The Importance Of Reading Disabilities

he most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. Indeed, the future success of all students hinges upon their ability to become proficient readers. Recent scientific studies have allowed us to understand more than ever before how literacy develops, why some children have difficulty, and what constitutes best instructional practice. Scientists now estimate that fully 95 percent of all children can be taught to read. Yet, in spite of all our knowledge, statistics reveal an alarming prevalence of struggling and poor readers that is not limited to any one segment of society:

Reading is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information which is essential in being a productive member of society. If and when a student missed an opportunity to learn the skills necessary for reading, it’s has a profound impact on their lives. As educators we realize that teaching all children to read requires that every child receive excellent reading instruction. We are also aware that children, who are struggling with reading must receive

Research indicates that among students, poor readers evolve into poor thinkers, devoid of strategies to structure the writing assignments that contribute to academic success (Alfassi, 2004, p.1), and teachers who fail to model effective literacy strategies to their students, simply compound the problem. For educators attempting to meet the diverse range of learning needs, the ever increasing number of students with learning difficulties is overwhelming. The decisions regarding the types of interventions and the limited research on numerous strategies currently available are both misleading and confusing. However Walker, (2004) warn that reliance on untested methods and dependence on strategies that have limited evidence have resulted in unrealistic and unreasonable expectations for students. Significantly whilst there has been an exponential increase in research evidence collected around many popular interventions, there is very little

When I was around three years old, my mother stressed about the importance of being able to read. I remember not wanting to learn about the vowel and consonant sounds with her because she made it into a chore to sing my alphabets. I was home-schooled, so I grew up studying on my own. Before, my mom would be assigning me the homework. I never understood the books that I was told to read, so what I did was flipped to the back of the book for the answers. I became very good at it to the point that I noticed the answer for all the questions was, “Answer may vary.” I did not know what it meant, but I do know that it was the answer. When my mom checked on my work, she wasn’t happy.

A child struggling with reading at an early age can effect their education for years. According to the article by Drue Narkon and Jenny Wells, “Improving Reading Comprehension for Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities,” many students, including those with disabilities, struggle with the general curriculum because of reading comprehension difficulties. There are many strategies that can be implemented to help a child succeed in reading.

Clinicians and parents are faced with the challenge of making informed decisions amid heated debates over the most effective treatment approaches for their child. As the parent of a child who struggles to read or write, where do you even begin? This paper will outline what exactly reading and writing is, how do you define a “struggling reader/writer”, and what the major theories behind the two main approaches to learning are. Hopefully, after reading this paper a parent can understand the two approaches to assist in determining what treatment approach is best for their child.

Experts in the field of Education consider reading fluency as directly correlated to reading comprehension. Within the discipline of Special Education, educators recognize that students with learning disabilities show significant acquisition delays in these areas. However, throughout history, the field has dedicated numerous studies on what methods are the most effective form of fluency intervention. Repeated Reading is one of these

Reading is the process in which the reader constructs meaning from print. However, in order to achieve comprehension, a reader must have world knowledge, vocabulary, phonic skills, and fluency. Notably, children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) experience difficulty reaching comprehension because of delays in language. Delayed language is an issue because successful reading hinges on the language skills of the reader. The delayed language skills of students who are DHH impact all of the literacy processes.

Changing the trajectory of struggling readers starts in the classroom setting, with tier one intervention. In order to change a student’s reading trajectory we, teachers and specialists, must first understand the “comprehensive and balanced view of students’ literacy processes” (Risko & Walker-Dalhouse, 2015, p. 107). Risko and Walker-Dalhouse (2015) suggest a variety of “evidence-based assessments and instructional practices” (p. 107) to support struggling readers across a diverse spectrum. Some examples of these evidence-based practices including: providing rich contexts for learning, providing explicit instruction, and embedding skills and strategies. The authors also provide an example classroom scenario, where Ms. George implements some of these practices in her fifth-grade classroom. Overall, it is up to the classroom teacher to implement evidence-based practice, aligned with state standards, to support the needs of struggling readers within his/her classroom setting.

Curtiss et al. (2016) express how the collaboration of teachers and parents is difficult because of the overlap between parent and teacher work schedules. The authors detail how instructors can provide online learning support for parents who support child with limited expressive communication. They highlight the factors that necessitate such programs, and discuss how they can be evaluated. There is a need for a program development framework so that parents understand how to use instructional strategies. Some Internet-Based Parent- Implemented Communication Strategies include iPiCS; Meyer, and Meadan (159).

For a child who is just starting to learn to read, they need sufficient practice in reading a variety of different books to achieve fluency. Reading can be complex and has many different aspects (Burns,1999). It is suggested that children who have problems reading and writing at a young age will find it hard to catch up as they get older and will not reach their full potential as adults, many will withdraw from school or society and some becoming involved with crime (MacBlain,2014). 40 percent of children find learning to read a challenge but with early help, most reading problems can be prevented (Reading Rockets, n.d.).

A problem that I have seen over the course of teaching practice is low literacy rates across special needs classrooms. Students struggle with the ability to read and write effectively, which not only affects them in English classes, but in other content areas such as science, social studies and even math. Students cannot properly decode the words in which they are reading, which also affects their ability to be fluent readers. When you are not a fluent reader it can also affect your ability to comprehend what you are reading, because often students spend so much time trying to decode the words they forget what they are reading (Cooter & Reutzel, 2016). This is a problem because if students cannot read fluently they will struggle understanding the content as they get older when students frequently need to “read to learn” the content in their classes. If students struggle to learn they will be more likely to drop out of school, and unable to to attain suitable employment. Since the goal of most school is to have students “college and career ready” a student dropping out of school could have detrimental effects to our society.

Many students around the United States have reading difficulties, which can be due to a variety of reason such as: low socioeconomic status, family history of learning disabilities, a neurological disorder, limited exposure, etc. Reading difficulties can lead to further problems with education and learning, therefore the struggles should be addressed and intervention techniques should be implemented promptly. The interventions need to be individualized for the student based on their needs in order to improve the student’s reading to the best of their abilities.

Many students are passed on through the education system without having proper reading skills. These skills consist of fluency, comprehension, and phonemic awareness. Reading skills are foundational building blocks for elementary aged students. Students who lack proper reading skills, such as fluency or the rate in which they read, will ultimately lack comprehension of what they are reading due to the amount of time in which it takes the students to read. This leads to the question, how does fifth grade students lack of fluency affect his or her reading comprehension? Unfortunately, because reading skills taught in kindergarten and first grade focus mainly on phonemic

When data from students who had average accuracy and fluency scores, but lower comprehension scores were compared to data from those with similar accuracy and fluency but average comprehension, the consistent differences were found to be lower oral language and vocabulary skills in the poor comprehenders upon entry into formal schooling. (Nation, Cocksey, Taylor & Bishop) Thousands of dollars each year are spent on intervention, trying to improve the reading of children that show delays. When one reads, the clear goal is comprehension of what is read. Without communication of ideas between the author and reader, decoding texts is pointless. Most intervention programs are focused on phonics and word decoding. Oral language interventions concurrent with vocabulary and comprehension tasks at age eight have been shown to lead to significant improvements in reading comprehension. (Nation, et al., 2010). Reading comprehension is not merely a product of being able to decode words and sentences. How we teach children to process and integrate the ideas found in text can have a large impact on their ability to function in a world of ever expanding knowledge and information.