Book Description
My Child's Not Learning to Read in School! What Can I Do?" is an important "how to" / "hands on" book for parents worried and/or frustrated about their child's progress in school. It is also a valuable text for teachers, administrators, psychologists, students of education and anyone working with children. It focuses on providing parents with essential information for communicating with the school so their child can achieve at his or her potential. The book concentrates on reading difficulties experienced by children with dyslexia and attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) since these are the problems faced by many youngsters struggling in school.
Written by an educator with 15 years of experience working with special needs children and by a researcher in psychology, this book gives parents strategies they need to advocate for their child. Both authors bring a unique perspective to educational issues so parents will have solid, research-based practical information to use in making decisions involving their child and negotiating with school systems.
An overview is provided of dyslexia and ADD/ADHD including how both can affect reading ability. This is followed by clear, readable and in-depth explanations for both conditions and how they affect a child's school experience. The specific causes of dyslexia and the most effective teaching methods are described. ADD/ADHD is discussed from many perspectives including diagnosis, executive functions (what they are), co-morbidity (what happens when another condition exists along with ADD/ADHD), medication, and the implications for the educational system.
Educational evaluations are explained in a simple yet thorough manner along with specific tests that can (or should!) be administered to your child, and how to interpret testing results. There is a chapter which de-mystifies the confusing process of planning and placement team (PPT) meetings, and creating individual education plans (IEPs).
The book explains why some reading teaching approaches, while ineffective, are still being used in many schools. Other chapters offer suggestions on how to proceed when the school's recommendations for assistance aren't working-or what to do when a parent believes the school's plan isn't going to help.
There are many excellent aspects of this book. Educational jargon is explained so parents can understand reports and converse with school personnel. There is a list of abbreviations and appendices defining educational terminology, and additional resources.
Relevant case studies about students help illustrate many points and clarify situations so that parents will see aspects of their own child explained. Educational professionals will understand how to better assist children with dyslexia and/or ADD/ADHD and will recognize these conditions earlier allowing children to get needed help sooner.
Stories about and advice from parents offer excellent advocacy strategies based on their personal experiences-including an entire chapter on how one parent got exactly what was best for her child. The book draws parallels between parent's experiences to emphasize approaches that work to ensure that children receive the free and appropriate education to which they are entitled.
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Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations
Introduction.....Or how this book came to be written
| Chapter 1. | An Overview: What are the First Indications? An overview of possible problems a child may have, with explanations to provide parents information they will need when they begin the advocacy process. |
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| 1.0 | Do You Suspect That Your Child Has a Learning Problem? | |
| 1.1 | What Is Dyslexia? A Simple Explanation | |
| 1.2 | What Is an Attention Deficit and How Can It Affect Reading? | |
| 1.3 | Can a Child Have Both Dyslexia and ADHD? | |
| 1.4 | What If a Child Is Below Average in Intelligence? | |
| 1.5 | What Hope Is There? | |
| Chapter 2. | Dyslexia: The Primary Reading Disability An overview of dyslexia describing the neurological and behavioral effects so parents will know if the school is meeting the needs of their child with dyslexia. |
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| 2.0 | What Is a Reading Disability or How Do I know if My Child Has One? | |
| 2.1 | What Is Dyslexia?-A More Thorough Explanation | |
| 2.2 | What Is Phonemic Awareness? | |
| 2.3 | Why Don't Teachers Identify This Problem? | |
| 2.4 | What Are the Implications for the Educational System? | |
| Chapter 3. | The Difficulty with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder This chapter describes Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, its subtypes (ADD/ADHD), typical behaviors and effects on a child's school performance, and explains executive functions. It also discusses the issues of structure of the student's environment, medication, and how the educational system may or may not be effective in helping these children. |
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| 3.0 | What Is the Debate About ADHD? | |
| 3.1 | What Is ADHD? | |
| 3.2 | How Is ADHD Diagnosed? | |
| 3.3 | What Are the "DSM" and the "Criteria?" | |
| 3.4 | What Are the Varying Forms and Effects of ADHD? | |
| 3.5 | How Does ADHD Affect Motivation? | |
| 3.6 | What About the Lack of Attention to Detail in ADHD? | |
| 3.7 | How Does ADHD Affect Verbal Comprehension? | |
| 3.8 | How Does ADHD Affect Organization of Mind and Materials? | |
| 3.9 | What Is Co-Morbidity and What Effect Does It Have on ADHD? | |
| 3.10 | What Effect Does Anxiety Have on ADHD? | |
| 3.11 | What Are Executive Functions and How Do They Relate to Organization and ADHD? | |
| 3.12 | What Are the Causes of ADHD? | |
| 3.13 | What Is Involved in Decisions About Medication? | |
| 3.14 | What Are the Implications for the Educational System? | |
| Chapter 4. | The Best Parent Advocate A simple explanation of the process of parent advocacy and a case history of one very successful parent who worked inside the system to get special services for her child. |
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| 4.0 | What Is Advocacy? | |
| 4.1 | Why Do Children Fall Through the Cracks? | |
| 4.2 | Why Do Parents need to Become Advocates? | |
| 4.3 | What's Involved in Successful Advocacy? Mrs. P-One Highly Effective Parent Advocate | |
| Chapter 5. | Evaluations: The Tests, Numbers and Jargon An explanation of basic concepts about tests and the meaning of "significant results," a detailing of an evaluation's "numbers" and what they mean-norms, standard scores, scaled scores and percentiles. This chapter also includes a description of IQ testing (potential), achievement testing as well as information on commonly used tests to evaluate reading, spelling and writing skills. |
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| 5.0 | What Are the Basics of Evaluations? | |
| 5.1 | What Are Test Reliability, Validity and "Norms?" | |
| 5.2 | What about Scores? Standard Scores, Scaled Scores, Raw Scores: What Do the Numbers Mean? | |
| 5.3 | What General Information about Evaluations Does a Parent Need to Know? | |
| 5.4 | What Is Intelligence Quotient (IQ) Testing? | |
| 5.5 | What Are Other IQ Tests Besides the WISC? | |
| 5.6 | What Is "Achievement Testing?" | |
| 5.7 | What's Involved in Reading Assessments? - Decoding versus Comprehension | |
| 5.8 | What Decoding Tests Can Be Given? | |
| 5.9 | What Do I Need to Know to Make Sure My Dyslexic Child Receives the Right Tests? | |
| 5.10 | What Comprehension Tests Can Be Given? | |
| 5.11 | What Spelling Assessments Can Be Given? | |
| 5.12 | How Is Written Expression Assessed? What Tests Are There? | |
| 5.13 | What Is Involved in Assessment for ADHD? | |
| Chapter 6. | The Advocacy Process: How To Work Inside the School System? Details the PPT and IEP process: how the parent works with the school to obtain a label identifying the problem so the school can legally provide additional services to a student and what those services will be. |
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| 6.0 | What Is the Informal Process? | |
| 6.1 | What Is the Background to the Formal Process? | |
| 6.2 | What are the Laws? -- Public Law 94-142, IDEA and Section 504? | |
| 6.3 | How Do You Start the Formal Process?-- The Referral | |
| 6.4 | What Is the Planning and Placement Team? | |
| 6.5 | What Is the Next Step? -- The Evaluation | |
| 6.6 | Identification and Labels-What Qualifies Under IDEA and 504? | |
| 6.7 | What Is the Individual Education Plan (IEP)? | |
| 6.8 | Review of the Process -- What Are the Steps? | |
| Chapter 7. | Interventions" -- How Does a Parent Know the Plan is Working? Helps parents know which reading interventions work and which ones don't, and how to recognize if what the school is doing for the student will likely be effective or not. |
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| 7.0 | Introduction | |
| 7.1 | What Is the Whole Language Philosophy of Learning to Read? | |
| 7.2 | Why Are the Beliefs of Whole Language Proponents Incorrect? | |
| 7.3 | What Is Reading RecoveryTM? | |
| 7.4 | What Are the Reading RecoveryTM Program Specifics? | |
| 7.5 | What is Comprehension versus Decoding? | |
| 7.6 | Why Is there Resistance to Change? | |
| 7.7 | What Are Effective Interventions for Children with Dyslexia? Multisensensory Structured Language Education (MSLE) (Hint: The Key Word Is "Structure.") | |
| 7.8 | What Are Effective Interventions for ADHD Children Who Need Help with Reading? | |
| 7.9 | How Do You Follow the Progress of Your Child and Ensure Success? | |
| Chapter 8. | The Advocacy Process: What If You Need to Go Outside the School System? Provides information to help a parent if the results of an evaluation don't seem correct. When to decide to give up on the system and options for seeking assistance outside the local school system. | |
| 8.0 | Introduction | |
| 8.1 | What If You Disagree with the School's Evaluation? | |
| 8.2 | What is an Independent Evaluation? | |
| 8.3 | What If Your Child Does Not Fit in the State Guidelines to Receive Assistance? What are the Options? | |
| 8.4 | What If Your Child Scores as "Average," But He's Not "Average?" | |
| 8.5 | What Are the Consequences of Waiting To Deal With Learning/Reading Problems? | |
| 8.6 | What Are the Decisions That Need to Be Made? | |
| 8.7 | The Learning Disabilities Association (LDA) & CHADD (Children and Adults with ADD) -- What Are Resources to Help Evaluate All the Options? |
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| 8.8 | What About Legal Representation? | |
| 8.9 | Do You Know About School System Financial Obligations? | |
| 8.10 | What About Hiring a Private Tutor and Other Options? | |
| 8.11 | What About the Private School Option? | |
| Chapter 9. | Conclusion -- Wisdom From The Sages Seven parents give advice when asked, "What does someone in your situation need to know when they're just starting out?" |
APPENDICIES
| Appendix 1: | A List of Resources for Parents -- Finding Evaluators, Books, Web Sites, Publishers, Computer-based Reading Programs, and Print-based Reading Programs |
| Appendix 2: | Jargon -- The Inside Vocabulary |
| Appendix 3: | The Linguistic Structure--Why English Is So Complex |
| Appendix 4: | A Quick Listing of Relevant Rules and Linguistic Patterns, Sounds, Spelling Rules, and Syllable Types |
Bibliography / References
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