Free Parent Workshops: Help Your Child Overcome Reading Difficulties

I would really like to know when the workshops come to Illinois we live in Indiana. I have 2 children that have perception problem there brain does perceive things like we do and we have been battling this for years as well as the 3 of us being Dyslexia. I learned I had the problem years after being out of school when I was working for this retail chain and went to go do a new store opening and laid out all the counters I was working on and they were I guess you would say in reverse. My Boss did not think it was funny and I had to explain to him that is the way I saw it from the paper to the shelf the store sent me to a doctor and some tests were done and that is when I found out I was dyslexia I then understood why I struggled through all my school years and just found strange way to compensate so I would not get yell at by the teachers and my parents, but when I was growing up no one even thought there was such things as learning disabilities.

My daughter who still struggles in some areas but her perception problem is not half as bad as what my son deals with on an everyday deal to have the 2 of these issues really makes learning difficult in all forms writing, spelling, reading and Math he gets extremely frustrated and seeing that I might be able to learn more to help him if you have a seminar in Illinois I will get there. If you walk up and start a conversation with my son he is extremely intelligent and you would not believe that this boy has struggled from the first day of school and still is.

Thank you
Judy Balzano

Judy - Thank you for your comment. I will absolutely let you know about upcoming workshops in Illinois. Where do you live in Indiana? I’m from Indiana too! Any chance you’re near the Chicago area?

Have you thought about a webinar for people not able to be in your area? I have two sons with reading problems. I have been fighting this for years. One has the diagnosis of Dyslexia, and one hasn’t been diagnosed yet, because nothing really happened when my oldest was diagnosed. I don’t know that the diagnosis helped because nothing was done to help him read, but I did get books on cd for him with the diagnosis. I could use guidance on what to do with my youngest, but I live in Kansas!!! Online help would be good!

Hi Philisha,

We’ve begun holding Reading Difficulties Workshops online on a monthly basis. The agenda for these cover how people learn to read, the nature of reading difficulties and effective treatment for these difficulties. I invite you to join us on April 14th (5:30 PM CT and 8:30 PM CT) for our next event. You can email me at kaplantutoring_online@kaplan.com to RSVP.

As far as treatment for your sons’ dyslexia goes, you should know that there are a number of research-based programs that have been proven effective for teaching dyslexics how to read. To learn to become proficient readers, dyslexics are in need of instruction that is more intensive, more explicit, more systematic and more motivating than instruction typically received in a traditional classroom or tutoring setting. Programs of this level of intensity include a great deal of teacher-student interaction and thus are not delivered in an online only format.

There are a few great, online resources that are designed to give parents and educators information about the intensity and effectiveness of various reading programs.

The Florida Center for Reading Research, whose mission it is to conduct research on reading and reading instruction, has researched the effectiveness of over 100 reading programs. They make their findings available to the public with their FCRR Reports. You can find these reports by following this link:

http://www.fcrr.org/FCRRReports/index.aspx

Make sure to read what this report says about any reading program you may be considering.

The Department of Education has an initiative called the What Works Clearinghouse. The WWC is also designed to give parents and educators information about various types educational products, programs and policies. A link to the WWC can be found here: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/

From the home page you can go to the upper left corner and choose a topic area (in your case, choose beginning reading). From there you can create a report within the topic area you’ve selected. Make sure to see what the WWC has to say about any programs you’re considering when it comes to their effectiveness with improving Reading Comprehension, as comprehension is the ultimate goal when it comes to reading.