Struggling Readers

Posted by Heidi Shelton-Jenck Jan 10, 2007

In an article called Hooking Struggling Readers, authors Lori Rog and Paul Krop give some great suggestions for older struggling readers:

• give them books they can and want to read
• try magazines, comic books, newspapers and non-fiction books
• spend less time on skills instruction and more on reading
• try hi/low materials (high interest for tweens and teens with low reading levels)
• choose topics with personal or emotional connections

Some tweens are finally diagnosed with a reading disability after years of frustration in elementary school. Often, their parents have suspected for years that something is amiss, only to be told by school personnel that they need to give their child time to develop and mature. This is particularly true for parents of dyslexic children. Dyslexics are characterized as having average or above IQ. This often means they cope in the early grades, but as they get older, and reading requirements increase, they can no longer keep up with the rate and amount of reading assigned each day. Some tweens have been labeled “lazy”, or kids with a “bad attitude”, when they actually have a reading disability. Some tweens labeled with ADD or ADHD also have undiagnosed reading disabilities.

To learn more about reading disabilities, visit the parent area of ldonline.org, then talk with the special education department in your local school district.

Check out these Suite 101 articles to read more about tween reading:

• Helping Teens Manage the Learning Disability
• Is Your Tween Reading?
• Homeschooling: Special Needs
• Reading for Teens