How can I help my child “catch up?”
My child is a fourth grader, and his teacher told me in a conference the other day that he couldn't read. How can I help him catch up?
Hello, Popular perceptions notwithstanding, rare indeed is the child who "can't read" by fourth grade. While many fourth - graders certainly struggle with fourth-grade level reading material; they still may know a very great deal about reading. For example, they might be aware that print carries meaning; they might know the letters of the alphabet and many of the sounds those represent; they might know where on a page one begins reading and who to move from line to line; they might have a sizeable store of words they know by sight. The point here is that to help a child develop improve his or her reading abilities, you have to discover where the child is in the development of his or her reading skills and strategies. This requires a comprehensive, individualized reading assessment. Unfortunately, many schools lack the resources to implement such an assessment. Let's Go Learn, however, offers an online assessment, DORA, which will give you a complete assessment of your child's reading abilities.
Tags: struggling reader, reading level, reading intervention, reading instruction
Comments (2)
My daughter just started 2nd grade and her teacher told me she is a year behind and I’m looking for ways to help her get caught up.
There are several things you can do. You can administer DORA to find out where your daughter’s actually strengths are in the reading process. We also have a free video that you can watch called “introduction to reading theory” on our site. Watch this and it will help you evaluate your daughter on your own. After sitting and reading with her it may become clear what you need to do. Then once we know where to work with her, depending on your comfort level you can probably help her yourself. Or you can always use a program we offer called Unique Reader. It offers differentiated instruction based on our DORA diagnostic assessment.