As we progress as a society, we become more aware of various obstacles that we were either purposely ignorant of or were entirely unaware of. However, the past decade or so has seen much more progress in helping make various aspects of learning a lot more accessible to everyone.
Today, we will look at a few different methods that you could use to help students with learning disabilities become better readers. Teaching how to read in this day and age has its challenges, but it is much easier than decades ago.
Before You Begin
Keep in mind that each student has individual and unique obstacles that they need to tackle, so before trying out any of these methods, be sure to learn the individual student’s potential and ability.
A diagnostic test can significantly help put together a cognitive profile of your student so that you can better understand their strengths and weaknesses and gauge what the best approach and method to choose might be.
Using the Senses
Several methods tackle learning how to read through stimulating various senses. At a basic level, this could include taking a phonics approach to teaching, which helps students recognize words through “grapheme-phoneme associations” – or letter-sound associations.
By learning the different structures of words, from vowels to consonants and blends, students can learn to sound out the words by combining the sounds and pronunciations and combining them into fully formed words.
A multisensory approach builds upon this by presenting what is to be learned through several modalities. This might include word tracing, listening, writing, and seeing the words in a VAKT (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile) approach or method. This is a bit more involved but significantly improves phonic and linguistic skills.
Pattern-Based and Experience-Based Approaches
Other methods might include taking a linguistic approach to learning to read. For example, you could take a “whole word” approach and clump words into groups or families based on their similar spelling.
By only using whole words, the student doesn’t learn about the relationship between letters and the words they form directly but indirectly through differences in similar words.
The Neurological Impress Technique is also where the teacher would read a passage directly into the student’s ear at a rapid pace. Initially, the teacher will remain the dominant reader, with the student slowly being included as more sessions take place. This method is best for students who know the mechanics of reading but haven’t become fluent. Additionally, it should be done in short bursts, with only brief sessions every day.
Finally, by employing the student’s language experience, you can help develop reading material in their spoken language. This will allow their spoken language level and personal experience with the language to help guide them.
Both the teacher and student write a passage in the language, and then they read the passages together, which will become familiar. Over time, you and the student can compile a book of sorts that can easily be re-read, helping them connect reading and writing with their understanding of language.
Reading Comprehension Support
When it comes to teaching a student to comprehend a text or passage properly, it’s best to teach reading strategies, such as skimming and scanning for information and studying techniques. This helps students quickly identify main points and subjects to more easily put together what the main picture is.
After that, you can then turn to the “cloze procedure,” which is based on the Gestalt principle of closure. With the cloze procedure, you will randomly eliminate every fifth to the eighth word in a passage, and the student will have to fill the blanks in. This helps develop reading skills, as well as a proper understanding of language and sentence structure.
Concluding Thoughts
There are many different ways you can go about helping students with learning disabilities thrive in the modern world, but reading often forms the basis of most forms of education. By developing this foundation, you allow these people to enjoy new opportunities that they previously had to work doubly hard for.
