“Why are reading and writing so difficult for my child?”
Some children struggle through their early reading instruction and learn to decode at a basic level, but find that with multi-syllabic words, their fluency and comprehension break down. They may also have difficulty with word retrieval. These students need instruction in the morphology of root words, prefixes, and suffixes, as well as how accent patterns change when a new syllable is added onto a word. They may also need compensatory strategies for retrieval and working memory; process analysis (e.g. “part, partial, partition, participation) and vocabulary building. This tutor uses games to reinforce the rules of the language at this level.
There are children who have no problem with phonemic awareness or decoding, but have difficulty remembering what they read. Often this is the result of difficulty with concentration, sustained attention and/or working memory. They may need to use “signal words” to find, and keep reading logs to remember, the main ideas and details in stories. Lindamood-Bell’s Visualizing and Verbalizing techniques can also be useful in building a visual memory of a story.
Framing Your Thoughts is a written expression program from Project Read that breaks down the writing task into units of meaning, using concrete symbols rather than abstract grammatical terms to teach the elements of sentences, paragraphs, and essays. The student begins with Who + Did What = Complete Thought. Later, where, when, why and/or how are added. Explicit models for the paragraph and essay are part of this curriculum.
Because the physical act of writing can be an excruciating task for a student with dysgraphia, this tutor serves as scribe and can provide direct instruction in keyboarding. Pre-writing strategies, like talking through ideas and making outlines, can be put to good use. Many students find Inspiration, a computer software graphic organizer, helpful.
Many students who seek tutoring for writing are actually having difficulty with reading comprehension; therefore, learning how to write from reading is important. A variety of note-taking and memory techniques are taught. Organization and planning strategies specific to writing are also part of the one-on-one instruction in writing. Students are taught how to paraphrase and summarize and are given a sixteen-step plan for the research paper.