Educational Inspiration

If you have noticed that your child isn't speaking with as many words as other children of the same age, you might be looking for ways to help them build their language skills.  You might look at google or visit the pediatrician and get some great advice like "name objects for your child."  Don't doubt it, that's good advice.  Kids need to learn the names for things, but here's the catch.  You can't start walking around naming things that your child's attention wasn't drawn to in the first place.  It won't help and you will make yourself nuts trying to do that all day.  So let's talk about how to naturally work on language skills during the day.  It's easy.  Just follow your child's lead. Instead of thinking up ways to create a scenario that will get them talking, use the opportunities that are already presenting themselves.  For instance, you take your child to the bathroom to wash their hands after a splendid dinner of spaghet

Learning new words is a big, important deal.  Teaching them doesn't have to be.  After a long day at school for kids and a busy day full of adult responsibilities for parents, the last thing anyone wants at the end of the day is a structured lesson on word usage.  Parents often ask how they can help their kids at home, but the answer is often filled with instructions on timed readings, memorizing spelling words, and monotonous practice activities.  Supporting your child's vocabulary learning doesn't have to be this way.  Relax.  It's a lot easier than you think. Why is vocabulary so important?  Based on lots of dazzling research by big researcher names (Ehri, Justice, Rosenthal, Beck, McKeown, etc) we know that good vocabulary leads to good comprehension and to be a good learner, you need to be able to understand, right?  The better your child's vocabulary is in preschool, the more likely they are to be awesome readers and comprehenders later on.  Starting early

I hear the two terms 'screenings' and 'evaluations' used interchangeably all the time.  It leads to a lot of confusion about what has and hasn't been done for a child. First, let's discuss screenings.  A screening is a quick snapshot of language or literacy skills.  These screens take about 5-15 minutes.  They look at key concepts and whether your child does or does not exhibit risk factors for those skills.  A screening is a fast way to determine if a child appears to be developing typically when compared with peers.  Screens do NOT diagnose.  They can't be used to determine whether a child is eligible for special education services.  Screenings don't look at every skill, just a few important ones and because of this, screenings can sometimes miss kids who actually do have language or literacy problems.  If you have concerns about your child, tell the speech-language pathologist about them so she can consider those concerns while she does the screen.

Response to Intervention (RTI) has been a hot topic for about 5-15 years in most schools, depending on when they decided to take the plunge.  If your child has been flagged as requiring an intervention through RTI, you may have done some googling and found some rather unpleasant things written about RTI by other parents.  Now you are wondering if this is something you should let the school continue doing with your child or whether you should insist on the good old fashioned evaluation that used to be done when a child was suspected of having a disability.  The answer?  It depends. The theory of RTI is based on a medical model and has excellent research behind it.  The idea is that if a child is showing signs of difficulty, we want to try to find what level of support he needs to be successful.  So, your child may struggle, but may not require a self-contained classroom setting with other special education children.  Maybe they just need a little help, not the whole enchilada.  So RTI

Last week we visited about DIBELS reading screens and what happens after the screening.  Typically some kind of intervention is put into place after it is determined that reading skills are below grade level.  So now you have met with the teachers and discussed the screening.  Then you and the school worked together to put a plan into place to improve reading.  But what if that plan has been in place for a month or so and things don't seem to be getting any better?  Now what? You aren't alone.  Many parents are asking the same thing.  Here are some questions you can ask about your child's intervention.  These are very basic, but it is a good place to start to make sure things are beginning on the right track. As with all things, presentation is everything. We want to build a partnership with the school and teachers. Most teachers and schools want to help.  Yes, there are horror stories out there about terrible schools and teachers.  It definitely happens and I have se

Thousands of students across Oklahoma are participating in reading screenings this week.  The Oklahoma Reading Sufficiency Act requires that all students in grades K-3 be screened to determine if they are reading at or below grade level.  Oklahoma provides a list of approved screenings and one of the most utilized is called DIBELS.  You may hear teachers refer to "dibeling week" or they may use it as a verb as in "We dibel'd your child." So, what is this DIBELS? DIBELS is an acronym for the literacy screening called D ynamic I ndicators of B asic E arly L iteracy S kills.  DIBELS is not an in-depth diagnostic test, just a screening and it takes about 10 minutes.  The screen is given three times, usually at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year.  The screening aims to determine the student's overall literacy health.  It answers the question, "Is this child at-risk for reading difficulties?"   Depending on what grade your child

I recently composed a short video about my favorite wordless book, Flora and the Flamingo .  It got me thinking about all the great wordless books out there not being recognized enough as tools for reading.  Most people think that wordless books are for babies.  The truth is, these books are amazing tools for teaching important literacy skills to children of all ages such as vocabulary, sequencing, and comprehension.  Plus, they are super fun.  So let's talk a bit about wordless books and what to do with them. If you are using wordless books with very young children, these books are a great way to begin modeling correct handling of books and the different parts of a book.  For instance, you can point out and name the cover, the title of the book, and the spine of the book.  Show your child the title of the book and where the author's name is located.  Before you start the book, explain that you will start at the beginning, then read the middle, and finally you will rea

The field of speech-language pathology has evolved significantly from the traditional picture most people have of a professional helping someone to speak.  The contemporary speech-language pathologist, or SLP, works with children on areas related to listening, comprehension, reading, and spelling, in addition to the traditional roles of speaking, or articulation. As research continues to build, the important relationship between language and reading becomes more apparent.  Oral language is the foundational skill for learning to read and because SLPs are language experts, seeking the help of an ASHA certified SLP is a great first step if your child is struggling with beginning reading. Children with reading difficulties typically have some kind of language difficulties as young children.  These can range from very subtle to more severe.  If you are seeing early warning signs of dyslexia such as difficulty with rhyme or trouble learning letter sounds or names, talk to an SLP about la