Tips for Teaching Reading – Works for Me Wednesday

Last week I talked about 6 reads for building fluency.

But that was putting the cart before the horse a little bit. The first thing our reading specialist would tell a parent with a struggling reader is to get their eyes checked with a pediatric optometrist who will help the parents to work with the kids and also specifically test for problems with reading.

We did this with both Calvin and Izzy. After a thorough eye exam Calvin ended up with a very light prescription for reading glasses. That support was enough to keep his eyes from tiring during reading and to keep going. His reading really improved after this.

Izzy also needed a very light prescription for reading glasses but she also was having some trouble with vision perception. I blogged about some of the exercises we used with her at home to help improve that.

Before I found just the right optometrist I did do a bit of trial and error. One of the places I took Calvin wanted to do vision therapy with him in their office weekly for something like $90 a week. Our reading specialist thought that was outrageous and we did not pursue it. Calvin progressed fine without it! As it turns out the therapies Izzy’s optometrist gave us were easy, free and effective for her and the optometrist taught us how to do them right there in her office! So the most expensive choice isn’t always the best.

Once we had the vision thing analyzed and corrected both of my struggling readers went on to do just fine with the rest of their reading remedies!

Works for Me!

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