Struggling Readers Come In Many Different Forms
In any given week I see a variety of very bright children who find it difficult to impossible to learn how to read in some very good school systems. Are all these children unteachable? Are all their teachers or school systems at fault? Fortunately neither is the case. For the record, difficult learning to read is caused by a lack of skills and those skill can be learned and each of these struggling readers has their own unique profile. The troubling part of this equation is that school systems do not have the expertise or time and resournces to train this diverse population in the prerequisite reading skills they lack.
I see struggling readers referred to as having a “non-specific leaning disability” or other diagnosis which adds insult to injury. It amazes me that the inability of our school systems to teach 18% of our children to read is always blamed on the student or the teacher. Do these children and the dedicated teachers and school systems who attend to them leaving something out of how they are teaching people to read?
From my own personal experience, I can tell you that struggline readers, of any age, can learn to read if their educational systems do not make incorrect assumptions about the students readiness to participate in the process of learning to read.
The wonderful thing is that today a struggling reader does not have to rely on a therapist or special school to acquire the skills required to learn how to read and become fluent readers. Perhaps just as exciting is that the struggling reader can prepare themselves to be a fluent reader all while playing video games and without disrupting a school curriculum or a district budget.
Virtual Learning