Specialized Tutoring
and Academic Remediation for Reading Disorders
Dr. Kelly offers tutorial
services for children and adolescents, and adults with dyslexia, learning
disabilities, and attention difficulties. Dr. Kelly is trained in a wide
variety of techniques and instructional methods and participates in ongoing
professional education. A
comprehensive reading assessment is conducted during the first session to
determine baseline reading abilities.
The goal of the tutoring
is to have students become active and independent learners. Dr. Kelly teaches strategies to promote
the development of specific skills which directly enhance school
performance. Students are taught to generalize strategies in order to
transfer knowledge to new academic and real-life situations. Dr. Kelly also offers research-based
reading intervention services with intensive 4-hour Saturday Sessions or
summer intensive sessions
v
Phonemic
awareness/phonics for grades K-2
For beginning
readers/struggling readers
v
Fluency training using
RAVE-O/Read Naturally for grades 2-3
For non-fluent
readers/slow readers
v
Reading comprehension
instruction for grades 3-6
For reading comprehension problems/reluctant readers
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reading Difficulties
The intensive individualized reading
program uses techniques recommended by the National Reading Panel in the
areas of Phonemic Awareness/Phonics, Fluency, and Comprehension. For research-based facts on reading
difficulties, click here.
Reading is a task that involves the
integration of many neurobiological processes. Nearly 20% of children will
encounter difficulty when attempting to master this skill. Many young children often find the task
of reading overwhelming and daunting.
Once in school, they begin to notice which children easily learn
this task and those that don’t.
They tend to interpret their difficulties with this task as
something that is wrong with them.
Shame erupts as a consequence and begins to erode their sense of
self. Because reading ability is one
of the biggest predictors of self-esteem, children who struggle are often
at-risk for developing a downward spiral of shame. Intervening early is critical not only
for academic success but also for interrupting these negative
distortions.
Research indicates that 90% - 95% of poor
readers can increase reading skills to average levels, given early
intervention that combines training in phonemic awareness, phonics,
fluency, and vocabulary/ comprehension.
Training in these foundation building blocks can lead to improved
and proficient reading.
Phonemic
Awareness
Phonemic awareness is the understanding
that words are comprised of individual sounds, not just one utterance. Many children struggle with this task,
and therefore have difficulty with learning the sound-symbol relationship. This skill underlies the ability to decode,
or use phonics, to help them read. Findings from the National Reading Panel
showed that teaching children phonemic awareness significantly improves
their reading.
Phonics
Phonics instruction teaches letter-sound
correspondences and how to use them in reading and spelling. Phonics
instruction helps beginning readers understand how letters are linked to
sounds (phonemes) to form letter-sound correspondences. Findings from the National Reading Panel
indicated that students who were taught phonics systematically were better
able to decode and spell and showed significant improvement in their
ability to comprehend text.
Fluency
Instruction
Once the child has mastered decoding, they
may not yet be prepared to independently manage grade-level text with out
significant cognitive energy spent on the skill of reading or decoding the words. The next phase of reading is to
transition to the automatic and fluent reading of text. Fluent readers rapidly and automatically
recognize words as they are reading.
They do this without the laborious task of decoding and struggling
to sound out each word as they read.
Studies have shown that students who read quickly actually
comprehend better.
Reading
Comprehension Instruction
Many children are often able to read text
fluently, yet may realize they finished a page or chapter and were unable
to recall information in the passage.
Such students are often unaware that they are not comprehending as
they are reading and continue to “go through the motions”
without understanding the text. Training should include not only a strategy
for comprehension, but also for the self-monitoring of the comprehension as
the student is reading. Studies have
found that often teachers are trained in the “measuring” of
reading comprehension but lack the knowledge in how to “teach”
reading comprehension. Findings from the National Reading Panel suggest
that teaching a combination of reading comprehension techniques is the most
effective. When several techniques are used in combination, results in
standardized comprehension tests have been found.
The fee for the tutoring and remediation
program is $125 per hour and includes an initial reading assessment fee of
$500, the intensive reading instruction program, and a post-treatment
assessment. Dr. Kelly is the sole clinician of the program and does not
employ tutors.
For more in-depth information
regarding reading and reading difficulties visit www.readingcomprehensioninfo.com
More
Information? Information@drkarenkelly.com
