Every child deserves the best possible start when it comes to learning. Kids are naturally inquisitive and they want to learn. As parents, it is our job to make sure that we provide resources and help to assure that our kids have everything that they need to develop the skills that they will need to learn at every age and stage throughout their lives. Reading is a pivotal skill that affects all other academic skills. If there are any signs of early reading struggles, a reading helper is a vital necessity for helping your child.
At the heart of learning is reading. Reading is fundamental to understanding everything from core subjects in school to reading the fine print on your credit card statements as an adult. It is especially important to read at grade level or better while in school in order to establish the necessary vocabulary and grammar to develop good writing skills. Reading deficiencies require a reading helper.
Reading is a tool for advancement in just about any area of interest. The development of good reading skills at a young age is the foundation for all other learning throughout life and so it is essential that the foundation is solid.
The Importance of Early Reading Intervention Programs for Reading Help
One of the most well established areas of educational research is the area of early intervention. Classroom teachers are trained throughout their studies to try to catch students before they fall. Earlier is better to avoid any bad habits from forming and before any frustration sets in that may cause a child to give up on reading. The most important time frame to consider and build a good foundation for academic success is during the formative years of preschool through third grade.
Consider the following statistics:
- - Studies show that 74% of 3rd graders who read poorly still struggle in 9th grade, and third grade reading scores can predict a students likelihood to graduate high school.
- - High school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely than high school graduates to be arrested in their lifetime.
- - High school dropouts are 63% more likely to be incarcerated than their peers with four-year college degrees.
- - According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, 70% of all incarcerated adults cannot read at a 4th grade level, meaning they lack the reading skills to navigate many everyday tasks or hold down anything but lower (paying) jobs.
There is also this sentiment from the Department of Justice to consider:
The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure.
These are some weighty statements, and they are not intended to insinuate that all children who struggle to read are headed for a life of incarceration. What they do mean is that we have well established studies that confirm just how important it is to identify and intervene with a reading helper and appropriate interventions at the earliest stage possible to help children who are struggling to read. Meeting grade appropriate standards by the end of third grade seems to be a critical point that we need to set academic goals upon.
The Importance of Eliminating Frustration for Struggling Readers
Your first duty as a parent or a teacher is to set up a child for success in learning. The number one roadblock to successful learning is frustration. A frustrated child is not in a good state of mind to learn. If there is anything that you can do as a parent or teacher to eliminate frustration in the very beginning stages of learning for a child who is struggling with reading, then half the battle has been won. The other half of the battle belongs to the reader.
Some children who need reading help may be naturally prone to frustration if they are struggling with any intellectual deficit or learning challenge that is related to a diagnosis of ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, autism or Cortical Visual Impairment.
Armed with this knowledge of how important it is to address reading struggles at an early stage begs the question- what can I do at home to help my child with reading skills? Even more important- how can I help a child with special needs to improve their reading skills?
Perhaps you are a classroom teacher who is juggling the task of teaching twenty students and you have a group of two or three students who are falling behind because of their reading deficiencies. What kinds of solutions are out there to help a young reader with learning challenges to improve their reading skills?
How can we help these children both at home and in the classroom to improve their reading skills?
Lighthouse Reading Helper
Lighthouse Reader is a valuable product that is specifically designed to meet the challenges of the student who requires reading help due to the struggles that accompany attention deficits, visual impairments, neurological, developmental and intellectual disorders.
Unlike other readers like the Zap Reader which focuses on speed reading, Lighthouse Reader is specifically geared to helping a reader with wandering minds and attention deficits (ADD/ADHD), letter and word processing (dyslexia), neurodevelopment struggles that are often associated with autism and Cortical Visual Impairment.
The features that are built into Lighthouse Reader are designed to break text down into digestible chunks of information that reduce the anxiety that some kids feel when they look at a page full of text. With a customizable reader, your child adjusts font size, shade the text above and below the line of text they are reading, block or cover the words that have already been read and even change the color of the font to a more visually pleasing tone.
These types of features are important for children who suffer with sensory issues that may cause anxiety and overwhelm that causes them to avoid or escape a task as a result. Making an aversive task more attractive is the first step to getting your child to engage with it.
Lighthouse Reader has 150,000 books that you can buy which your child can download into their own personal library. Old classics like Charlotte's Web, newer titles like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and even Shakespeare can be found in the Lighthouse library. The library has books that range from Kindergarten through high school and they can all be used to help your child with fluency, comprehension and writing skills as a result. All of them available right through Lighthouse Reader instead of ordering from Amazon, paying the shipping costs and running the risk of watching your child quickly lose interest in a paperback copy because the format was overwhelming.
Lighthouse Reader uses a fill in the blank assessment (cloze) to monitor your child’s reading level and comprehension. It uses the results to personalize your child’s reading experience to the appropriate skill and grade level. There is also a fluency assessment that allows your child to read a section of text word for word while Running Record checks for pronunciation and spelling in addition to fluency.
The best part of all of these features is that they are presented as activities that your child can play with, touch, swipe and manipulate rather than just sitting with a book and trying to read words that they cannot focus on.
Old Classic Readers Meet the New Century
One of the greatest modern day challenges for parents and teachers is making the connection between the old traditional ways of teaching and reading a book and the new era which is primarily based on interactive programs and digital formats.
Inevitably, for teachers and parents to keep a child’s interest in this technologically driven era, there will have to be a compromise between the way that things were once done and how they are done now. Lighthouse Reader brings both worlds together in a way that is visually engaging for those learners that need to see, hear, touch and play to stay interested.
Imagine how intriguing it is for a child to flip through a library collection on their tablet and choose their favorite book. Now imagine your child opening that book and playing with it as they choose the right word to fill the blank, or change the text to different colors. As they are playing, the program is monitoring and customizing the whole experience based on your child’s Lexile data every 15 days.
If they grow weary of reading on their own, they can turn on a feature that reads to them. Your child can follow along karaoke style as the program reads to your child and the words are highlighted as they are read.
If you homeschool, your child doesn’t have to feel alone. Parents can create a virtual room in the Lighthouse Clubhouse- a safe, parent monitored chat room where your child can meet up with other kids or personal friends and chat about what they are learning or the books that they are currently reading.
More formally structured book clubs are also available to join if your child likes the idea of dissecting a story and exploring a little deeper with others who are enjoying the same book. Lighthouse Reader automatically bookmarks where your child left off during the last reading.
Lighthouse Reader is designed to help your child to improve their reading skills, comprehension, fluency and writing skills in a visually pleasing and interactive format that provides all of the assessments and customizations that a parent needs to be sure that their child is reading at their proper grade level and getting the help that they need when they are struggling with vocabulary or pronunciation.
Conclusion
There are as many products for reading help as there are children who struggle with reading, but not one of them is as fun or as personalized to your child’s specific needs as the Lighthouse Reader.
