Reading Interventions: What to Look for to Help Struggling Readers
If you’re desperate for something to help your struggling reader, you may be overwhelmed with the number of reading interventions that are available to you. All of these different programs and approaches tout gains in reading ability, so what should you really be looking for?
According to the Science of Reading (an evidence-based understanding of the best way to teach reading), here are some criteria to watch for:
Structured Literacy
As opposed to balanced literacy (which focuses on exposure, sight words, and visual cues for reading), a structured literacy reading intervention will build the basic skills your child needs in order to read effectively.
Structured literacy follows a specific sequence of forming kids’ abilities to:
- Decode and attack new words
- Rhyme, blend, segment, and manipulate sounds
- Logically build upon past knowledge to become successful readers
- Recognize patterns in word parts, syllables, and sentence formation
- Derive meaning AFTER becoming proficient at decoding words
Reading programs that use a structured literacy approach will grow your child’s independence and confidence, rather than using crutches to help them “get by” with reading.
Is It Explicit and Systematic?
Is the reading intervention just exposing your child to new sounds, words, and facets of reading? Or is it explicitly and systematically building your child’s skills to become successful?
Explicit, systematic instruction looks like:
- Clear instruction and practice on sounds, sound coding, phonemic manipulation, etc.
- Interactive and multisensory methods
- Following a logical sequence from simple → complex (while still looping back to make sure they master the basics)
- Building towards automaticity and proficiency independent of context
Research shows that these methods are the most successful for helping struggling readers.
Does It Adjust to Unique Needs?
Diagnostic and responsive reading interventions will not just follow a set “program” but will adjust and pivot based on your child’s unique needs. When you’re looking at a reading intervention, is there a set-in-stone timeline? Or is it tailored to your child’s unique needs and abilities? Is there a fallback for if the basics are even too hard?
A one-on-one approach here is critical. If your child is in a specialized reading group at school or a group program, they are still likely going to get lost in the mix and not be given the specialized tools their brain needs to become a successful reader.
Is It Multisensory?
Many reading interventions have a tendency to be purely visual: can you recognize certain sound codes and memorize them. But in reality, a majority of reading happens in the auditory area of your brain.
Building in hearing, reading, speaking, writing, and other senses into reading instruction is critical to mastering this skill.
Does it Focus on Phonics and Phonological Awareness?
A sight-word approach is not the answer. Memorizing sound codes is not the best way to help a struggling reader. Instead, basic phonological awareness and phonemic processing skills need to be the foundation of a successful reading intervention.
This approach fills your child’s toolbox with what they need to read successfully, whether or not they’ve seen that exact word before. As words become more complex in later elementary school and beyond, this skill of decoding unfamiliar words is going to be crucial to their success.
What Foundation Does It Lay for Future Success?
The reality is that special ed classes are designed not to get the child back into on-level coursework. Instead, their goal is just to get them through.
If you believe your child has it in them to succeed in mainstream coursework but you’re feeling frustrated by your lack of in-school options to help your child, considering an outside reading intervention could be the answer.
The foundation of strong brain skills is critical, even before considering basic phonics skills. Cognitive skills determine how your brain interacts with the world, both in and out of the classroom. A successful reading intervention will address the way your brain learns so all future instruction can be more easily absorbed and applied.
Reading Intervention with LearningRx
At LearningRx, we align our practices with the latest research about how the brain learns to read and which instruction methods are most helpful. LearningRx’s reading intervention is the only Science of Reading-based structured literacy program with training in memory, attention, processing speed, visual processing and reasoning.
What sets LearningRx apart from all other reading interventions is the focus on building strong cognitive skills first because they are the foundation for all learning. If your child struggles with these skills, then of course more difficult tasks like reading are going to be harder.
LearningRx’s Science of Reading-based program ReadRx is:
- Formed with a structured literacy approach
- Highly explicit, systematic, diagnostic, and responsive
- Tailored to unique needs of each learner
- Multisensory, with the focus on building automaticity in reading
- Focused on building phonological awareness and phonemic manipulation skills
- The ONLY reading program that also trains underlying cognitive skills that determine how learning happens in the brain
If this sounds like something you want for your child, don’t just wait it out. Give us a call today to take the first step towards giving your child the independence and confidence to read successfully!
