Tag Archives: Reading Tools

Improve Spelling

Helping Your Child With Spelling

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Many children struggle with spelling. This is a common cause of poor performance on school tests. While some kids merely memorize words, others may find it nearly impossible to learn spelling in the first place because they don’t have a learning strategy. Thus, to improve the child’s spelling, parents must devote extra time at home and make efforts to identify more effective learning techniques.

The Need To Spell Correctly

Knowing how to spell different words correctly can improve the child’s reading and writing skills. It not only enables him to remember the sequence of letters in a word; it helps to understand how a word is pronounced and written. This enables less stammering and a higher level of confidence, opening the door to better grades.

Ways To Teach Spelling

There is no fixed rule for teaching a child to spell. Parents should try a variety of methods to determine those that work the best. Listed below are some ways that can help to improve your child’s spelling:

  • Encourage to read

A good reader has a better visual memory. Reading out loud can help the child to be familiar with how the words look and sound. Both visual and auditory senses are helpful in improving word recognition and reducing spelling mistakes.

  • Use a dictionary

The child should be encouraged to use a dictionary to look for various words and their spellings. Parents, however, should not let the child be completely dependent on a dictionary. They should first ask him to attempt to spell the word. Then, let him check the spelling in the dictionary and correct his mistakes.

  • Create Flash cards

Flash cards are a great method to improve your child’s spelling by helping develop his memory. Write the words he finds difficult on these cards. Pin them on the notice board in his room or stick them on the wall so he can see them frequently. She may also carry the cards to school and review them while eating or walking.

  • Write On A Chalk Board

Hang a small chalk board in your kid’s room and start a ‘one day, one word’ rule to learn difficult spellings. Write a new word on the chalk board every day and use colored chalks to highlight the silent letters and confusing parts of the words such as ‘ie’, ‘ei’ etc.

  • Prepare A List

Help your child to prepare a list of words that he finds difficult to spell. New words may be added every day and let him revise what he has already learned. Set new goals with your child each day and help him to achieve them. Have discussions about new words, make sentences and link them with hints to improve his memory.

  • Spelling And Vocabulary Quick Reference Guide

This guide helps the child to understand the word patterns in a better way. It features a number of commonly misspelled words and a list of homophones with their meanings. The guide also contains information about nouns, pronouns, verbs etc. which helps the child to develop a rich vocabulary and lower his spelling mistakes.

See-N-Spell™ is a spelling and vocabulary reference booklet offered by See-N-Read® Reading Tools. It can help to improve academic vocabulary and reduce misspelling. For more information about the reading tool, you can go to or call at (630) 236 – 5592.

Reading Tools

Classroom Strategies To Improve Reading Skills

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Reading skills are an essential component that allows students to make the most out of their academic education. It allows them to analyze any given information beyond simple comprehension, such that it can be retained for years and applied in real world setting. Though elementary level students need to develop a strong foundation for reading skills, elderly children should constantly reinforce this knowledge and utilize it in daily life.

Hera are some classroom strategies teachers should use to improve reading skills in students:

  • Utilize different reading materials: Allow students to access reading material in different formats, such as books, magazines, newspapers, e-books, audio books etc. This will allow them to form connection with the information in a better way. Practicing reading while simultaneously seeing the words in the book will boost their comprehension skills.
  • Make connections: Forming connections between the present and previously learned information helps children to develop a deeper understanding of the reading material. For instance, while reading about a place where he/she has been on a vacation, allow them to share memories or experiences associated with that place. Good reading is all about the ability to relate and understand information.  
  • Ask questions: Putting up questions will increase the students’ curiosity in gathering more knowledge about the content. After every passage, ask them what they think is the essence of the paragraph and which information is important. Good readers will always raise questions about the information being read to comprehend it better.
  • Hold discussions: While reading a text or making assignments, ask children to note down words or phrases that they do not understand. Subsequently, you can hold classroom discussions to deliberate upon the meaning and usage of those words until everyone understands it.
  • Draw inferences: Inferences can be drawn by combining the different elements in a story. For instance, if we read that a character had runny nose and watery eyes, we might infer that he/she has cold or allergy. Help students develop this skill by predicting what may occur next or what would have led to the present circumstances.  

See-N-Read Reading Tools are designed to improve reading skills in students of different grades. The research based products provide a practical learning to help children overcome moderate to severe reading, writing and study skills deficiencies. For more information about the reading tools, you can call at (630) 236 – 5592.

Reading Tools

How To Increase Your Reading Speed

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Reading is an invaluable skill that helps in most spheres of life including academics, business and leisure. However, it can be quite tedious and time consuming if your reading speed is slower than average. While an average individual reads almost 200 to 250 words per minute, the pace may also depend upon the material and purpose of reading. Along with the speed, it is equally important that you understand the information that is being read.

Here are a few tips that can help to improve your reading speed:

  • Read With A Fresh Mind: It takes a lot of practice and concentration to improve your reading speed. Thus, it is better to develop a habit of reading when your mind is fresh and least distracted, preferably early in the morning. You must schedule your most important reading tasks for this time of the day.
  • Skim Reading Material: Before starting with the actual reading material, you must go through it briefly and scan the outline of the content. This will give you an idea about what is important, which part you can skip and which you need to read with more concentration. Skimming will also prepare your mind to better comprehend the content to be read. When you understand the structure and idea of the content, your reading speed is likely to improve.
  • Categorize Reading Material: Dividing the content into three different categories, namely important, moderately important and least important, can help to improve your reading speed. You should start over with the least important bit first, by just scanning it quickly without pressuring your mind. Then, you should move on to the most important content and read it with utmost concentration and attention. Finally, you should keep the moderately important content for the last to relax your mind after handling the complex information.
  • Set A Reading Environment: The environment in which you read, your physical posture, the angle at which you hold the book and other such factors can also influence your reading speed. As far as possible, you should try to read in natural light, as it tends to stimulate alertness. The place should be well lit and there should be no distractions, specifically while reading complex material.

See-N-Read Reading Tools are research-based products aimed at improving reading speed. The tools have been designed to help people of all ages overcome reading, writing and study skills deficiencies. For more information, you can call at (630) 236 – 5592.

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Improve Reading Fluency With See-N-Read Reading Tools

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Fluency is an important part of reading as it offers a link between recognizing and understanding the usage of a word in a context. It is the ability of an individual to read a text precisely, quickly and with proper expression of stress, pauses as well as pitch. If one faces difficulty in reading with speed and needs to constantly stop in order to comprehend words, it is highly possible that the reading process will be quite daunting.

See-N-Read Reading Tools are research-based products designed to improve reading fluency. The tools provide a practical and easy-to use fluency intervention methods in order to improve moderate to severe deficiencies in reading, writing and study skills for people of all ages.

See-N-Read Reading Tools That Can Help To Improve Fluency

  • See-N-Read®: This reading tool is designed to enable readers to stay focused and direct attention towards the content instead of merely struggling to keep track of their position on the page. The product comes with a ReadBar™, which reduces word or line skipping while reading and prevents pattern glare without blocking the adjacent text. See-N-Read® allows the use of common reading strategies, chunking and sweeping, for better fluency.
  • MemoryMark™: This reading improvement tool allows an individual to highlight or mark the important information without having to lose place on the page. It helps to improve reading fluency, comprehension and retention of key points.
  • eSee-N-Read™: It is an electronic tools working in the same manner as See-N-Read but on a computer. The surrounding areas are slightly shaded by the ReadBar™ that allows better on-screen visibility while minimizing distractions, screen glare as well as eye strain. The entire tool or cut-out window can be customized, resized and restructured according to the user’s needs.
  • See-N-Spell™: This reading tool provides a complete spelling and vocabulary guide to the users so that they do not have to struggle in comprehending the meaning of unknown words in a context. The tool lists more than 300 most commonly used and misspelled words that helps to improve academic performance.
  • ColorTAG™: This reading tool helps readers to systematically go through, organize and retrieve important information in any given content. Thus, it provides for a better identification as well as differentiation between essential and non-essential points.
  • ColorTAG™ works by avoiding confusion between different contexts, aiding comprehension of information and improving reading fluency.

For more information about See-N-Read Reading Tools, you can call at (630) 236 – 5592.

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Common Reading Problems In Children

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Reading difficulties are faced by most children and can occur due to several reasons. Learning information is a sequential process involving a combination of three different components, namely decoding, comprehension and retention. It is critical for parents and teachers to identify the source of a child’s difficulty and employ practical strategies that can help to improve reading skills.

Given here are areas in which the child may face reading difficulties:

Decoding

Students with reading difficulties may face problems in decoding the sound of different letters in a word. An important aspect of learning involves breaking up of the phonemes in order to recognize a word. For instance, children with appropriate learning skills may be able to separate the different sounds in the word ‘bag’. However, a child with reading difficulty may find it difficult to judge the meaning between the three letters and how their sounds can be combined to form a word.

Signs of problems in decoding:

  • Issues in sounding out words
  • Difficulty in recognizing individual words
  • Confusion between various letters and their sound
  • Lack of expression in reading
  • Missing punctuation marks while reading
  • Slow reading pace

Comprehension

Comprehending any information requires the ability to properly decode it. When children successfully decode the sound and connection of different words, they are in a better position to concentrate on the paragraph that they are reading. When word recognition is not problematic, children can easily understand and remember the information.

Signs of problems in comprehension:

  • Confusion in the meaning of individual words and their usage in sentences
  • Difficulty connecting different contexts in a paragraph
  • Missing out or skipping significant details
  • Lack of concentration while reading
  • Inability to distinguish between important and trivial information

Retention

This requires the mastery of both decoding and comprehension skills. Proper retention of information relies on a child’s cognitive skills and the ability to organize, summarize as well as retrieve relevant ideas. They should be able to link the present information to something they already know. This, along with sufficient practice, will allow the children to store any information in their long-term memory that can be recalled whenever required.

Signs of problems in retention:

  • Difficulty relating what is being currently read with previous knowledge
  • Trouble in real-life application of information gathered
  • Difficulty memorizing or recapitulating the information read

See-N-Read Reading Tools are aimed at improving reading skills among children of all age groups. The research-based products can help children overcome moderate to severe reading and study skill deficiencies. For more information, you can call us at (630) 236 – 5592.