Reading Problems, Dyslexia, or Learning Disabilities In Older Children and Adults – What Should I Do?
Children often have reading problems for a number of years before anything pro-active is done. That’s usually because either the actual reason for the reading problems was unknown or the child was so bright that he or she did their assignments without realizing how much harder they were working than they needed too.
I’ll never forget working with a 6th grader and giving her a 6th grade text to read. She really struggled with it, making numerous errors. Some of her reading problems were phonetic based, other errors were visual tracking based.
After she read I asked her about how she liked reading the paragraph and if she felt the paragraph was easy, okay, or hard to read. She said it was okay to read. She had no idea that her assignments and books were at a frustration level.
There are three levels of reading:
Independent (pleasure reading – when you read a book for fun – a 96% accuracy rate), Instructional (where you are given direct instruction with reading – a 93 – 95% accuracy rate) Frustration level (where you are struggling to read -92% or below accuracy rate).
The information this student was expected to read throughout the school day was at a level where she only had a 75% accuracy rate. This is why she really didn’t like to read on her own. But, she didn’t know anything different; her text books and reading assignments were always at that level.
So, what do you do to help your older child that is struggling improve reading problems? Take note, lack in the ability to rapid name often continues into later childhood and early adulthood (Wolf, 1986; Snyder & Downey, 1995; Korhonen, 1995). Those with problems in rapid naming also had reading problems and spelling problems that continued into adulthood.
There is a step-by-step process to improve reading problems Keep in mind that, one doesn’t just automatically walk, first you will be trained to balance yourself, then you typically begin to crawl, you need to have strong leg muscles so they will support you and combine that strength with balance in order to stand. Then you learn how to keep your balance while taking a step. There are a lot of steps required in learning to walk.
It is the same with reading. All students, whether they have learning disabilities or not, need to be taught in precise manner phonics instruction, fluency instruction, structural analysis including prefixes, suffixes, and root words, spelling, and comprehension strategies. Additionally, you should be taught to increase your rate of speedily naming objects.
On the other hand, you do not want to only do that. Any skill taught in isolation remains that, an improved skill remains in isolation unless you bridge the gap and bring the skill from the isolated practice to real life practice.
Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET
Hot link to Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills: http://www.bonnieterrylearning.com/products/5-Minutes-to-Better-Reading-Skills.html
Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET, Board Certified Educational Therapist #10167, is one of the top experts in the country in helping teachers and parents identify their students’ learning disabilities/learning difficulties. She’s been an educator, learning disability specialist, and educational therapist since 1973. Ms. Terry gives teachers and parents the ability to give their child a 2 – 4 year advantage in just 20 minutes a day. She’s a contributing author to education journals. She’s a popular national and international speaker.
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