Helping Children Overcome
Reading
Difficulties
Almost everyone knows a story about the nice little youngster (or
sometimes, a grownup) who works hard but can't seem to learn to read and
to write. The child's mother works with him or her at home, reading to the
child and reading with the child. The child has a tutor at school. The
youngster tries with all his/her might, even to the point of tears, but
the symbols and the words won't stick. Though apparently learned today at
great pain, tomorrow they will be gone. The question is: what do we know
about problem readers that will help us guide them? This digest will
discuss children with reading difficulties and how these children can be
helped to read and learn more effectively.
Dyslexia
Most children begin reading and writing by the first, second, or third
grade. By the time they are adults, most can't recall or can't remember
what it was like not to be able to read and write, or how difficult it was
to figure out how to translate patterns on a page into words, thoughts,
and ideas. These same adults usually cannot understand why some children
have not yet begun to read and write by the third grade. They have even
more difficulty understanding how adults can function in our society with
only the most rudimentary literacy skills.
Dyslexia is perhaps the learning disability that is most widely known,
primarily because of Barbara Bush's efforts to make adults aware of the
problem of children with this and other learning disabilities. Stories
about children (and adults) trying to overcome their learning disabilities
appear in the mass media with some regularity. Despite the relative
familiarity of the word "dyslexia," there is no clear-cut,
widely accepted definition for dyslexia. In the broadest sense, dyslexia
refers to the overwhelming difficulty in learning to read and write by
normally intelligent children exposed to suitable educational
opportunities in school and at home. These often very verbal children's
reading levels fall far below what would have been predicted for their
quick and alert intelligence (Bryant and Bradley, 1985).
Just as educators and researchers cannot agree on a specific and
precise definition of dyslexia, they do not agree on the cause or causes.
Recent research (Vellutino, 1987) has challenged many commonly held
beliefs about dyslexia: dyslexia results in reversal of letters; dyslexics
show uncertain hand preference; children whose first language is
alphabetic rather than ideographic are more likely to have dyslexia; and
dyslexia is correctable by developing strategies to strengthen the child's
visual-spatial system. Instead, Dyslexia appears to be a complex
linguistic deficiency marked by the inability to represent and access the
sound of a word in order to help remember the word and the inability to
break words into component sounds.
It does appear that there might be a hereditary factor in dyslexia. In
one study of 82 average children with reading problems, the children were
divided into two groups, "specifics" (reading and spelling were
their only difficult school subjects) and "generals" (problems
with arithmetic as well as with literacy). When the families of the
children in both groups were scanned for a history of reading problems,
40% of the families of the "specifics" showed problems among
relatives, while among the "generals," only 25% showed problems.
Thus, the specific disorder does seem to run in families more than the
general disorder--a plus for the hereditary factor in dyslexia (Crowder
and Wagner, 1992). More research is testing this factor.
It is important to remember that not all individuals who have problems
with reading are dyslexic. And the diagnosis of dyslexia should only be
made by a qualified reading professional. Many slow readers who are not
dyslexic, however, can be helped with a variety of reading experiences to
improve fluency.
Helping The Problem Reader
There is growing evidence that it might be more appropriate to refer to
the amount of time a learner takes to complete a reading task rather than
using qualitative labels, such as good, best, or poor reader (Smith,
1990). If we accept the premise that all individuals are capable of
learning to read but some need to stretch their learning time, then we can
search for adjustments. Slow readers could read shorter passages. In this
way, they could finish a story and experience the success of sharing it
with a parent or friend.
Let's examine some other conditions that will help improve
comprehension for those learners sometimes labeled reading disabled.
Besides reading more slowly, the person with reading difficulties can be
asked to find specific kinds of information in a story, or can be paired
with a more capable reader who will help in summarizing the essential
points of the reading or in identifying the main ideas of a story.
One of the reasons that these learners read more slowly is that they
seem less able to identify the organization of a passage of text (Wong and
Wilson, 1984). Since efficient comprehension relies on the reader's
ability to see the pattern or the direction that the writer is taking,
parents and teachers can help these readers by spending more time on
building background for the reading selection, both in the general sense
of concept building and in the specific sense of creating a mental scheme
for the text organization. Many times, drawing a simple diagram can help
these readers greatly.
Direct intervention of parent or teacher or tutor in the comprehension
process increases reading comprehension in slower readers (Bos, 1982).
These readers often need help with vocabulary and need reminders to
summarize as they proceed. They also need to ask themselves questions
about what they are reading. The parent can prompt thinking or can provide
an insight into the language that may otherwise elude the reader.
One effective strategy for slower readers is to generate visual images
of what is being read (Carnine and Kinder, 1985). For the reader to
generate images, he or she must first be able to recognize the word.
Assuming the reader knows how to recognize words, he or she needs concepts
to visualize the flow of action represented on the page. The same kind of
concept building techniques that work for average readers also work for
slower readers. The slower reader, however, gains more from concrete
experiences and images than from abstract discussions. It is not enough
for the parent to simply tell the slower reader to use visual images--the
parent has to describe the images that occur in his or her own mind as he
or she reads a particular passage, thus giving the child a concrete sense
of what visual imagery means. Pictures, physical action, demonstrations,
practice using words in interviews or in an exchange of views among peers
are only a few of the ways that parents, tutors, or teachers can make the
key vocabulary take root in the reader's mind.
Helpful Reading Materials
As is the case with most learners, slower readers learn most
comfortably with materials that are written on their ability level (Clark
et al., 1984). The reading level is of primary concern, but parents can
help their reader select helpful materials in other ways. Choose stories
or books with:
§a reduced number
of difficult words
§direct, non-convoluted syntax
§short passages that deliver clear messages
§subheads that organize the flow of ideas
§helpful illustrations
Older problem readers often find that the newspaper is a good choice
for improving reading comprehension (Monda, et al., 1988). Slow readers
can succeed with the same frequency as faster readers as long as the
parent or tutor maintains a positive attitude and selects materials and
approaches that accommodate the child's learning speeds.
Importance of a Positive Attitude
A positive attitude on the part of the child is also crucial to the
treatment of difficulties in reading and learning. Tutors who have worked
consistently with problem learners are very aware of the role of the self
in energizing learning, and the potential damage to the sense of
self-worth that comes from labeling. Teachers and parents should
appreciate children's thinking as the foundation of their language
abilities, and maintain some flexibility in their expectations regarding
their children's development of decoding skills such as reading. For
children to feel successful, they need to become aware of their unique
learning strengths, so that they may apply them effectively while working
to strengthen the lagging areas (Webb, 1992). The child needs to feel
loved and appreciated as an individual, whatever his or her difficulties
in school.
References
Bos, Candace S. (1982). "Getting Past Decoding:
Assisted and Repeated Readings as Remedial Methods for Learning Disabled
Students," Topics in Learning and Learning Disabilities,
1,51-57.
Bryant, Peter and Lynette Bradley (1985). Children's
Reading Problems. London: Basil Blackwell.
Carnine, Douglas and Diane Kinder (1985). "Teaching
Low Performing Students to Apply Generative and Schema Strategies to
Narrative and Expository Materials," Remedial and Special
Education, 6(1), 20-30. [EJ 316 930]
Clark, Frances L., et al. (1984). "Visual Imagery
and Self-Questioning: Strategies to Improve Comprehension of Written
Material," Journal of Learning Disabilities, 17(3), 145-49. [EJ
301 444]
Crowder, Robert G. and Richard K. Wagner (1992). The
Psychology of Reading: An Introduction. Second Edition. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1992. [ED 341 975]
Monda, Lisa E., et al. (1988). "Use the News:
Newspapers and LD Students," Journal of Reading, 31(7),
678-79. [EJ 368 687]
Smith, Carl B. (1990). "Helping Slow Readers (ERIC/RCS),"
Reading Teacher, 43(6), 416. [EJ 405 105]
Vellutino, Frank R. (1987). "Dyslexia," Scientific
American, 256(3), 34-41. [EJ 354 650]
Webb, Gertrude M. (1992). "Needless Battles on
Dyslexia," Education Week, February 19, 1992, 32.
Wong, Bernice Y. L. and Megan Wilson (1984).
"Investigating Awareness of a Teaching Passage Organization in
Learning Disabled Children," Journal of Learning Disabilities,
17(8), 77-82. [EJ 308 339]
This publication was prepared with funding from the
Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of
Education, under contract no.RI88062001. Contractors undertaking such
projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely
their judgment in professional and technical matters. Points of view or
opinions, however, do not necessarily represent the official view or
opinions of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement.
ERIC Digests are in the public domain and may be freely
reproduced and disseminated.
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