Teaching Reading to Older Kids Who Have Learning Disabilities

Techniques for teaching older kids to overcome their reading disabilities enables students to learn in an environment appropriate to their age and social development. Students who progress in reading at a normal rate can read most of the words in their daily vocabulary by 4th or 5th grade. After that, new words come at the rate of several thousand new words per year, primarily through reading. Most older readers who suffer learning disabilities are exposed to more spoken words than they can read. Older students have to overcome a huge vocabulary deficit before they can get beyond the 5th grade reading level. The following are three common areas where older reading-disabled students tend to struggle, along with methods employed to teach them what they need to excel beyond the limits of their disability.

Sound-symbol correspondences

Short vowels usually occur before one or more consonants when in closed syllables. Students can be taught to read the syllables and then to spell them in longer, age-appropriate vocabulary. Once they have six or seven syllable types under their belts, students can chunk sequences of letters together, recognize them visually as a unit and understand spelling patterns. As syllable recognition develops, students can learn more about prefixes, root words and suffixes, to the point where they can link meaning with the spelling components of the new words they encounter.

Word retrieval

Some learning-disabled readers struggle with word retrieval. That means they don't develop word sufficient word recognition. Quick speed drills can develop automatic recognition of syllables and words and phrases. In one drill, a student will read several lines of easily confused syllables, such as pre, pro and per. Other methods include taking turns with a passage in a group setting, reading along with a tape-recording, reading an assigned part in of a play and rereading familiar text.

Vocabulary

Teachers use new words as often as possible in classroom conversation and reward students for noticing, or if the student uses the word outside of class. Students are taught to use context, root words, word origins to figure out word meanings. In the best case, word study will linked to class subjects.