In this post I want to give you a better understanding of what an Orton Gillingham Approach is and how to implement it into your instruction at home.

What is an Orton-Gillingham Approach?

The approach was created because of research done in 1920s by two individuals, Samuel Torrey Orton and Anna Gillingham, who largely studied reading failure and language processing difficulties. In their research they found eight key instructional principles that helped a struggling reader become successful.

What Orton and Gillingham found was that instruction for a struggling reader must be:

• Language-Based
  The Orton-Gillingham approach is based on a technique of studying and teaching language, understanding the nature of human language, the mechanisms involved in learning, and the language-learning processes in individuals.
• Multisensory
  Orton-Gillingham teaching sessions are action oriented with auditory, visual, and kinesthetic elements reinforcing each other for optimal learning. The student learns spelling simultaneously with reading.
• Structured, Sequential, Cumulative
  The Orton-Gillingham teacher introduces the elements of the language systematically. Students begin by reading and writing sounds in isolation. Then they blend the sounds into syllables and words. Students learn the elements of language, e.g., consonants, vowels, digraphs, blends, and diphthongs, in an orderly fashion. They then proceed to advanced structural elements such as syllable types, roots, and affixes. As students learn new material, they continue to review old material to the level of automaticity. The teacher addresses vocabulary, sentence structure, composition, and reading comprehension in a similar structured, sequential, and cumulative manner.
• Cognitive
  When using the Orton-Gillingham approach, students learn about the history of the English language and study the many generalizations and rules that govern its structure. They also learn how best they can learn and apply the language knowledge necessary for achieving reading and writing competencies.
• Flexible
  At best, Orton-Gillingham teaching is diagnostic-prescriptive in nature. Always the teacher seeks to understand how an individual learns and to devise appropriate teaching reading strategies.
• Emotionally Sound
  In every lesson, the student experiences a high degree of success and gains confidence as well as skill. Learning becomes a rewarding and happy experience.

(for more information on the Orton Gillingham Approach click here)

How do you use the Orton-Gillingham Method in your own home instruction?

Recently Shantell Barrett and I created a webinar series called, “The Parents Guide to Teaching Reading” helping parents use these principles in their reading instruction. It is based on the Reading Horizons curriculum, but if understood, the overall framework can be used in the home without purchasing materials or software. I’d love for you to go through this webinar series and gain the knowledge to teach your struggling reader using a proven and effective system.

Once you’ve gone through this webinar series and have begun to apply it in your home we have another free resource to help you retain the knowledge you’ve learned. It is called our Parent Phonics Training Online Workshop and it is an interactive learning tool to refresh any of the skills you’ve learned during the webinar series.

I hope you have found this post helpful. If you have any questions or would like to know more about a particular topic discussed here please leave a comment or reach out to me through email.

In this blog post I want to introduce you to our YouTube channel and give you some of the videos and playlists I’ve found helpful from it: A Strategy for Teaching Students with Processing Disorders, Teaching Reading Tips Playlist (has 34 instructional videos), Dyslexia Help for Parents Playlist (has 14 instructional videos), and an In Your Own Backyard video of a young woman who struggles with reading.

This first video will show you just why Reading Horizons and this blog is so passionate about multi-scensory learning. Pay attention to what Shantell says about the Feedback Loop.

As you go through this Teaching Tip Playlist search for a topic you don’t know about. I hope this helps to make you aware of some things you did not know you did not know! =)

Reading Instruction is made even more difficult when you have a child with a learning disadvantage such as dyslexia. This Dyslexia Help Playlist gives helpful knowledge and instruction for parents who have a dyslexic child.

Finally, here is an inspiring video of a young woman who has overcome her struggles with dyslexia by embracing her very visual mind.

I hope you’ve taken away something from these videos and if you are interested in looking into more stop by our YouTube channel!

With the Easter holidays looming at the end of the month, families budgets tight, and the weather unpredictable: one question on the lips of parents is what can we do on a rainy day at home?

Books could be the answer, and if you can brave the outdoors for a library trip, then all the better – it’s free!

The children’s book market is huge and there are so many titles to choose from, jigsaw books, interactive ones, noisy books and craft books to name but a few. There is bound to be something to please every little boy and girl and with World Book Day coming up, you can use your vouchers and/or visit a book fair and stock up.

Here are a few of my favorites:

The Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson – encourages children to recognise the rhythm and rhyme of words

Usborne Easter Things to Make and Do – Fiona Watt

Hugless Douglas and the Big Sleep – David Melling

Time indoors doesn’t have to be boring or taken up with electrical devices. Why not do a jigsaw book together, make something out of a baking or craft book, or simply enjoy reading the book together. You could re-enact a scene from your child’s favorite book, dress up like your favorite characters or draw a picture of them for your wall.

The only limit to books is your imagination, and we all know a child’s imagination is endless. Next time it’s a rainy day, make the most of being indoors with your child and their favorite book.

Books are an essential part of a child’s life. They help them learn to read, to communicate, to learn about the world, and a good book can feed a child’s imagination to no end. An early reader is often a reader for life, so give your child a head start and open a book.

There are two great blog posts Reading Horizons has that explain the reason for multi-sensory instruction and how to properly apply a multi-sensory approach to teaching reading. Those two posts are: The Connection Between Vocabulary and Reading Skills and A Simple Strategy for Teaching Struggling Readers.

Unfortunately, they are two separate posts and they are on our blog for schools and institutions, not The Reading Corner Blog. For this reason I’ve created this post and combined what is addressed in both to create one super informative post for homeschoolers, mothers, and those of us without an education degree!

It builds the connections that allow us to put it all together! Language is a complex subject; it uses sensory outputs (writing and speaking) as well as sensory inputs (reading and listening) and in order to learn to be a fluent and comprehensive reader we need to be able to connect all the modalities language uses together. Shantell Barrett, a reading teacher, trainer, and dyslexia specialist, explains that connection and its importance quite nicely in this small video clip.

Now that we know the reason for multi-sensory reading instruction, what is the proper way to use it? Well, it is through the process of dictation; the process you use to make the connections there are between reading, writing, speaking, and listening to the English language. Here is a four step dictation process you can use with your child:

Step 1: You (as the teacher) say the word twice (this can be a word you are having your child read, or a word that is part of their spelling or vocabulary list).

Step 2: Have your child say the word back twice.

Step 3: Have your child write the word once.

Step 4: Have your child read the word once (by having them mark the word, decode it, and then read it).

Here is another quick video of Shantell Berrett explaining this process and the results she and others have had when using it. Enjoy!

Remembering letters, sounds, and sight words may be difficult for your kindergartner.  Reading long picture books may seem impossible to your second grader. Your fifth grader might struggle to finish his or her assigned chapter book before the book report is due. The Great Gatsby probably seems a lot less interesting to your ninth grader than Facebook.

No matter how old your child is, he or she may be struggling with reading. Reading and comprehending what we read are some of the most complex things we do as humans. It’s no wonder that so many kids and adults struggle to develop critical literacy skills. Fortunately, if you’re the parent of a struggling reader, there are a number of things you can do at home to help your child become a better reader and make reading less difficult for your child. Here are three strategies you can try out to increase your son or daughter’s literacy skills now:

1. Reward your child for reading

If you promise your child twenty, uninterrupted minutes on his or her Nintendo 3DS or on the computer after twenty minutes of reading for pleasure, you can bet that your child will give reading a try, even if the reading material seems too difficult. Kids are a lot more likely to read what they perceive to be challenging material if they’re rewarded for doing so.

If you do decide to reward your child for reading, make sure you sit down with him or her and help out. Consider requesting that your child reads aloud to you, or consider asking a few questions about the reading material after your child reads silently. Let your son or daughter know that you’ll help with difficult words. Kids who have low self-esteem when it comes to reading will sometimes pretend to read to avoid feeling defeated by a challenging book. If you make sure your child reads, and you provide the support your child needs to read successfully, your child will begin to feel a lot less intimidated by books and eventually won’t even need to be rewarded for reading.

2. Make learning new words fun

Your child probably doesn’t think it’s very much fun to memorize new words and definitions with flash cards. So, ditch the old school memorization tools and make learning new words at home fun. For instance, you can print out a blank game board template you find online. On this game board, you can write sight words (or vocabulary words for older kids). You and your child can take turns rolling the dice and moving along the game board. The catch is that, in order to move along in the game, your child has to read the words written on the game spaces and define them. A game like this will teach your child plenty of new words and make learning those new words fun. This is just one of the many examples of games you can play with your child to increase his or her literacy skills. So, scavenge for game ideas online, and make sure you have some fun too!

3. Use technology

Technology makes learning more interactive and oftentimes more enjoyable. So, consider investing in some age-appropriate reading software that will expose your child to new stories, words, skills, and ideas. If you have an e-reader or tablet you already use for yourself, download some e-books for your son or daughter on it. Technology can bring difficult and tedious subject matter to life, and it can make learning new concepts seem less like arduous work to your kids.

Remember that good reading habits are best cultivated both at home and at school, and try out the strategies above. Additionally, if you think your child may have a learning disability that makes reading particularly challenging, talk to a professional about ways you can provide extra support to your child at home.

Pepper Givens is an online blogger and freelance writer who focuses much of her content on promoting online colleges in Texas, as that is her home state. She also covers other educational topics and welcomes your questions and comments.

It is important for parents to recognize that questions are how kids learn.  The constant questioning can become irritating and frustrating to an adult, but children’s bodies and brains are developing and their language and vocabulary skills are increasing rapidly, giving them the tools they need to become “little scientists.”  When children learn to read, they gain access to books and even more knowledge, which leads to an endless possibility of questions.  They start forming perceptions (however silly they may sometimes seem) about the world and the way it works.  If a child wants an answer and an explanation, they are going to ask.  It’s that simple.

Perhaps adults should take a page from the book of children.  Caregivers are becoming more and more aware of the importance of reading with kids at home everyday.  However, a lot of parents aren’t aware that they might not be maximizing learning and absorption for their child.  The best and most important oral reading skills a child can gain stems from practice at home, but as this reading specialist states, “oftentimes well-intentioned parents frequently do more harm than good when they teach their children to blend [sound words out] improperly.”  So what exactly do parents need to know in order to guide their children with beneficial reading strategies?  From Dr. Kathleen J. Brown’s excellent presentation, we have answered the question, “What Should I Say When They Get Stuck on a Word?”

Here are some guidelines on how to help your child get the most out of reading practice:

General Dos and Don’ts: 

Avoid:  Asking your child to try and guess an unfamiliar word based off an accompanying picture.

Here’s why:  Never cue a picture before cuing a word.  Pictures will eventually disappear from text as children advance in school, so forming a dependency on pictures is a weakness.  Trying to guess what word an unfamiliar word might be is a bad reading strategy – there are much better ways to decode words (keep reading for strategies).

Avoid:  Immediately twitching, squeaking, or pointing when your child messes up or stops on a word.

Here’s why:  Not only will you likely make your kid feel self-conscious about their reading abilities by negatively responding to their mistake, you will also mess up the flow of their reading.

Avoid:  Saying, “You know that word!  You just read it a few minutes ago!” when your child gets stuck.

Here’s why:  Telling a child they should know something that they don’t will only make them feel dumb and potentially afraid of seeking help when they need it (at home and in school).  Chances are that if your child is struggling, they already feel frustrated and inferior and this kind of response can be more harmful than you realize.

Avoid:  Just giving the child the word they are struggling with.

Here’s why:  Mistakes are a great way for us to learn.  If you tell a child the word they cannot figure out, they won’t remember it later on because they did not use their decoding and comprehension skills to figure it out.  If children correctly use the decoding skills they have been taught to figure out the word, they will form a neural pathway and be able to commit those words and skills to memory.

Try:  If your child messes up on a word, let them finish the whole phrase or sentence.  If they self-correct, simply say, “Good fixing!”  Enforce the notion that good readers fix their mistakes, not that good readers do not make mistakes.

Try:  If the child doesn’t self-correct by the end of the sentence, stop them, and use a pencil to point to the beginning of the word and say, “This word tricked you.”  Then point at the beginning of the phrase or sentence and say, “Start here.”  Let the child make a running start at the word again and see how that goes.  If they are able to self-correct on the second try, reinforce with, “Good fixing!”

Try:  If the child makes the same mistake or gets stuck again, put your pencil down and ask yourself two questions:  1) What kind of word is this?  2) What does my child know about words like this (what level are they on)?  Your answers will help you be more effective.

 Types of Words:

• Closed Syllables

• The vowel in these words (we’re focusing on single syllable) is “closed in” by a consonant
• These words are easy to sound out
• The vowel is very likely to use its short sound
• Examples:  “Ten,” “Jump,” and “Cap”
• These words are good for teaching children to blend across a word orally and visually
• “Ten”:  t(tuh) –e(eh)-n(nnn)

• Irregular, High-Frequency 

• These words are some of the most common and often stem from old-English, making them pronounced differently from years ago, so they don’t follow the rules very well
• Examples: “The,” “Of,” “Who,” and “Enough”
• “Of” would be spelled “Ov” the way it’s pronounced

• Vowel Patterns

• Use phonics rules and common vowel patterns
• Examples:  “Lake,” “Barn,” and “Tail”
• Pattern used in “Lake”: “a” – consonant – “e” (same with A, E, I, O, and U)
• Pattern used in “Barn”:  R-controlled vowels (the bossy R)
• Pattern used in “Tail”: Vowel teams, where one vowel is pronounced and the other isn’t

Kids should learn these vowel patterns in school, but as a parent, you can learn to recognize the patterns as well.

• Words with Affixes and Polysyllabic Words

• Words with endings, suffixes, and prefixes
• Multiple syllables

 Best Strategies for Each Word Type:

• Closed Syllables

• Blend (sound the word out)
• “Ten”:  t(tuh) –e(eh)-n(nnn)

• Irregular, High-Frequency Words

• Point to the word.  Get kids to give you the first sound of the word (example the “th” sound in “the”)
• Then give the child the word (say “the”)
• Back the child up to the beginning of the sentence and have them read it again using the word

• Vowel Patterns

• Ask the child, “What is the vowel pattern here?”
• Example word, “Barn”
• Child answers: “a-r”
• Ask the child, “What sound does the combination a-r make?”
• Child answers: “ahr”
• Say, “Now sound the word out.”
• Child answers, “b(buh) –ar(ahr) –n(nnn)”

In vowel pattern words, it is not as simple to sound the word out.  There are orthographic patterns, such as silent letter E’s and the way the letter R dominates vowels.  Explicit phonics instruction is very important when teaching blends, digraphs, and vowel patterns.

• Words with Affixes and Polysyllabic Words

• Use your thumb or index cards to help kids decide where to break the word up (separate the syllables) and blend the word in pieces
• “Incandescent”: In-can-des-cent
• “Pretest” – take off the prefix “pre” and have the child look at “test.”  Then add “pre” to “test” for “pretest.”

 Best Strategies by Level: 

• Early Grade 1 to Mid-Grade 1 Readers

• If the word is short and blendable (closed syllable), let the child sound it out.
• If not, point to the first letter and ask:  “Sound?”
• After you receive the sound from the child, give the word.
• Have the child read again from the beginning of the sentence, and move on.

Children on this instructional level will not be working on learning vowel patterns yet.  Also, you may be asking yourself, “Why is backing up important?”  The repetition helps build the orthographic (spelling) representation of the words in the child’s memory, along with helping to build fluency.  It also strengthens comprehension that may have been impeded because the child had to stop their train of thought and figure the word out.

• End of Grade 1 to End of Grade 2 Readers

• If the word is blendable (closed syllable), let the child sound it out.
• If not, does the child know the vowel pattern being used?  If so, focus on the pattern with your pencil, then have the child sound the word out.
• If they don’t know the vowel pattern, prompt them for the first sound in the word and then tell them the word.

Children on this level should be working on vowel patterns, so ask for the vowel sound before diverting to prompting for the first sound and then telling the word.  At this level, the child may encounter some complicated, high-frequency words (such as “bought”) with vowel patterns (ough) that they may not have learned yet. Going back to the first sound and giving the word is the next step if the vowel sound is unknown because the vowel pattern is too developmentally advanced.

If it is a simpler vowel combination the child has stumbled on 3 or more times that it seems like they should know, make a note of where they are struggling and send your child’s teacher an e-mail so that the teacher can know where your child is struggling and adjust instruction.

• Early Grade 3 Readers and On

• Is the word one syllable?  Prompt the child to blend or to look at the vowel pattern.
• Is the word more than one syllable?  Use your thumb to help break the word into syllables.  Index cards also work well.

 Other Important Guidelines to Keep in Mind:  

Stay on level.  Make sure that the books you are reading with your child are not too hard.  It is important to stay on your child’s instructional level when it comes to oral reading practice because if a text is difficult and laborious for the child to read, they will become frustrated.  If your child is making 1-2 mistakes per every ten words, the text is too hard.

Get the right books. When trying to pick out books for your child, remember the five-finger rule as well.  Have your child read 100 words from a book they of their choosing and tell them to stick a finger up each time they come across a word they cannot figure out.  If the child raises more than five fingers, the book is too difficult.  Click here for help if your child insists on reading a book above their reading level.

Define words ahead of reading.  Sometimes, children will have to read texts in social studies and science with many difficult words, but if that science or social studies content is on level, then you will have to help the child learn the words.  In these cases, it helps to pull out all the difficult words to read and define them separately before trying to read them in the text.  This will help build comprehension of difficult subject matter because the child will have the knowledge beforehand and be able to read the text without getting interrupted by trying to both identify the word and figure out the meaning.

Practice irregular, high-frequency words.  Flash cards are a great way to practice the words that have to be memorized.  Parents can even make a word bank  (how to).  If there are particular words that your child is having trouble with, have them trace the letters of the word written on an index card two times will reading the letters out loud.  Then have them trace the letters of the word with their finger on the table while reading the letters they trace aloud (two times again).  Last, have them write the letters of the word in the air twice, again while reading the letters aloud as they write them.

Parents have to remember that reading instruction in school alone is not enough.  Practice is also necessary to help raise a successful reader.  Reading Horizons programs offer not only explicit and sequential phonics instruction, but also lots of guided opportunities for readers to use and refine their skills.  To learn more, click here >.

“I am confident that you will be more than pleased with the results. I have already received more than my money’s worth in seeing the success it has brought my daughter.”

- Michelle Reeder, Dubuque, Iowa

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Learning to read is like…digging through an old coat closet and finding Narnia.  Children enter the wardrobe and start hanging up all the skills they acquire without realizing that with each step deeper into the closet, they are on the path to something fantastic.  As children fill up their wardrobes with all sorts of abilities – such as phonemic awareness, knowledge of phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension of text – they eventually find a whole new world that is limitless beyond even the most inventive imagination (this analogy made possible by a story that I read when I was 8 years old).

Books have the capacity to transport their readers to different countries, different eras, and even different worlds.  In order to reach those new places though, children have to know how to read.  Reading is a learned ability because it is not something that children pick up without efficient instruction and a lot – I mean A LOT – of practice.  Dr. Kathleen J. Brown, Director at the University of Utah’s Reading Clinic, offers some great insight into the way children learn to read in an informative Webinar she hosted for Reading Horizons.  I have incorporated some key points and information from Kathleen’s presentation in the text that follows.

As children grow up and are exposed to a verbal language, phonological representations – the way a child hears and speaks words – are formed in the child’s memory.  For deaf readers, sign language can be a visual substitute for a verbal language.  Semantic representations – the different and often multiple meanings and concepts a word can represent – are attached to each phonological (or visual) representation.  This is how children develop a language.  As children attend school and receive instruction, they learn the rules of the language (spelling, punctuation, grammar) and can begin to decode words, learning to read and spell.  This is called orthographic development.

To better understand the importance of language and orthographic development, reading can be broken down into a simple formula:

Reading = Decoding  x  Listening Comprehension

This formula means that in order for a child to become an expert reader, they need the ability to sound out unfamiliar words and then to understand the meaning of the words by comprehending the text they are decoding.  Orthographic development comes into play when discussing word decoding.  Children need explicit and sequential phonetic instruction to be able to successfully decode words that are not already orthographically mapped in their brains.  Once an unfamiliar word is successfully stored, constant reading practice is necessary to help children retain the word and eventually be able to automatically decode it when they encounter it in future reading.

Language development comes into play when discussing listening comprehension.  If children have a well-developed verbal vocabulary, they will be able to comprehend text more easily by making the connection from a printed word to a word and a meaning that they are familiar with as a part of their verbal language. Reading is all about making the connection between written and verbal forms of the language.

However, if the word they just decoded is unfamiliar verbally to the child as well, they will have to use other resources to determine the meaning.  Children can use a dictionary, context clues, knowledge of base words, knowledge of prefixes and suffixes, or even pictures to help figure out what a word means, but it is important to note that pictures should NEVER be used to try and identify an unfamiliar word through guessing what word might make sense in correlation to the picture.  Children must first decode an unfamiliar word and then determine meaning.  Always cue the word before cuing the picture.  Pictures will eventually disappear from text as children grow older, so forming a dependency on pictures will prove to be damaging to a child’s reading skills.

Novice readers use most of their cognitive effort on trying to decode words and miss out on comprehension.  As readers become more fluent and decoding becomes automatic, they are able to focus the majority of their effort on comprehension, using decoding strategies only when they come to an unfamiliar word.  As children are exposed to new vocabulary, their text comprehension will grow, thus allowing the child to develop into an expert reader and well-rounded individual.

Utilizing a multisensory, Orton-Gillingham approach, Reading Horizons offers scientifically-based reading programs that incorporate the tried and true teaching methods of teaching the 42 sounds of the alphabet, five phonetic skills and two decoding skills.  If you’d like to know more about the program, find out here >.

Convened by congress in 1997, The National Reading Panel assembled and began its mission to determine what children needed to become successful readers.  After performing extensive research – including holding public meetings where parents and teachers could voice what they felt was missing – the NRP outlined five essential components of reading instruction:

1. Phonemic Awareness:  Ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words.

2. Phonics:  Relationships between letters of written language and individual sounds of spoken language.

3. Fluency:  Ability to read a text quickly and accurately.

4. Vocabulary:  Words students must know to communicate effectively.

5. Text Comprehension:  Understanding what students are reading.

So what does this all mean to a parent?  It is helpful to think of the five essential components of reading instruction in the form of a pyramid, with phonemic awareness at the base (representing the sturdy foundation) with each step building up to comprehension.  If your child has been trained to identify individual phonemes and has been given explicit phonics instruction, then — with practice — that will lead to automatic word decoding.  As a child’s decoding skills are refined, the child becomes a fluent reader.  As the child reads and learns, they are exposed to new vocabulary, increasing their comprehension with each new word.

Explicit phonics instruction is such a crucial step.  Public schools often employ the whole language approach and do not take the time to explicitly teach children about letter/sound associations and word decoding skills.  Instead, they view language as “a complete system of making meaning, with words functioning in relation to each other in context.”  The whole language approach does work for some children, but not all.  The biggest focus of the whole language approach is that children construct their own unobstructed perceptions as they read and interpret texts.  However, children who are unable to make the connection between words printed on a page and the verbal language (visual language for some deaf children) they have already learned cannot draw any interpretations because they do not have the tools they need to be able to read.   Research gathered by the National Reading Panel has provided substantial evidence that children – especially those with learning disabilities such as dyslexia – need explicit instruction that is organized in a systematic fashion with each new lesson building off of the previously-learned skill.

Decoding strategies such as explicit, sequential, multisensory (Orton Gillingham), and reinforced instruction arm children with the tools they need to focus on decoding a word instead of resorting to guessing or skipping over it.  Become an advocate for your child’s reading education.  If your child is struggling to learn to read, find a program that employs the five essential components of reading instruction.

In the meantime, check out our free online Parents Phonics Training and find out what our product can do for your child.  Reading Horizons reading programs incorporate the five essential components of reading instruction into our method.

The software program is like having another phonics teacher for my children, who never tires and is always patient and kind.  It wonderfully reinforces what I am teaching.”

- Karen Petitment, Molalla, Oregon

“Hearing loss affects 12,000 children born in the United States each year, making it the most common birth defect” (Source).  Nowadays most newborns are screened for hearing loss, but infants in the 90’s – and a small percentage today – often wouldn’t be identified as deaf until the age of 2 ½ or even 3 as their parents started to realize they weren’t speaking.  Parents who later found out that their children were deaf reported that their babies babbled (ba-ba, ma-ma, etc.) just like a hearing baby would.  Experts often address these reports by adding that even though vocal babbling may occur with deaf infants, it is minimal and doesn’t continue to develop the same way a hearing baby’s babbling would.  Nonetheless, it is still difficult for hearing parents to identify their child as deaf if they aren’t aware, and the first three years of life are the most critical for speech and language development, which are important for learning to read and write.

“With appropriate early intervention, children with hearing loss can be mainstreamed in regular elementary and secondary education classrooms.  Recent research has concluded that children born with a hearing loss who are identified and given appropriate intervention before 6 months of age demonstrated significantly better speech and reading comprehension than children identified after 6 months of age” (Source).

There are different causes behind why a person may be deaf or hard of hearing.  The degree of severity can range between mild to profound deafness, which also affects the way a child’s language will develop.  For example, people who are pre-lingually deaf were born profoundly deaf and they are likely to learn sign language as their form of communication.  No matter what type of intervention a deaf child receives, it is so important that deaf children do develop a language.  Just like a hearing child, deaf children need a language that they can draw from for understanding and expression, especially during the process of learning to read.  Deaf children born to hearing parents are often disadvantaged by the fact that they are not exposed to a fluently-spoken language (such as American Sign Language) and thus do not develop language fluency during the most crucial years.  Deaf children born to deaf parents do not have this problem – they are exposed to fluent communication constantly if the parents sign.

Click here for information about different intervention options (refer to pages 4-5).

Hearing children learn to read by making the connection between the spoken language they have learned and the words they see printed on a page.  Children use the knowledge they gain about phonics to decode words and then use their knowledge of the world gained from listening and speaking to help make the connection between the printed word and what it represents.  This is called print-sound mapping.  Deaf children need a language to draw from when learning to read as well, which is why early intervention is so critical – be it hearing aids or cochlear implants to facilitate hearing and speech or lipreading and signing to facilitate visual communication. They too have to make a connection between either a spoken word (if possible) or a signed word to a word printed on a page.

Here are some guidelines for the parents of deaf children to remember as their kids are learning to read:

Learn to sign.  Parents need to be able to teach their children how to communicate and then be able to communicate with them.  Learning to sign is very important because children need constant exposure to the language they are learning, especially in the home.

Focus on visuals.  Picture books are great for helping a deaf child learn to read.  Sign-spell the word to your child, point to the printed word and the accompanying picture, and then use the sign for the word.  If you are teaching your child to read lips, have the child point to the picture, point to the word, and then watch your mouth as you slowly and deliberately speak the word.

Use letter cards.  Another way to help children develop language and reading skills is to use letter cards.  Letter cards can be used to demonstrate how individual letters form words.  You can even make a phonics word wheel to help!  Demonstrate the difference between vowels and consonants by putting letter card combinations into different piles.  Then you can also show how a vowel often follows one or two consonants.  You could aim to teach your child a new combination every day.

Build vocabulary.  Just as you should with any child who is developing their language fluency, try introducing a new vocabulary word ever day.  Work that word into conversations and display the word on your fridge or a wall next to a picture of the signed letters for the word.

Focus on the positive.  Instead of concentrating on the disadvantages of being deaf, think of the child as “seeing” instead of “hearing.”  Being deaf makes your child unique and gives them an outlook on life that most people don’t get to see.  Remember that just because you have to use a different approach to teach reading skills doesn’t mean deaf children can’t be successful.

Adjust your environment.  Deaf learners need a visual environment to thrive.  A helpful activity might be to help your child label items in their room and around the house—such as doors, mirrors, bed – with a label that has the written word on it.  If you are doing activities with your child (especially for homeschool parents) incorporate a lot of visual aids into the lessons.

Test for comprehension.  Remember that good signing skills are not a reflection of good reading skills, though it helps.  Make sure that your children understand what they are reading by pointing to a picture or a printed word and having them give the sign back to you.  As language and reading skills advance, ask you children questions about the characters and plot of a book.

For some additional tips that you can use to help make reading enjoyable and accessible for ANY child, click here.

Reading Horizons programs offer a lot of advantages and approaches that help deaf learners become fluent readers, including a pronunciation tool that visually shows the proper tongue placement when sounding out letters of the alphabet.

Here is a video from the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind discussing why Reading Horizons has been so successful for their students.

A couple of weekends ago, I had the pleasure of attending the Christian Home School Conference in Pennsylvania… Many of the homeschoolers knew about the benefits of an Orton-Gillingham-based program. They were looking for something that was multi-sensory and research-based… I spoke with another mom whose children were all partially deaf and had to use cochlear implants. I showed her the portion on the software that shows a video of a live, human mouth forming and pronouncing all of the 42 Sounds, which she loved… Since our program represents everything auditorily and visually, even those with hearing issues are able to have great success. It is hard to describe how wonderful it was to help her, and I felt like I had given her something she could really use. It seemed like a burden had been lifted off of her and she was filled with hope.

–Shantell Berrett, Reading and Curriculum Specialist

So what is a parent to do?  Homeschool parents especially must consider the best ways to help their children learn to read since they are solely responsible for providing instruction.  There are a lot of ways that any parent (homeschool or not) can give their children the opportunity to become successful readers.

Here are few tips you can implement in your home:

1) Do not use force.  If you turn reading into a chore, just like cleaning that messy bedroom, it isn’t going to happen.  If you force a child to read, even if they comply, they are certainly not going to enjoy it.  Specifically something to avoid is punishment for not reading or – even worse – using reading as a punishment.

2) Mix it up.  If you find that it’s hard to keep your child’s attention when you are reading with them, try exposing them to different subject matter or perhaps even different languages (yes, music counts here).  Some children find factual and informative books about animals, geography, and engineering (think airplanes and trucks) interesting.  Add a few of those to your library.  Enrolling your child in an immersion program or tutoring lessons where they learn to read in another language has many other benefits aside from reading.  Learning to play an instrument is also a valuable use of time and music even offers some benefits in the way of reading skills.

3) Cut screen time.  Likely one of the best changes a parent can make when it comes to encouraging their child to choose to read in their spare time is to reduce the amount of television they watch or the time they spend online.  This idea is a bit of a double-edged sword though.  If you take away TV, Computer, and phone time completely (especially in the summer months) your kids will probably resent you.  Try setting up reasonable limitations and reduce the number of televisions you have in your home (Hey, you’ll save on electricity too!).  The first place to eliminate TV sets should be in your child’s bedroom.  Televisions in your child’s bedroom can be harmful to their development for many reasons.

4) Give up the guilt trips.  Making someone feel bad for not doing something is a surefire way to help them connect that activity with negative feelings and thus not EVER want to do it.  Guilt-tripping is never a good way to get someone to do what you want them to do.  In fact, it can be quite damaging to a relationship.  There are much better ways to motivate your children to read, so just throw away the guilt tactic for good.  Bottom line, don’t try and guilt your child into reading by complaining about how much money you have spent on unread books.

5) Get the right books.  Making sure your children understand the content that they are reading is more important than reading big, complicated novels.  Help your kids pick the right books by using The ABCs of Improved Reading.  If your child wants to tackle a larger book that is a bit out of their realm of comprehension, opt to read it with them so that you can answer any questions they might have.  An ambitious nature is definitely a trait worth encouraging!  By reading it together they will get to read what they want, you will get to bond with them, and their vocabulary and comprehension will benefit greatly from your guidance.

6) Offer opportunities.  As a parent, you really have to encourage your child to read.  There are a lot of positive ways to do this, such as by showing interest in what they’re reading by asking questions about the plot and characters, giving them lots of compliments on how much they have read and learned, and by providing them with lots of interesting books to read.  If you give your child a new and exciting book that you think they would enjoy each month, not only do they have access to fresh and appealing material, they also know that you care about them and are always thinking of them.

7) Practice engaged reading.  This tip is especially applicable to parents with children who have not yet learned to read or who are in the process of learning.  When you read with your child, talk and point to the words as you read them.  This draws your child’s attention to the word, helping to solidify their word recognition and spelling abilities.  Your children will always get more out of reading if you successfully engage their mind.  Another fun activity is to have kids pick out the letters on a page that are also in their name.  Older kids can pick out words that make the same sounds as the letters in their name.  Children also enjoy books that use lots of alliteration and rhymes (think Dr. Seuss).

8) Read between the lines too.  Be sure to discuss the story as you read it.  Ask your child what they would do if they were a character in a book.  Really go beyond the printed text by asking your children what they think a character is feeling or what they think will happen next. Also, a great way to help children understand the meaning of new words and ideas is by helping them connect the concept to an experience they have had.  For example, you could explain the meaning of “sadness” by using the way your child felt when the beloved family pet died or when they scraped their knee on the sidewalk as a reference.

9) Don’t forget the small stuff.  It may seem silly, but make sure your younger children know about the flow of a book.  Explain to them that we start books at the beginning and read to the end,  that we read text from left to right, and then from the top of the page to the bottom of the page.

Get a little silly.  Another detail that can make a big difference is to make reading fun by using different voices and tones for different characters, to make faces, to laugh, and to tickle.  Help your kids associate fond memories and positive feelings with reading.

It is important to keep in mind that no amount of tips will cure a learning or developmental disability.  In those cases, it is important to seek help.  A reading software program, such as those provided by Reading Horizons, might be something worth looking into.

“I am the mother of a nine-year-old third-grade boy. He attended regular public school through the end of second grade. He showed signs of dyslexia during that time, but the school did not recognize it or have any special program to teach reading to this type of child…We started this program with a first-grade reading level of 17 WPM on November 3. By December, he was reading at 50 WPM and changed to the second-grade level. On January 23, he read at 62 WPM on the second-grade level. Truly amazing!”

–Tracy Keith, Martinsburg, PA