Questions to ask about your child's reading intervention

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 seen it happen.  But mostly there are incredible stories of caring teachers and parents working together to do what's best for kids.  So let's start with the assumption that everybody wants to do the right thing.  If the school and teachers turn out to be in the minority who are a bunch of turkeys, then we can take a different path involving all sorts of ugliness.  But for now, let's calmly dig for information and make requests.  Keep documentation of every phone call, letter, and conversation you have with anyone at the school.

• Is the reading intervention in addition to regular classroom reading instruction?  Your child should not be pulled out of regular reading instruction to get intervention.  They should get regular reading instruction and then get more reading intervention at a different time.  Typically, science or social studies are ideal times for providing extra reading help.  Of course these subjects are important; however, the student will never benefit from instruction in these areas if he can't learn to read.  Never allow the school to remove your child's recess, music, gym or other special time to provide academic supports. This turns help into punishment.  Things that your child may be particularly gifted at doing, such as music, are removed to spend more time on things that are very difficult.  Talk about a lack of motivation and a way to create anger issues.  It teaches the child to equate reading with missing out and this is never a good way to build motivation or trust in a child.  

• Who is providing the intervention?  Last week we talked about making sure your child is receiving reading intervention from certified or highly qualified personnel.  An aide or peer tutor should not be providing intervention, even if they are being "supervised" by more qualified personnel.  If the classroom teacher is providing good classroom instruction and your child is still struggling, how would a less qualified person make things better?  Although having certifications as a reading specialist, etc. is a great thing, not all reading specialists are great reading teachers.  Some questions you might politely ask are...
• When was the last time you attended a training for reading instruction?  This gives you a great clue about how up to date their reading approach might be.  If they haven't attended any professional development except what they receive at their school site, they may not be ready to teach your child.
• Do you have any certifications specific to reading?  In Oklahoma a person can be a Title I reading teacher without any additional training.  A regular education teacher is qualified to teach Title I in Oklahoma, but that doesn't mean they have the skills to teach your child.  Ask them.
• Have you worked with children with this severity of reading difficulty before? If your child has a significant reading problem and the teacher doesn't have much experience, she may be unsure of how to best help your child.  Find out.
• Now, let me stress this next point as well.  If you find out that the person assigned to help your child is certified, but may not have a lot of experience or they haven't had tons of professional development, don't count them out quite yet.  If this person is driven to help your child succeed and wants to partner with you to seek out appropriate teaching strategies for  your child, they might turn out to be the best person to have on your side.  However, if they have no experience and they don't seem particularly enthused about getting any support or training, trust your gut and politely inquire whether there are other teachers with specific reading training.  

• Is the intervention frequent enough to be effective?  The more serious the reading difficulty, the more frequent the intervention should be.  So if the reading skills are a year or more behind, they may require interventions 4-5 times a week.  There isn't a rule of thumb for this and it depends on the skills being targeted, but if they don't seem to be improving, consider increasing the number of intervention sessions per week.

• Is the group too big to focus on your child's needs?  Your child may need more individualized help and the more kids in the group, the less likely this is to happen.  Research shows us that often times, instruction with a group of 3 is just as effective as 1 to 1 instruction.  Large groups happen when there aren't enough personnel to see all the children in small groups.  If you aren't seeing progress and your child is in a group larger than 3, consider requesting that your child be seen in a smaller group.

• Are the other children in the group having the same difficulties as your child?  If your child needs help learning the sounds of the alphabet and the other students are simply working on building reading speed, it will be more difficult for the teacher to take on those different needs effectively.  Make sure the other students in the group have similar goals.

• Is the intervention a good match for your child's needs?  This may be the most important question of them all.  For instance, if your child does not know all the letter sounds, the intervention goal shouldn't be to increase fluency (speed).  The goal should be to learn the sounds.  Often, a school has pre-selected programs for children who are struggling.  The problem with a boxed program is that it may or may not meet the needs of your child.  Make sure the program is addressing the specific areas of difficulty you found in the reading assessments.  The program should be phonics based, Orton Gillingham based, or a Structured Literacy program.  The program should not be based in whole language, like a Leveled Literacy or Guided Reading program because these programs do not explicitly teach rules of reading and phonics instruction is the weakest part of these programs.  Working on things that your child doesn't need or that they are not yet ready for will not result in progress.  

These questions make some good starting points for investigating why interventions are not working. If the answers to all of these questions were positive, there are many more reasons why intervention is not working.  There is more to come.  In the meantime, if you are concerned about your child and feel they may have a reading disability, or dyslexia, get help.  If your gut says something is wrong, follow your gut and make a written request for an evaluation by the school.  If you can't get help from your school, look at the possibility of getting a private evaluation.  If you have been patient with your school and your child has participated in at least 6 to 8 weeks of intervention sessions with little to no progress, then don't wait any more.  Seek help.  As always, if you decide to get a private literacy evaluation and are in the Edmond/Oklahoma City area, contact me at Educational Inspiration, slpinspiration@gmail.com