Caribbean Academy for Reading Intervention and Development

  Repeated Reading  Have you ever read a passage once and fumbled on a lot of the words, but as you reread it the second time, you noticed that your reading was a bit better, more fluent perhaps?  What Is Repeated Reading?  Repetition of reading is a technique used in academia to improve fluency in oral reading. Students who have mastered basic word reading skills but exhibit reading fluency that is insufficient for their grade level can benefit from repeated reading. With struggling readers, it was proposed to develop decoding automaticity. In this method, students read aloud brief text passages until they achieve a predetermined level of proficiency (particular speed and accuracy goals). Repeated reading can be used with content-area texts or as part of a regular reading programme in the classroom. It can be changed to incorporate whole-group, small-group, or individual repeated-reading exercises using either unassisted or assisted techniques. The reading passages ...

  Signs Your Child May Be Struggling With Reading Comprehension  In our last blog, we dove into what Reading Comprehension is, its importance and briefly established one sign that your child may be struggling with Reading Comprehension.  There are many signs that may hint that your child is struggling with Reading Comprehension, but how can you know?  Ask A Question! - after reading a story or paragraph, ask your child a question. Start off with simple and fun questions just to test whether your child has grasped the context of the passage or not. Of course the types of questions asked will vary based on your child’s age and reading level.  For example, imagine a scenario where your child reads the short paragraph below.    ‘Jack and Jan are smiling. They are on their way to the park. Jack walks quickly and so does Jan. As they approach the park, they begin to run. Jack runs towards the slides and Jan rushes to the swing. Both children laugh as th...

   Reading Comprehension: What is it, why it’s important, and a sign that your child may be struggling with it.  What Is Reading Comprehension?  Reading comprehension refers to the capacity to read, analyze, and comprehend text. It depends on two interconnected skills: language comprehension and word reading (the ability to interpret the symbols on the page and being able to understand the meaning of the words and sentences). The term comprehension describes the capacity to comprehend written language. Unlike the capacity to recognize words, it is different. Identifying words on a page without understanding what they mean does not achieve comprehension, which is the aim or objective of reading. Why  Is  Reading Comprehension Important?  What is read gains meaning when it is understood. When the words on a page are more than just letters and sounds, reading comprehension happens. Reading is joyful, entertaining, and educational when it is understood. Re...

New year, new goals, yes? People frequently establish a variety of goals when we start a new year, including ones related to their education, finances, self-care, fitness, and more. How is your child doing with reading? For those, too, you can create goals! Setting personal reading objectives gives pupils a focus for their reading and establishes the reading's purpose. It provides you with instructional direction for what to work on during your one-on-one reading sessions as a parent or tutor. Students have essentially formed a vision and a roadmap for their future learning when they have a reading goal they are striving toward. Setting reading objectives helps inspire and encourage pupils to improve their reading skills all year long. Reading goals aren’t required to be long term or yearly, they can be simple and short. These goals can be set with a weekly or monthly time frame. Now, why should we set reading goals?  Benefits of reading goals  Goals, reading or otherwise are ...

  Dyslexia Myths  In earlier blogs, we’ve introduced Dyslexia and delved into what exactly is Dyslexia as well as some red flags that can indicate that your child or ward may need to be tested for Dyslexia. However, as with most intellectual/learning challenges, there is a stigma associated with being Dyslexic.  In addition to their caregivers or relatives, people with learning difficulties frequently encounter hostile attitudes and behaviors from others. Given the low employment rate of persons with intellectual and  learning difficulties, employment barriers are a typical problem. They may also be excluded from social and educational activities due to the stigma associated with persons who have Dyslexia.  What are some things you’ve heard about Dyslexia? What do you think about Dyslexia? Below we’ll be discussing some popular Dyslexia Myths - maybe something you heard about Dyslexia is on the list!  Persons with Dyslexia lack understanding - there is a po...

  Signs of Dyslexia  We’ve gone into great details as to what exactly is dyslexia. Now, what are some warning signs that you child may have dyslexia? What are some signs that your child may need to be assessed for dyslexia? The following are simply some indicators that your child may have dyslexia and should be assessed.  Sometimes dyslexia symptoms can be identified before a child enters school. Speech problems, such as difficulty pronouncing long words and "jumbling" up phrases (saying "albaphet" instead of "alphabet" or "cake cup" instead of "cup cake"), speech delays compared to other children of the same age (although this can have many different causes), and issues with verbal expression, such as difficulty remembering the right word to use or putting sentences together, can all be symptoms. When kids start school and start putting more of an emphasis on learning how to read and write, dyslexia symptoms typically start to stand ou...

  We’ve heard the term ‘Dyslexia’, but what does it mean? Is it that the person lacks understanding and comprehension skills? Is it that they are unable to write words properly or is it a challenge associated with reading? Let’s delve a bit deeper as we explain more about what exactly is dyslexia.  What is dyslexia?  Dyslexia is defined as difficulty learning to read that is unexpected. While dyslexia impairs an individual's ability to read quickly and automatically, as well as recall spoken words, it does not impair their inventiveness or ingenuity. Dyslexia is a learning disorder that affects language.   Described as "... a particular learning issue that is neurological in nature," dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. Poor spelling and decoding skills, issues with precise and/or fluent word recognition, are the main characteristics of this condition. These issues are often brought on by a phonological impairment in language, which is frequently un...