Trustworthy Tip of the Week

Question: My child is a bit "slower" at catching onto reading than some of his friends, but his teacher insists we just need to be patient and with time he will do just fine.  Can I rest assured in her advice?

Answer: This can be wise advice. Children have different time frames for developing their academic skills.  They are also under increasing pressure to develop into good readers and writers at younger ages than ever before.  Sometimes just waiting 6 months can make all the difference.

But parents are wise to also be cautious of this advice.  Susan Hall, co-author of Straight Talk On Reading, offers some important insight to   parents.  Susan’s experience as the parent of a child who had difficulty learning to read, led her to take an active role in the field of reading.  She writes,

"Beware of the developmental lag excuse for several reasons.
First, I have listened to parent after parent tell me about feeling there was a problem early on, yet being persuaded to discount their intuition and wait to seek help for their child. Later, when they learned time is of the essence in developing reading skills, the parents regretted the lost months or years.
Second, research shows that the crucial window of opportunity to deliver help is during the first couple of years of school. So if your child is having trouble learning to read, the best approach is to take immediate action. Knowing how soon to act is easy if you know the conclusions of recent research.
Reading researchers say the ideal window of opportunity for addressing reading difficulties is during kindergarten and first grade. The National Institutes of Health state that 95 percent of poor readers can be brought up to grade level if they receive effective help early.
While it is still possible to help an older child with reading, those beyond third grade require much more intensive help.
The longer you wait to get help for a child with reading difficulties, the harder it will be for that child to catch up. If help is given in fourth grade (rather than in late kindergarten), it takes four times as long to improve the same skills by the same amount.”
Click here to read more of what else Susan Hall has to say about reading.Here