Category Archives: Improve Reading Comprehension

Improve Reading Comprehension, Improve Reading Skill

What Happens to the Brain When You Have Reading Difficulties

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According to the experts at Reading Rockets, it is estimated that about 10 million children worldwide experience some degree of difficulty when learning to read. However, roughly 90 percent of those kids eventually overcome their struggles altogether – provided they receive the appropriate type of training at an early age.

This tells us a number of fascinating things. For starters, there is no “one size fits all” approach to reading. Different kids always learn in different ways. Beyond that, it also suggests that whether or not a person has reading difficulties – along with how they will eventually overcome them – has less to do with the technique itself and is more about how the human brain was designed to visually process information in the first place.

Reading Difficulties and the Brain: What You Need to Know

According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, studies have shown that a person’s ability to read is actually tied to certain areas of their brain in a number of fascinating and important ways. As readers become more active when they get older, the automatic recognition center of their brains becomes more active.

This suggests that the ability to read is essentially cyclical – as reading frequency increases, a person gets better at it, which ultimately supports the ability to do it even more.

Brain scans have suggested that people who have difficulty reading also have trouble accessing this automatic recognition center in their brain. Instead, they rely more closely on the phoneme center and the mapping center of their brains to process the words they see on a page.

This naturally takes a longer amount of time to do, which is why poor readers are typically also slow readers. This can be incredibly frustrating to such readers in a way that is not entirely their fault. It also explains why many students begin to exhibit signs and symptoms of reading disabilities at an early age.

The Benefits of Learning Tools

The See-N-Read® MemoryMark™ tool is just one example of a learning tool that supports a person’s ability to read by supporting the natural way their brain is trying to work. This tool’s design is rooted in the fact that, for someone with reading difficulties, staying on the proper line and recognizing words do not happen automatically.

The See-N-Read® MemoryMark™ tool helps readers maintain focus on the proper line of text and enables them to easily re-read text without losing their place. It has a cut out clear window that allows highlighting or underlining of key words or phrases without moving the tool off of the page. This, in turn, supports readers as they rely more heavily on the phoneme center of their brains, enabling them to process meaning and context at their own pace.  Mental energy is spent on comprehending meaning instead of on keeping the place or deciphering individual words.

Additional research has suggested that, over time, this type of support (along with other techniques like phonemic awareness) actually leads to an increase in a person’s ability to automatically recognize words as they see them. A tool like MemoryMark™ will actually support those with reading difficulties by using the way the human brain works to strengthen the recognition center, slowly reducing the effects of those reading difficulties over time.

The Department of Health and Human Services also reported that after undergoing additional training, the brain images of people who once had significant reading difficulties slowly began to resemble scans of people who have always been good readers.

To that end, these types of learning tools don’t just make it easier for a person to mitigate the issues associated with their reading problems – they make it possible to slowly overcome those problems altogether.

Improve Reading Comprehension

Dyslexia vs. Struggling to Read Correctly

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Kids struggle with reading for a variety of reasons, from difficulties with processing to attention issues like ADHD that prevent a child from truly focusing on the task at hand. Understanding which issue is triggering the difficulty can help you come up with strategies that help the struggling reader succeed and make the most of their abilities.

If you suspect that a disability like dyslexia is involved, it is important to encourage the child’s family to seek out an evaluation by a professional. If diagnosed, specific strategies designed to help people with this condition can be incorporated into your teaching and routine. Since dyslexia impacts performance in a variety of ways, a reader with this condition may not improve with the strategies you’d typically use.

Learning more about dyslexia can help you to aid a struggling reader in the classroom and at home.

What is Dyslexia?

More than just a simple reversal of letters or numbers, dyslexia is a brain based issue that causes a child to wrestle with spelling, writing, reading and even speaking. With this condition, students strain to process or identify some types of information, from identifying letter sounds or the actual symbols to understanding blends and comprehending what they are reading.

Dyslexia can’t be outgrown or cured, but accommodations can be made via an IEP (individualized education plan) to help students with this condition. Some states have laws designed to protect students with dyslexia that offer more than the Federal IDEA law and can be used to assist students diagnosed with this learning disability.

Signs of Dyslexia

  • The most well-known symptom is letter reversal
  • Above-average difficulty pairing letters with sounds or matching sounds to letters
  • Switching beginning sounds when pronouncing words or phrases, like using “mawn lower” in place of “lawn mower” in conversation
  • Trouble reading aloud or grouping phrases or words
  • Inability or difficulty with sounding out new words
  • Difficulties with handwriting or getting letters in the wrong order when writing
  • Trouble with rhymes and rhyming words

Learning How to Read vs Dyslexia

A child who is wrestling with a new concept or process will likely learn it eventually; a child with dyslexia may not unless strategies designed to particularly target that condition are used. As a child with dyslexia works and struggles to process and comprehend words, his inability to pair letters with sounds or sounds with letters stands in the way of improvement.

Getting Help for a Struggling Reader

One of the most difficult things about helping readers is determining which kids are simply in the process of discovering new concepts and/or finding their best learning style and which children are actually coping with a disability or condition that impacts the way that they learn.

Providing support for a developing reader is an ideal first step, with strategies designed to engage and help a new reader “get it”. Simple changes like reading aloud each day and incorporating a research-based tool such as the See-N-Read® reading strip to isolate specific text without hiding the rest of the passage can help the developing reader succeed and may have a positive impact on the child with dyslexia.

If traditional, tried and true strategies are simply not working and the child is working hard but making little progress, it may be time to look at the possibility of a learning disability like dyslexia. Diagnosis of a condition like this will not only make it easier for the child to learn in a supportive environment, it will provide key protections and opportunities under IDEA and any dyslexia-specific state laws.

Understanding the signs of dyslexia and why some kids cannot improve without specific strategies and intervention can enable teachers to help struggling readers succeed. Learning more about “invisible” disabilities like dyslexia provides teachers with more tools to ensure success and help those students who are struggling with reading to succeed.

Improve Reading Comprehension

Visual Processing Disorder: What You Can Do To Help

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There is much more involved in vision than just being able to see words or pictures. The brain must also coordinate eye movements so both eyes see the same thing at once, perform complex activities like interpreting forms and perceiving spatial relations, plus be able to identify different parts that make up a whole. These examples offer a clearer idea of how visual processing works. Each day, students are bombarded with complex visual data to sort out: images, numbers or words and so on. Children with a type of visual processing disorder have difficulty taking in all that imagery and making sense of it.

Schools check for vision acuity on a regular basis but may fail to consider specific processing challenges that affect learning. As an educator, you have the ability to identify visual processing disorders and help manage them to improve learning.

What is Visual Processing Disorder?

Visual processing disorder is an umbrella term for conditions that affect how the brain processes visual information. You can break these disorders down into different categories:

  • Form discrimination – Being able to tell the difference between a circle and a square, for example. This is critical in every aspect of learning. A child who can’t discern shapes won’t know an “A” from a “B” or the number “1” from “2”.
  • Size discrimination – Another essential for reading because often capital and lower case letters look the same
  • Spatial relations – This refers to the ability to perceive letters in their correct position. For example, this child may not see the letter “q” correctly because it dips lower than the other letters in the words. It may seem to float away from the line and be separate from the word.
  • Synthesis – This is the ability to see that different parts fit together to create something whole. Consider a drawing of a house. A child with this form of visual processing disorder may see squares that are windows, a rectangle that is a door and a triangle roof but will fail to visually combine them to see the house.
  • Analysis – Analysis is the reverse of synthesis. This child sees the house but not the individual shapes that make it up.
  • Visual closure – For most people, the brain has an uncanny ability to fill the holes and find closure. A sentence missing a definite article still comes together because the brain fills in that empty space. In some cases, the brain has limited ability to find that closure. The sentence missing a “the” fails to register as a sentence, for example, or a picture of a house without a door becomes unrecognizable.

How to Recognize Visual Processing Disorder?

Ultimately, the final diagnosis should come from a specialist, but teachers can look for clues of visual processing disorders such as:

  • Difficulty telling similar letters apart
  • Clumsiness
  • Trouble focusing on an assignment or on visual presentations
  • Difficulty writing words, sentences or stories (not age appropriate). The handwriting might be messy, with letters going off the lines or in the wrong place
  • Confuses math signs
  • Poor memory
  • Trouble researching
  • Seems to get lost in the material

Finding the right classroom tools can help. The See-N-Read® reading strip, for example, provides focal points for students as they read while blocking out unnecessary visual information while ColorTag can improve recall. Paper with raised lines aids students to improve their handwriting, as well.

Not every child who has a hard time reading has a visual processing disorder but, after you rule out the need for glasses, it’s time to look for other reasons they are struggling to comprehend. With proper evaluation and the right learning tools, students with visual processing challenges can learn and succeed.

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Reading is One Thing, Retaining is Another: How to Help Students Remember What They Read

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Literacy, at its core, is about more than just being able to read and write. It’s also about being able to understand what you’re reading. Part of this has to do with retention – you may understand all of the words in the previous sentence, but if they seemingly evaporate from your brain soon after you read them as if they were never there, did you really get any value out of reading them at all?

Many students across the country have difficulties with reading retention, which ultimately sets up an important roadblock to their ability to read and learn. According to a study conducted by the Literacy Project Foundation, roughly 45 million people across the country are functionally illiterate – meaning that they read below a fifth grade level.

Twenty percent of Americans read below the level required to earn a living wage. In the California school system alone, 25 percent of students can’t perform basic reading skills. This is a major contributor to the more than 8,000 students who drop out of high school every day.

Solving a Modern Day Challenge

The most important thing to understand about retention and reading difficulties is that every student is different from the next. Not everyone processes information in exactly the same way. The reason one student has trouble retaining what they’re reading could be entirely different from a similar student – even if they’re displaying similar symptoms of a problem.

As a result, you need to consider the situation using a truly flexible approach – one that allows you to pivot your approach based on what your student needs to break through his unique barriers. This is one of the many reasons why assistive methods such as See-N-Read® Learning Tools are so important – they provide flexible solutions that can be applied to problems on an individualized basis.

Not Reading Tools – Learning Tools

The See-N-Read® MemoryMark™ tool, for example, is a reading tool that enables students to focus on the proper line and also highlight key passages of text to allow for easy re-reading – all without moving the tool off the chosen line of text. This helps establish text as an anchor point, making sure that they can isolate ideas and emphasize important passages to improve the long-term retention of information without interrupting the natural flow that they’ve developed.

This all has a positive snowball effect: students learn to single out key passages and to identify essential points while continuing to read at the pace that works best for them. They develop the ability to recognize main ideas on which they should focus, both improving their ability to retain what they read and honing their critical thinking skills.

This simple assistive tool for reading and taking notes helps users to recognize the context of the passage they’re reading. They learn to expand and build on concepts, not just to read faster or remember more information, but to develop their thinking and learning strategies and improve the quality of what they’re remembering as well.

This is just one example of a tool that can help kids remember what they’ve read. It’s safe to say that whatever steps you take that support a student’s ability to combat reading deficiencies on their own terms and to retain what they’ve read  are worthwhile steps indeed.

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The “Language” Barrier: Why Students Struggle to Read Correctly and What You Can Do To Help

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When a child has difficulty reading, it’s important to understand that it isn’t necessarily because they’re not reading fast enough or they’re having a hard time discerning the meaning of the words. Oftentimes, issues develop with the physical act of reading itself. Kids can have a hard time staying on the proper line as their eyes move across a paragraph (thus changing the order of the words), or may accidentally switch words around in their heads.

This “Language” barrier (that is to say, a barrier not with any particular idea, but with language as a form of visual communication) is very real and is affecting millions of kids right now.

The Language Barrier: Facts and Figures

According to one study, more than $2 billion is spent every year to help students who are forced to repeat their current grade for no other reason than that they have a reading problem. A distressing fact from the National Research Council’s Committee on Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children is that the education of an estimated 25 to 40 percent of kids in the United States is in danger because, for a variety of reasons, they find reading too difficult.

According to a report commissioned by the National Institutes of Health, up to 10 percent of people across the country of all ages have these types of specific, brain-based reading difficulties – including those who are characterized as having average or above average intelligence. 

It’s particularly important to address this situation in young children because taking corrective measures while someone is still in their formative years has a profound positive impact on the rest of their lives.

Finding a Solution

Addressing this issue requires a certain change in perspective. A student who is struggling to read correctly for these types of reasons does not have a problem to be “fixed” or “eliminated”. They have a problem that must be solved. It’s about finding a solution to the issue, which is why assistive devices like those available from See-N-Read® Learning Tools are so essential.

At their core, the learning tools from See-N-Read® are designed to give readers the ability to support the cognitive and visual skills required to not only read faster and more effectively, but to also process and remember that information more easily. They don’t address the symptoms a person may be experiencing, but instead offer a solution by way of improved and supported fluency – that is, the ability for a person to read text at a natural, accurate pace.

The See-N-Read® reading strip, for just one example, uses a clear strip to essentially “highlight” a full line of text on a page WITHOUT visually blocking other lines that may be valuable for context. The text is essentially emphasized, allowing a reader with difficulties to focus on the current line while still improving fluency and overall comprehension.

When students suffer from reading difficulties, it can be overwhelming for everyone involved – from parents to teachers to, most importantly, the students themselves. Teachers who utilize research-based, classroom-tested products to students that support natural reading processes will improve student performance in multiple subject areas. Such research-based tools offer functional solutions that create an environment where students can truly flourish.

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4 Reasons Kids Have Reading Problems and How You Can Help

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As a classroom teacher, you know how important reading is to the success of your students. For those that struggle with this skill, though, the causes might not be as clear. Some of the most common reasons that make it difficult for youngsters to read include:

1. Attention-deficit disorder (ADD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

A brain-based condition, attention-deficit disorder (ADD) is the most common one identified in children. Its core symptom is a lack of focus that can make it difficult for kids to stay on task. In many children, this lack of focus is coupled with hyperactivity — attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) — which can lead to fidgeting and/or acting out in class.  Too often, these kids are merely labelled as ‘behavior problems’.

2. Dyslexia

Dyslexia is another brain-based condition that can make it difficult for children to learn to read. Youngsters with dyslexia often find recognizing letters and their accompanying sounds laborious. Recognizing and sounding out new words and connecting rhyming can be challenging for these kids. Skipping words and losing their place while reading are other common issues seen in children who have dyslexia, partly because they’re spending so much effort on decoding. Dyslexia can also make reading comprehension exhausting.

3. Visual processing disorder

A child with a visual processing disorder could struggle with recognizing the differences between shapes and/or letters. The order in which the letters appear might be jumbled. Word and line-skipping is common due to visual processing or eye control issues. Kids with visual processing disorder often complain of seeing double or that their vision is blurry.

4. Auditory processing disorder (APD)

Students who have auditory processing disorder (APD) have difficulty processing what they hear. This makes it difficult for them to understand directions or grasp the plot of a story that is read aloud to them. Because reading involves successfully connecting each letter with its appropriate sounds, APD makes it challenging for kids to hear the subtle differences between letters that are essential for reading.

How You Can Help

Whether your struggling students have been formally diagnosed with one of the above conditions, they are undergoing testing to determine if there is a medical explanation for their struggles or they exhibit some telltale signs, there is a practical solution you can offer in your classroom to help them now. See-N-Read® Learning Tools were developed based on the latest research. Classroom tested, simple to implement in the learning program of any child and affordable, See-N-Read® Reading Tools help children stay focused on specific lines of text. This invaluable resource helps the child keep the place on the page to improve reading performance, reduce frustration and increase confidence

Improve Reading Comprehension

How To Overcome Distractions While Reading

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Good reading skills can be beneficial in all spheres of life. Whether you are a student or a professional, it is common to face distractions while reading. A peaceful and conducive environment can help to concentrate better. Let’s take a look at some other tips which can help to overcome distractions while reading:

Set the place

It is very important to choose a right place as it can affect the reading speed. You may like to read in your room but you can easily get distracted by TV or video games. Make sure you find a quiet and well-lit place that is free from any sort of distractions. You can even visit a library for this purpose. If you are planning to read continuously for a few hours, ascertain that you have a comfortable chair and table. This will help to maintain the right posture and improve reading efficiency.

Develop a routine

You should create a fixed schedule for reading. Know the time which suits you the best and read during those hours. This will help to improve your concentration. Generally, mornings are considered to be the most preferred time to read as the mind is fresh.

Turn off all electronic devices

Notifications, incoming calls and texts can cause a lot of disturbance. Make sure you switch your mobile phones, tablets, laptops, etc. off while reading. It will help you to stay focused and increase your reading speed.

Take frequent breaks

Performing the same task for extended period of time can be monotonous. That is why you should take regular breaks while reading. During this time, you can get involved in some other recreational activities, watch TV or listen to music. When you get back to reading, you will feel more active and fresh which will help you to keep distractions at bay.

Track your performance

You can set reading goals and monitor your performance regularly. Look for the methods that help you read faster and minimize distractions. If you find improvement in your speed, continue using these techniques. In case you do not get good results, consider changing your reading schedule or methods. This will help to enhance your reading fluency.

Use Reading Tools

There are many reading tools available that can help you to concentrate and improve your comprehension skills. The reading strip present in these tools will filter out the distractions so that you are better able to maintain place on the page.
If you follow the above mentioned tips, you will be able to attain maximum focus while reading.

See-N-Read Reading Tools can help to reduce distractions and improve concentration while reading. For more information about the tools, feel free to call at (630) 236-5592.

Improve Reading Comprehension, Improve Reading Skill

How To Improve Reading Speed And Comprehension

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Reading fluency is an essential skill which can be inculcated by using various techniques. It can not only help you comprehend information, but also manage time in a better way. Whether you are a student or professional, having good reading skills can be beneficial for you in the long run.  

Here are a few techniques which can improve reading speed and comprehension:

  • Skim material for main ideas: You should scan the outline of the content to get an idea about the information. This will give you a clear picture about the topics that you can skip and those that require more concentration. Understanding the structure of the content can help to improve reading speed.
  • Prioritize your reading: It is essential to categorize the reading material in order of its significance. This can make you aware about the most important aspects and read accordingly.
  • Choose a suitable environment: Reading in a peaceful place without any distractions improves concentration. It is important to set an angle while reading to avoid eye strain and ensure a comfortable reading experience.
  • Improve vocabulary: Improving vocabulary can reduce the time taken to understand a topic. You can maintain a notebook to jot down unfamiliar words as it can help you read faster.
     Reading with a fresh mind:  It is essential to stay focused while reading. You can read preferably in the morning or late at night as the mind is free from distractions at that time.
  • Form questions: You can create questions from the headings given in the reading material. This can help in analyzing the information in a better way. Thus, you will be to read efficiently in a lesser time.
  • Practice: Regular practice can help you comprehend and read faster. Initially you can start with the reading material that you find interesting. This will help in creating a good reading habit.    
  • Eliminate sub vocalization: The habit of sub vocalization (uttering words while reading) can have a great impact on your reading. It can lower down your reading speed and fluency. Thus, sub vocalization should be avoided for better results.
  • Keep a track on your progress: It is a good idea to take a self-test at frequent intervals to keep a check on your reading speed. This can keep you on the right track and provide motivation for further improvement.

See-N-Read Reading Tools aim at improving reading speed and comprehension. The research based tools have been designed to help people of all ages read faster while reducing distractions on the page. For more information, you can call at (630) 236 – 5592.

Improve Reading Comprehension

Improve Reading Comprehension – Strategies That Work

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Good reading comprehension is essential for success in both academics and everyday life. It helps students understand and retain any information while reading. Improving reading comprehension essentially encompasses three different aspects, pre-reading tasks, reading strategies and post-reading, to efficiently store information into the long-term memory.

Here are some effective strategies that can help to improve reading comprehension:

  • Form Connections: Before starting to read the text, ask the child to have an overview of what the content is all about. Allow him to recollect any similar topics that he may have read before or any connections that he may have. For instance, the passage may mention places that the child has visited in the past. Let him talk about the memories of those places so that he is better able to understand.
  • Read In Chunks: While reading, ask the child to segregate the content into small chunks. Make him stop after each paragraph and recapitulate what all he has read. Put up questions about what happened, the main idea of the lesson and what could happen next. Also, encourage him to highlight the key points so that he can recall and retain information anytime later. Have Him
  • Read Aloud: Reading aloud compels the child to go about slowly, making it easier to understand. Also, he can form connections between the information he already knows and the one he is currently reading. Ask him to jot down any unfamiliar or complex words that he may come across in the text. Hold Post-Reading
  • Discussion: After the child has finished reading, hold a discussion in the classroom where everyone can discuss their doubts. Asking questions, sharing opinions and listening to that of others promote a better understanding of the content. Repeated
  • Readings: It is important for the child to read fluently to improve comprehension. After reading the text once, allow them to go through it once again. Being familiar with the words and context will help them read fast as well as smoothly. Encourage them to frame a story out of the passage, recite it to others and draw inferences to improve retention.

See-N-Read Reading Tools can help to improve reading comprehension in kids of all age groups. The research based products are designed to help children read fluently, while minimizing distractions on the page. To know more about the reading tools, you can call at (630) 236 – 5592.