According to various certified surveys, one in five school going kids have reading problems. The extent of reading problems may differ from child to child as each one has a different pace of learning. If a child has a reading problem (struggles to understand written words), it is important to determine its extent in order to provide timely assistance to improve his reading capabilities.

Ways in which reading difficulties in kids can be identified are:

• Slow And Effortful Reading: If a child is reading a book of his age level (for example, a phonic book for a 5 year old) with a lot of effort and considers it to be difficult task, then the child can be identified for having reading problems.
• Frequent Reading Errors: During reading, recognize if the child adds, replaces, or omits words. All these are signs of reading inaccuracies which cause problems with the child’s understanding of sentences as the meanings of the context are changed.
• Tracking Issues: To identify directional tracking issues, pay attention to the direction in which the child reads. If the child is reading from the right side towards the left, reverses letters in a word or skips lines, it could be a sign of a reading issue.
• Comprehension Skills: These skills help to follow directions, understand what others are saying, and remember a series of words or numbers. Children with reading issues are usually not able to do these things and should be tested for different auditory processing disorders.
• Decoding Issues: Decoding issues could be a sign of Dyslexia or other auditory processing disorders. These can be identified when the child finds it difficult to break down large words into smaller words or syllables (due to phonetics and fluency issues).
• Other Signs: For a child going to school, observe whether he displays signs of poor attention, gets distracted easily, asks for the same information repeatedly, squints a lot, lacks focus, etc. These traits could be indicative of deeper issues along with reading disabilities that require timely intervention.

Conclusion

If the child shows poor reading signs, try to get in touch with a speech pathologist for identifying the exact cause of the reading problem. Consult the child’s teacher and pediatrician for better insight into the child’s behavior. Timely support is crucial for a child with reading issues so it is important for parents to be pro-active with getting help in the form of reading tools and remedial reading help (understanding phonetics, decoding and vocabulary aids, cognitive training; concentration, perceptual skills, logical thinking and reasoning, spatial relations, etc.)

See-n-Read Reading Tools provides a variety of reading products to kids facing reading problems. The tools help the kids to improve moderate to severe reading skills deficiencies. For more details on identifying reading problems in kids, visit 2533 Sutton Lane, Aurora, IL – 60502. You can also contact (630) 236 – 5592.