What is reading intervention? In essence, reading intervention is the ability to recognize when an individual child is finding reading difficult. Once the observation is made, one must assist in helping them individually or with a small group of children with similar issues. There are many areas one can look to when intervening with a child’s reading struggles, which may be part of the root cause: phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension and sight word recognition.
To begin, one of the key challenges a child with reading difficulties will endure is a lack of confidence. Anytime a child looks around and sees their classmates reading at a higher level, while internally wishing they can excel, as well is a huge hurdle to overcome as a child. The effects can be acting out, emotional struggles, feeling inferior, etc.
When deciding on an intervention program, realize that most are focused working with the individual, by pinpointing the child’s specific areas of weakness. From there, the educator can analyze the most beneficial route in educating the student in ways to improve.
Program availability varies and it is up to the educator/parent to choose a method, which best suits the child experiencing reading problems. Below are just a few possibilities that one may look to in terms of deciding on what’s best suited for the child.
Phonemic Awareness
Funnix Beginning Reading and Funnix 2 is 220 complete lessons taking children from beginning non-readers to reading at a beginning third grade level. The Funnix DVD package include 4 installers and 5 special-use files for all lessons and print material.
Phonics
From the Center for a Collaborative Classroom SIPPS Literacy builds a foundation for success in school—and life. Help new and struggling readers build the skills and confidence they need to gain reading fluency and comprehension.
Fluency
QuickReads are what they sound like — short texts to be read quickly and with meaning. The QuickReads program is a creative and innovative application of recent research on the nature of texts used to teach reading. QuickReads texts support automatic, meaningful grade-level reading.
Comprehension
A simple video sample for developing reading comprehension with student friendly reading strategies and clear guided reading group routines. This can be an effective guided reading program for small groups of students.
Vocabulary
A video showing semantic gradients, which are a way to broaden and deepen students' understanding of related words. It helps students distinguish between shades of meaning and allows them to be more precise and imaginative in their writing.
Regardless of the difficulty you feel a child may be experiencing with regards to reading, the first step is to diagnose the root problem (i.e. vocabulary, phonics, etc.). One discovered, no matter what strategy one chooses to use, if done with care and understanding, the results are usually positive. Once the child gets the feeling that they are improving (no matter how small), it becomes a small step in their journey to become an independent and more confident reader.