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Tips for Improving Reading Comprehension

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Tips for Improving Reading Comprehension

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Cookbooks, social media, instruction manuals - no matter where you look, we live our lives surrounded by words. That's why reading comprehension is one of the most valuable skills a student can master.

But it's not automatic. Reading comprehension needs to be taught in the classroom to have a lasting impact, whether you're teaching kindergarten or high school English.

Many students struggle with reading comprehension and understanding for a variety of reasons:

They prefer a different learning style

They're not interested in reading or writing

They don't have the necessary prior knowledge to understand the text

They have trouble focusing on one word at a time and skip important ideas

They're working with a learning need like dyslexia that makes understanding written materials difficult

Every student deserves the chance to build critical comprehension skills. Keep reading for eleven strategies you can use in your classroom to help students love reading!

What is reading comprehension and why is it important?

Reading comprehension is a reader's ability to understand the explicit and implicit meaning of a text, or piece of writing.

It moves beyond vocabulary knowledge and word recognition to add meaning. When students use reading comprehension skills, they're turning words into thoughts and ideas.

Reading is one of the most important ways students and adults learn new information. As one study in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences states: "Reading comprehension is one of the most complex cognitive activities in which humans engage, making it difficult to teach, measure, and research."

Reading comprehension can also help struggling readers build enjoyment of reading and participate more fully in lessons.

And it's not just for the classroom, either - reading comprehension has real-life applications for readers of all ages. It can:

Equip readers to make good day-to-day decisions with available information

Give readers the ability to think critically about what they read online and in the news

Help readers decipher meaning in recipes, directions or other step-by-step instructions

Help students move past word recognition into understanding and remembering the text

Improving reading comprehension can help your students become successful readers in and out of the classroom for the rest of their lives.

Two core components of comprehension

The two main components of reading comprehension are vocabulary knowledge and text comprehension. Both of these skills combine to help students get the most out of a text.

Vocabulary knowledge

Vocabulary knowledge is where reading comprehension starts. Students with good vocabulary strategies understand what words mean and have the background knowledge to understand a given text.

It also includes strategies for using context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. The reading comprehension process is over before it begins if students don't have solid vocabulary knowledge or the ability to learn new words.

Text comprehension

Text comprehension is a big-picture look at what, exactly, a text means. It helps students interact with a text to understand what's being said and what they need to learn from it.

When students have good text comprehension skills, they can answer questions about what the author is saying, summarize the passage and connect information between texts or prior knowledge.

In short, it helps them move beyond literal comprehension and into higher levels of thinking.

11 Ways to improve reading comprehension skills

Whether you're teaching high school or elementary school, it's never too late to use reading comprehension strategies to improve understanding, boost retention and make connections. Every student is different, so adjust your teaching methods accordingly!

Some of the most effective reading comprehension strategies include:

1. Build on existing knowledge

One of the biggest barriers to reading comprehension is a lack of background knowledge.

If you're reading a text about astronomy, for example, ask students to record or explain what they already know about the solar system. For easy insights, have students answer quick questions or fill out a KWL (Know, Want to Know, Learned) chart and share the results.

Or read non-fiction and fiction books that cover the same or overlapping topic. For example, a non-fiction book about pigs and a picture book that includes pigs as characters. Teachers can reference the facts from the non-fiction book to discuss what is fact versus fiction.

Make sure all students understand key terms and ideas before you read the text, so everyone starts on the same page (literally). This helps students draw inferences and make connections between the text and things they already know, levelling the playing field when it comes to prior knowledge.

2. Identify and summarize key ideas

After students read, summarizing a text can help them pull out main points and absorb more information.

As you introduce summarization, guide students through with leading questions and a specific structure - length, key points, etc. Use the "I do, we do, you do" format to model good summarization techniques.

As you model the practice, teach students how to:

Separate facts from opinions

Find key ideas amid extra information

Identify important words and phrases

Look up vocabulary they don't understand

Teaching students how to do this consciously helps train their brains to start summarizing automatically, leading to better reading comprehension overall.

3. Use online resources

Thanks to the internet, reading doesn't just happen IRL - it's online, too! There are lots of resources you can use in your classroom to engage kids with different interests as they practice their reading comprehension.

Prodigy English is a brand-new adventure that introduces kids to a world filled with adventures, wishes and more ways to love reading.

Its game-based platform encourages students to answer curriculum-aligned reading and language questions to get more energy. Once players are energized, they can gather resources from an ever-growing world, craft items, earn coins and build their very own village.

As they play, you'll be able to track their progress and achievement. Sign up for a free teacher account today!

Create a free account
4. Use visual aids

To help students build a picture in their minds of what they're reading, use visual aids and visualization techniques.

Start by reading aloud and asking students to try and picture what's happening in their heads. After, use writing prompts like:

What colors did you see the most?

What do you think the setting looked like?

How would you describe the main character?

What sounds do you think you would hear in the world of the story?

Have students draw out a scene, character or story for even more understanding. They can make a family tree of the characters or fun notes to help them remember the key points in the story!

Anchor charts, word walls or picture books can also help reinforce key concepts for your students. When they're able to visualize the story or information they're reading, they're more likely to retain key information.

5. Develop vocabulary skills

Vocabulary is an important part of understanding a text and is vital for reading ease and fluency. Vocabulary teaching strategies can help students build the tools to understand new words on their own.

To help students learn and remember new words, try:

Making a word wall in your classroom

Pairing new words with physical actions

Creating graphic organizers that help relate known words to new ones

Read-aloud strategies can also help you model the process of learning new words for students. Show them how to use context clues to find meaning, and have them make a vocabulary list of all the new words they know or want to learn.

6. Implement thinking strategies

To encourage students to engage critically with a text, ask questions about:

Where they can spot bias in the material

Why the author chose a particular genre or style

What they think happened before or after the story

Why characters responded to situations the way they did

These questions get students thinking about the deeper meaning in a text and help them use critical thinking skills as they look for key points. Encourage students to ask clarifying questions when they don't know what the text is saying, or build mind maps to draw connections between ideas and prior knowledge.

7. Create question and answer scenarios

Questioning students on different aspects of the text helps them examine it with fresh eyes and find new ways of interpreting it.

Use questions that challenge students to find the answers:

In several different parts of the text

On their own, using background knowledge

In their own opinions and responses to the text

Ask students questions to clarify meaning, help them understand characters better, make predictions or help them understand the author's intent.

Whether you're answering these questions in a group or individually, they'll help students make a habit of asking questions and using critical thinking skills. After all, the magic happens when students start thinking beyond the page!

8. Encourage reciprocal teaching

Reciprocal teaching gives students four strategies for reading comprehension and uses specific techniques to get them involved in interrogating a text.

Using the "I do, we do, you do" method, follow the four building blocks of reciprocal teaching:

Predicting - Asking questions about what's going to happen in the story and after it's done.

Questioning - Asking questions about the who, what, when, where, how and why of a story.

Clarifying - Helping students recognize their confusion, identify what's confusing them and taking steps towards understanding.

Summarizing - Condensing a reading to its most important facts and ideas.

Check out four reciprocal teaching strategies to use in your classroom.
9. Use summarizing techniques

Although it might seem tedious for students at first, summarizing techniques help them learn how to find and bring together key ideas. It trains them to automatically synthesize information as they read, and can benefit learners of all levels.

When students first encounter a text, have them write a summary and encourage them to refine it until it only includes the essential information. Ask clarifying questions to guide their writing, including:

What is the main idea of this passage?

What details support the main idea in the story?

What unnecessary information did the author include?

This helps them see how parts of a story are connected and emphasizes the importance of providing textual support to their argument and summaries.

10. Ask students to make predictions

Predictions happen when students use the evidence from the beginning of a text to guess:

What will happen next

What they think the text will be about

What details an author will use to support their argument

At the beginning of a reading, have students record their predictions. Once the reading is over, have a discussion about what they got right and what they got wrong. What made them think of their prediction? Did the author follow their expectations, or subvert them?

Model predictions with a think-aloud or give students blank statements that guide their thinking.

Not only does this build reading comprehension, but it encourages students to engage with the material critically and teaches them how to build solid, text-based arguments.

11. Try making inferences

When students make inferences, they're using the information they know to make a guess about what they don't.

Instead of just predicting what's going to happen next, students make inferences about information outside the story - what happened before the story started, what genre the story is or what happens after the story is over.

Like predicting, you can model inferences with read-alouds or guided questioning. Have students write a prequel to the story, or build a character background based on textual evidence.

Inferences help students draw conclusions between the text and their prior knowledge about how the world works. Plus, it can help boost their creativity!

How parents can encourage reading comprehension at home

Reading doesn't stop when children leave the classroom. Parents, you have an important opportunity to support reading comprehension at home, too.

1. Read aloud with your children

Reading with your child has lots of benefits - it helps you bond, it builds their imagination and it's fun!

As you read, discuss topics and ask your child guiding questions about what's happening. What do they think will happen next? Which character would they most like to be friends with? What would they do if they were the main character?

Not only do these questions make reading fun, it can help strengthen their reading comprehension skills.

2. Buy or borrow books at the right reading level

Whether it's your local bookstore or library branch, there are always books available at your child's reading level.

If your child is reading books that are too easy, they'll get bored. But if books are too hard, they'll get discouraged. Talk to your child's teacher about how to find books in their sweet spot.

Host a book swap with neighbors or friends to get access to new titles, or look in the library for books that relate to your child's unique interests.

3. Discuss what your child is reading

As a parent, you have a wonderful opportunity to hold low-pressure, friendly conversations with your child about what they're reading - no pop quiz required.

Ask your child what their favorite book is, or what they like reading at home or at school. After they're done reading, ask them questions about what happened in their book, or what they think will happen next, to build an organic love of reading.

4. Check out online reading programs

Online reading apps can help kids engage with books and reading in new, exciting ways! For a digital literary experience, check out:

Epic - A free online library of digital books you can browse and read with your child.

Headsprout - An adaptive online learning resource for students in kindergarten to fifth grade.

Audible - A library of audiobooks and podcasts for kids who prefer to listen rather than look at words.

Sora - An Overdrive-based app where you can download books and audiobooks from your library for free.

Prodigy English - A whole new way for kids to develop reading and language skills, with free educational content for 1st to 6th grade created by teachers.

5. Try game-based learning

If your child doesn't want to sit still long enough to read a book, game-based learning can help them master important concepts and get the ants out of their pants.

Charades, telephone, Pictionary and Scattergories are all fun games that connect meaning with words, help boost your child's background knowledge and make learning words fun.

Try some in your house to see which your child likes best.

And, if they're into educational apps, explore Prodigy English - a digital game-based learning platform! As students play, questions cover important skills like reading, rhyming, phonetics and spelling.

6. Ask their teacher

Your child's teacher should be your first stop for any questions about your child's reading comprehension or areas for improvement.

Whether it's part of a parent-teacher conference or just a quick catch-up after school, they'll be able to give you valuable advice about how to best help your child love reading. Use their advice to connect the books you read at home and the games you play with what your child is working on in class!

Reinforce with continual learning and encouragement

Reading comprehension doesn't just happen all at once - it's a lifelong process that students build on as they grow.

In each grade, encourage students to engage more deeply with what they're reading and ask critical questions. As students build reading comprehension skills, they'll have an opportunity to find joy and meaning in their reading.

Want more ways to build reading comprehension? Try Prodigy English!

In this all-new adventure, students can explore and create a world of their very own as they meet new characters, earn coins and build a home. Create a free teacher account today to get started.

Create my free account

Create a free account

Create my free account

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11 Proven Tips to Improve Reading Comprehension Skills for Students

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All Posts Cookbooks, social media, instruction manuals - no matter where you look, we live our lives surrounded by words. That's why reading comprehension is one of the most valuable skills a student can master. But it's not automatic. Reading comprehension needs to be taught in the classroom to have a lasting impact, whether you're teaching kindergarten or high school English.

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Literacy Skills/Games/Practice Resources (sorted by grade level)

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Literacy Skills/Games/Practice Resources (sorted by grade level)

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From 2004 to 2010, a team of researchers and teachers at FCRR collected ideas and created Student Center Activities for use in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms. The activities are designed for students to practice, demonstrate, and extend their learning of what has already been taught, sometimes with teacher assistance and sometimes independently. Students can complete the activities in small groups, pairs, or individually.

Accompanying these Student Center Activities is a Teacher Resource Guide that offers important insights on differentiated instruction and how to use the Student Center materials.

Component

Name of the reading component: Phonological Awareness (PA), Phonics (P), Fluency (F), Vocabulary (V), or Comprehension (C). Each component is color coded: PA is purple, P is orange, F is red, V is green, C is blue.

Subcomponent

Name of the reading subcomponent, which is a subskill of the component.

Activity Name

Activity Number

The letters correspond with the reading component (PA, P, F, V, or C). The numbers are listed in ascending order within each component. The activities are sequenced from simple to more complex within each component and subcomponent.

Student Icon

The suggested number of students for the activity. One student icon indicates that students may work independently or with a small group. Two student icons indicate that the activity requires students to work in pairs. Two student icons with a plus sign indicate that the activity requires two or more students.

Objective

States the goal of the activity, which is aligned with the subcomponent.

Materials

Materials are located on the pages that follow the Activity Plan. Most materials are non-consumable to be prepared and used repeatedly (e.g., word cards can be laminated). Some materials are consumable and will need to be duplicated for each student doing the activity. Other materials, such as counters, are commonly found in most classrooms.

Activity Statement

One sentence explanation of the purpose of the activity and what students do to complete the activity.

Activity Steps

The first step describes how to setup the center. The second step begins with: The student, Students, Working in pairs, or Taking turns depending on the number of students needed to complete the activity. The second step also starts the series of steps to complete the activity. The next steps explain what the student does to complete the activity. The last step lists one of three accountability methods: Self-check, Peer evaluation, or Teacher evaluation.

Example

A visual of the activity and key materials.

Extensions and Adaptations

Suggestions that extend or provide an adaptation for additional practice on the skill addressed in the activity. Materials for the extensions and adaptations are included after the pages that align to the Activity Plan.

Users may use the FCRR Student Center Activities resources as long as modifications are not made, the resources will only be used for non-profit educational purposes, and the copyright belong jointly to the Florida Department of Education and the Florida Center for Reading Research. These resources may not be used for any commercial purposes. These resources on our site may be linked to but not reposted, reproduced, modified, or copied to other sites. For questions about the use of these resources, please contact The Florida Center for Reading Research at fcrr@fcrr.org.

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From 2004 to 2010, a team of researchers and teachers at FCRR collected ideas and created Student Center Activities for use in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms. The activities are designed for students to practice, demonstrate, and extend their learning of what has already been taught, sometimes with teacher assistance and sometimes independently.

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The SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Daytime Emmy-nominated, Storyline Online, features celebrated actors reading children's books to inspire a love of reading in millions of children worldwide.

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Learning Letter Sounds | Version 1 | Alphabet Song for Kids | Phonics for Kids | Jack Hartmann

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DIY Literacy:  KABOOM! Sight Word Game (LIBRARY MAKE)

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Download: Graphic Organizers to Help Kids With Writing

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These free graphic organizers can help kids break writing assignments into smaller steps. Each printable template comes with a filled-in example.

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Reading Games | Free Educational Computer Reading Games for Elementary Students | RoomRecess.com

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Free educational online readibng games for children. Our games reinforce reading skills that are vital to elementary students.

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Writing Support (select open new window)

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Writing Support (select open new window)

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Easy to implement tips to help you launch writing workshop in a kindergarten, first grade, or second grade classroom!

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Phonics is a method of teaching children to read. Phonics works by breaking words down into it's individual sounds. There are 44 different sounds in the English language. Learning to read with phonics is therefore a bit like learning a code, after learning just a few sounds, you will be able to use this code to read 100's of words. The more sounds you know, the more words you will be able to work out how to read.

Not all words are phonetically decode-able however, a select few words you need to learn through the 'sight words' method of learning to read. Sight words is when you learn to read by memorising 1,000's of words individually. Although, it could be argued that this is not the most efficient way to learn to read. An example of this is that someone who has learnt to read through the sight words method might have memorised and be able to read the word 'boat', but may struggle if asked to read the word 'oat'. This would be an easy task for someone who had learnt to read with phonics who was able to use their decoding skills to break each word down into it's individual letter sounds.

If you would like to find out more about phonics and learn about what segmenting and blending is, or learn how to become a phonics wizz and discover the difference between a grapheme, digraph or split digraph then check out our parent guide below, or download the free pdf!

Contents

What is phonics?

Let's start at the beginning...

Each one of the 26 letters in the alphabet has its own 'sound'. This is very different to how a letter is 'said' in the alphabet. For example:

'a' in 'arrow'

'b' in 'bat'.

￼

Of course phonics is not that simple! There are more than 26 sounds in English language, in fact there are 44 sounds in total. Some of these sounds are made up of 2 or 3 letters. 2 letter sounds are called digraphs and three letter sounds are called trigraphs.

digraph

trigraph

￼

It gets a bit more complicated than that too!

For example the 'n' sound, like in 'nail' is also spelt 'kn' like in 'knot' or 'gn' like in 'gnome'.

Still with us?! Good!

The sound that children struggle to spot the most when breaking down words into its individual sounds is the 'split digraph'. Like a normal digraph, this is when two letters work together to make one sound, however with a split digraph, they are separated and have a letter in the middle.

Fortunately 'split digraphs' always end with an 'e' which does make them a little easier to spot!

Examples of split digraphs include:

￼￼

So that's it! We appreciate there has been a few new words thrown at you there that you may have never heard of, so below is a little phonics codebreaker to help us out before we go any further!

The phonics codebreaker

Phoneme - a sound as it is said

Grapheme - a sound that is written

Digraph- two letters that work together to make the same sound

Trigraph - Three letters that work together to make the same sound

Split digraph - Two letters that work together to make the same sound, separated by another letter

Why is phonics the best method for teaching my child to read?

Phonics makes learning to read easier, simpler and crucially gets children reading quicker. This helps to increase a child's confidence and instil a love of reading from an early age. Rather than memorising 1,000's of words individually, children are instead taught a phonics 'code'.

This code helps children work out how to read 95% of the English language.

If you didn't learn to read using phonics it can seem very complicated, but once the concept of words being made up of just 44 sounds is understood, children are able to make remarkably quick progress in their reading.

How is phonics taught in schools?

Children start to learn to read as soon as they start school at the age of 5. Many children start before however.

The first lesson in phonics is teaching children to recognise and differentiate between different sounds. This typically starts by asking children to listen to sounds that you can hear, such as the sounds that animals make, or sounds you hear when you go outside.

As schooling progresses children are then taught simple, single letter sounds from the alphabet, before moving on to learning about digraphs, trigraphs and split digraphs.

Phonics is often used in listening and writing lessons as well as reading lessons. Often for example, children in schools are taught and encouraged to spell phonetically before they spell correctly, as this shows an understanding of how words are made up of sounds, and that different letters make certain sounds.

To make learning fun, schools and teachers will often teach sounds through multi sensory activities such as singing or dancing or by playing games, both physical and online. All children learn differently so it is vital that teachers make learning as varied as possible.

Practising sounds as they are taught in school when at home is one of the biggest ways children improve their reading. From my experience, children who are read to at home, or read at home themselves, even for just a few minutes a week, make really noticeable improvements compared to those who do not.

Why is reading and learning to read so important?

Reading is one of the first things that children learn when they start school. It is the foundation of all education. When children can read, other subjects then become available to them and independent learning can begin. Those who are unable to read well will find themselves at a constant disadvantage throughout their education.

Reading doesn't only have educational benefits but social ones as well. Reading with your child can be one of the most exciting, memorable and special times for you as a parent. It is not everyday you can help teach your child a skill they will use every single day for the rest of their lives!

Learning to read also helps to instil confidence, independence and self belief that will massively help your child's all round development.

5 tips to help your child fall in love with reading

1. Choose books that your child is genuinely interested in.
This may sound obvious, but asking a child to read about robots if they love trains isn't going to have the same impact!

2. Pick a quiet and appropriate time to read
Creating a relaxed environment can really help to ease the pressure some children face when asked to practice their reading.

3. Talk about the story
It is important to make reading more than just about 'practicing reading'. Remember that books are stories! Talk about what is happening in the story 'what do you think this book is going to be about?' 'What do you think will happen next?' are great questions to engage your child in the storybook.

4. Identify tricky words first before you start reading
Once you start to read regularly you will learn the words that they will find tricky depending on their level. Reading the trickier words together before you start reading will give your child confidence when they see that word during the story.

5. Give them time to decipher the words
Giving your child time to decipher the words and not rushing them will increase their confidence. It is important for children to learn the process of how to read words. That is how phonics works. Ask them to take their time, sound it out and blend it back together.

*Be patient here! It is not uncommon for children to correctly read a word and then 30 seconds later be unable to read it. Go through the process from the beginning, sound it out, blend it together. In time they will recognise high frequency words and will not need to go through that process any more.

Don't forget to give them positive praise for their effort!

How can ReadwithPhonics.com help my child with their reading?

We make learning to read fun!
By turning lessons into games children learn without even realising.

A complete resource
Our resource is used by over 10,000 teachers around the world to help their students learn to read. ReadwithPhonics.com starts with simple sounds and continues through to teaching the different spelling combinations. ReadwithPhonics.com is unique and unrivalled in it's way of doing this. No other resource can help take your child from a non reader to being able to read words, sentences and books, from start to finish!

Children are in control of their own learning
With ReadwithPhonics.com children have their own game, their own score and their own level. This allows them to learn at their own pace and in their own time.

Traditionally students are scored out of 100%
Traditional students are marked out of 100%. At Read with Phonics we believe this creates a negative mindset as children always see how far off the perfect score they are. At ReadwithPhonics.com children are rewarded points for every correct answer. Points add up which enables them to increase their level. Like this, children are always working to try and find the correct answer, instead of worrying about getting the answer wrong.

Made by a teacher for teachers, parents and students
ReadwithPhonics.com was created by primary school teacher Sophie Cooper after her first hand experience in the classroom. The website is designed to help teachers make their lessons more efficient, to make learning more fun for children and to help inform parents on how their child is being taught in schools, to give them a great resource to use at home. We also want to help give parents by giving them tips and hints for reading at home with their children.

What is the Phonics Screening Check? (England)

The Phonics screening check is a compulsory assessment that all children in Year 1 in England must take. It is used to assess a students phonic decoding skills. To pass a student must correctly read around 32/40 words correctly. The 40 words in the check are split into sections progressing from simple word structures to trickier words with five or six letters.

The often confusing thing about the screening check is that 20/40 of the words that children are expected to read are 'nonsense words', alien words that have no meaning. This is so that the check tests a child's ability to phonetically decode words and to ensure they don't just know the word in the check already. The aim of the check isn't to test how many words a child can read, but to ensure children have the phonics skills they need to learn new words in the future.

The check is administered by your child's teacher during the designated phonics screening week. The words are the same all across the country. Schools are sent the screening check through the post in a sealed box and teachers are not allowed to open the test until the start of that week. Your child will be scored against a national average which has been 32/40 since 2012. The mark will be told to schools at the end of June and can be released to parents if requested. Individual children's results will not be published.

Perhaps the most important thing to take away from all this is to not stress out, and certainly don't let your child feel anxious about the check in anyway. If your child can read, this check is easy.

I hope you found this phonics guide helpful, please feel free to share this page with fellow teacher/parent friends who may find our website useful.

Sophie

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What is Phonics? Parent Guide | ReadwithPhonics.com

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Phonics is a method of teaching children to read. Phonics works by breaking words down into it's individual sounds. There are 44 different sounds in the English language. Learning to read with phonics is therefore a bit like learning a code, after learning just a few sounds, you will be able to use this code to read 100's of words.

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how to play games with sight words | literacy | teachmama.com

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By: Regina G. Richards

A student in elementary school describes his feelings about writing as follows:

"Writing was definitely the worst task of all. It was just way too hard to remember all the things he needed, like periods and capital letters. And then, it was almost impossible to think about how to spell words when he was busy trying to think about the story."

So Eli figured it was easier to write just a few sentences. That didn't hurt his hand so much either. His teachers complained, but Eli just kept writing very short stories. After all, teachers didn't understand what it was like to struggle and struggle to write, and still have the paper turn out sloppy and full of mistakes.... They couldn't understand how hard he "tried." (1)

Let's examine some of the issues that frustrate Eli about writing.

Working memory

Working memory is a form of multitasking . Many refer to it as "active working memory" to emphasize the role of active involvement. This type of memory has five main purposes:

1. Holding an idea in mind while developing, elaborating, clarifying, or using it

2. Recalling information from long-term memory while holding related information in short-term memory

3. Holding components of the task together in memory while completing that task

4. Keeping a series of pieces of information together so that they remain meaningful

5. Holding a long-term plan while thinking about a short-term need (2)

Story size

Story size relates to active working memory. When a student deals with or manipulates a larger chunk of information, he also needs to hold together more pieces or components of that information. To compensate for less efficiency in this area, students often shorten what they write. An example of a student struggling to hold an idea in mind while elaborating upon it is when he writes a story that begins about one topic but switches topics several times throughout the story.

Research demonstrates evidence of significant failure to develop students' positive beliefs and motivation towards writing in many of today's writing programs. Students who experience a limited amount of written language success often force writing with a hurried pace, a lagging confidence, and a lingering malaise. Although many students acknowledge that writing is important and directly related to success in school and life, the thought of writing too often evokes negative reactions such as feelings of anxiety and dread, lack of control, and avoidance. (3)

Sloppiness

The issue of sloppiness or neatness also relates to active working memory. Some students may be able to write very neatly when their total concentration is upon the writing mechanics. However, when at the same time they need to think about the content or what they are writing, their working memory system becomes overloaded. They are no longer adequately able to hold together all the components of the task, and therefore, the neatness of their letterform deteriorates. When working memory falters, most often the component that gets "lost" is the one that is less automatic and/or most difficult for the student.

Understanding

The situation described at the beginning identifies Eli's frustrations with what he perceives as lack of understanding by his teachers. Students are able to perform more efficiently when they understand their issues and when they feel that their parents and teachers understand them.

What to do?

The writing task places many demands on a student's active working memory system. To be successful when writing, students need to manipulate multiple components simultaneously and successfully. They also need patience, persistence, and flexibility. They must constantly switch their attention between different goals and subtasks: the ideas, elaboration, descriptions, sentence structure, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and more.

Pediatrician Mel Levine, in his book for teenagers, describes writing as "the awesome juggling act." Under a picture of a boy juggling eight balls, each representing a necessary component for writing, he states, "To juggle, he has to keep all of these balls in the air at the same time. To write well, you have to keep all of the parts of writing in your memory while you are writing." (4)

Chunking

This is an important strategy for all students. Chunking, a computer term meaning, "bundles of information," refers to the strategy of breaking information or a task into smaller manageable parts.

As parents, we can help our children appreciate these important aspects about the chunking process:

we store and organize information more efficiently in small chunks

everything begins with one small step

the small steps then lead up to a bigger accomplishment

Power

When dealing with writing, chunking is critical. POWER is a mnemonic strategy to encourage students to proceed through the writing task in small steps. This strategy gives students power to succeed when writing by encouraging them to use an organized, systematic process. (5)

In mnemonic strategies such as POWER, each letter stands for a single step the child needs to perform. When introducing the strategy, model (show your child) how to do with the step and then encourage her to do it herself. Be sure your child understands each step before moving to the next. After all of the steps, show your child how they come together to create the full strategy and explain how each letter in the mnemonic serves as a memory hint or hook to trigger each step.

POWER: P is plan

This stage includes preparation activities and development of some background experience, with the goal of establishing enthusiasm for the topic. It also involves discussing the basic format and type of writing required by the task, followed by determining the steps needed to complete the task. In doing so, the student plans the focus of the task.

Some suggestions for preparatory activities include reading your child a related story, discussing the book your child has just read, or doing an "experiment" or art project that illustrates a critical concept. Of course, this will vary with the type of task and the child's age.

POWER: O is organize

The goal of this stage is to identify and describe the parts of the task. Visual organizers and use of frames are extremely valuable at this stage. The use of visual organizers was discussed in previous Tool Kit for Parents articles including, Tips for Understanding What You Read, Making It Stick, and Being an Efficient Homework Helper.

Younger students may focus on three primary parts: beginning, middle, and end. Older students may add other relevant components such as characters, setting, problem, solution, and theme.

Some basic criteria to consider in teaching this step of POWER are:

Begin with information/tasks that are more concrete and gradually increase the abstract.

Begin by including fewer components and progressively add more.

Begin with a smaller task or chunk and progressively increase in size.

POWER: W is write

Students write their paragraph/ paper, elaborating the ideas developed in the stage above. Younger students may start with pictures. It is critical to include both adult feedback and self-feedback at this stage. Self-feedback is described below.

POWER: E is edit

In the editing stage, have your student focus on a single component at a time. She proofreads the paper multiple times, each time with a different focus. This step is often the most difficult for students with learning challenges because they tend to "read" what they intended rather than what they actually wrote. A great deal of modeling, scaffolding (helping much more at the beginning, decreasing your help as you progress), and direct instruction is necessary to help students develop appropriate editing skills and to encourage going through the paper more than once.

Specific editing strategies were previously discussed in the article, Strategies For The Reluctant Writer.

POWER: R is revise

Many students attempt to avoid the revision stage. However, it is critical that they learn this as a valuable component of the written expression task. Again, scaffolding, modeling, and direct instruction are very useful in helping them understand how to enhance their writing. Using a self-feedback form to record the number of changes they made provides a concrete record of their progress in revising and enhancing their written products. Of course, changes need to be appropriate and add to the quality of the paper.

In this article, we will focus on some specific strategies for planning and organization.

A note about vocabulary and spelling

Some students may have difficulty thinking of the vocabulary word or words they want to use while writing. Other students have difficulty with spelling. When writing, these students tend to simplify their word usage.

Vocabulary

To help deal with this issue, encourage your student to brainstorm and think about the important or key vocabulary words he may wish to use prior to writing. He then makes a list of these words so they are readily available during the process of writing.

List KEY words FIRST

Spelling

Students who struggle with spelling often become frustrated when attempting to express their ideas in writing. It is especially valuable for these students to list some of the key words prior to starting because then they will be able to write with greater fluency of ideas because they will not become "stuck" trying to think of how to spell a specific word.

These students need to learn to be able to sound out words efficiently so that they can spell them with good phonetic logic. This will enhance their ability to read their own writing and will allow them the opportunity to use an electronic spell checker that works on phonetic principles, such as the Franklin Language Master. ( 7 ) This author's personal preference for such students is the Language Master 6000b because of its large font size and good speech clarity. Because the Franklin recognizes words phonetically, students can input words using logic about the way they sound. The Franklin will then help them match the phonetic spelling to the traditional spelling. This provides a valuable opportunity for students to think about the words and use the process of decision-making as they select the correct choice. This process helps reinforce the accurate spelling of the word.

The use of a speaking component provides multisensory input and helps decrease the student's confusion in reading similar looking words. Your student may also use the Franklin to compensate for sequencing problems when dealing with dictionary work.

Frames

Ed Ellis of the University of Alabama ( 8 ) developed learning frames as a sensible and powerful approach for developing skills related to understanding and expanding ideas. Learning frames help organize ideas, concepts, important implications and sequences.

"Learning frames appeal to the developing brain by structuring thinking, supporting connections between new ideas and previous knowledge, and developing new patterns for complex thoughts." ( 9 )

A basic frame is a series of boxes organized on a worksheet. The basic concept is the same for learning frames and visual organizers. There is often a box at the top for a key concept and other boxes for specific details. Students may use learning frames to organize a report, summarize a story or expository text, or take notes.

This strategy encourages students to think deeply about the topic rather then simply to identify facts. It is important that the teacher or parent directly teach each component of the frame to ensure that the student understands what is involved. Each time you use the same frame, supply less of the information and have your child fill in more until he can use the frame independently.

Students can use simple learning frames as early as first grade because it helps them focus on the patterns within ideas.

Strategies for younger students or students who are "stuck"

Some students say they can't think of anything to write, but in reality they may have many ideas but are stuck because they do not know how to organize them and bring them together.

Using pictures with frames

LHQ describes this technique, among several others, in two of their tool sets: The Emergent Tools and Primary Writing Tools. (10)

Give your child a piece of paper with frames consisting of three boxes and several lines, as in the sample below. Depending on your child's level, you may wish to insert primary spaced lines for his writing.
View a sample picture frame format
Talk with your child about a "story", discussing beginning, middle, and end. Relate these concepts to stories that are familiar to your child. Be sure your child is able to identify these three concepts in a variety of familiar stories.

Your goal is for your child to write his own story. Therefore, the first task is to identify a topic. Your child may come up with an idea for a topic or you may provide suggestions. Suggestions should involve an exciting happening that your child has recently experienced, such as, an incident or event with his favorite pet, a trip to a theme park such as Disneyland, or a birthday party. It is important that your child have direct experience with the topic, as the topic provides an important context for the child to use in developing his ideas.

As an alternative, you can use a wordless picture storybook as a topic. Go through the book with your child and ask the questions below.

Discuss with your child what happened first in his event by asking, "What happened first?" Have your child draw a picture about that happening in the first large box on the frame.

Discuss what happened in the middle of the event. If this seems too difficult for your child, switch to the end and discuss the last thing that happened. Have your child draw a picture about that happening in the appropriate box on the frame. If you discussed the middle of the event, your child draws the corresponding picture in the middle box. If you discussed the end of the event, your child draws a corresponding picture in the last box. Then, have your child draw a picture for the remaining happening of the event.

After your child has drawn all three pictures, encourage him to write a sentence about each, using the lines underneath the appropriate box.

When your child has finished writing a sentence for each picture, he then has a brief story consisting of a beginning, middle and end. Read the complete story with your child. At this point, it is appropriate and useful to have your child use one of the self-feedback forms, discussed later.

Depending on your child's age, you may encourage him to elaborate on his story.

A book report

Preparing for a book report

Frames provide a valuable way to organize ideas for book reports. Identify the components required for your student's report, as these will vary at different ages and grade levels. Create a frame for each component and help your child work with one frame at a time to complete the report.

This frame is a sample of the type of frame you may create to help your student with a book report. ( 11 )

The components used in this frame are divided into three portions: the Introduction, the Body, and the Conclusion. Your child will also use an appropriate self-feedback form, which you may provide on the bottom or on another paper.

Introduction:

Hook

This is a brief statement to highlight something about the story with the goal of "hooking" the reader. For example, a hook for the story, The Sign Of The Beaver by Elizabeth George could be, "Can you imagine living on your own in the wilderness for several months?" Another example is a hook for the story Hatchet by Gary Paulsen: "Can you imagine living on your own in the wilderness with only a hatchet to help you survive?"

Resource

In this frame, your child writes the name of the book and the author. Depending on his curriculum, he may also add the literary genre.

Quick summary

Your child writes a brief summary of the story in one, two, or three sentences. Many students may need significant examples, modeling, and scaffolding to develop the skill of writing a concise summary.

Topic

Your child writes a single sentence, which summarizes the main idea of the story. For example, the topic frame for the book Hatchet might be, "Brian survives the Canadian wilderness by creating new ways to view his environment."

Body:

Ideas or events

The sample frame illustrates three boxes for "ideas" or "events." You may use this format for a book report having three or five paragraphs. In a three-paragraph report, the paragraphs correspond to introduction, ideas, and conclusion. The student integrates the three primary ideas into a single paragraph. A five-paragraph book report describes each of the three main ideas in a full paragraph.

Using the example of Hatchet, the three basic ideas are fire, fish, and meat.

Supporting details

Your child lists details to support each idea within the box under the corresponding idea. In the example above, your student may list three supporting details for the basic idea of fire:

Brian longed for matches.

He tried rubbing to stick together.

He used his hatchet to create a spark.

Conclusion:

The conclusion section includes varying components, depending upon what is required at your child age.

Restate the topic

This section is for a one-sentence summary statement related to the "quick summary" above.

Theme

A theme is defined as a unifying idea that is a recurring element in a literary work. In this section, your child selects a one-word summary to describe the theme of the story. For the story Hatchet, the theme could be "survival".

It is useful to provide students with a list of possible theme topics, making sure that they understand the meaning of each word. Your student can use this list to select a word that matches his story. Some theme words might be:

Interpretation

Interpretation relates back to the initial hook. The answer to the question posed in the hook in the story Hatchet is "yes!" Your student writes this word in the interpretation and box.

Concluding thought

Your child concludes his book report with the statement that forms a concluding thought. An example for hatchet might be, "sometimes survival means looking at the world with a new pair of the 'glasses.'"

Writing the book report

Give your child another blank copy of the book report frame. For some children, it is useful to print the frame on three separate pages, with one page for each of the following sections:

Many children decide that the sections for "hook," "resource" and sometimes "quick summary" remain the same as in the Planning Book Report Frame. If this is your child's decision, she may start with "topic." Your child then completes each box in the frame. However, this time she uses her notes from the Planning Book Report Frame and within each box, she writes elaborate and descriptive sentences for each component.

After the elaboration, you child completes one of the self-feedback forms to analyze her work.

The next step ("W" in POWER) is for your child to write (or type) the Book Report using good paragraph structure and organization. Again, follow this by using a self-feedback form to analyze her work.

Feedback

Research findings suggest that verbal feedback during and after a learning task are key elements in the error-correction process. There is much value in verbal feedback and discussing a learning process. However, interfering too soon in the learning process may get in the way of your child's ability to acquire and retain the information.

In providing feedback to your child, tell him what he is doing well and ask provocative questions to stimulate further learning. An example question might be, "This summary statement is very interesting. What else might you say to point out another important idea in the story?"

It is also critical for your child to analyze his own work by providing his own feedback. This process of analysis and decision-making is critical for the learning process. Self-feedback forms provide a framework for the criteria you child need to evaluate. Some examples of self-feedback forms are in Figures 8 to 13.

Using computer programs

Some options for obtaining ideas for using technology are available from the following sources.

An example of a Clicker4 screen.

Readers may find additional suggestions in Perspectives, the magazine of the International Dyslexia Association in the theme issue, "Assistive Technologies: Making a Difference" (17)

Older students may wish to investigate use of a voice-activated program such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking (18). Several prerequisites must be in place for success in using such software, some of which are listed below:

The student must reorganize the information in advance

The student must be able to state the phrases and sentences fairly fluently, without using filler words such as "um" or "uh"

The student must speak clearly without excessive slurring of words

The student must have a basic understanding of word processing procedures

It is valuable for the student to use the voice-activated program along with a keyboard. This technique is more multisensory and provides visual feedback so that the student can make corrections more efficiently. Newer versions of these programs include a correction device wherein the student can hear what was originally said, a feature, which can be extremely useful.

Help your student develop efficient keyboarding skills. To develop skills to an automatic level, frequency and consistency of practice are imperative. Very few students can learn to type efficiently by only practicing one time a week. It is more efficient to practice on a daily basis for five or 10 minutes. A short practice session repeated on a consistent basis will have more benefit for students. It is valuable to use a variety of typing tutor programs, as this helps decrease boredom. Among this author's favorites are the various versions of Type to Learn (19 , 20 , 2 1).

Investigate use of a program that will read back to the student what he wrote. One suggestion is Screenreader ®

In summary,

Be positive with your child and reinforce successes

Encourage your child to practice writing

Teach your child one strategy at a time

Ensure your child to practice the component skills to a level of automaticity

Encourage your child to use a process approach, focusing on one small chunk at a time

Encourage your child to have fun with the process of communicating in writing

Encourage your child to use an appropriate self-feedback form to think about the quality of her writing

And above all, Have Fun!

References
References

1. Richards, Regina and Richards, Eli. Eli, The Boy Who Hated to Write: Understanding Dysgraphia, 2000 (www.retctrpress.com

2. Richards, Regina G. The Source for Learning and Memory. 2003. (www.linguisystems.com). Page 23 (Based on Levine, Mel, Educational Care, page 7)

3. Boice, R."How Writers Journey to Comfort and Fluency", 1994, in Feifer, Steven G. & DeFina, Philip A. The Neuropsychology of Written Language Disorders: Diagnosis & Intervention, 2002, page 35. (www.retctrpress.com)

4. Levine, Melvin D. Keeping A Head in School: A Student's Book about Learning Abilities and Learning Disorders, 1990. (www.retctrpress.com) (www.epsbooks.com). Page ---

5. Richards, Regina G. LEARN: Playful Strategies for All Students, 2001. (www.retctrpress.com) Pages 74-75.

6. Allen, Rich. Impact Learning Cartoon Posters Series. (www.impactlearn.com) (>www.retctrpress.com).

7. Franklin Electronic Publishers (www.franklin.com)

8. Ellis, Ed. Makes Sense Strategies: Framing For Success (2001) (On-line).

9. Wolfe, Patricia and Nevills, Pamela. Building the Reading Brain, PreK-3. (www.corwinpress.com). Page 131.

10. Learning Headquarters (LHQ), San Diego, CA. (www.learningheadquarters.com)

11. Learning Headquarters (LHQ), San Diego, CA. (www.learningheadquarters.com)

12. Learning Headquarters (LHQ), San Diego, CA. (www.learningheadquarters.com)

13. Learning Headquarters (LHQ), San Diego, CA. (www.learningheadquarters.com)

14. Richards, Regina G. The Source for Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. 1999. (www.linguisystems.com) Page 243.

15. Richards, Regina G. The Source for Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. 1999. (www.linguisystems.com) Page 243.

16. Richards, Regina G. The Source for Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. 1999. (www.linguisystems.com) Page 243.

17. International Dyslexia Association, Perspectives, Fall 2003 (www.interdys.org)

18. Dragon NaturallySpeaking (www.dragon-naturally.com)

19. Type to Learn 3 (www.sunburst.com); keyboarding grades 3 and up

20. Type to Learn Jr. (www.sunburst.com); keyboarding grades K to 2

21. Type to Learn Jr.: new keys for kids (www.sunburst.com); keyboarding grades 1 to 3

Regina G. Richards (2004)

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Tool Kit for Parents: Tips for Helping With Writing Tasks

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By: Regina G. Richards A student in elementary school describes his feelings about writing as follows: "Writing was definitely the worst task of all. It was just way too hard to remember all the things he needed, like periods and capital letters.

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New Sight Words 1 | Sight Words Kindergarten | High Frequency Words | Jump Out Words | Jack Hartmann

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By: Regina G. Richards

A student in elementary school describes his feelings about writing as follows:

"Writing was definitely the worst task of all. It was just way too hard to remember all the things he needed, like periods and capital letters. And then, it was almost impossible to think about how to spell words when he was busy trying to think about the story."

So Eli figured it was easier to write just a few sentences. That didn't hurt his hand so much either. His teachers complained, but Eli just kept writing very short stories. After all, teachers didn't understand what it was like to struggle and struggle to write, and still have the paper turn out sloppy and full of mistakes.... They couldn't understand how hard he "tried." (1)

Let's examine some of the issues that frustrate Eli about writing.

Working memory

Working memory is a form of multitasking . Many refer to it as "active working memory" to emphasize the role of active involvement. This type of memory has five main purposes:

1. Holding an idea in mind while developing, elaborating, clarifying, or using it

2. Recalling information from long-term memory while holding related information in short-term memory

3. Holding components of the task together in memory while completing that task

4. Keeping a series of pieces of information together so that they remain meaningful

5. Holding a long-term plan while thinking about a short-term need (2)

Story size

Story size relates to active working memory. When a student deals with or manipulates a larger chunk of information, he also needs to hold together more pieces or components of that information. To compensate for less efficiency in this area, students often shorten what they write. An example of a student struggling to hold an idea in mind while elaborating upon it is when he writes a story that begins about one topic but switches topics several times throughout the story.

Research demonstrates evidence of significant failure to develop students' positive beliefs and motivation towards writing in many of today's writing programs. Students who experience a limited amount of written language success often force writing with a hurried pace, a lagging confidence, and a lingering malaise. Although many students acknowledge that writing is important and directly related to success in school and life, the thought of writing too often evokes negative reactions such as feelings of anxiety and dread, lack of control, and avoidance. (3)

Sloppiness

The issue of sloppiness or neatness also relates to active working memory. Some students may be able to write very neatly when their total concentration is upon the writing mechanics. However, when at the same time they need to think about the content or what they are writing, their working memory system becomes overloaded. They are no longer adequately able to hold together all the components of the task, and therefore, the neatness of their letterform deteriorates. When working memory falters, most often the component that gets "lost" is the one that is less automatic and/or most difficult for the student.

Understanding

The situation described at the beginning identifies Eli's frustrations with what he perceives as lack of understanding by his teachers. Students are able to perform more efficiently when they understand their issues and when they feel that their parents and teachers understand them.

What to do?

The writing task places many demands on a student's active working memory system. To be successful when writing, students need to manipulate multiple components simultaneously and successfully. They also need patience, persistence, and flexibility. They must constantly switch their attention between different goals and subtasks: the ideas, elaboration, descriptions, sentence structure, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and more.

Pediatrician Mel Levine, in his book for teenagers, describes writing as "the awesome juggling act." Under a picture of a boy juggling eight balls, each representing a necessary component for writing, he states, "To juggle, he has to keep all of these balls in the air at the same time. To write well, you have to keep all of the parts of writing in your memory while you are writing." (4)

Chunking

This is an important strategy for all students. Chunking, a computer term meaning, "bundles of information," refers to the strategy of breaking information or a task into smaller manageable parts.

As parents, we can help our children appreciate these important aspects about the chunking process:

we store and organize information more efficiently in small chunks

everything begins with one small step

the small steps then lead up to a bigger accomplishment

Power

When dealing with writing, chunking is critical. POWER is a mnemonic strategy to encourage students to proceed through the writing task in small steps. This strategy gives students power to succeed when writing by encouraging them to use an organized, systematic process. (5)

In mnemonic strategies such as POWER, each letter stands for a single step the child needs to perform. When introducing the strategy, model (show your child) how to do with the step and then encourage her to do it herself. Be sure your child understands each step before moving to the next. After all of the steps, show your child how they come together to create the full strategy and explain how each letter in the mnemonic serves as a memory hint or hook to trigger each step.

POWER: P is plan

This stage includes preparation activities and development of some background experience, with the goal of establishing enthusiasm for the topic. It also involves discussing the basic format and type of writing required by the task, followed by determining the steps needed to complete the task. In doing so, the student plans the focus of the task.

Some suggestions for preparatory activities include reading your child a related story, discussing the book your child has just read, or doing an "experiment" or art project that illustrates a critical concept. Of course, this will vary with the type of task and the child's age.

POWER: O is organize

The goal of this stage is to identify and describe the parts of the task. Visual organizers and use of frames are extremely valuable at this stage. The use of visual organizers was discussed in previous Tool Kit for Parents articles including, Tips for Understanding What You Read, Making It Stick, and Being an Efficient Homework Helper.

Younger students may focus on three primary parts: beginning, middle, and end. Older students may add other relevant components such as characters, setting, problem, solution, and theme.

Some basic criteria to consider in teaching this step of POWER are:

Begin with information/tasks that are more concrete and gradually increase the abstract.

Begin by including fewer components and progressively add more.

Begin with a smaller task or chunk and progressively increase in size.

POWER: W is write

Students write their paragraph/ paper, elaborating the ideas developed in the stage above. Younger students may start with pictures. It is critical to include both adult feedback and self-feedback at this stage. Self-feedback is described below.

POWER: E is edit

In the editing stage, have your student focus on a single component at a time. She proofreads the paper multiple times, each time with a different focus. This step is often the most difficult for students with learning challenges because they tend to "read" what they intended rather than what they actually wrote. A great deal of modeling, scaffolding (helping much more at the beginning, decreasing your help as you progress), and direct instruction is necessary to help students develop appropriate editing skills and to encourage going through the paper more than once.

Specific editing strategies were previously discussed in the article, Strategies For The Reluctant Writer.

POWER: R is revise

Many students attempt to avoid the revision stage. However, it is critical that they learn this as a valuable component of the written expression task. Again, scaffolding, modeling, and direct instruction are very useful in helping them understand how to enhance their writing. Using a self-feedback form to record the number of changes they made provides a concrete record of their progress in revising and enhancing their written products. Of course, changes need to be appropriate and add to the quality of the paper.

In this article, we will focus on some specific strategies for planning and organization.

A note about vocabulary and spelling

Some students may have difficulty thinking of the vocabulary word or words they want to use while writing. Other students have difficulty with spelling. When writing, these students tend to simplify their word usage.

Vocabulary

To help deal with this issue, encourage your student to brainstorm and think about the important or key vocabulary words he may wish to use prior to writing. He then makes a list of these words so they are readily available during the process of writing.

List KEY words FIRST

Spelling

Students who struggle with spelling often become frustrated when attempting to express their ideas in writing. It is especially valuable for these students to list some of the key words prior to starting because then they will be able to write with greater fluency of ideas because they will not become "stuck" trying to think of how to spell a specific word.

These students need to learn to be able to sound out words efficiently so that they can spell them with good phonetic logic. This will enhance their ability to read their own writing and will allow them the opportunity to use an electronic spell checker that works on phonetic principles, such as the Franklin Language Master. ( 7 ) This author's personal preference for such students is the Language Master 6000b because of its large font size and good speech clarity. Because the Franklin recognizes words phonetically, students can input words using logic about the way they sound. The Franklin will then help them match the phonetic spelling to the traditional spelling. This provides a valuable opportunity for students to think about the words and use the process of decision-making as they select the correct choice. This process helps reinforce the accurate spelling of the word.

The use of a speaking component provides multisensory input and helps decrease the student's confusion in reading similar looking words. Your student may also use the Franklin to compensate for sequencing problems when dealing with dictionary work.

Frames

Ed Ellis of the University of Alabama ( 8 ) developed learning frames as a sensible and powerful approach for developing skills related to understanding and expanding ideas. Learning frames help organize ideas, concepts, important implications and sequences.

"Learning frames appeal to the developing brain by structuring thinking, supporting connections between new ideas and previous knowledge, and developing new patterns for complex thoughts." ( 9 )

A basic frame is a series of boxes organized on a worksheet. The basic concept is the same for learning frames and visual organizers. There is often a box at the top for a key concept and other boxes for specific details. Students may use learning frames to organize a report, summarize a story or expository text, or take notes.

This strategy encourages students to think deeply about the topic rather then simply to identify facts. It is important that the teacher or parent directly teach each component of the frame to ensure that the student understands what is involved. Each time you use the same frame, supply less of the information and have your child fill in more until he can use the frame independently.

Students can use simple learning frames as early as first grade because it helps them focus on the patterns within ideas.

Strategies for younger students or students who are "stuck"

Some students say they can't think of anything to write, but in reality they may have many ideas but are stuck because they do not know how to organize them and bring them together.

Using pictures with frames

LHQ describes this technique, among several others, in two of their tool sets: The Emergent Tools and Primary Writing Tools. (10)

Give your child a piece of paper with frames consisting of three boxes and several lines, as in the sample below. Depending on your child's level, you may wish to insert primary spaced lines for his writing.
View a sample picture frame format
Talk with your child about a "story", discussing beginning, middle, and end. Relate these concepts to stories that are familiar to your child. Be sure your child is able to identify these three concepts in a variety of familiar stories.

Your goal is for your child to write his own story. Therefore, the first task is to identify a topic. Your child may come up with an idea for a topic or you may provide suggestions. Suggestions should involve an exciting happening that your child has recently experienced, such as, an incident or event with his favorite pet, a trip to a theme park such as Disneyland, or a birthday party. It is important that your child have direct experience with the topic, as the topic provides an important context for the child to use in developing his ideas.

As an alternative, you can use a wordless picture storybook as a topic. Go through the book with your child and ask the questions below.

Discuss with your child what happened first in his event by asking, "What happened first?" Have your child draw a picture about that happening in the first large box on the frame.

Discuss what happened in the middle of the event. If this seems too difficult for your child, switch to the end and discuss the last thing that happened. Have your child draw a picture about that happening in the appropriate box on the frame. If you discussed the middle of the event, your child draws the corresponding picture in the middle box. If you discussed the end of the event, your child draws a corresponding picture in the last box. Then, have your child draw a picture for the remaining happening of the event.

After your child has drawn all three pictures, encourage him to write a sentence about each, using the lines underneath the appropriate box.

When your child has finished writing a sentence for each picture, he then has a brief story consisting of a beginning, middle and end. Read the complete story with your child. At this point, it is appropriate and useful to have your child use one of the self-feedback forms, discussed later.

Depending on your child's age, you may encourage him to elaborate on his story.

A book report

Preparing for a book report

Frames provide a valuable way to organize ideas for book reports. Identify the components required for your student's report, as these will vary at different ages and grade levels. Create a frame for each component and help your child work with one frame at a time to complete the report.

This frame is a sample of the type of frame you may create to help your student with a book report. ( 11 )

The components used in this frame are divided into three portions: the Introduction, the Body, and the Conclusion. Your child will also use an appropriate self-feedback form, which you may provide on the bottom or on another paper.

Introduction:

Hook

This is a brief statement to highlight something about the story with the goal of "hooking" the reader. For example, a hook for the story, The Sign Of The Beaver by Elizabeth George could be, "Can you imagine living on your own in the wilderness for several months?" Another example is a hook for the story Hatchet by Gary Paulsen: "Can you imagine living on your own in the wilderness with only a hatchet to help you survive?"

Resource

In this frame, your child writes the name of the book and the author. Depending on his curriculum, he may also add the literary genre.

Quick summary

Your child writes a brief summary of the story in one, two, or three sentences. Many students may need significant examples, modeling, and scaffolding to develop the skill of writing a concise summary.

Topic

Your child writes a single sentence, which summarizes the main idea of the story. For example, the topic frame for the book Hatchet might be, "Brian survives the Canadian wilderness by creating new ways to view his environment."

Body:

Ideas or events

The sample frame illustrates three boxes for "ideas" or "events." You may use this format for a book report having three or five paragraphs. In a three-paragraph report, the paragraphs correspond to introduction, ideas, and conclusion. The student integrates the three primary ideas into a single paragraph. A five-paragraph book report describes each of the three main ideas in a full paragraph.

Using the example of Hatchet, the three basic ideas are fire, fish, and meat.

Supporting details

Your child lists details to support each idea within the box under the corresponding idea. In the example above, your student may list three supporting details for the basic idea of fire:

Brian longed for matches.

He tried rubbing to stick together.

He used his hatchet to create a spark.

Conclusion:

The conclusion section includes varying components, depending upon what is required at your child age.

Restate the topic

This section is for a one-sentence summary statement related to the "quick summary" above.

Theme

A theme is defined as a unifying idea that is a recurring element in a literary work. In this section, your child selects a one-word summary to describe the theme of the story. For the story Hatchet, the theme could be "survival".

It is useful to provide students with a list of possible theme topics, making sure that they understand the meaning of each word. Your student can use this list to select a word that matches his story. Some theme words might be:

Interpretation

Interpretation relates back to the initial hook. The answer to the question posed in the hook in the story Hatchet is "yes!" Your student writes this word in the interpretation and box.

Concluding thought

Your child concludes his book report with the statement that forms a concluding thought. An example for hatchet might be, "sometimes survival means looking at the world with a new pair of the 'glasses.'"

Writing the book report

Give your child another blank copy of the book report frame. For some children, it is useful to print the frame on three separate pages, with one page for each of the following sections:

Many children decide that the sections for "hook," "resource" and sometimes "quick summary" remain the same as in the Planning Book Report Frame. If this is your child's decision, she may start with "topic." Your child then completes each box in the frame. However, this time she uses her notes from the Planning Book Report Frame and within each box, she writes elaborate and descriptive sentences for each component.

After the elaboration, you child completes one of the self-feedback forms to analyze her work.

The next step ("W" in POWER) is for your child to write (or type) the Book Report using good paragraph structure and organization. Again, follow this by using a self-feedback form to analyze her work.

Feedback

Research findings suggest that verbal feedback during and after a learning task are key elements in the error-correction process. There is much value in verbal feedback and discussing a learning process. However, interfering too soon in the learning process may get in the way of your child's ability to acquire and retain the information.

In providing feedback to your child, tell him what he is doing well and ask provocative questions to stimulate further learning. An example question might be, "This summary statement is very interesting. What else might you say to point out another important idea in the story?"

It is also critical for your child to analyze his own work by providing his own feedback. This process of analysis and decision-making is critical for the learning process. Self-feedback forms provide a framework for the criteria you child need to evaluate. Some examples of self-feedback forms are in Figures 8 to 13.

Using computer programs

Some options for obtaining ideas for using technology are available from the following sources.

An example of a Clicker4 screen.

Readers may find additional suggestions in Perspectives, the magazine of the International Dyslexia Association in the theme issue, "Assistive Technologies: Making a Difference" (17)

Older students may wish to investigate use of a voice-activated program such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking (18). Several prerequisites must be in place for success in using such software, some of which are listed below:

The student must reorganize the information in advance

The student must be able to state the phrases and sentences fairly fluently, without using filler words such as "um" or "uh"

The student must speak clearly without excessive slurring of words

The student must have a basic understanding of word processing procedures

It is valuable for the student to use the voice-activated program along with a keyboard. This technique is more multisensory and provides visual feedback so that the student can make corrections more efficiently. Newer versions of these programs include a correction device wherein the student can hear what was originally said, a feature, which can be extremely useful.

Help your student develop efficient keyboarding skills. To develop skills to an automatic level, frequency and consistency of practice are imperative. Very few students can learn to type efficiently by only practicing one time a week. It is more efficient to practice on a daily basis for five or 10 minutes. A short practice session repeated on a consistent basis will have more benefit for students. It is valuable to use a variety of typing tutor programs, as this helps decrease boredom. Among this author's favorites are the various versions of Type to Learn (19 , 20 , 2 1).

Investigate use of a program that will read back to the student what he wrote. One suggestion is Screenreader ®

In summary,

Be positive with your child and reinforce successes

Encourage your child to practice writing

Teach your child one strategy at a time

Ensure your child to practice the component skills to a level of automaticity

Encourage your child to use a process approach, focusing on one small chunk at a time

Encourage your child to have fun with the process of communicating in writing

Encourage your child to use an appropriate self-feedback form to think about the quality of her writing

And above all, Have Fun!

References
References

1. Richards, Regina and Richards, Eli. Eli, The Boy Who Hated to Write: Understanding Dysgraphia, 2000 (www.retctrpress.com

2. Richards, Regina G. The Source for Learning and Memory. 2003. (www.linguisystems.com). Page 23 (Based on Levine, Mel, Educational Care, page 7)

3. Boice, R."How Writers Journey to Comfort and Fluency", 1994, in Feifer, Steven G. & DeFina, Philip A. The Neuropsychology of Written Language Disorders: Diagnosis & Intervention, 2002, page 35. (www.retctrpress.com)

4. Levine, Melvin D. Keeping A Head in School: A Student's Book about Learning Abilities and Learning Disorders, 1990. (www.retctrpress.com) (www.epsbooks.com). Page ---

5. Richards, Regina G. LEARN: Playful Strategies for All Students, 2001. (www.retctrpress.com) Pages 74-75.

6. Allen, Rich. Impact Learning Cartoon Posters Series. (www.impactlearn.com) (>www.retctrpress.com).

7. Franklin Electronic Publishers (www.franklin.com)

8. Ellis, Ed. Makes Sense Strategies: Framing For Success (2001) (On-line).

9. Wolfe, Patricia and Nevills, Pamela. Building the Reading Brain, PreK-3. (www.corwinpress.com). Page 131.

10. Learning Headquarters (LHQ), San Diego, CA. (www.learningheadquarters.com)

11. Learning Headquarters (LHQ), San Diego, CA. (www.learningheadquarters.com)

12. Learning Headquarters (LHQ), San Diego, CA. (www.learningheadquarters.com)

13. Learning Headquarters (LHQ), San Diego, CA. (www.learningheadquarters.com)

14. Richards, Regina G. The Source for Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. 1999. (www.linguisystems.com) Page 243.

15. Richards, Regina G. The Source for Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. 1999. (www.linguisystems.com) Page 243.

16. Richards, Regina G. The Source for Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. 1999. (www.linguisystems.com) Page 243.

17. International Dyslexia Association, Perspectives, Fall 2003 (www.interdys.org)

18. Dragon NaturallySpeaking (www.dragon-naturally.com)

19. Type to Learn 3 (www.sunburst.com); keyboarding grades 3 and up

20. Type to Learn Jr. (www.sunburst.com); keyboarding grades K to 2

21. Type to Learn Jr.: new keys for kids (www.sunburst.com); keyboarding grades 1 to 3

Regina G. Richards (2004)

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Tool Kit for Parents: Tips for Helping With Writing Tasks

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By: Regina G. Richards A student in elementary school describes his feelings about writing as follows: "Writing was definitely the worst task of all. It was just way too hard to remember all the things he needed, like periods and capital letters.

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By: Regina G. Richards

A student in elementary school describes his feelings about writing as follows:

"Writing was definitely the worst task of all. It was just way too hard to remember all the things he needed, like periods and capital letters. And then, it was almost impossible to think about how to spell words when he was busy trying to think about the story."

So Eli figured it was easier to write just a few sentences. That didn't hurt his hand so much either. His teachers complained, but Eli just kept writing very short stories. After all, teachers didn't understand what it was like to struggle and struggle to write, and still have the paper turn out sloppy and full of mistakes.... They couldn't understand how hard he "tried." (1)

Let's examine some of the issues that frustrate Eli about writing.

Working memory

Working memory is a form of multitasking . Many refer to it as "active working memory" to emphasize the role of active involvement. This type of memory has five main purposes:

1. Holding an idea in mind while developing, elaborating, clarifying, or using it

2. Recalling information from long-term memory while holding related information in short-term memory

3. Holding components of the task together in memory while completing that task

4. Keeping a series of pieces of information together so that they remain meaningful

5. Holding a long-term plan while thinking about a short-term need (2)

Story size

Story size relates to active working memory. When a student deals with or manipulates a larger chunk of information, he also needs to hold together more pieces or components of that information. To compensate for less efficiency in this area, students often shorten what they write. An example of a student struggling to hold an idea in mind while elaborating upon it is when he writes a story that begins about one topic but switches topics several times throughout the story.

Research demonstrates evidence of significant failure to develop students' positive beliefs and motivation towards writing in many of today's writing programs. Students who experience a limited amount of written language success often force writing with a hurried pace, a lagging confidence, and a lingering malaise. Although many students acknowledge that writing is important and directly related to success in school and life, the thought of writing too often evokes negative reactions such as feelings of anxiety and dread, lack of control, and avoidance. (3)

Sloppiness

The issue of sloppiness or neatness also relates to active working memory. Some students may be able to write very neatly when their total concentration is upon the writing mechanics. However, when at the same time they need to think about the content or what they are writing, their working memory system becomes overloaded. They are no longer adequately able to hold together all the components of the task, and therefore, the neatness of their letterform deteriorates. When working memory falters, most often the component that gets "lost" is the one that is less automatic and/or most difficult for the student.

Understanding

The situation described at the beginning identifies Eli's frustrations with what he perceives as lack of understanding by his teachers. Students are able to perform more efficiently when they understand their issues and when they feel that their parents and teachers understand them.

What to do?

The writing task places many demands on a student's active working memory system. To be successful when writing, students need to manipulate multiple components simultaneously and successfully. They also need patience, persistence, and flexibility. They must constantly switch their attention between different goals and subtasks: the ideas, elaboration, descriptions, sentence structure, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and more.

Pediatrician Mel Levine, in his book for teenagers, describes writing as "the awesome juggling act." Under a picture of a boy juggling eight balls, each representing a necessary component for writing, he states, "To juggle, he has to keep all of these balls in the air at the same time. To write well, you have to keep all of the parts of writing in your memory while you are writing." (4)

Chunking

This is an important strategy for all students. Chunking, a computer term meaning, "bundles of information," refers to the strategy of breaking information or a task into smaller manageable parts.

As parents, we can help our children appreciate these important aspects about the chunking process:

we store and organize information more efficiently in small chunks

everything begins with one small step

the small steps then lead up to a bigger accomplishment

Power

When dealing with writing, chunking is critical. POWER is a mnemonic strategy to encourage students to proceed through the writing task in small steps. This strategy gives students power to succeed when writing by encouraging them to use an organized, systematic process. (5)

In mnemonic strategies such as POWER, each letter stands for a single step the child needs to perform. When introducing the strategy, model (show your child) how to do with the step and then encourage her to do it herself. Be sure your child understands each step before moving to the next. After all of the steps, show your child how they come together to create the full strategy and explain how each letter in the mnemonic serves as a memory hint or hook to trigger each step.

POWER: P is plan

This stage includes preparation activities and development of some background experience, with the goal of establishing enthusiasm for the topic. It also involves discussing the basic format and type of writing required by the task, followed by determining the steps needed to complete the task. In doing so, the student plans the focus of the task.

Some suggestions for preparatory activities include reading your child a related story, discussing the book your child has just read, or doing an "experiment" or art project that illustrates a critical concept. Of course, this will vary with the type of task and the child's age.

POWER: O is organize

The goal of this stage is to identify and describe the parts of the task. Visual organizers and use of frames are extremely valuable at this stage. The use of visual organizers was discussed in previous Tool Kit for Parents articles including, Tips for Understanding What You Read, Making It Stick, and Being an Efficient Homework Helper.

Younger students may focus on three primary parts: beginning, middle, and end. Older students may add other relevant components such as characters, setting, problem, solution, and theme.

Some basic criteria to consider in teaching this step of POWER are:

Begin with information/tasks that are more concrete and gradually increase the abstract.

Begin by including fewer components and progressively add more.

Begin with a smaller task or chunk and progressively increase in size.

POWER: W is write

Students write their paragraph/ paper, elaborating the ideas developed in the stage above. Younger students may start with pictures. It is critical to include both adult feedback and self-feedback at this stage. Self-feedback is described below.

POWER: E is edit

In the editing stage, have your student focus on a single component at a time. She proofreads the paper multiple times, each time with a different focus. This step is often the most difficult for students with learning challenges because they tend to "read" what they intended rather than what they actually wrote. A great deal of modeling, scaffolding (helping much more at the beginning, decreasing your help as you progress), and direct instruction is necessary to help students develop appropriate editing skills and to encourage going through the paper more than once.

Specific editing strategies were previously discussed in the article, Strategies For The Reluctant Writer.

POWER: R is revise

Many students attempt to avoid the revision stage. However, it is critical that they learn this as a valuable component of the written expression task. Again, scaffolding, modeling, and direct instruction are very useful in helping them understand how to enhance their writing. Using a self-feedback form to record the number of changes they made provides a concrete record of their progress in revising and enhancing their written products. Of course, changes need to be appropriate and add to the quality of the paper.

In this article, we will focus on some specific strategies for planning and organization.

A note about vocabulary and spelling

Some students may have difficulty thinking of the vocabulary word or words they want to use while writing. Other students have difficulty with spelling. When writing, these students tend to simplify their word usage.

Vocabulary

To help deal with this issue, encourage your student to brainstorm and think about the important or key vocabulary words he may wish to use prior to writing. He then makes a list of these words so they are readily available during the process of writing.

List KEY words FIRST

Spelling

Students who struggle with spelling often become frustrated when attempting to express their ideas in writing. It is especially valuable for these students to list some of the key words prior to starting because then they will be able to write with greater fluency of ideas because they will not become "stuck" trying to think of how to spell a specific word.

These students need to learn to be able to sound out words efficiently so that they can spell them with good phonetic logic. This will enhance their ability to read their own writing and will allow them the opportunity to use an electronic spell checker that works on phonetic principles, such as the Franklin Language Master. ( 7 ) This author's personal preference for such students is the Language Master 6000b because of its large font size and good speech clarity. Because the Franklin recognizes words phonetically, students can input words using logic about the way they sound. The Franklin will then help them match the phonetic spelling to the traditional spelling. This provides a valuable opportunity for students to think about the words and use the process of decision-making as they select the correct choice. This process helps reinforce the accurate spelling of the word.

The use of a speaking component provides multisensory input and helps decrease the student's confusion in reading similar looking words. Your student may also use the Franklin to compensate for sequencing problems when dealing with dictionary work.

Frames

Ed Ellis of the University of Alabama ( 8 ) developed learning frames as a sensible and powerful approach for developing skills related to understanding and expanding ideas. Learning frames help organize ideas, concepts, important implications and sequences.

"Learning frames appeal to the developing brain by structuring thinking, supporting connections between new ideas and previous knowledge, and developing new patterns for complex thoughts." ( 9 )

A basic frame is a series of boxes organized on a worksheet. The basic concept is the same for learning frames and visual organizers. There is often a box at the top for a key concept and other boxes for specific details. Students may use learning frames to organize a report, summarize a story or expository text, or take notes.

This strategy encourages students to think deeply about the topic rather then simply to identify facts. It is important that the teacher or parent directly teach each component of the frame to ensure that the student understands what is involved. Each time you use the same frame, supply less of the information and have your child fill in more until he can use the frame independently.

Students can use simple learning frames as early as first grade because it helps them focus on the patterns within ideas.

Strategies for younger students or students who are "stuck"

Some students say they can't think of anything to write, but in reality they may have many ideas but are stuck because they do not know how to organize them and bring them together.

Using pictures with frames

LHQ describes this technique, among several others, in two of their tool sets: The Emergent Tools and Primary Writing Tools. (10)

Give your child a piece of paper with frames consisting of three boxes and several lines, as in the sample below. Depending on your child's level, you may wish to insert primary spaced lines for his writing.
View a sample picture frame format
Talk with your child about a "story", discussing beginning, middle, and end. Relate these concepts to stories that are familiar to your child. Be sure your child is able to identify these three concepts in a variety of familiar stories.

Your goal is for your child to write his own story. Therefore, the first task is to identify a topic. Your child may come up with an idea for a topic or you may provide suggestions. Suggestions should involve an exciting happening that your child has recently experienced, such as, an incident or event with his favorite pet, a trip to a theme park such as Disneyland, or a birthday party. It is important that your child have direct experience with the topic, as the topic provides an important context for the child to use in developing his ideas.

As an alternative, you can use a wordless picture storybook as a topic. Go through the book with your child and ask the questions below.

Discuss with your child what happened first in his event by asking, "What happened first?" Have your child draw a picture about that happening in the first large box on the frame.

Discuss what happened in the middle of the event. If this seems too difficult for your child, switch to the end and discuss the last thing that happened. Have your child draw a picture about that happening in the appropriate box on the frame. If you discussed the middle of the event, your child draws the corresponding picture in the middle box. If you discussed the end of the event, your child draws a corresponding picture in the last box. Then, have your child draw a picture for the remaining happening of the event.

After your child has drawn all three pictures, encourage him to write a sentence about each, using the lines underneath the appropriate box.

When your child has finished writing a sentence for each picture, he then has a brief story consisting of a beginning, middle and end. Read the complete story with your child. At this point, it is appropriate and useful to have your child use one of the self-feedback forms, discussed later.

Depending on your child's age, you may encourage him to elaborate on his story.

A book report

Preparing for a book report

Frames provide a valuable way to organize ideas for book reports. Identify the components required for your student's report, as these will vary at different ages and grade levels. Create a frame for each component and help your child work with one frame at a time to complete the report.

This frame is a sample of the type of frame you may create to help your student with a book report. ( 11 )

The components used in this frame are divided into three portions: the Introduction, the Body, and the Conclusion. Your child will also use an appropriate self-feedback form, which you may provide on the bottom or on another paper.

Introduction:

Hook

This is a brief statement to highlight something about the story with the goal of "hooking" the reader. For example, a hook for the story, The Sign Of The Beaver by Elizabeth George could be, "Can you imagine living on your own in the wilderness for several months?" Another example is a hook for the story Hatchet by Gary Paulsen: "Can you imagine living on your own in the wilderness with only a hatchet to help you survive?"

Resource

In this frame, your child writes the name of the book and the author. Depending on his curriculum, he may also add the literary genre.

Quick summary

Your child writes a brief summary of the story in one, two, or three sentences. Many students may need significant examples, modeling, and scaffolding to develop the skill of writing a concise summary.

Topic

Your child writes a single sentence, which summarizes the main idea of the story. For example, the topic frame for the book Hatchet might be, "Brian survives the Canadian wilderness by creating new ways to view his environment."

Body:

Ideas or events

The sample frame illustrates three boxes for "ideas" or "events." You may use this format for a book report having three or five paragraphs. In a three-paragraph report, the paragraphs correspond to introduction, ideas, and conclusion. The student integrates the three primary ideas into a single paragraph. A five-paragraph book report describes each of the three main ideas in a full paragraph.

Using the example of Hatchet, the three basic ideas are fire, fish, and meat.

Supporting details

Your child lists details to support each idea within the box under the corresponding idea. In the example above, your student may list three supporting details for the basic idea of fire:

Brian longed for matches.

He tried rubbing to stick together.

He used his hatchet to create a spark.

Conclusion:

The conclusion section includes varying components, depending upon what is required at your child age.

Restate the topic

This section is for a one-sentence summary statement related to the "quick summary" above.

Theme

A theme is defined as a unifying idea that is a recurring element in a literary work. In this section, your child selects a one-word summary to describe the theme of the story. For the story Hatchet, the theme could be "survival".

It is useful to provide students with a list of possible theme topics, making sure that they understand the meaning of each word. Your student can use this list to select a word that matches his story. Some theme words might be:

Interpretation

Interpretation relates back to the initial hook. The answer to the question posed in the hook in the story Hatchet is "yes!" Your student writes this word in the interpretation and box.

Concluding thought

Your child concludes his book report with the statement that forms a concluding thought. An example for hatchet might be, "sometimes survival means looking at the world with a new pair of the 'glasses.'"

Writing the book report

Give your child another blank copy of the book report frame. For some children, it is useful to print the frame on three separate pages, with one page for each of the following sections:

Many children decide that the sections for "hook," "resource" and sometimes "quick summary" remain the same as in the Planning Book Report Frame. If this is your child's decision, she may start with "topic." Your child then completes each box in the frame. However, this time she uses her notes from the Planning Book Report Frame and within each box, she writes elaborate and descriptive sentences for each component.

After the elaboration, you child completes one of the self-feedback forms to analyze her work.

The next step ("W" in POWER) is for your child to write (or type) the Book Report using good paragraph structure and organization. Again, follow this by using a self-feedback form to analyze her work.

Feedback

Research findings suggest that verbal feedback during and after a learning task are key elements in the error-correction process. There is much value in verbal feedback and discussing a learning process. However, interfering too soon in the learning process may get in the way of your child's ability to acquire and retain the information.

In providing feedback to your child, tell him what he is doing well and ask provocative questions to stimulate further learning. An example question might be, "This summary statement is very interesting. What else might you say to point out another important idea in the story?"

It is also critical for your child to analyze his own work by providing his own feedback. This process of analysis and decision-making is critical for the learning process. Self-feedback forms provide a framework for the criteria you child need to evaluate. Some examples of self-feedback forms are in Figures 8 to 13.

Using computer programs

Some options for obtaining ideas for using technology are available from the following sources.

An example of a Clicker4 screen.

Readers may find additional suggestions in Perspectives, the magazine of the International Dyslexia Association in the theme issue, "Assistive Technologies: Making a Difference" (17)

Older students may wish to investigate use of a voice-activated program such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking (18). Several prerequisites must be in place for success in using such software, some of which are listed below:

The student must reorganize the information in advance

The student must be able to state the phrases and sentences fairly fluently, without using filler words such as "um" or "uh"

The student must speak clearly without excessive slurring of words

The student must have a basic understanding of word processing procedures

It is valuable for the student to use the voice-activated program along with a keyboard. This technique is more multisensory and provides visual feedback so that the student can make corrections more efficiently. Newer versions of these programs include a correction device wherein the student can hear what was originally said, a feature, which can be extremely useful.

Help your student develop efficient keyboarding skills. To develop skills to an automatic level, frequency and consistency of practice are imperative. Very few students can learn to type efficiently by only practicing one time a week. It is more efficient to practice on a daily basis for five or 10 minutes. A short practice session repeated on a consistent basis will have more benefit for students. It is valuable to use a variety of typing tutor programs, as this helps decrease boredom. Among this author's favorites are the various versions of Type to Learn (19 , 20 , 2 1).

Investigate use of a program that will read back to the student what he wrote. One suggestion is Screenreader ®

In summary,

Be positive with your child and reinforce successes

Encourage your child to practice writing

Teach your child one strategy at a time

Ensure your child to practice the component skills to a level of automaticity

Encourage your child to use a process approach, focusing on one small chunk at a time

Encourage your child to have fun with the process of communicating in writing

Encourage your child to use an appropriate self-feedback form to think about the quality of her writing

And above all, Have Fun!

References
References

1. Richards, Regina and Richards, Eli. Eli, The Boy Who Hated to Write: Understanding Dysgraphia, 2000 (www.retctrpress.com

2. Richards, Regina G. The Source for Learning and Memory. 2003. (www.linguisystems.com). Page 23 (Based on Levine, Mel, Educational Care, page 7)

3. Boice, R."How Writers Journey to Comfort and Fluency", 1994, in Feifer, Steven G. & DeFina, Philip A. The Neuropsychology of Written Language Disorders: Diagnosis & Intervention, 2002, page 35. (www.retctrpress.com)

4. Levine, Melvin D. Keeping A Head in School: A Student's Book about Learning Abilities and Learning Disorders, 1990. (www.retctrpress.com) (www.epsbooks.com). Page ---

5. Richards, Regina G. LEARN: Playful Strategies for All Students, 2001. (www.retctrpress.com) Pages 74-75.

6. Allen, Rich. Impact Learning Cartoon Posters Series. (www.impactlearn.com) (>www.retctrpress.com).

7. Franklin Electronic Publishers (www.franklin.com)

8. Ellis, Ed. Makes Sense Strategies: Framing For Success (2001) (On-line).

9. Wolfe, Patricia and Nevills, Pamela. Building the Reading Brain, PreK-3. (www.corwinpress.com). Page 131.

10. Learning Headquarters (LHQ), San Diego, CA. (www.learningheadquarters.com)

11. Learning Headquarters (LHQ), San Diego, CA. (www.learningheadquarters.com)

12. Learning Headquarters (LHQ), San Diego, CA. (www.learningheadquarters.com)

13. Learning Headquarters (LHQ), San Diego, CA. (www.learningheadquarters.com)

14. Richards, Regina G. The Source for Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. 1999. (www.linguisystems.com) Page 243.

15. Richards, Regina G. The Source for Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. 1999. (www.linguisystems.com) Page 243.

16. Richards, Regina G. The Source for Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. 1999. (www.linguisystems.com) Page 243.

17. International Dyslexia Association, Perspectives, Fall 2003 (www.interdys.org)

18. Dragon NaturallySpeaking (www.dragon-naturally.com)

19. Type to Learn 3 (www.sunburst.com); keyboarding grades 3 and up

20. Type to Learn Jr. (www.sunburst.com); keyboarding grades K to 2

21. Type to Learn Jr.: new keys for kids (www.sunburst.com); keyboarding grades 1 to 3

Regina G. Richards (2004)

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Tool Kit for Parents: Tips for Helping With Writing Tasks

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By: Regina G. Richards A student in elementary school describes his feelings about writing as follows: "Writing was definitely the worst task of all. It was just way too hard to remember all the things he needed, like periods and capital letters.

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Family Literacy Tips: Early Print Awareness

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Rhyming Activities for Kindergarten and First Grade | how to teach students to rhyme

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What Is Phonemic Awareness? | Reading Lessons

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Syllables Games for Kindergarten : Kindergarten Games & Activities

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Your young learners will love this set of simple board games that build phonemic awareness!
Phonemic awareness.
What does it mean, anyway?

It's a scary-sounding phrase, but it's really not that complicated. It has to do with hearing and manipulating sounds in words. While some phonemic awareness activities may be used alongside letters, most of them don't.

If you ask a child to tell you the beginning sound of sandwich, and s/he says sssss, that's great! Isolating beginning sounds is one key component of phonemic awareness - and it's exactly what we're going to focus on with this set of games.

We have six children, and our oldest four developed phonemic awareness without a lot of intentionality on my part. I read to them often, and we did a variety of early learning activities - but I didn't have to explicitly teach phonemic awareness. For all of them (now 10, 9, 7, and 5) phonemic awareness just cam e.

This hasn't been true of my Three (almost four). Thankfully, she's catching on with the playful activities and games that I've been sharing over the past few months.

Print and cut apart the dot cards at the end of the file.

Grab playing pieces.

Take turns moving along the board by drawing a dot card and moving that number of spaces.

When you land on a space, say the picture's name and its beginning sound.

How to play the games
When my Three landed on a picture, she often stretched that initial sound instead of isolating it. For example, "Milk. Mmmmmilk." Or "Sandwich. Ssssandwich." Fine by me! My goal was for her to hear and identify that beginning sound - and she was doing it!

Sometimes she was frustrated and didn't want to try. Tiger was hard for her. Can you guess why?

It's because /t/ is not a continuous sound. Mmmmmmm and Sssssss were the other two sounds featured in the first game and were much easier.

When she hit a roadblock, she told me to do it. So I did.

"Hmm... is it /m/? Mmm, mmm, miger! No? Is it /g/? /G/, /g/, geiger?" After I was a little silly she was ready to get back in the game.

I chose to use those dot cards because my Three isn't real quick at knowing the dots on a die yet. Another reason is that it's a short game board. If your learner rolls a six three times, the game is over!

The dot cards gave her just enough turns without a single game overwhelming her.

After we played one game, she was willing to play one more. Each game adds a new letter's sound and bumps one sound off. So for example, the first game featured the sounds of m, s, and t. The second game features the sounds of s, t, and a.

I would say that she isolated (or stretched) the beginning sound correctly about 75% of the time. By the time we were finishing (after about 5-10 minutes), she was tired and gave up quickly. Ax (pictured above) was too hard.

So what do you think? Will these work for your learners? I hope you enjoy the 25 free games you can get in the download. These games come in color, but feel free to print in grayscale if you'd like.

BUILD A STRONG READING FOUNDATION

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If you have learners who struggle to isolate beginning sounds, these free phonemic awareness games are the perfect fit! Use them in preschool or kindergarten. Use them in literacy centers or small groups. #phonemicawareness #preschool #kindergarten

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Free, fun educational app for young kids | Khan Academy Kids

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Inspire a lifetime of learning with our educational app for kids ages 2-8. Kids can learn reading, writing, math, counting, ABCs, addition, subtraction, social-emotional skills, & more. 100% free on iPhone, iPad, Android, and Amazon

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FREE Materials & Ideas: Multi-Sensory Activities for Kindergarten

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Kindergarten Alphabet Game (ABC Ball) // letter and sound alphabet games for kindergarten

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Uppercase & Lowercase Letter Matching // letter and alphabet games, activities for kindergarten

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How to Teach Letter Names and Sounds // 3 fun letter names and sounds activities

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Parts of a Sentence | Parts of Speech Song for Kids | Jack Hartmann

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Tips for Struggling Writers in Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade! | Writing Tips for Students

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Learn more and understand better with BrainPOP's animated movies, games, playful assessments, and activities covering Science, Math, History, English, and more!

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Many times people are accused of talking to their computers. Well with text to speech tools, your computer can talk back. Google Chrome has several extensions that will read web pages and Google Documents aloud, often with a variety of voices and adjustments for speed and volume.

In this blog post we will take a look at five ways students can benefit from text to speech tools. Then we will examine three of the best Chrome extensions for this purpose.

You can view the short video to see a demo of each of the three tools, and then read the rest of the post for more details on how these can be used in school.

Demonstration Video

Student Uses for Text to Speech

Assistance for reading

One of the most common uses for text to speech is to help students who have difficulty reading. This can be used for an article on a website, or the content in an online course, or the instructions you put at the top of a Google Docs assignment. Most text to speech tools also allow the user to slow down or speed up the speaking rate. This can help the student listen at a pace that is appropriate for their comprehension.

Multiple modalities

Even if a student is able to read proficiently, using text to speech can provide additional support by tapping into a second learning modality. In addition to the student reading the words visually, the student can also hear the words read aloud. Students who learn well auditorily will benefit from this extra presentation of the content while they read along.

Self-editing for writing

Text to speech is not just to help students read unfamiliar text. It can also be used to read the words the students wrote themselves. When students write reports, essays, or stories, one of the best ways for them to edit their works is to hear it read back aloud to them. Before a student submits their work to their teacher they should use one of the text to speech tools to hear what they actually wrote, not what they think they wrote. This allows them to find incorrect words ("you" instead of "your"), missing punctuation, double words (the dreaded "the the"), sentences that do not flow, and ideas that need more details. In fact, I used text to speech on this blog post for my own editing.

World language fluency

Many text to speech tools don't just work for the English language, but also have multiple voices you can select in many languages, dialects, and genders. For students learning a world language they can choose a text in the language they are studying, then pick a voice in that language to read the text, allowing them to hear the proper pronunciation.

Multitasking

Finally, in addition to all the educational reasons listed above, using a text to speech tool can simply save time. Need to read an article, but you also need to do chores, exercise, or just relax? Use a text to speech tool to read to you while you multitask. This can be helpful for students as well as adults, as I know I have listened to many web-based articles while folding laundry.

Read & Write for Google Chrome

Chrome Web Store link

Read & Write for Google is the Swiss army knife of extensions with a wide range of tools beyond just text to speech. However, for this blog post we will just focus on that feature (and take a closer look at this extension in its own post in the future).

With Read & Write installed, you will access it in two different ways depending on whether you are on a web page or in a Google Doc. If you are on a web page there will be an "RW" icon inside your URL bar on the far right. If you are in a Google Doc, there will be an "RW" icon at the top of the Doc. Either way just click the "RW" icon to open Read & Write.

You will now get a toolbar with a wide range of buttons. The text to speech button is the one with the triangular play icon. Simply select your text and click the play button to have it read aloud. Read & Write works inside a Google Doc or on a web page, reading just what you have highlighted. Additionally it highlights each word as it reads it, making it easier for students to follow along.

In this extension you also have the option to change voices. Click the gear icon on the right side of the toolbar to open the settings and select the voice and speed you want. Voices include male and female, and a wide range of nationalities.

In addition to the free version of Read & Write, there is also a paid premium version that offers many tools beyond text to speech. Teachers, however, can get the premium version for free by filling out a simple form on the company's website here: https://www.texthelp.com/en-us/products/read-write/free-for-teachers/

SpeakIt!

Chrome Web Store link

This extension is a very simple text to speech tool, but still has lots of options if you want them. With the extension installed, just highlight the text you want, then click the extension icon, or right click on the text and choose "SpeakIt!" The text will now be read aloud in whatever voice you have chosen. If you would like a different voice simply right click on the extension and choose "Options". You can now pick the voice you want, including male or female, and a large selection of nationalities. You can also adjust the voice volume and speed.

The only negative I have found with SpeakIt is when reading a Google Document. The extension works great on web pages, but when used in a Google Doc it always starts at the beginning of the document regardless of what text you highlight.

Chrome Web Store link

Our final text to speech extension is Announcify. This extension reads web page text aloud, but also does a few other things along with that. When you are on a web page and click the Announcify extension, the web page will reload in a simpler, cleaner format (much like the Readability extension - see here for a blog post with more details). Ads, comments, and such will be removed, leaving just the core content and images.

Then Announcify will automatically start reading the web page text. You are not able to highlight the text you want, as it always starts at the top and reads completely to the bottom. You can click on the forward and backward buttons if you want it to skip ahead. Finally the extension also blurs out all of the text except for the paragraph it is currently reading.

Just like the other extensions, you can right click on its icon and choose "Options" to adjust the speed, pitch, and voice (male, female, multiple nationalities). The only big drawback is the inability for the student to select text and have Announcify read just the chosen passage.

Conclusion

Do you have other favorite tools for text to speech? Are there other ideas for how students can benefit from text to speech? If so, please share your ideas, tools, and suggestions in the comments below.

Post by Eric Curts. Bring me to your school, organization, or conference with over 50 PD sessions to choose from. Connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts and on Google+ at plus.google.com/+EricCurts1

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3 text to speech tools and 5 ways your students can use them

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Many times people are accused of talking to their computers. Well with text to speech tools, your computer can talk back. Google Chrome has several extensions that will read web pages and Google Documents aloud, often with a variety of voices and adjustments for speed and volume.

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Lalilo by Renaissance | Practice and instruction on Foundational Literacy skills

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Sign up and invite parents remotely for home access to phonics and reading lessons.

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IXL Learn to Read skill plan - Language arts Level 1

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Build a solid reading foundation with IXL's day-by-day skill plan! Level 1 teaches phonological awareness, letter-sound associations, CVC words, blends and digraphs, and high-frequency words. By the end, students can read simple sentences with short vowel words.

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All Individual Letter Songs (open to new window)

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All Individual Letter Songs (open to new window)

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Alphabet Songs (Official ABC Songs Playlist by Have Fun Teaching)

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This is the official Alphabet Songs Playlist by Have Fun Teaching! These alphabet songs are a fun way to teach the alphabet, letter sounds, phonics, vocabula...

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TypeTastic - Take Your Students into Typing Adventure!

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Discover 700+ typing activities for all grade levels - and unleash the joy of typing in your school

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Promoting language and literacy skills through diverse children's literature.

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Hi everyone! Come and join us at Storyvision Studios UK. We offer a fabulous resource for parents, care givers and educational settings. Our channel provides safe, fun, engaging and beautifully illustrated audiobooks. We also write and illustrate our own stories! We hope to delight young story enthusiasts with our storytelling and colourful creations!

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Book list (alphabetical by title)

Only books that we have "download" rights for

1. A Christmas journey

2. A Jacobite exile

3. A New-Year's gift for youth

4. A description of various nations

5. A final reckoning

6. A friendly visit to the house of mourning

7. A gift for a little child

8. A history of beasts for the use of children

9. A history of beasts for the use of children

10. A history of birds

11. A history of birds

12. A history of my father's dog, Towzer

13. A history of quadrupeds

14. A knight of the white cross

15. A little present for a good child

16. A march on London

17. A new hieroglyphical bible

18. A new home, a new friend

19. A parent's offering, or, My mother's story of her own home and childhood

20. A peep at the old world

21. A pleasing toy for children

22. A pleasing toy for children

23. A pleasing variety for the youthful mind

24. A present for little girls

25. A pretty picture book

26. A primer for the use of Sunday schools

27. A riddle book

28. A roving commission

29. A story for Charles

30. A story for Charles

31. A tale of Waterloo

32. A teacher's gift

33. A time for Evron

34. A token for children

35. A token for children

36. A token for children

37. A walk in the hay-fields

38. A.B.C. of the apple pie

39. Abridgment of Murray's English grammar

40. Absurd alphabet ; Baby's own alphabet ; Noah's Ark alphabet

41. Advice to sabbath school children

42. Aesop's fables

43. Aesop's fables

44. Aesop's fables

45. Aesop's fables

46. Aesop's fables

47. Aesop's fables

48. Aesop's fables

49. Aesop's fables

50. Aesop's fables in words of one syllable

51. Aesopi Phrigis Et Aliorvm Fabvlae

52. Aesopi Phrygis Fabellae Graece & Latine, cum alijs opusculis, quorum index proxima refertur pagella.

53. Aesopi Phrygis Fabellae Graece et Latine

54. Aesopi Phrygis Fabulae

55. Aesopi Phrygis Fabulae graece et latine

56. Aesopi Phrygis Fabulae græce et latinè

57. Aesopi Phrygis et aliorum fabulae

58. Aesopi Phrygis fabellae græce & latine

59. Aesopi Phrygis fabvlæ Graece et Latine

60. Aesopi Phrygis vita et fabellae

61. Aesopi fabvlae cvm vvlgari interpretatione

62. Aesops fables

63. Aisōpou mythoi

64. Animal biography, or, Book of natural history

65. Aunt Jane's nieces

66. Aunt Jane's nieces abroad

67. Aunt Jane's nieces and Uncle John

68. Aunt Jane's nieces at Millville

69. Aunt Jane's nieces at work

70. Aunt Jane's nieces in society

71. Aunt Jane's nieces in the Red Cross

72. Aunt Jane's nieces on the ranch

73. Aunt Jane's nieces on vacation

74. Aunt Jane's nieces out West

75. Bajki i powiastki Stanisława Jachowicza

76. Bajki niekrasickiego

77. Baśń o szopce

78. Beadle's dime song book no. 10

79. Bewicks select fables of Æsop and others in three parts

80. Bible histories

81. Bible history

82. Bible stories

83. Bible stories and pictures

84. Bible stories and pictures from the Old and New Testaments

85. Bible story book for a good little boy

86. Birth-day present

87. Black beauty: His grooms and companions

88. Black beauty: His grooms and companions

89. Blind Susan, or, The affectionate family

90. Bohaterski miś

91. Book about birds

92. Book about ships and cars

93. Book of pictures and verses

94. By England's aid, or, The freeing of the Netherlands (1585-1604)

95. By pike and dyke

96. By right of conquest, or, With Cortez in Mexico

97. By sheer pluck

98. Cage of birds

99. Captain Bayley's heir

100. Casket of toys

101. Catharine Warden, or, The pious scholar

102. Child's book of 100 pictures

103. Child's book of poetry

104. Child's first book

105. Child's picture book

106. Child's picture book

107. Child's story-book

108. Child's story-book

109. Clara, or, The reform

110. Col. Thorndyke's secret

111. Condemned as a nihilist

112. Conscience disobeyed, or, Story of Ned Bright

113. Der große Wettkampf

114. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

115. Dot and Tot of Merryland

116. Du schaffst das schon, Josephine!

117. Dutch Mother Goose

118. Eight stories for Isabel

119. Esopus moralisatus cum bono comentō

120. Fables of Aesop and others

121. Fables of Aesop and others

122. Fables of Æsop and others

123. Fables of Æsop, and other eminent mythologists

124. Fables of Æsop, and others

125. Fabulae Aesopi graecaè et latinè, nunc denuo selectae.

126. Fabulae Aesopiae curis posterioribus omnes fere, emendatae

127. Fabulae Aesopiae curis posterioribus omnes fere, emendatae

128. Fabulae c. Aesopicae

129. Fabularum Aesopicarum delectus

130. Fabulas de Esopo

131. Fabulæ Aesopi selectæ

132. Fabulæ Æsopi

133. Fabulæ Æsopi Graecè & Latinè, nunc denuo selectæ

134. Fabvlae Aesopiae e codice Avgvstano

135. Fabvlae aesopicae qvales ante Planvdem ferebantvr ex vetvsto cod

136. Facing death, or, The hero of the Vaughn pit

137. Fafi's sheep

138. Fairy tales by Hans Andersen

139. Figures in verse and simple rhymes for little learners

140. Filuś, Miluś i Kizia

141. Flower garden

142. Flowers for a juvenile garland

143. Flowers for the nursery, or, A good child's nosegay

144. Flying high

145. Flying high

146. Flying high

147. For name and fame, or, Through the Afghan passes

148. For the temple

149. Friends though divided

150. Gems for children

151. Gems for girls and boys

152. Gems for girls and boys

153. Glinda of Oz

154. Going to a wedding

155. Going to a wedding

156. Going to a wedding

157. Going to a wedding

158. Going to buy a book

159. Going to buy a book

160. Going to buy a book

161. Going to buy a book

162. Going to market

163. Going to market

164. Going to market

165. Going to market

166. Good and bad luck

167. Good for you

168. Good little Mary, noisy Cecilia, &c., &c.

169. Grandma Berry's secret

170. Grandmama Easys lullaby songs

171. Grandmamma's book of rhymes for the nursery

172. Grandpa Fish and the radio

173. Grandpa Fish and the radio

174. Grandpa Fish and the radio

175. Grandpa Fish and the radio

176. Habentur hoc uolumine hæc, uidelicet. Vita, & Fabellæ Aesopi cum interpretatione latina

177. Hanasaki jiji

178. Happy Maths 2

179. Happy Maths 2

180. Happy and sad

181. Happy and sad

182. Happy and sad

183. Happy and sad

184. Happy little Edward and his pleasant ride and rambles in the country

185. Happy little George

186. Happy maths 1

187. Happy maths 1

188. Happy maths 1

189. Happy maths 3

190. Happy maths 3

191. Happy maths 3

192. Happy maths 3

193. Happy maths 4

194. Happy maths 4

195. Happy maths 4

196. Happy maths 4

197. Heedless Mary

198. Held fast for England

199. Hey diddle diddle

200. Hey diddle diddle

201. Hinty Minty

202. Histories de peaux-rouges

203. History and anecdotes of the elephant

204. History and anecdotes of the elephant

205. History of animals

206. History of beasts

207. History of quadrupeds

208. History of quadrupeds

209. Home pastimes, or, Agreeable exercises for the mind

210. Honesty the best policy

211. Hop o' my Thumb

212. Hugo og gressklipperen

213. Hymns for children

214. Hymns for children in prose

215. Hymns for little children

216. I wouldn't tell a lie

217. In freedom's cause

218. In the Irish brigade

219. In the heart of the Rockies

220. In the reign of terror

221. In times of peril

222. Inaba no shirousagi

223. Indian anecdotes

224. Industry and idleness

225. Infant hymns

226. Instruction and amusement for the young

227. Instruction and amusement for the young

228. Instructive amusement, or, Amusing picture book

229. Jack Mason, the old sailor

230. Janko Hraško

231. John Dough and the cherub

232. Juvenile pastimes

233. Juvenile poems

234. Juvenile stories for little readers

235. Kachi-Kachi yama

236. Kato Clever and the big trouble

237. Kato Clever and the big trouble

238. Kato Clever and the big trouble

239. Kato Clever and the big trouble

240. Kato Clever and the big trouble

241. Kato Clever and the big trouble

242. Kato Clever and the big trouble

243. La Mére L'oie

244. Le premier Noël de Bonbon

245. Learning to think

246. Les meilleurs amis du monde

247. Lessons for Laura

248. Life on the farm in amusing rhyme

249. Listen to my body

250. Listen to my body

251. Listen to my body

252. Listen to my body

253. Listen to my body

254. Little Bo-Peep Mother Goose

255. Little Frank's almanack

256. Little Harry and the apples

257. Little Harry and the apples

258. Little Harry and the apples

259. Little Helen, or, A day in the life of a naughty girl

260. Little Helen, or, A day in the life of a naughty girl

261. Little Helen, or, A day in the life of a naughty girl

262. Little Helen, or, A day in the life of a naughty girl

263. Little Ino C. and his companions

264. Little Jack Horner

265. Little Lucy, or, A day in the life of a good girl

266. Little Lucy, or, The pleasant day

267. Little Lucy, or, The pleasant day

268. Little Lucy, or, The pleasant day

269. Little Mary, or, The pleasant day

270. Little Red-Riding-Hood

271. Little Robert and the owl

272. Little bright eyes

273. Little lessons for little learners

274. Little line

275. Little poems for little children

276. Little poems for little children

277. Little present for a good child

278. Little rhymes for little readers

279. Little stories for little children

280. Little stories for young folks

281. Little truths, or, The juvenile tell-tale

282. Little verses for good children

283. Lucy's wishes, or, The folly of idle thoughts

284. Madejowe łoże

285. Mama's old time jingles

286. Mamma's lessons for her little boys and girls

287. Maori and settler

288. Maria, or, The good girl

289. Mary Richmond

290. Matsuyama kagami

291. Mazeppa and the wild horse

292. Memoir of Ann Eliza Starr of Connecticut

293. Memoir of James M'Corkle

294. Memoir of Mary Jane

295. Milk for bables, or, A catechism in verse

296. Momotaro, or, Little peachling

297. Moo moo brown cow, have you any milk?

298. Moo moo brown cow, have you any milk?

299. Moo moo brown cow, have you any milk?

300. Moo moo brown cow, have you any milk?

301. Moo moo brown cow, have you any milk?

302. Moral emblems

303. Moral emblems

304. Mother Goose

305. Mother Goose

306. Mother Goose in white

307. Mother Goose in white

308. Mother Goose jingles

309. Mother Goose melodies

310. Mother Goose melodies

311. Mother Goose nursery tales

312. Mother Goose of '93

313. Mother Goose rhymes

314. Mother Goose set to music

315. Mother Goose's chimes

316. Mother Goose's melodies

317. Mother Goose's melodies

318. Mother Goose's melodies

319. Mother Goose's melodies

320. Mother Goose's melodies for children, or, Songs for the nursery

321. Mother Goose's melody

322. Mother Goose's melody

323. Mother Goose's melody

324. Mother Goose's nursery rhymes

325. Mother Goose's nursery rhymes

326. Mother Goose's nursery rhymes

327. Mother Goose's nursery rhymes and nursery songs

328. Mother Goose's nursery rhymes and nursery songs

329. Mother Goose's quarto of nursery rhymes

330. Mother Goose's quarto of nursery rhymes

331. Mother Goose, or, National nursery rhymes

332. Mother Goose, or, The old nursery rhymes

333. Mother Goose, or, The old nursery rhymes

334. Mother Goose, or, The old nursery rhymes

335. Mother Gooses' rhymes

336. Mother [Goose] in hieroglyphics

337. Mother's last words

338. Museum of foreign animals, or, History of beasts

339. Museum of foreign animals, or, History of beasts

340. Museum of foreign animals, or, History of beasts

341. My cousin Hester

342. My little primer

343. My little song book

344. My little song book

345. My mother's gold ring

346. Narrative of Catharine Yeates

347. National nursery rhymes and nursery songs

348. Natural history of animals

349. Natural history of birds

350. Natural history of birds

351. Natural history of quadrupeds

352. Naughty or not

353. Naughty or not

354. Naughty or not

355. Naughty or not

356. Never lonely again

357. New York evening tales, or, Uncle John's true stories about natural history

358. New York evening tales, or, Uncle John's true stories about natural history

359. New York evening tales, or, Uncle John's true stories about natural history

360. New York evening tales, or, Uncle John's true stories about natural history

361. No surrender

362. Nursery rhymes

363. Nursery rhymes from Mother Goose with alphabet

364. Old Mother Goose and her son Jack

365. Old Mother Hubbard

366. Old Mother Hubbard and her dog

367. Old grand-papa

368. Old nursery rhymes

369. Old tales newly told

370. On the Irrawaddy

371. Once upon a time in Connecticut

372. One of the 28th

373. Our Christmas 1985

374. Our Mother Goose

375. Our wonderful world

376. Our wonderful world

377. Our wonderful world

378. Our wonderful world

379. Our wonderful world

380. Our wonderful world

381. Out with Garibaldi

382. Parables in verse

383. Passion and punishment

384. Paulina and her pets

385. Peter Pan and Wendy

386. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

387. Pictures and stories for the young, or, Pleasing tales in poetry and prose

388. Pictures of Bible history

389. Pictures of animals

390. Pictures of animals

391. Pleasing poetry and pictures for the mind and eye

392. Poetic gift

393. Poetic gift

394. Poor Bessy, or, Kindness rewarded

395. Quelle porcherie!

396. Real stories from our history

397. Redskin and cow-boy

398. Restons bons copains!

399. Rhymes after meat

400. Rhymes for the nursery

401. Rhymes for the nursery

402. Rinkitink in Oz

403. Rip Van Winkle

404. Ritu's letter gets longer!

405. Ritu's letter gets longer!

406. Ritu's letter gets longer!

407. Robin Redbreast

408. Romance of Indian history, or, Thrilling incidents in the early settlement of America

409. Round and round

410. Round and round

411. Round and round

412. Round and round

413. Row, row, row your boat

414. Row, row, row your boat

415. Row, row, row your boat

416. Row, row, row your boat

417. Row, row, row your boat

418. Rujub the juggler

419. Sagacity and fidelity of the dog

420. Sarah and Emily

421. Schnitzel is lost

422. Schnitzel's first Christmas

423. Select and amusing anecdotes of animals

424. Select and amusing anecdotes of animals

425. Select fables of Esop and other fabulists

426. Shitakiri suzume

427. Simple poems for infant minds

428. Sing a song for sixpence

429. Sniffles the crocodile and Punch the butterfly

430. Sniffles the crocodile and Punch the butterfly

431. Sniffles the crocodile and Punch the butterfly

432. Sniffles the crocodile and Punch the butterfly

433. Some of Aesop's fables

434. Soms kietelt het

435. Songs for the nursery

436. Spincy Spider

437. Spincy Spider

438. Spincy Spider

439. Spincy Spider

440. Spincy Spider

441. Spincy Spider

442. St. Bartholomew's Eve

443. St. George for England

444. St. Nicholas book of plays & operettas

445. Stories about Arnold the traitor, Andre the spy, and Champe the patriot

446. Stories about Indians

447. Stories about Tom, Jane and Ben

448. Stories about dogs

449. Stories about the lion, elephant, dromedary, tiger, panther, leopard, ounce, cougar, and jaguar

450. Stories for a good boy

451. Stories for little girls, or, A present from mother

452. Story for the Fourth of July

453. Story of William and Ellen

454. Story of little Linnaeus

455. Sturdy and strong, or, How George Andrews made his way

456. Sunday-scholar's mirror

457. Susan Smith, or, The country Sunday-school girl

458. Sweet and sour

459. Sweet and sour

460. Sweet and sour

461. Sweets for leisure hours, or, Flowers of instruction

462. Szczęśliwy światek

463. Szkolne przygody Pimpusia Sadełko

464. Tairon el horrible

465. Tairon el super tramposo

466. Tairon en apuros

467. Tales for all seasons, or, Stories and dialogues for little folks

468. Tales from Mother Goose

469. Tales from the land under my table

470. Tales of passed times by Mother Goose, with morals

471. The Belle songster

472. The Bible, the best book

473. The Christmas dream of Little Charles

474. The Christmas dream of little Charles

475. The Fables of Aesop, and others

476. The Madrid shaver's singular adventures and wonderful escape from the Spanish Inquisition

477. The Mother Goose

478. The Mother Goose book

479. The Old Mother Goose nursery rhyme book

480. The Proverbs

481. The Queen's cup

482. The Springfield cottage girl

483. The Sunday-school pocket almanac for the year of Our Lord 1855

484. The Tin Woodman of Oz

485. The adventures of Robinson Crusoe

486. The affecting history of the children in the wood

487. The alphabet in rhyme

488. The amusing history of Tom Thumb

489. The aviary, or, Child's book of birds

490. The aviary, or, Child's book of birds

491. The babes in the wood, in verse

492. The baby brother

493. The baby's opera

494. The best friend

495. The birds who flew beyond time

496. The black velvet pelisse

497. The blind man & little George

498. The blue fairy book

499. The boat ride

500. The boat ride

501. The boat ride

502. The boat ride

503. The boat ride

504. The boat ride

505. The boat ride

506. The book of accidents, or, Warnings to the heedless

507. The book of domestic animals

508. The book of fruits

509. The book of nature

510. The book of pictures and history of Sukey Jones

511. The book of riddles

512. The boy knight

513. The boy's picture book

514. The boy's picture book

515. The boy's picture book

516. The bravest of the brave, or, With Peterborough in Spain

517. The brick-makers ; The long journey ; The first lie, or, A story of myself ; Lame Susan

518. The bud of promise

519. The canine race

520. The cat of Bubastes

521. The catechism of nature

522. The child's book about Moses

523. The child's book about birds

524. The child's book about birds

525. The child's casket

526. The child's casket

527. The child's library

528. The child's own Sunday book, or, Sabbath-day lessons for little children

529. The child's own Sunday book, or, Sabbath-day lessons for little children

530. The child's own Sunday book, or, Sabbath-day lessons for little children

531. The child's own story book

532. The child's own story book, or Simple tales

533. The child's own story book, or, Simple tales

534. The child's own story book, or, Simple tales

535. The child's own story book, or, Simple tales

536. The child's own story book, or, Simple tales

537. The children in the wood

538. The children in the wood

539. The colonists

540. The comical history of the king and the cobbler

541. The cornet of horse

542. The cries of London

543. The dash for Khartoum

544. The day the vegetables came to school

545. The day the vegetables came to school

546. The day the vegetables came to school

547. The day the vegetables came to school

548. The day the vegetables came to school

549. The death and burial of Cock Robin

550. The death and burial of Cock Robin

551. The deserter ; Little Theodore's faith

552. The dirty child

553. The dragon and the raven, or, The days of King Alfred

554. The emerald city of Oz

555. The enchanted Island of Yew

556. The entertaining tales of Mother Goose for the amusement of youth

557. The fables of Aesop

558. The fables of Aesop

559. The fables of Aesop

560. The fables of Aesop and others : translated into human nature

561. The fables of Æsop

562. The fables of Æsop, selected, told anew and their history traced

563. The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm

564. The farmer and soldier

565. The flock of sheep, or, Familiar explanations of simple facts

566. The flock of sheep, or, Familiar explanations of simple facts

567. The flower-vase, or, Pretty poems for good little children

568. The four seasons, or, Spring, summer, autumn, and winter

569. The fourth commandment

570. The friendly instructor, or, A companion for young masters and misses

571. The generous crow

572. The generous crow

573. The generous crow

574. The generous crow

575. The generous crow

576. The gift of friendship

577. The girl's picture book

578. The girl's picture book

579. The golden canon

580. The good boy

581. The good child's Sunday book

582. The good child's own book of moral and instructive stories

583. The good childs present

584. The good girl

585. The good girl

586. The good-natured little boy

587. The graver & the pen, or, Scenes from nature with appropriate verses

588. The grey fairy book

589. The happy man, or, The life of William Kelly

590. The happy mute, or, The dumb child's appeal

591. The hare and the tortoise (again!)

592. The hare and the tortoise (again!)

593. The hare and the tortoise (again!)

594. The hare and the tortoise (again!)

595. The hare and the tortoise (again!)

596. The hermit of the forest and the wandering infants

597. The history of Aladdin, or, The wonderful lamp

598. The history of Emma Jones

599. The history of Goody Two Shoes

600. The history of Goody Two Shoes

601. The history of Joseph

602. The history of Joseph

603. The history of Peter Thomson

604. The history of a day, or, The scholar and truant contrasted

605. The history of birds

606. The history of curious and wonderful fish

607. The history of insects

608. The history of the house that Jack built

609. The history of the house that Jack built

610. The idle girl

611. The idle girl

612. The ill-natured boy

613. The importance of distinguishing between true and false conversions

614. The infant's friend

615. The jolly fisherman

616. The jungle school

617. The jungle school

618. The jungle school

619. The jungle, or, Child's book of wild animals

620. The jungle, or, Child's book of wild animals

621. The juvenile miscellany

622. The juvenile story book

623. The koel's song

624. The koel's song

625. The koel's song

626. The koel's song

627. The land of Oz

628. The life and adventures of Santa Claus

629. The life and death of Cock Robin

630. The life and death of Eliza Thornton

631. The lion in St. Mark

632. The lion of the North

633. The lion's tail

634. The little casket

635. The little casket

636. The little gift, or, Pictures and verses for infant readers

637. The little keepsake, or, Easy lessons in words of one syllable

638. The little man in the goose

639. The little old woman who lived in a shoe

640. The little picture Bible

641. The little post-office, or, My brothers and sisters

642. The little riddler

643. The little scrap book

644. The little sisters, or, Emma and Caroline

645. The little sisters, or, Emma and Caroline

646. The little story book

647. The little truant boys, or, The dangers of disobedience

648. The little woodman and his dog Caesar

649. The littlest rebel

650. The lost Princess of Oz

651. The lost heir

652. The lover's Mother Goose

653. The magic ring

654. The marvelous land of Oz

655. The moon and the cap

656. The moon and the cap

657. The moon and the cap

658. The moon and the cap

659. The morning ramble

660. The morning ride

661. The morning star, or, Stories about the childhood of Jesus

662. The mother's primer

663. The multiplication table in rhyme for young arithmeticians

664. The multiplication table in rhyme for young arithmeticians

665. The natural history of birds

666. The natural history of birds

667. The new game of cards, or, A pack of cards changed into a complete and perpetual almanac

668. The ninepenny-piece and the little basket-maker

669. The old fashioned Mother Goose' melodies

670. The old woman who lost her dumplings

671. The only true Mother Goose melodies

672. The only true Mother Goose melodies

673. The only true Mother Goose melodies

674. The orange fairy book

675. The original Mother Goose melodies

676. The original Mother Goose's melody

677. The original Mother Goose's melody

678. The original Mother Goose's melody

679. The passionate child

680. The passionate child

681. The patchwork girl of Oz

682. The pet lamb, in rhythm

683. The picture book

684. The pleasant journey

685. The power of instruction, or, The guilty tongue

686. The practical joke, or, The Christmas story of Uncle Ned

687. The practical joke, or, The Christmas story of Uncle Ned

688. The practical joke, or, The Christmas story of Uncle Ned

689. The primrose

690. The puzzle-cap, or, Book of riddles

691. The rainbow fish

692. The rainbow fish

693. The rainbow fish

694. The rainbow fish

695. The rainbow fish

696. The ramble in the woods, or, A dialogue on man and animals

697. The red squirrel

698. The religious experience of Elizabeth Vermeule

699. The renowned history of Richard Whittington and his cat

700. The rider of the black horse

701. The road to Oz

702. The rose-bud, or, Poetic garland of unfading flowers

703. The royal book of Oz

704. The royal raven

705. The rusty needle

706. The sailor boy, or, The first and last voyage of little Andrew

707. The sailor boy, or, The first and last voyage of little Andrew

708. The sailor boy, or, The first and last voyage of little Andrew

709. The sailor boy, or, The first and last voyage of little Andrew

710. The scarecrow of Oz

711. The school of good manners

712. The school of good manners

713. The seasons

714. The seasons

715. The seasons

716. The shepherd boy

717. The shepherd boy

718. The shepherd boy

719. The shepherd boy

720. The shepherd boy

721. The shepherd boy of Bethlehem

722. The shipwrecked orphans

723. The singular and extraordinary adventures of poor little bewildered Henry, who was shut up in an old abbey for three weeks

724. The slave's friend

725. The snow-drop

726. The snow-drop

727. The soldier turned farmer

728. The soldier turned farmer

729. The songs of Father Goose

730. The sparrow and the fruit

731. The sparrow and the fruit

732. The sparrow and the fruit

733. The sparrow and the fruit

734. The story book for good little girls

735. The story book in verse

736. The story book in verse

737. The story book in verse

738. The story of Beauty and the Beast

739. The story of a charmed fawn

740. The tale of Peter Rabbit

741. The teenie weenie man's Mother Goose

742. The tickets, or, A story for Sabbath scholars

743. The tiger of Mysore

744. The tiny picture book

745. The tract primer

746. The tragi-comic history of the burial of Cock Robin

747. The traveller's story, or, The village bar-room

748. The treasure of the Incas

749. The true Mother Goose

750. The true and wonderful story of Paul Gasford

751. The true story of a little boy who cheated himself

752. The turned-into's

753. The twelve brothers, or, The history of Joseph

754. The twelve months of the year

755. The two cousins and the water-cress girl

756. The two doves and other tales

757. The two friends ; and Kind little James

758. The two goats and the sick monkey

759. The two lambs

760. The two yellow birds

761. The uncle's present

762. The vacation, or, The four cousins

763. The village model, or, Truths of today / The Creation, or, God's first works :

764. The wagon-boy, or, Trust in Providence

765. The watch-chain

766. The water-babies

767. The way to be good and happy

768. The wonderful Wizard of Oz

769. The wonderful lamp

770. The young Carthaginian

771. The young Puritans of Old Hadley

772. The young arithmetician, or, The reward of perseverance

773. The young arithmetician, or, The reward of perseverance

774. The young arithmetician, or, The reward of perseverance

775. The young arithmetician, or, The reward of perseverance

776. The young captives

777. The young colonists

778. The young franc-tireurs

779. The young girl's book of healthful amusements and exercises

780. The young girl's book of healthful amusements and exercises

781. The young sailor, or, The sea-life of Tom Bowline

782. The young sailor, or, The sea-life of Tom Bowline

783. The young sailor, or, The sea-life of Tom Bowline

784. The young sailor, or, The sea-life of Tom Bowline

785. The young sailor, or, The sea-life of Tom Bowline

786. The youth's dayspring

787. Three hundred Aesop's fables

788. Three hundred Æsop's fables

789. Through Russian snows

790. Through the Sikh war

791. Through the fray

792. Through three campaigns

793. Tik-Tok of Oz

794. Timmy and Pepe

795. Timmy and Pepe

796. Timmy and Pepe

797. Tom Thumb's picture alphabet

798. Tommy True, the industrious scholar, and little Agnes

799. Too many bananas

800. Too many bananas

801. Topsy turvy

802. Topsy turvy

803. Totally bored Boris!

804. Towarzysz pilnych dzieci, czyli Początki czytania i innych wiadomości sposobem łatwym i do pojęcia młodocianego wieku zastosowanym

805. True charity

806. True to the old flag

807. Twenty four pictures from Mother Goose

808. Tyranno le terrible

809. Tyrone and the swamp gang

810. Tyrone the double dirty rotten cheater

811. Uncle Frank's select fables for good boys and girls

812. Uncle Frank's select fables for good boys and girls

813. Uncle Frank's select fables for good boys and girls

814. Under Drake's flag

815. Under Wellington's command

816. Vayu, the wind

817. Vayu, the wind

818. Waldo and the desert island adventure

819. Waldo at the zoo

820. Waldo's Christmas surprise

821. Waldo, one, two, three

822. We are all animals

823. We are all animals

824. We are all animals

825. Wesołe chwile małych czytelników

826. Where is my bat?

827. Where is my bat?

828. Where is my bat?

829. Where is my bat?

830. William Seaton and the butterfly

831. Wisdom in miniature, or, The young gentleman and lady's magazine

832. With Clive in India, or, The beginnings of an empire

833. With Cochrane the dauntless

834. With Frederick the Great

835. With Kitchener in the Soudan

836. With Lee in Virginia

837. With Moore at Corruna

838. With Roberts to Pretoria

839. With Wolfe in Canada, or, The winning of a continent

840. Won by the sword

841. Woodbine-arbor, or, The little gardeners

842. Woodbine-arbor, or, The little gardeners

843. Wulf the Saxon

844. XHNΩΔIA, or, The classical Mother Goose

845. Yamata no orochi

846. Yankee Mother Goose

847. Yarns on the beach

848. [Father at home]

849. ¡Gol de Federico!

850. ¡Qué desastre!

851. Æsop's fables

852. Æsop's fables

853. Æsop's fables

854. Æsop's fables, embellished with one hundred and eleven emblematical devices

855. Æsopi Phrygis Fabulae graece et latine, cum aliis quibusdam opusculis

856. Ёс заншил идээ шүүс

857. Аавын ач ээжийн эрдэм

858. Аавын бэлэгнүүд

859. Аймаар том нохой буюу наргиантай шүлгүүд

860. Андерсний үлгэрүүд

861. Борхүү, Одхүү, Төмөрхүү гурав

862. Гриммийн шидэт үлгэрүүд

863. Гүүрийн нууц

864. Динозавруудын өлгий

865. Долоон бөхтэй тэмээ

866. Дэлхийн хүүхдийн анхны ном

867. Зургаан мөнгөн мичид

868. Киппер ба аварга биетэн

869. Кипперийн бөмбөлөг

870. Кипперийн төрсөн өдөр

871. Миний хүү Мио

872. Мундаг хүүхэд

873. Мэргэн гурав

874. Намайг асраарай

875. Нийтийн аяс буюу ногоохон навчны үлгэр

876. Ногоон гэрэл

877. Ноход юунд дуртай вэ?

878. Нүүдэлчдийн сууц

879. Повесть о рыжем Мотеле, господине инспекторе, раввине Исайе и комиссаре Блох

880. Саахалт айлын санаа нэг

881. Сайн хүүхэд

882. Сонин юутай вэ?

883. Талд ургадаг талх

884. Тоодой цоохондой хоёр

885. Тэмээ Томоо Тиймээ

886. Тэмээний зураг

887. Тэнгэрийн хүлэг

888. Түрүүлээрэй ээжээ

889. Усаар байлдсан нь

890. Уутхан түүний нөхдөд тохиолдсон явдал

891. Флоппиг угаасан нь

892. Хар үрээ, хундан төлөг, саарал чоно, жаалхүү дөрвийн тууж

893. Хойд нутгийн Араши нэрт үнэг

894. Хэнд хэн үйлчилдэг вэ?

895. Хятад ардын үлгэр

896. Хүүхэд асрагч

897. Цагаадай Цоохондой хоёр

898. Цагаан тэмээцэх

899. Цуутын цагаагч гүү

900. Цэцэрлэгт хүрээлэн

901. Цөлөөр аялсан нь

902. Шатлал 1 дотроо 6 хэсэг Багшийн ном

903. Шатлал 2 дотроо 6 хэсэг Багшийн ном

904. Шатлал 6 дотроо 6 хэсэг Багшийн ном

905. Шилдэг нохой

906. Шинжлэх ухаан ба технологи

907. Шоргоолжны хаант улсыг сурвалжилсан тэмдэглэл

908. Эвсэг гэр бүл

909. Эрдэнэсийн авдар

910. Эрээн алчуур

911. א ציג מיט זיבן ציגעלעך

912. אַ לעבעדיק געזינדל

913. אַ מעשה מיט אַ ציג

914. די גילדערנע פאווע

915. דער אלטער פון לאמפאדוני

916. דער דרייסטער יורקע

917. דער מילנער, די מילנערין און די מילשטיינער

918. מע שליסט אויס דערפאר

919. פורים איז אַ שפיל אַזאַ

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Classroom Strategies to Support All Students

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There are two kinds of behavioral interventions that can help children with ADHD manage their symptoms of hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and inattention. These ADHD therapies don't affect the core symptoms, but they teach children skills they can use to control them. Some focus on strategies for staying organized and focused. Others aim at cutting down on the disruptive behaviors that can get these children into trouble at school, make it difficult for them to make friends, and turn family life into a combat zone.

Some children, especially those with severe ADHD symptoms, benefit from behavioral therapy along with medication; for others, the training may make enough difference to enable them to succeed in school and function well at home without medication.

One important reason for kids to participate in behavioral therapy (whether or not they also take medication) is that ADHD medications stop working when you stop taking them, while behavioral therapy can teach children skills that will continue to benefit them as they grow up.

For kids whose impulsive behavior is creating conflict at home and getting them into trouble at school, therapy can help them rein in the behavior that's problematic and establish more positive relationships with the adults in their lives. It's called, generally, parent training, because it involves working with parents and children together. It trains parents to interact differently with children, in order to elicit desirable behavior on the part of the child and discourage behavior that's causing them trouble.

Parent training is not just for children with ADHD, but since kids with ADHD are often prone to tantrums, defiance, and tuning out parental instructions, it can substantially improve their lives, and the wellbeing of their whole families. Though it focuses on interaction with parents, it's also been shown to reduce outbursts and other problem behaviors at school, as the skills kids learn in responding to very predictable parental interactions are transferrable to other settings. The training is generally done by clinical psychologists.

There are several kinds of parent training that have been shown to be effective, including Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Parent Management Training (PMT), Positive Parenting Program (Triple P). They all teach parents how to use praise, or positive reinforcement, more effectively, as well as consistent consequences when kids don't comply with instructions. They result in better behavior on the part of children, decreased arguing and tantrums, better parent-child interactions, and reduced parental stress.

Young children with ADHD often find themselves scolded or punished much more than they are praised, so a clear way to earn positive attention from the most important people in their lives can be a big motivator. It's not unusual for kids who've been negatively affected by their behavior problems-kicked out of preschool, black-listed from play dates-to make dramatic improvements through parent training.

Young children with ADHD can benefit from systems that encourage positive behavior, like the "Daily Report Card." These approaches pinpoint specific goals for behavior in school, give kids feedback on how they're doing, and reward them for meeting those goals successfully.

Parents and teachers work together on the Daily Report Card. Teachers choose goals for an individual child based on the behaviors that present the biggest challenges for them. Goals might involve academic work (finishing tasks), behavior towards peers (reducing teasing or fighting) and adherence to classroom rules (not interrupting, staying in their seat, following instructions). The teacher rates the child's performance each day on each goal. They get a star or a check for each positive behavior, and if they get enough during the day, there is a prize for them when they get home-coveted screen time or some other small reward.

This kind of system can be very helpful for children from preschool to as old as 12.

The other broad area of behavioral help for kids with ADHD includes skills-based interventions to teach techniques they can use to stay on top of their schoolwork and manage their responsibilities at home. This kind of training, which is done by learning specialists, teaches kids skills to maximize their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses.

Children with ADHD tend to be weak in what we call "executive functioning." Executive functions are the self-regulating skills that we all use to accomplish tasks, from getting dressed to doing homework. They include planning, organizing time and materials, making decisions, shifting from one situation to another, controlling our emotions and learning from past mistakes.

To bolster kids with weak skills in these areas, learning specialists teach a mix of specific strategies and alternative learning styles that complement or enhance a child's particular abilities.

With elementary school children, the learning specialist usually works with parents and kids together, to establish routines and tools to use to get work done successfully and with minimal conflict. For instance:

Checklists can be useful for anything from getting out of the house on time in the morning to doing homework after school to the bedtime routine. Since the steps necessary for completing a task often aren't obvious to kids with ADHD, defining them clearly ahead of time, and posting them prominently, makes a task less daunting and more achievable.

Educational therapists also recommend assigning a time limit for each step, particularly if it is a bigger, longer-term project. Deadlines can sneak up on all of us, but kids with ADHD are particularly susceptible to underestimating how long it will take to do something.

Using a Planner is essential for Kids with ADHD who have what's called poor working memory, which means it is hard for them to remember things like homework assignments.

A rewards chart at home, as well as at school, can help motivate kids who are easily distracted and struggle to acquire new skills.

For middle and high school aged students, educational therapists work with kids to develop systems for tackling the work, both organizationally and academically. For kids with ADHD, managing their time and school materials can be a huge issue-not leaving enough time to study or complete projects, forgetting to use their planner, losing track of assignments. Materially, their backpacks may be a disaster, notes Michael Rosenthal, PhD, a neuropsychologist. Specific skills like studying, memorizing, note-taking, and doing assignments on time can all be addressed.

And executive functions apply to academics, as well as managing homework, explains Dr. Rosenthal. Reading, writing and math all involve skills kids may be weak in. A middle schooler might be a perfectly fluent reader, he explains, but at the same time have difficulty capturing the point of each paragraph or summarizing what they've read. Writing requires organizing thoughts into a narrative, imagining what the intended audience needs to know, staying on topic, and writing to a chosen length, among other skills. Math requires multi-step operations, and word problems require extracting the information important to solve the problem. These are all skills that educational therapists can focus on with children to strengthen their learning strategies.

While a child is learning new skills, they need to understand how they will help them. "Kids with attention problems, in particular, are very pragmatic in a way about how much effort to put into things," explains Matthew Cruger, PhD, director of the Child Mind Institute's Learning and Development Center. "We think of it as 'neuroeconomics' - they save their energy for things they are confident will pay off." A good educational therapist will structure skill building so that kids score successes. "When kids put hard work into something, they expect a return, and if they don't see the return, it's doubly frustrating," says Dr. Cruger. "They'll think, 'You see, it wasn't a good idea to try.'"

The frustrating thing about behavioral interventions like parent training and Daily Report Card is that they are labor-intensive for parents and teachers, in addition to the kids themselves. "Parents may have the preconception that when they bring a child for therapy the child is going to be doing the work," notes Jill Emanuele, PhD, Senior Director of the Mood Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute. "But this takes a huge investment on the part of parents." On the other hand, she adds, "the training can be a huge help to parents, too, who often come to us feeling burned out and ineffective in handling these kids. They develop a lot of confidence."

There is evidence that these parent and teacher-based interventions do improve the outcome for children with ADHD, though they don't directly affect symptoms. "Ideally, these environmental adjustments will alter the developmental trajectory of the child or adolescent with ADHD," explains ADHD specialist Russell Barkley, PhD. "However, such interventions are not expected to produce fundamental changes in the underlying deficits of ADHD, rather they only prevent an accumulation of failures and problems secondary to ADHD."

The strongest gains, Dr. Barkley notes, are in children who are particularly defiant or oppositional. "Thus, researchers and clinicians should anticipate," he notes, "that long-term studies are more likely to find treatment effects on problems secondary to ADHD than on deficits specific to ADHD."

Once children with ADHD reach adolescence, there is less evidence for the effectiveness of behavioral training. Several studies have failed to show results for cognitive behavioral therapy for teens with ADHD, Dr. Barkley explains, but CBT does have a role for kids with ADHD who develop secondary problems like conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder.

And Dr. Emanuele notes that since ADHD puts kids at risk for developing an anxiety or mood disorder, many of them are treated with CBT for those disorders. In some cases, she notes, kids have actually outgrown their ADHD symptoms but they're still struggling.

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Behavioral Treatments for Kids With ADHD - Child Mind Institute

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There are two kinds of behavioral interventions that can help children with ADHD manage their symptoms of hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and inattention. These ADHD therapies don't affect the core symptoms, but they teach children skills they can use to control them. Some focus on strategies for staying organized and focused.