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Reading Ranch and Haylee’s beloved Ms. Kim changed her life. She’s now a sophomore in a highly competitive private school in Austin. She’s been on the honor roll the past 2 years and even made all A’s last semester! We believe in Reading Ranch, and have the results to prove that Ms. Kim’s methods are key to a successful academic future.
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Does Your Child Struggle with Handwriting?
Many children have trouble with handwriting. From the time they are little, kids want to learn how to write and make their mark on the world. But if you ever have a child who struggles with writing, you know it can be frustrating to them and to you.
Reading Stamina: What is it? Why is it important?
Reading stamina is the reading equivalent of physical fitness. It’s the stamina you need to read for extended periods of time, and it can be developed with practice. The reading muscles – your reading skills – get stronger as they’re used, just like any other muscle in your body…
Five Ways to Help Develop Strong Sentence Structure in Early Learners
Everybody has a different way of expressing their thoughts and feelings. Some people use words, some use pictures, and others might communicate with music or dance. When words are used they are combined to form sentences that people understand.
Teach Kids Sight Words in an Easy and Fun Way
Did you know that more than 75 percent of the average children’s book is made of sight words? It’s an actual fact shared on Readandspell…
Ethical Considerations for Remote Assessments and Diagnostic Testing
It seems appropriate to start a discussion on remoa te assessment by first addressing certain ethical aspects of the assessment process. Cognitive and achievement assessments are fundamental tools in our performance and developmental monitoring toolkit.
Phoneme manipulation: Deletion, Addition, Substitution
When it comes to kids becoming good readers and writers, developing phonemic awareness skills is a game-changer. Phonemic awareness can make an incredible impact on children’s success.
Syllable Manipulation: Syllable Deleting, Adding, or Substituting
Understanding syllables is incredibly important for reading skills since students must recognize how words made of different parts can be decoded and blended with other elements to decode a word.
Blending Phonemes
Blending is one of two critical phonological awareness skills. Alongside segmenting, blending is an essential reading skill since it often predicts reading success with children. It is undoubtedly one of the readings and writing foundations.
Individual and Phoneme Isolation: Beginning, Medial, and Final
Most kids are fast learners, but if you really want to make sure you’re helping them develop their full reading potential, you should train their phonemic awareness. One of the most critical parts of that essential “package” is phoneme isolation.
Virtual Assessments – To Test or Not to Test: The COVID Dilemma
As COVID-19 continues to spread in the United States, it is complicating parents’ hopes of having their child assessed for possible learning difficulties.
Onset-Rime Segmenting and Onset-Rime Blending Are Critical for Your Kids’ Reading Development
This the next blog in my series of Phonological and Phonemic Awareness skills. I hope your enjoying these, or at least learning something!
Syllable segmenting and syllable blending
Syllable segmentation is the ability to determine how many phonemes (i.e., individual sound units) exist in a word. Syllable blending is the act of pulling together individual sounds/syllables into the entire word.
Sound and Word Discrimination
The next foundational skill in phonological awareness and language is Sound and Word discrimination. Auditory or sound discrimination is the ability to recognize similarities and differences between sounds. Mainly, sound discrimination allows people to distinguish between phonemes in words.
Rhyme Awareness and Alliteration Discrimination
Rhyme awareness is a complex skill that benefits from constantly being used in back and forth with the child as they learn what a rhyme is and how to form a rhyme themselves.
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
Over the next several weeks, I’m going to discuss phonological and phonemic awareness. What do these terms mean, what are skills associated with these terms? I’ll also discuss why these skills are essential and discuss some techniques and teaching points to help you assist your child.
Understanding Cognitive Assessments and Their Usefulness
Parents may ask themselves why cognitive assessments are necessary or even useful. The short answer is that such assessments provide a detailed profile of a child’s learning needs and potential.
What is NVLD?
This week I wanted to examine another learning disability that is sometimes overlooked, misunderstood, and many times misdiagnosed. Nonverbal learning disorder (NVLD) is a condition that is based in the brain that presents symptomatically as poor visual/spatial/organizational skills, difficulty recognizing and processing non-verbal communications.
An Overview of ADHD
As a parent of two children, I know that one of the most heart-breaking experiences is seeing your child struggle. When it comes to academic struggles, we often think that the problem is caused by the child not working hard enough.
The Benefits of Having Your Child Assessed
Over the years, I have engaged in many conversations with parents regarding their child’s academic performance. As a parent and grandparent, I understand the interest and concerns that parents experience. We all want to ensure we are doing all we can for our children to be successful.