Independent and semi-independent activities (such as Literature Circles, Book Club, Project-Based Instruction, and Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction) provide students with opportunities to apply their reading and writing skills to texts of a range of difficulty.
Technology tools and supports can be an excellent way to help struggling students engage with social studies texts in a meaningful way, and build deeper understanding through guided inquiry.
Schools play a pivotal role in helping young children learn how to read. This collection of tips will help administrators, teachers, and other school staff members set children on the path to reading.
Visual structure adds a physical or visual component to tasks to help students with ASD to understand how an activity should be completed. Get ideas on how to implement visual structure in your classroom and support your students’ independence.
Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a language problem. Children with DLD have difficulty with language whether they are speaking, listening, reading, or writing. About half of children with DLD also have dyslexia or ADHD.
Assistive technology is any device that supports the independence of a person with a disability. Assistive technology can be something very simple and low-cost such as pencil grips or text highlighters, or something more sophisticated, such as a computer station with speech-to-text tools. Find many more assistive technology resources here: Topics A-Z: Assistive Technology.
This guide focuses on ways to encourage the independence of a student with learning disabilities while in school and as they transition to college or work.
Phonological awareness is a set of critical pre-reading skills: the ability to hear, identify, and play with the sounds in spoken language — including rhymes, syllables, and phonemes. Children with strong phonological awareness skills are ready to become readers.
Visit your local library to take advantage of all the fantastic activities and resources it has to offer. At the library, you can find reading challenges, writing competitions, book clubs, author talks, craft classes, maker space workshops, STEM programs, awesome book recommendations, and much, much more.
Long before your child enters school, you can do many things to help him or her develop language. When young children are provided with opportunities to listen to and use language constantly, they can begin to acquire the essential building blocks for learning how to read.
Although more research is needed, the research we do have suggests that knowing how to speak English makes it easier to learn to read English. This article makes some recommendations for teaching reading to non-English-speaking children, and raises questions for future research.
Learn the basics about autism spectrum disorder (ASD): what it is, signs and symptoms, strengths and abilities, risk factors, diagnosing ASD, the value of early intervention, and treatment and therapies that can help children and their families.
Linda Farrell talks about her role as a reading intervention specialist, and what more than 20 years of experience working with kids, teachers, and schools has taught her about the potential of struggling learners — that with the right instruction (and patience) every child can become a better reader.
Watch our exclusive video interviews with top children’s book authors and illustrators. You’ll discover how family history weaves itself into Jacqueline Woodson’s powerful stories, why Erin Entrada Kelly says there are many different ways to be strong and mighty, why Patricia Polacco’s warm family tales seem so real, and many more insights into your favorite book creators.
A psychologist specializing in language-based learning disabilities explains how to talk to children about their LD: All the parts you need to be smart are in your brain. Nothing is missing or broken. The difference between your brain and one that doesn’t have an LD is that your brain gets “traffic jams” on certain highways.
If your child has a learning disability, they may benefit from assistive technology tools that play to their strengths and work around their challenges.
Human brains are naturally wired to speak; they are not naturally wired to read and write. With teaching, children typically learn to read at about age 5 or 6 and need several years to master the skill.
