TheSpeedReadingReview.com

Kaplan SpellRead (formerly known as SpellRead Phonological Auditory Training®) is a literacy program for struggling readers in grades 2 or above, including special education students, English language learners, and students more than two years below grade level in reading. Kaplan SpellRead integrates the auditory and visual aspects of the reading process and emphasizes specific skill mastery through systematic and explicit instruction. The program takes five to nine months to complete and consists of 140 lessons divided into three phases.

Kaplan SpellRead was found to have positive effects on alphabetics and potentially positive effects on fluency and comprehension. Average results for reading comprehension according to Kaplan: +20 percentile points. Range for reading comprehension was +1 to +37 percentile points.

The program’s website: www.spellread.com

The more children are around books in their home, the bigger the chance that they will become avid readers as adults. The more children see their parents read, the more they are inclined to copy their behavior. Parents that read to their children, read with their children, and take an interest in their children’s reading development, will sow seeds that will pay huge dividends in school and in life.

Here are a few things you can do for your child:

1. Create a good reading environment at home that includes the following things:

• A regular block of time set aside for reading with the child.
• A quiet and comfortable spot to sit with good lighting.
• Plenty of conversation—listen to and talk with the child.
• Let children see that reading and writing are important skills you use often.

2. Directly teaching reading skills is the best way to help a child learn to read.

• Help children build vocabulary. Read to each other and after each of you have read several pages, stop and ask each other a question about what was read.
• Help children read smoothly and automatically. Have the child choose two or more familiar books to read—rereading familiar books helps children become familiar with the words and the structure of the book. It gives them practice reading smoothly. Listen and interact with children to support their reading—praise efforts instead of criticizing mistakes.
• Help children with reading comprehension. After reading, have the child tell about the story and draw pictures about it. Things to tell about and draw include the setting, characters, or an event from the story.

3. Listening to a child read for about 20 minutes can improve his reading accuracy and comprehension. Here are some ideas and strategies to make a child’s reading time rewarding:

• Wait before helping him when he makes a mistake. Sometimes other words in the sentence can help him figure out the unknown word.
• Praise him for correcting himself and for using clues to figure out words on his own.
• Provide help without telling him the word if he is unsuccessful at first.
• Suggest that he try again. Ask him to think about clues to the word’s meaning. What makes sense with the other words in the sentence? Ask him to look for a familiar part within the unfamiliar word (like sand in sandwich). Have the child break the word into parts, sound out each syllable separately, and then ask him to put the syllables together to say the new word.
• Praise him as he successfully applies these skills.

Support your school’s literacy programs. Children whose parents are involved in their learning can show greater emotional and social development. Children that read more are less inclined to using drugs and committing crime, these are statistical facts.

The importance of reading is quite obvious for your children’s success, personally, academically and professionally later on in life.

Remember to make reading fun; don’t turn it into a lesson or a quiz. Liking books and reading are important outcomes of reading activities.

By 6th grade you can introduce your child to speed reading. At The Speed Reading Review, current speed reading courses are evaluated and reviewed.

Try the following tips to make your homework a little easier.

• Establish a study zone. Create a distraction-free area (no TV, no telephone, no stereo, no traffic) for studying. Keep it bright and clutter-free, and study tools like pens, paper, highlighters and a dictionary should be in easy reach.

• Break it down. Try to put difficult concepts in terms you can understand.

• Create rhymes and songs. Mnemonic devices are great ways to remember study material, and they make homework fun. For instance, “Fe” is the atomic symbol for iron, so “Fe fie foe fum helps me.”

• Make it relevant. Think about how the skills you’re learning in school are useful in daily life.

• Manage time wisely. Establish a set time each day for homework. Factor in study breaks to prevent burnout, but keep breaks to a minimum or you may find it difficult to refocus. Set weekly timelines to avoid last-minute stress over tests and big projects.

There are probably as many rapid reading methods for slow readers as there are diets for fat people.

Try these tricks from Howard Berg, author of Speed Reading the Easy Way, and you’ll get through that pile of books and magazines much more quickly:

* Keep your place with your finger as you read. You’ll spend less time rereading and move along at a faster pace.

* Turn off the voice in your head that reads along with your eyes—it only slows you down. Instead, try looking at groups of words all at once.

* Read along to instrumental music that has one beat per second. Most rock music is too fast; try Pachelbel Canon or any classical music identified as “largo” tempo.