Customer Reviews

Parenting a Struggling Reader

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Before reading Parenting a Struggling Reader, run out to your local office supply store and buy a package of post-it flags. This book is filled with great information you will want to mark and refer to again and again.

Parenting a Struggling Reader takes you on a journey to help solve your child's difficulty with reading. Written in a very readable, informative, and practical format, questions parents ask the authors set the navigational course for the information offered in this book. Charts throughout the book highlight important information parents need to help them reach their goal and final destination--having their child be a reader.

This book begins by discussing how parents need to act promptly and not wait, how to become informed about the latest research, and what are the available approaches for teaching reading. Knowledgeable informed parents are parents who know what questions to ask and where to get help for their child.

Chapters 3 and 4 discuss how parents are their child's best advocate, how to identify the problem, and assessments used to identify children at-risk at a young age.

The journey continues as Chapters 5 and 6 contain invaluable information on testing and seeking a diagnosis. In a style that is very easy to read and understand, the authors explain the different levels of testing and what tests are commonly used to assess the different aspects of reading acquisition.

Chapter 7 gives concrete examples showing how to recognize effective instruction as well as an overview of the most common structured language approaches to teaching reading. Chapter 8 addresses older students who have still not learned to read or to read well. The balance between the accommodations used as well as a necessary intense remediation program is discussed.

The final chapter on navigating the IEP clears the fog for parents as they journey through the IEP process. In a very clearly written style, an overview of the process is given, concrete examples of goals and objectives are shared, and practical advice about how parents can prepare for the meeting and become an important part of the team to help their child overcome his reading difficulty is clearly stated. The Appendices provide terrific recommended resources to help parents as they journey towards the land of the readers.

This book is not only about completing a journey-it is about hope for all children.

I have to take issue with the teacher who criticizes this book's "agenda." The title is Parenting a STRUGGLING Reader. Does this teacher understand the first thing about dyslexia? It's a disability that affects the child's ability to take words apart, to understand letter sound, to recognize phoenemes that make up words. A dyslexic child's brain functions differently (uses different areas for processing written language) than a regular reader's. Highly targeted phonics instruction is CRUCIAL for these kids. My volunteering in the classroom or reading dozens of books a night is not going to make my daughter's brain work like the kid who sits across from her, who's reading Charlotte's Web while she's still struggling with Sheep in a Jeep. She's not stupid, her IQ's 135. She's dyslexic. If teachers weren't so threatened when we try to get help for our kids with clinical problems, there wouldn't be a need for the "adversarial" advice in this book. As it is, it's a godsend for understanding how to double-check the school, make sure your child is in a program that's going to help and not exacerbate the problem. Believe me, I don't WANT to be at odds with her teachers. But I'm tired of her problems being ignored, I'm tired of being told she could do better if she just tried by people who aren't the ones holding her while she sobbs because she just can't get it. If you want to understand which programs are actually targeted to help a kid with dyslexia (newsflash: Reading Recovery is NOT one), and get some info on what the schools have to do to assist your kid (next flash: they sure as hell aren't going to tell you, you have to dig it out), then get this book.

If you are parent with a child who is struggling with reading, you will find this book most helpful. It is filled with step-by-step advice on how to go about helping your child. Sitting back helplessly watching your child fall further and further behind while the school system evaluates and proceeds at a snail's pace is a highly frustrating experience. This book gives you the courage to believe in your own assessment of your child, and then points you to the resources needed to help him or her.

When one is first thrown into the world of special needs and learning disabilities, it is difficult to navigate to the proper channels to find the help needed. This book was like the first great wind to move me in the right direction, when I had been sitting on the beach with the sail turned in completely the wrong direction!

I did not need this book for my first child. Reading came easy to him. We had read to him almost every night since he was two months old. Then my daughter came along. She is struggling and so very frustrated. And yes, she has had books read to her almost every night since she was two months also! My point is this, while one reviewer appeared put off by this book, the title clearly states its audience. It is not written for every child, but it is a gold mine of good advice and resources for those of us finding ourselves raising struggling readers.

A caveat before I begin: I am a parent struggling to understand why my daughter has a hard time reading; I have no background in education. With that in mind, I will say that this book made me realize that I, as a parent, and not her teachers, was in the best position to know if my daughter was struggling more than she should be in first grade. I had known my child to be clever, creative, etc, but she has classic dyslexia symptoms that no one recognized as clearly as my husband and I. Although my daughter was not doing as well as others, she was ready to fall between the cracks until I spoke up loud and clear to her principal and teacher about her learning difficulties. I asked for an evaluation because of the message of this book: get your child help asap! Thankfully, she has now had special help for a year and her LD teacher feels she may be up to grade level by year end. I don't know how long I would've waited without the information in this book about dyslexia and its symptoms, etc. While it may not be a perfectly researched book, it helped me begin to understand the IEP process and the IDEA and my need to be vigilant to get my child the help she needs.

This book is best for parents just starting out in the world of reading disability. For parents that are not sure they even have a problem. You will get information on the importance of testing, how to begin the process, etc.

If your child has already been tested, if you have a plan, if you are already in contact with professionals, the entire first half of this book is superfluous. And there are other books that are more specific to actually understanding reading disabilities and dyslexia and how to overcome these issues.

Very easy to read, and gives many recommendations for programs and books, as well as an overview of the IEP process. Its important that parents learn which programs work and which programs don't so that time is not wasted.

Wish I'd had this before our first meeting. It's a good resource for practical suggestions on how to approach your child's teacher or principal so that you get your point across and understand their viewpoint, the specific language used, and what they can and can not do for you. It is invaluable to read before your first--and every subsequent--IEP meeting. Also helpful with understanding what your child may be feeling and how to help him or her most effectively. This would be a great addition to the library of anyone parenting a child with a reading disorder, along with Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level, by Sally Shaywitz MD. The suggestions on IEP meetings would be helpful for anyone asking for an individualized education plan, even if the child's problem is not a reading disorder.

Speech pathologist Dr. Louisa Moats and educator/MBA Dr. Susan Hall are two of the most respected names in the field of reading and dyslexia. This is a fabulous book for parents whose child is struggling with reading. If your child is having reading problems, do NOT delay. Because dyslexia is language (sound)-based and not letter-based, those at risk of developmental dyslexia can be identified as early as age 4. Don't let a well-meaning teacher convince you to "give your child the gift of time" by retaining him or her. If your smart child isn't reading well, suspect an instructional failure, as few teachers are taught in college to understand dyslexia and few know how to provide science-based reading instruction. (If you're wondering, that means intensive, explicit, structured, systematic, and multisensory instruction in phonemic awareness; phonics; fluency; comprehension; and vocabulary.) It is because it is difficult to find effective, science-based intervention in schools that the book identifies MANY commercial, science-based methods of reading instruction.

If you have any doubts, Google "National Reading Panel" convened by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, or Google the names of the authors. They are the real deal.

I am a reading specialist and work with hundreds of children with reading differences. I have read every book on the market that covers topics such as dyslexia, reading disabilities and ADHD. This book is by far my very favorite book to recommend to parents. So many of the parents I work with are confused, frustrated and do not know how to start the IEP process, get their children tested for a learning disability, or find the reading program that will work for their children. Parenting a Struggling Reader explains the process for parents in an easy, step-by-step guide. The section on Orton-Gillingham is extremely useful for parents and educators, especially if they are unfamiliar with Orton-Gillingham's multi-sensory approach to reading. Dr. Moats is an expert in the field of dyslexia and has written numerous books as well as gives presentations and workshops to teachers all over the nation. This book is a must read for all parents of struggling or non-readers.

Our 6 year old is struggling and the school is upset that we are hiring a reading turor! This book has been helpful to us as an introduction to the issues we are facing and has been confirming of the advise we have gotten locally.