reading Association's Research on Teacher Preparation for Reading Instruction
International Reading Association. (2007). Reading Well: A Synthesis of the International Reading Association's Research on Teacher Preparation for Reading Instruction. Newark, DE: Author.
This report synthesizes the findings of research efforts focused on identifying essential qualities of effective teacher preparation programs for reading instruction. It finds that good teacher prep programs provide students with excellent instructional content; faculty and teaching; apprenticeships, field experiences, and practica; diversity; candidate and program assessment; and governance, resources, and vision.
- Download full report (296K PDF)*
What is LD?
The following articles provide you with some basic information about learning disabilities:
These articles and others are available on LD OnLine, particularly in the LD Topics section.
Note: when you create a new publication type, the articles module will automatically use the templates user-display-[publicationtype].xd and user-summary-[publicationtype].xd. If those templates do not exist when you try to preview or display a new article, you'll get this warning :-) Please place your own templates in themes/yourtheme/modules/articles The templates will get the extension .xt there.
"Are we there yet?"
Kelly Deckert
December 02, 2009 1:56:25 PM
Use the time spent in the car or bus for wordplay. Talk about how jam means something you put on toast as well as cars stuck in traffic. How many other homonyms can your child think of? When kids are highly familiar with the meaning of a word, they have less difficulty reading it.
Note: when you create a new publication type, the articles module will automatically use the templates user-display-[publicationtype].xd and user-summary-[publicationtype].xd. If those templates do not exist when you try to preview or display a new article, you'll get this warning :-) Please place your own templates in themes/yourtheme/modules/articles The templates will get the extension .xt there.
"I want that one!"
Kelly Deckert
December 02, 2009 1:58:12 PM
Reading should be a choice, not a chore. Make sure there are a variety of books, magazines, and other materials available for your child to choose from.
"Level-Mania" and the Identity of the Reader
I read something interesting at the Edge of the Forest about leveled book systems in elementary classrooms. A small snip from the thoughtful piece:
In the name of "just right" books, we may be sacrificing real reading experiences that will last a lifetime.
The author seeks to make the point that leveled systems in classrooms which funnel children into baskets of books that match their reading level deny those students authentic ways to develop the 'behaviors of readers' by building 'their own identity as a reader.' Predetermined reading baskets provide fewer opportunities to explore genre, favorite authors or illustrators and provide greater opportunities to read only with the purpose of getting to the next level basket.
Don't get me wrong — by recognizing this piece I'm not arguing against leveled systems. Leveling systems can maximize the instructional value of a lesson by providing a reliable way to match a young reader with a book. They also provide guidance to teachers who are new to the concept of the reader-text match. But I see the author's point about reading ownership.
So, here's the challenge: have kids read on their instructional level (defined here as 90% accuracy) to help develop their skill as readers and, as teachers, engage in all kinds of other behaviors that help children develop their "reading identity". Some tips for doing that, again from the Edge of the Forest :
Help children find favorite authors.
Guide them to choose books with characters they might come to love — books where the same character appears in several books
Ask them about the kinds of books they like, not the level of book they want
Organize our books in baskets by author, genre, topic and series, rather than by level
Allow kids to choose books that are too hard or too easy if it fits their purpose
Talk to kids about my favorite books, authors, and genres
Introduce children to new books, authors, and genres
Have conversations with children about new books that I am excited about
Share ways that I keep up with new books coming out using internet resources
Share book reviews with children and talk about the kinds of books that sound good to them.
Note: when you create a new publication type, the articles module will automatically use the templates user-display-[publicationtype].xd and user-summary-[publicationtype].xd. If those templates do not exist when you try to preview or display a new article, you'll get this warning :-) Please place your own templates in themes/yourtheme/modules/articles The templates will get the extension .xt there.
"Look at what I did!"
Kelly Deckert
December 02, 2009 1:56:59 PM
Keeping a chart or graph that illustrates the number of books a child has read can bring a sense of accomplishment.
"Not much of an incentive" incentive reading program
Me: So Molly, would you like to add to your reading log for the summer reading program?
Molly: Um, no thanks. I've decided I don't want to do it.
Me: What?!? I mean...why sweetie? This is only the second week of it!
Molly: Because it's sort of silly. All you do is write down the names of some books, and then take it in and get some prize. Plus, they just stamp the sheet and hand it back. It doesn't matter.
Me: Oh, okay.
Molly: But, do you know where my Amber book is? I'm almost finished and I want to start the next one.
Humph. Such was the exchange this morning in our kitchen. I guess Molly's not much of an incentive program kid. She just wants to read. And she is reading, so I'm not complaining.
But now I'm wondering: Is your reader involved with a summer reading program? Are they excited/motivated/interested in it? If so, I'd love to hear about it!
"Target the Problem!" Flyer
Summary:
This one-page flyer describes the "Target the Problem!" resource.
Download:
"Target the Problem!" Handout
Summary:
This handout presents the information from our "Target the Problem" interactive in an easily printable (and share-able) format.
Download:
For their family's Christmas celebration, María's mother makes lots of tamales. But while María is helping out, she tries on her mother's ring and loses it in the dough. Without telling the adults, María and her young relatives try to find it – by eating all the tamales!
By: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2005)
Cada niño es un caso único y se desarrolla a su propio ritmo. Esta tabla representa el promedio de la edad a la que la mayoría de los niños dominan destrezas en oír, comprender, y hablar.
By: CanTeach (2004)
Children work at different paces. Here are some suggestions for how to keep your speedy workers occupied while their classmates finish their assignments.
Kate is understandably sad when her cat dies, and so her parents are thrilled when she asks to go to the animal shelter to find a new family pet. They all fall in love with not only Dave, an energetic puppy, but also the older, subdued Rosy. Cartoon-like line and wash illustrations depict a young, contemporary family (the parents sport tattoos) as well as authentic emotions in this sympathetic story.
'Tis the season to read and write
Like everyone, we're in for a busy couple of weeks. Our homework and storytime routines sometimes get pushed aside, and at first I was feeling guilty about that. But when I think about how the girls are spending their time, there's plenty of reading, writing, and math going on...it just looks different! Here's how Anna spent her afternoon yesterday on the computer:
Dear Santa,
I have ben a very good girl this yere I wood like moor jump rope and
Samatha and Emily a pegwin that is cold and cuot my onn bitty baby and
My onn jres up close a nothr cabich pach sum moor books that are
Little bear sum moor bitty baby close sum moor crittrs
My onn safty bag that hooks on to my bike
My onn aret araya
While she was doing that, Molly and I were writing our grocery list for chocolate mint wafer cookies. Things got complicated when we decided to double the recipe! A quick tutorial on fractions kept things on track. Between our grocery list and the directions for putting together our Advent calendar (like this one, but I didn't pay that price!) Molly got her share of reading and writing too.
And there's more in our future — reading our Christmas cards and letters, sending out our own (at some point...), writing our letter with Santa's cookies and also thank you notes. So, if your schedule is like ours, it's okay! Step back and see where literacy is really taking place. I'll bet it's there.
- Tags:
- Authors & illustrators |
- Comprehension |
- Reading together |
- Spelling |
- Writing
'Tis the season, again!
Was it really a year ago that I wrote this post about feeling frenzied and guilty about the lack of quality reading and writing time at our house? Because it's happening again! And once again I realize that my girls ARE engaged in reading and writing. It just looks different this time of year.
Here what we're doing, language arts style, to get ready for the holidays:
Molly used Audacity to record herself reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. And because my Mom will be in SC for Christmas, we'll send her the .WAV file so she can enjoy that traditional retelling as much as we do. If you have a microphone on your computer, it's a pretty easy program to use.
Anna's been hard at work typing her list for Santa. New this year is her interest in learning more word processing features. Her (numbered!) list is complete with alternating fonts and a fancy Word Art title.
Our copy of The Elf on the Shelf gets read and read and read and read. This set is new to us this year, and Anna's very concerned that Santa takes the Elf when he comes (as the illustrations suggest). For anyone else out there who has one….does Santa take the Elf until next year?! Help!
Both girls have spent lots of time making Christmas cards for their friends. After filling our art area with holiday-oriented supplies, both girls happily design snowmen on skateboards (item 4 on Anna's wish list) and beautiful glittery snowflakes. Their handwritten greetings always bring a smile: We hope you have a great Christmas and have you got your tree?
And so it goes. What are your kids doing (language arts style) to get ready for the holidays?
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Clearly organized instructions provide not only the know-how but ideas on how to make prints from easily found materials. As children craft their own artwork, they may just want to reread other books which use comparable techniques (such as Eric Carle). Also in the 1 2 3 series are the equally doable I Can Sculpt! and I Can Paint!
This counting book leads children through Papa's one fat turkey, Mama's two pumpkin pies, and so on as the family sits down to a Thanksgiving feast.
Count the animals on their way to the zoo! From one elephant to ten birds, colorful creatures are presented in Carle's signature style as they board the train.
