Interventions for Reading Comprehension
Erin LeFevour, M.Ed.

Developing reading comprehension skills is important in building the bridge between passive reading and active reading. By sharpening these skills, your child learns to interact with the text rather than passively glossing over the words. The following is a quick list of reading comprehension interventions to help you and your child get started in the skill-building process.

• Chunking -- Have your child read a story or passage out loud. Every 30 seconds say "stop" and ask questions about the story. The questions should be simple, requiring awareness of specific details. As your child experiences success, the time intervals can be lengthened.
• Graphic Organizers -- Use graphic organizers, story maps, flow charts, sequential outlines, etc. to outline and organize information during the reading process. This can help your child understand the relationship of ideas and/or the sequence of events.
• Summaries and Retells -- Have your child retell the text after reading it aloud. To help him or her experience success, break the text down into smaller chunks (e.g., two paragraphs) and ask for retells of the chunks.
• Read Aloud -- Reading out loud allows your child to hear his/her own voice and to process the information read more deeply.
• Preview Text -- Encourage your child to skim the material during the first exposure, with emphasis on headings, bolded text, pictures, captions, and italics. Read for detail on the second reading of the text.
• Active Participation -- Encourage active reading by getting your child in the habit of highlighting, jotting notes on Post-It Notes, and making asterisks next to important material. After reading is complete, discuss the pieces of text and why they are important.
• Create Test Questions -- Have your child write his or her own test questions about the material. This will help your child think of the material from a different perspective (i.e., a teacher's), thus processing the information more deeply.
• Make Predictions -- Before reading a story, have your child make a list of predictions about the story. After reading the story, you and your child can compare what he or she thought would happen with what really occurred.
• Preview Terminology -- Discuss and define new terms and concepts prior to reading material with dense language. This way, when your child gets to a highlighted word, he or she will already be familiar with it and therefore, be able to read the text more fluently. Additionally, vocabulary enrichment is important in improving comprehension.
• Discuss Text Topic -- Prior to reading, introduce text topics by means of discussions with your child to capture his or her attention and interest and activate prior knowledge. You can discuss what your child knows about the topic, author, or type of story.

Back to top

Why Do Schools Want Labels?
Susan Yellin, Esq.

Families who have visited our clinic or who are otherwise familiar with our work know that we use neurodevelopmental profiles to describe what we observe instead of labels. Labels are neither necessary nor sufficient to explain what we see when we work with a student and add nothing to our understanding of the phenomena we note about how a particular student processes information. Worse, we have too often seen labels used in ways that diminish a student's self-esteem and ignore the complex factors that impact how that student's mind works.

Why, we are often asked, do public schools insist that students be labeled or classified as having a particular learning disability? Why do they want a child described as "learning disabled" or having "attention deficit hyperactivity disorder" when the real issues faced by that child are so much more complex?

The answer lies in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA*), the federal law that governs access to specialized educational services in every state. Although the IDEA is implemented in each state by a separate statute, each state must comply with the basic IDEA guidelines. As we look at the IDEA, it is important to keep in mind that it confers rights to children with "disabilities". It is not intended to provide rights to students who are not "disabled" under IDEA definitions.

The IDEA defines "a child with a disability" as a child with "mental retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), serious emotional disturbance,... orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities ... who by reason thereof, needs special education and related services".

The law then goes on to describe "specific learning disability" as "a disorder in 1 or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, write, spell or do mathematical calculations. Specific learning disability "includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia".

Only once a student has been found to have a specified disability and to have that disability impact his or her education does the public school system have to provide that student with a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). FAPE means that special education services are "provided at public expense, under public supervision and direction, and without charge... meet the standards of the State educational agency... include an appropriate ... education... and are provided in conformity with [that child's]individualized education program (IEP)..."

We can look at a label given to a particular category of disability as a key to free services. Before a student gets to open the door to the services available under FAPE, he or she must fall within one of the categories or labels under the IDEA. But having the key to the door to services doesn't, by itself, unlock the door. It is necessary that the student with the defined disability also be in need of special education services. In other words, that student must be struggling in school. The standards for how much difficulty a particular student must be having have differed from time to time. But, in general, if a student is performing at a high level, the school may decline to apply the protections of the IDEA to such student. The only services that would then be available to such student would be under a law that requires accommodations to allow access to educational services for individuals with disabilities, generally known as Section 504. We will explore the differences between Section 504 and the IDEA in the next issue of our Newsletter.

In the meantime, how can we at the Yellin Center apply our non-labeling approach in light of the realities of the public school system? We recognize that the kinds of labels the law requires do not serve the interests of the students we see, but we also firmly believe that families need all the help they can get in accessing and affording services or publicly financed education. So we work closely with the families we see and will provide documentation in addition to our descriptive report that fully complies with the mandates of the IDEA if a family asks that we do so. Families who come to us who are not seeking services from the public school system can rest assured that their child will not receive a label of any kind.

* 20 U.S.C. §1400 et seq

Back to top

Book Choices for Reluctant Readers
Meghan Kimpton, M.S.Ed.

"I can't find anything to read!" 

Is this a common phrase in your house when it comes time to complete a book report or required nightly reading? Children can be reluctant to read for a variety of reasons. A child may find reading difficult, boring, or both. Therefore, the child avoids opportunities for all types of reading. The following compilation of booklists and other resources is designed to inspire even the most reluctant reader.

All Readers

• Many public libraries maintain booklists for children and teens. A great example is the Book Hive developed by the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. Check your own local library's website for the resources they offer. In addition to online information, public libraries often provide such reading related activities as book clubs and summer reading programs.
• Magazines are often overlooked, but they provide high interest reading that can be accomplished in small increments. The public library of Madison, Wisconsin keeps a substantial list of magazines that includes contact information and the magazine's target audience.  

Young Readers

• Books that are part of a series can motivate students to continue reading. Kidsreads.com contains a list of series books for elementary and middle school students. In addition, this website also maintains a monthly list of the latest books in paperback.
• An excellent resource for emerging readers in preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary school is Reading Rockets. In addition to booklists by category (e.g., dinosaurs, holidays), the site contains useful information on supporting your child in early literacy.
• The Reading Tub contains in-depth reviews of a wide variety of books. Titles are compiled by age, as well as high interest books for struggling and reluctant readers.
• The monthly bulletin of the Center for Children's Books contains uniquely themed booklists. For example, January 2009's theme was cows and February 2009's theme was acting. The website also contains archived issues dating back to 1997.

Adolescent Readers

• The Young Adult Library Services Association website contains extensive information on book choices for teens. Among the lists they keep are: Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers and Outstanding Books for the College Bound.
  
  
• Teenreads.com is designed to be used by young adults who are avid readers, as well as those teens that are more reluctant to read. Of particular note is the Ultimate Teen Reading List that is specifically compiled by teens to inspire their peers to read.

Back to top