Early Reading Problems in Children and 5 Ways to Tackle It
Early Reading Problems in Children and 5 Ways to Tackle It
Many children in the modern day face one or more forms of reading problems. This can be either due to an aptitude problem, or a learning disorder such as dyslexia. It can also be indirectly related to other conditions such as attention deficiency hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Whatever the reason behind the condition, a reading deficiency can cause a large scale disruption in a child’s development as well as education. Early reading problems in children and 5 ways to tackle it.
Reading problems can be broadly classified under the following headings:
- Difficulties with reading particular words
- Difficulties with comprehension in general
- Mixed type of difficulties with reading
Difficulties With Reading Specific Words:
This condition is a fairly common syndrome seen among many younger children. Known as SWRD or specific Word, reading Difficulties, children suffering from this condition typically experience difficulties in reading a particular set of words. However, they have no problem in the comprehension of the language in general or understanding other words. For these children, the beneficial intervention is done by explicit and phonic measures, which are taken to emphasize the word itself and the context in which it is generally used.
Difficulties With Comprehension:
Another subset of children with reading problems face difficulties in comprehending the words and understanding the language. This is very commonly seen in associated disorders such as ADHD where the child has no difficulties in understanding the words but has a problem with comprehending what they mean. For the development of such children, explicit teaching is the preferred method, combined with focusing on the promotion of vocabulary and comprehension of texts.
Mixed Types:
The mixes type cases are a smaller subset that face symptoms of both the above types. They have difficulties in reading certain words, as well as an overall low level of comprehension in general. Their intervention methods are a combination of those practised for both of the above types.
Methods of Dealing With Reading Disabilities:
Apart from the specific care that each child with reading problems needs, there are certain guidelines which one can follow in general to identify and help children with learning disabilities.
These can be roughly divided into the following methods:
- Assessment:
The first step in helping a child is determining which area he or she is deficient in. This can be done by assessing the various key elements involved in reading. Each of these assessment parameters should have fixed benchmarks and routines for administration so that their enforcement and interpretation of the results can be done accurately and with ease. Some of the commonly used assessment steps are:
- Decoding of random out of context words
- Oral reading tests
- Fluency of oral reading
- Vocabulary tests
- Comprehension based on listening
- Comprehension based on reading
- Interpretation:
Once the results of the assessment parameters come through, it is then necessary to interpret them to determine the condition type which the child is suffering from. The three types of reading problems each have a different set of indicator results. The teachers or professionals concerned can easily decide on the subtype of the reading disability based on the results.
- Intervention for each type:
Children with reading difficulties with certain words are best suited for the systemic phonic type of interventions. Syllabication strategies are also a big help when reading if multi-syllable words are concerned. On the other hand, for children with comprehension issues, need to be helped by focusing on the different areas of comprehension in which they are weak.
There are a large number of young children who suffer from reading problems which are detrimental to their development process. It is, therefore, necessary to identify and tackle these problems as soon as possible.
