As a Reading Consultant and a mother time always escapes me. I run out of time planning the day-to-day. The never-ending to-do list of responsibilities. However, I have been replaying the services I provided last year to children and parents. I have also been replaying the services I provided for school districts, too. I am constantly racking my brain for ways to help make these relationships positive. To help make these relationships productive. Most important to help make these services student-centered. I determined that TIME is the problem.
This common theme that keeps coming up is time. Most parents I met have a hunch that their kid has been struggling to read for a long time. Some reading difficulties start showing at the basics when kids are learning to talk. Some reading difficulties start showing at identifying letter sounds and letters. Some reading difficulties start showing when kids blend letters to read. Whenever they start showing, the time has been wasted worrying and wondering. Time has been wasted waiting for the next report card, parent-teacher conference, and the next school year.
At school, sometimes the time has already been wasted. It is spent on a number of ineffective practices and inadequate support services. Kids who struggle with reading do mature. But they don’t gain better reading abilities by simply getting services. The time they spend needs to be in targeted time-based instruction. They don’t gain better reading abilities by simply progressing to the next school year.
Most parents I meet need Independent Educational Evaluations (IEE) because time has passed. They have not seen much improvement in their kid’s reading abilities. Most of these kids have been through several stages of support. Support services are mandatory because of Child Find Laws, screeners, district-wide assessments, and the laws that govern the identification of students with learning disabilities. However, they have spent years in tiered services without a formal evaluation or diagnosis. The time it takes in this process is important to avoid misdiagnosis. The time prevents an unnecessary referral for special education. But it is not a slow stagnant process. Services and the referral process should be dynamic, timely, student-centered, and grounded in timely communication.
Here are 3 Tips to Keep Track of Time in general,
- Keep track of the amount of monthly and yearly time your kid spends in tiered services of support. When your kid begins to struggle with reading the school is required to start providing services. These services are a tiered framework of support. If your kid makes it Tier 3 support the instructional strategies and amount of support should have a more significant impact. If it does not, then you need to explore the evaluation process for Special Education.
- Use report cards, testing information, and grade-level expectations to keep track of time. In this sense, time is the developmental reading milestone your child should hit. Keep in mind that all kids do develop at different rates but these milestones reflect a range of time.
- Keep track of the amount of physical time your kid spends reading and in reading instruction. How much time do they spend in the whole group reading instruction? In small group reading instruction? In one on one reading instruction? In a pull-out model of reading instruction? Ask yourself how much time does my kid actually spend reading? Time spent actually reading is a game changer.
Hopefully, with these 3 tips in mind, you won’t regret the educational time that passes.
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Melissa Saliva is a Reading Consultant and founder of Beacon Valley Literacy Services. She helps parents help kids with dyslexia.
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