Tag Archives: Reading Improvement Tools

Improve Reading Skill

Reading Tips For Dyslexic Children

When it comes to dyslexia, it is always better to focus on polishing the reading skills as early as possible. It is important to consult a paediatrician on suspecting signs of dyslexia. Intervention at an early stage and the right form of treatment go a long way in helping your child overcome any obstacles in his reading. Be proactive and immediately start incorporating baby steps towards your child’s development and confidence.

There are screening tests available like the Shaywitz DyslexiaScreen that can be conducted by a teacher in kindergarten or first class. It helps parents detect Dyslexia at an early stage and act accordingly. Dyslexic children do learn to read, but they take some time. So, parents and teachers should not give up on them. The support and patience of an adult is something that helps them throughout.

Here are some tips to help a dyslexic child become an avid reader one day:

Practice

Make your child read every day. Make it a bed time ritual. The more they practice, the stronger the brain neural circuits related to reading become. Encourage your child to read a simple book aloud to you. This will improve their accuracy and confidence in speaking. With time, it will be easier for your child to read easy words from their memory and they would try to decode new words. It takes time and patience, but it is all worth the effort in the long term.

New Words

Find opportunities to introduce your child to as many new words as possible. The higher the number of words in your child’s memory, the better he will get at reading. Here are some things that can help you in adding words to your child’s vocabulary:

  • Listening to children’s audio books
  • Watching documentaries together
  • Reading to your child
  • Keeping a word journal
  • Playing word games like Pictionary.

Point out new words to your child and encourage them to speak it aloud.

Syllabication

Syllabication refers to breaking big words into smaller chunks called syllables while reading. Consult your child’s teacher for relevant teaching material. You can also do some research on the internet regarding syllabication rules. With time, your child will become better at tackling long words and sentences by breaking them down into readable portions.

Plan B

Encourage your child to have a backup plan just in case he cannot remember a word. If he can’t remember a long word, he should confidently replace it with a smaller word. Encourage him to use web-based dictionaries to work on pronunciation skills and learn a variety of words that he can use as replacements in case of occasional memory loss.

Extra Care And Attention

 Dyslexic kids should be given headphones in the class so that they can read without distractions. During tests, they should be given extra time. They should be encouraged to write journals, send emails, have a study buddy to sit with in class etc. These extra gestures and activities will have a phenomenal effect on making them better at both reading and writing.

See-N-Read Reading Tools can help to increase your child’s reading skills and combat dyslexia. To know more about the reading tools and their benefits, call at (630) 236 – 5592.

Reading Strips

Eye Tracking And Reading Comprehension

2 Comments

Eye tracking problems in children can be detected at an early stage if parents and teachers monitor their reading skills. If your child is not able to read the words in the correct order, omits or adds his own words and reads very slowly, he is most likely suffering from eye tracking issue. Poor visual skills can eventually hamper reading comprehension as the child is unable to understand the meaning of sentences while reading on his own.

Steps that can improve eye tracking and consequently develop better comprehension skills:

  • Utilize Reading Strips: One of the best tools that can be used to improve eye tracking is reading strips. These strips have a clear as well as translucent window which allows a person to read without distraction and also improves their hand-eye coordination. Continuous use of reading strips promotes fluency and increases reading comprehension skills.
  • Read Aloud: Another important exercise that can improve eye tracking is reading aloud. Ask your child to speak out instead of reading quietly. This practice coaxes the eyes and brain to work together. This leads to increased concentration and enhanced reading skills. However, reading aloud needs to be done on a regular basis in order to get the best results.
  • Perform Visual Tracking Activities: In order to improve the eye tracking skills of your child you may ask him to practice some simple techniques at home. For instance, you may encourage the child to keep staring at a single object without making any eye movement. This will help you to evaluate the time he is able to concentrate without any disruption. Adding similar exercises in your child’s daily routine can bring in positive results.
  • Vision Therapy: This therapy helps to resolve problems associated with reading, learning and comprehension. Designed according to individual requirements, these techniques involve vision exercises that change the way a child processes visual information. Vision therapy needs to be performed consistently so as to bring out best outcome.

In addition to the above mentioned tools, there are many other activities that can enhance eye tracking skills in kids. These include drawing or painting pictures, solving puzzles and mazes, performing dot-to-dot pictures, etc. You can sit with your child and see how well he manages to perform these activities. Be patient and help him wherever you can to build his confidence.

See-N-Read Reading Tools help to improve comprehension skills in children. For further details about the reading tools, visit http://www.see-n-read.com/ or call at (630) 236 – 5592.

Reading Tools

How To Improve Your Spelling Skills

1 Comment

Some spellings have always been tough to remember due to their contradictions and exceptions. While certain words have silent letters, others are spelled differently in spite of having the same pronunciation, which may cause confusion.

If you find it difficult to spell certain words correctly, you may use the following tricks to sharpen your skills:

Learn the rules – English language comprises of words with different pronunciations and writing styles. You may not be able to remember all the rules at once but, you can always begin by noticing the common patterns in diverse words. It is important to note that all spelling rules applied in this language are not universal therefore, you must be aware of their exceptions as well.

Read a lot – Reading is the best technique to improve your vocabulary and reduce spelling errors. While reading you encounter various words that unnoticeably sink in your mind and help you spell better. Reading newspapers and magazines can also help you to get hold over the newest forms and elocution of words. In case you do not understand a word, you can use a dictionary.

Learn via crosswords – Puzzles are a good way to challenge your thinking and exercise your mind. You may solve various crosswords to learn new spellings. The hints given to fill the grid down and across will help you to find the appropriate words along with their meanings. This exercise also aids in remembering the words with their correct meanings and spellings.

Watch English shows with subtitles – captioned and subtitled TV shows are one the best ways to learn spellings and pronunciation of words. You may not be able to make notes, but you’ll definitely grasp the difference between the correctly and incorrectly spelled words.

Spelling competition and quizzes – This is an interesting and a fun-filled way to learn spellings. You can ask your friends to spell out the words that you find tricky and vice versa, or you can just play the online spelling quizzes.

Write whenever you spell – Make a habit of jotting down the words you try to spell. In order to keep a record, you can even make a notebook that comprises of all the newly learned words. It will act as quick reference guide to the words, which you often find difficult to spell.

Take help of reading tools – If you have trouble remembering the correct spellings, consider consulting books that are specifically designed to resolve such issues. For the convenience of the readers, these books are divided into various sections like misspelled words, commonly used words, special interest words etc. You can use them to verify the correct usage of any word.

See-N-Spell™ is an effective tool designed to improve spelling and build academic vocabulary in people of all age groups. For more information, you can call at (630) 236 – 5592.

blog

Improving Reading Comprehension In Students With ADHD

1 Comment

Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often face difficulty with reading comprehension. Maintaining attention span is important to direct intellectual focus on a stimulus, recognize and decode words as well as retain information in long term memory. Deficits in attention imply inability to store and retrieve the information being read. Children with ADHD find it difficult to control attention, thereby, have trouble in understanding the text, interlinking the context and associating it with previously learned information.

Here are some strategies that can help to improve reading comprehension in students with ADHD:

  • Provide Interesting Content: As far as possible, provide engaging content to develop the students’ interest in reading. They may find it easier to concentrate on comprehension passages that are stimulating, interesting and are not very lengthy.
  • Minimize Distractions: Even slight distractions while reading can sidetrack ADHD students. Allow them to read in short time intervals and take frequent breaks in between to stay focused. Teach them to use a reading strip in order to maintain place on the page. If the content is lengthy, help them break down the text into smaller passages to avoid getting confused.
  • Encourage Active Reading Strategies: Teach students to underline and highlight important points while reading. Provide them with different colored pencils or highlighters to set apart information according to their relevance in the content. This will help them to focus more on the important content when they are able to sustain attention.
  • Ask For Predictions: When reading a passage with the child, frequently ask him to predict what would happen next. For this, he will need to interlink the storyline and character to frame the plot for the story. It does not matter if the predictions are correct or not. Making predictions will encourage him to stay attentive throughout and you can also assess his comprehension skills.
  • Let Them Subvocalize: In contrast to reading silently, allowing children to read aloud can also help with comprehension. Reading in mind can be troublesome for children with ADHD. Subvocalizing allows them to input auditory signals into their minds which, in turn, help them to stay focused on the material being read.

See-N-Read Reading Tools can help to improve comprehension skills in students with ADHD. For more information, you can call at (630) 236 – 5592.

blog

Fun Ways To Improve Your Child’s Reading Skills

2 Comments

Reading skills are one of the most essential principles of learning. With fine reading skills, a child will be better able to understand the subject taught at school and improve academic grades. It is important that these skills are inculcated in the child right from his early school years. However, after struggling to read all day in the school, children might resist learning at home. This can be avoided by introducing some strategies that can instigate their interest in reading and encourage them to stay focused.

Here are some fun ways to improve your child’s reading skills:

  • Comic Books:You can set aside some time each day when your child can read his favorite comic book. Graphic illustrations can be of great help to make the child concentrate and connect to the context of the reading material. With large sized eye-catchy pictures and segmented bits of text, kids find comics easier to read than plain text books.
  • Surround Them With Reading Material: If you provide your child with a wide collection of books at home, he will be more inclined to read them. However, these should not just include their text books. Include a variety of genres that will stimulate his curiosity and encourage reading. Apart from books you can also include other reading material such as newspapers, magazines, websites etc.
  • Online Games: There are a wide range of online games that can help kids to build vocabulary which, in turn, improve reading skills. These may include word scrabble, picture word matching, crossword puzzles etc.
  • Relate Reading To Various Aspects: You can consider generalizing a reading material so as to help the child understand its essence. After completing the reading task, hold a discussion with the child about how the content related with other books, TV shows or even real life experiences. This will help the child think deeply about the context and comprehend the message that the writer actually wanted to convey.
  • Read To Each Other: When you read stories or books to your child, he is more likely to understand rather than while reading on his own. Subsequently, ask him to read to you in order to evaluate improvement in his reading skills and correct him wherever necessary.

If you looking for effective tools to improve your child’s reading skills, consider See-N-Read Reading Skills. The research based products have been designed to overcome reading, writing and study skills deficiencies in children of all age groups. For more information, about the reading improvement tools, you can call at (630) 236 – 5592.