One of the most common concerns that a parent will present to me is their child's weak comprehension skills.  When we talk together, we cover many areas of concern where each variable plays an important role in impacting their child's specific challenges.  However, in general, I will always review the 4 strengths every child must possess in order to comprehend successfully. 

The first strength, as you can probably guess, is strong cognitive skills.   Strong cognitive skills, in this case, means making sure, through assessment, that your child has the skills needed to remember and recall.   This translates into having the ability to visualize pictures in their head in order to capture the story for retelling.  It means making sure your child's ability to process the words and sounds they are reading without errors so they are reading and "hearing" the correct word. 

Having strong cognitive skills for reading comprehension means making sure your child has several strong foundational strengths.  This means having the ability to attend to the content, can process at a speed necessary so their short-term memory can make sense of the information; your child's memory areas (visual/auditory/working) are strong and large enough to hold the incoming information for recall and processing and that your child can make sense (understand) of what is being read.  Phew, that is a lot to digest.  All of these skills lay the foundation for reading comprehension.  There are other cognitive skills that play into comprehending well but the above skills are crucial. 

Once your child's cognitive skills are strong, your child now has the "ability" to comprehend.   This still doesn't mean, necessarily that your child knows how to comprehend yet.  That is why my Student Transformation System not only strengthens your child's ability to learn but also makes sure your child has the basics on how to learn.

The second strength every child must possess is the ability to decode what is being read.  Your child needs to be secure in sound-to-code and code-to-sound.  Why?  If your child cannot decode a word to read it, most likely they are skipping over it entirely.  This alone will leave your child with only parts of the story for recall.  Worst case scenario is that the word or words that they skip over or decode incorrectly may be the adjective or verb that is leading to a climax or the main idea of the story.  The sentence won't make a lot of sense with words missing so when your child reaches for the recall, it will be choppy at best.  When I work with your child, I make sure they are able to decode/encode successfully.

The third strength every child needs for successful comprehension is the ability to recognize those words that cannot be decoded through strategy.  Some reading programs have pages and pages and pages of these words which will require your child to have strong memory skills (auditory/visual/working and long-term memory) to retain and recall these words.  Processing skills and speed along with attention need to be strong for the memory to be successful.  When I work with your child, all these skills are strengthened.  I use Master the Code which only has literally one page of words that are exceptions.  Once your child has these irregular or sight words integrated into their memory and can recall them, you need to make sure they understand them.

The fourth strength I always talk about with a parent is the ability to understand language.  Your child's purpose for reading may start out for entertainment reasons but as he/she gets older the purpose becomes more towards gaining information to learn.  Your child needs to be able to read to learn; to gain benefit from the words and content.  To be able to do this task, your child needs to understand the language, not just read decode it correctly.  

Your child's expressive vocabulary, the words and meanings understood when your child is speaking or writing may be strong.  However, a crucial piece for comprehension is your child's receptive vocabulary skills. Receptive vocabulary refers to your child's ability to understand the meaning of the words that are spoken verbally.  This counts for the words given to your child when reading content from a teacher's notes, test questions or when participating in a discussion in class.  If your child doesn't understand the meaning of the word than there is a good chance your child will not know what is being asked by the teacher.  This is when your child can answer a literal factual question and get it right but when the data is presented along with words your child is not familiar with then they get the answer wrong.  When I work with your child, we work through the first three steps and then touch upon this step using receptive vocabulary interventions.  I will assess your child's receptive vocabulary skills and together we create a road map for success.

The above 4 strengths are required for your child to comprehend successfully.  Each step is a small jaunt towards a bigger life-long journey.  Set up your free 30 minute consult with me today and we can begin to pinpoint what is sabotaging your child from learning and comprehending. 

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Even the brightest students and the ones that score very high on an IQ test may have problems reading. Some may thing they’re stupid because they can’t read, but if you look at the tests and their grades in other classes, you’re sure to see this is far from the case.

If you think your child has dyslexia, then you know how hard it is to have this diagnosis achieved. Most schools don’t know how to test for this and they certainly don’t know how to help children overcome this issue.

In 1925 a gentleman by the name of Samuel Orton created a system that would help these otherwise bright children become better readers. This program is still used today, but only in select schools. Most times it’s used in a one-on-one setting and in private schools.

Dr. Orton wanted to find a teaching method that would use both the right and left brain. Grace Fernald was a psychiatrist and she created a kinesthetic approach that included air writing and word tracing. While using these writing styles the child would say the words out loud.

Phonics is also something that is important in this practice. Phonics is basically sounding out the words one letter or sound at a time. Once the child has learned the sounds of each letter and combination of letters it will become easier for them to read and write.

The program is called Orton-Gillingham and Anna Gillingham helped him create the 70 phonograms that are used today. There are 44 phonemes (sounds) that make up the English language. This program helps children to learn these sounds and remember them.

There are five steps to achieving the Orton-Gillingham program are listed below.

1. Phonemic Awareness
2. Phonics
3. Syllables
4. Rules and Probabilities for sounds
5. Roots, Affixes, and Morphology

Once all of these steps have been achieved, you’ll start to see changes in your child’s learning ability. His reading skills will improve and you’ll see changes in your child’s eagerness to learn.

The Orton-Gillingham technique was such a successful program that they’ve used it as the basis for creating more programs to help many other disabilities in children.

Dyslexia is found in a large number of children, but is rarely diagnosed in a regular school setting. Most times it’s found when the parents become discouraged and take action to help their children improve. This action is usually taken through programs outside of the school. Hiring a tutor is one option and another is special programs for children with learning problems.

These children need to learn and be taught in a completely different way then other children and you don’t usually find a teacher within a regular public school that has the ability to teach in this manner.

If your child has a learning disability and you’re struggling to find the right help, consider finding someone to help you with the Orton-Gillingham program. If you don’t have a program in your community, search online for someone to help. It’s important for your child’s future that you do the research needed to find someone to help them overcome this disability.

Be sure to check out http://www.helpfordyslexicchildren.com to find out about a great reading program based on Orton-Gillingham.

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Introducing ….. Language Tune-Up Kit at Home™
Help For Dyslexic Children with Instruction in English and Spanish!

At Last, You Can Help Your Child to Learn to Read at Home With a Fully Interactive Orton-Gillingham Based Program!  Your Child Will Learn:

• Phonemic Awareness  – children with reading challenges, the first step you need to do is go back to the foundations of language.  You need to teach your child that the words, syllables have sounds associated with them. 

• Phoneme/Graphemes -  You child needs to learn our language has codes (letters) that represent sounds and that sounds correspond to letters (codes).  This allows them to blend phonics, spell and read words and syllables.

• Rules -  For children with reading challenges, our language code does not make sense.  It is important that along the way to learning about phonemes and phonological awareness, they learn some of the rules in the language.   Knowing the rules will help your child achieve more success in reading and spelling.

• Syllables -  When your child knows rules – for example – about syllables, your child will recognize the sound of the vowel in the syllable.  This helps your child with reading and spelling.

• *Orton-Gillingham – The program uses this multisensory approach known as Orton-Gillingham.  The same approach used by the professionals, public schools, tutors, learning centers and expensive private schools to help your struggling reader learn to read and create the neuropathways in the brain to match those of a proficient reader.

Find out more today by visiting http://helpfordyslexicchildren.com/

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source: brainyflix and youtube

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• Visual Dyslexia

LAUD

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Have you heard of visual dyslexia yet?  I just started doing research on this because my daughter, who suffered from a brain injury, has a lot of visual processing issues.  The visual processing issues impact her reading fluency.  She came home from school the other day saying that she wanted to be checked for eye glasses.  I already knew she had 20/20 vision and optometrists usually give her a clean bill of health.  Neuro-opthamologists usually acknowledge the VP challenges but don't offer a solution, per se. 

I decided to take my daughter to my optometrist who offers a service where they can photograph (like xray) the eye itself.  This would give us an inside look on my daughter's visual connection to the brain, if you will.  I was anxious to see if we would see any damage in nerves since we anticipated brain injury impact.  We saw nothing.  In fact, her eyes looked better than mine.  Hmm?  So if the damage is still deep in her brain – cerebellum/brain stem – how can we help her at the eye level? 

The doc had my daughter read small print close up and since my daughter can't read well yet – i told her just read the "letters" that make up the word.  She really struggled.  Heavy Sigh.  The doc turned and said I can't do anything as she has 20/20 vision.  Ugh.

I sort of begged the doc to please think and try what he thought might be helpful – he did.  He placed two lenses, similar to when the docs switch lenses in front of your eyes until you say the print looks good.  I thought she was getting glasses.  Nope.  The lenses were reading glasses!  Really!

I asked the doc to explain and he told me the magnification of the print has been known to help seniors process  visual input easier.  Hmmm?  I wonder …….  So, off I went to do a bunch of research on how this might be able to help a child with VP issues and those with VP issues as a Dyslexic. 

I was surprised to find that there is what is called Visual Dyslexia.  Now I've done a ton of research of the magnocellular theory of dyslexia where basically the cells in the brain that help with stabilization and mechanics of VP and brain are damaged.  So I knew why Dyslexics could have VP issues lending to reading fluency issues.  Also, in our case, my daughter's autoimmune specifically targets perkinje cells in the brain which are also discussed in the magnocellular theory as the targeted cells – I could easily relate and make my hypothesis of Shannon's VP issues and their cause.

Now, though, I went to research on reading glasses, specifically, magnification helping the brain process what is taken in visually.  Yes, I found some research from true research articles.  They gave the explanation and how the magnification helps.  No solution though. 

I wanted to post here that I found a site on the internet that may be of help to those who have VP issues. I took the following from a site that I have given as a resource to my clients with these issues. 

Below are some of the more common problems.

 Visual problems involving motion

• Seeing words as if behind a waterfall or in snowing conditions.
• Seeing letters as if they jitter (such as bouncing or moving back or forth).
• Seeing words as if they seem to move below or above the page where only a few are in focus at any one time.

Visual problems involving missing information

• Letters missing at the beginning or end of words.
• Letters missing in the middle of words.
• Parts of letters missing in an horizontal manner such as all letters missing their top, middle or bottom.

Transpositions and reversals

• Letters are present but not in their proper order.
• Letters appear as their mirror image.

Visual stress causing a physical response

•  Headaches
•  Clenched teeth
•  Tightness in different locations
•  Sleepy feeling 

The above came from the following site http://www.dyslexiaglasses.com/visual_dyslexia_symptoms_help.html 

Although the children's glasses are $220 a pair, they come with a 60 day guarantee.  Trust me, when my daughter put on basic reading glasses she knew the difference immediately.  I don't no all the details yet folks on the site.  For instance, how do you get the glasses sized to fit your child appropriately. 

This url goes to the description and theory on why/how the glasses work http://www.dyslexiaglasses.com/how_dyslexia_glasses_work.html   the theory is based on autofluorescene theory that certain proteins in the eye are not functioning properly and cause all the "noise" that gives dyslexics the vp poblems they have while looking at the world.

My daugther told the optometrist she often sees "white dots" getting in the way of her vision.  To which he replied "Huh?"  So….  I am going to look into these glasses a bit more but do share and comment if you have them and what success you have with them.  These glasses could be used to allow brain trainer's to provide the intense brain training to rewire the dyslexic's brain and allow them to read just like a non-dyslexic (research proves this, too – new discussion coming on this one).

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Peoria, Illinois school district has 200 + Special Education Teachers!  They have taken the leap from self-contained to co-teaching.  Pairing up with all the active general educators, the district is shedding light on their relatively new teaching model and the benefits to the student population.  Go Peoria!  Read More ….,.. 

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Over the last week I have had the pleasure of consulting with a family in Arizona.  We have gone back and forth through email helping one another to identify and better understand the problem and then providing a solution.  The family agreed to allow me to publish a snapshot to help other families relate and understand their child's difficulties.  The family will be able to zero in on the true weak skills once they have their child assessed online.  However, during my consults, prior to assessments, we will go into detail around the possible causes and solutions.
 
Problem:  Teachers were saying he wasn't understanding or comprehending their instruction.  

Understand the problem:  This can be a result of your child's low auditory memory and/or auditory analysis skills.  Additionally the attention skill contains divided attention so either a combination or one of the skills needs to be strengthened.  For example, If your son was reading his assignment (paper on his desk) and his teacher was giving instructions he did not capture the verbal instructions from the teacher as his auditory memory was weak – hence the teacher's stating he was unable to understand the directions.   Since the teachers did not state that your son cannot follow directions, I would learn more towards auditory memory and divided attention instead of just an auditory sequential processing issue.  A combination of the above weak skills will negatively impact processing speed as your son's brain needs to slow down to figure out the correct output per the teacher's request.  You should see your son's processing speed pick up once the problem skill area(s) are strengthened. 
 
Problem:  We would read 1 hour a day through second grade even though his teachers recommended 20 min yet he was tested for reading at 1.5 when entering 3rd grade – he could say and spell all 83 phonograms but couldn't apply the rules he learned when writing.   For example, he would write really in a sentence and then the very next sentence would write it reely.  

Understand the problem:  This is a combination of auditory memory, visual and auditory processing that is preventing your son from transferring his learned phonograms into practice. By using a research based program like Master the Code, your son will continue to receive cognitive strengthening.  The program uses mnemonics (pictures for memory) to assist in helping the students remember visually and auditorily while learning how to use codes (letters) and the sounds they make /sounds and how to spell them. 
 
Problem:  He was for ever getting his b's, d's, q's and p's mixed up. 

Understand the problem:  When we see the children confusing these letters its about spatial relationships and directionality.  We also look into visual processing for spatial aspect along with the logic and reasoning skills which include spatial relationships.   Along with exercises to strengthen the skills needed to allow your son to write these correctly is the necessity to test it out and you can easily do this with eye tracking sheets that you can make up yourself.  This one requires the child to track for the alphabet throughout the page but you can simply ask your son to find only "p" b, q d on the sheet or any page of a newspaper, etc. 
 
Problem:  His writing is improving but my son was lost. 

Understand the problem:  Writing provides fluidity and directionality for the brain's processing.  Since your son was having trouble with writing you are correct in stating that there are processing concerns.  Eye hand coordination and other skills need to be strong, too.  Cursive writing promotes fluidity in the processing of the brain and we as required to keep our hands(motor) moving in the correct (left to right) direction as we write.  If your son can write in cursive that is a good thing, in my opinion.
 
Problem:  My son couldn't even begin to think of a topic sentence and support–that just didn't make sense to him. 

Understand the problem:   This may be coming from your son's inability to visualize along with the other possible weak skills discussed above.  For your son to create a topic sentence, regardless of what a topic sentence is, he must be able to visualize and organize a fluide story.  One that has a beginning, middle and end.  Once his skills are strengthened this may be an area that needs further intervention to transfer over into school.  I am launching online writing programs over the next two weeks that allows your child to learn what is a topic sentence and how to write a paragraph.  I also have essay writing with a thesis and then we have a program where the children read a book of choice and then our program takes them through writing about the book with prompts, etc.

I hope you enjoyed reading the above consult.  This consult consisted of several detailed email exchanges between the family.  If you know of anyone who may benefit from such a consult, they can easily contact me.

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