What to Look for in a Reading Specialist in NYC
Your child is struggling with reading and you know they need extra support. Perhaps they have difficulty sounding out words, reading fluently, or comprehending the material that they read. All of these skills become increasingly important as they progress through school and can affect nearly all academic subjects. Find an ideal reading specialist in NYC for your child with the ideas detailed below.
Evidence-based support
If your child is struggling with reading, tutoring using an evidence-based, multi-sensory approach is most effective. One such method is called the Orton Gillingham approach, which is a structured, multi-sensory, diagnostic and prescriptive method for helping students develop stronger decoding and spelling skills. With this approach, students use tools such as colored sand, magnetic tiles, mini whiteboards, and shaving cream, amongst other related tools, as part of a systematic approach to teaching. An example of an Orton Gillingham tutoring lesson might involve teaching the digraph “sh” so that the student can ultimately learn how to read words containing this digraph. As part of the tutoring lesson, the reading specialist might start by holding up an audio-visual flash card with the letters “sh” on the front and a key picture of a ship on the back. The reading specialist would hold up the card and say, “These are the letters sh, like ship (they’d flip the card around), it makes the sound /sh/” (they’d flip the card back around). The student would repeat that sequence on their own, then move onto skywriting. The Orton Gillingham reading specialist would model writing those letters in the sky, saying aloud as they trace them, “around and around” (for s) and “down, up, and hump” (for h). The student would then try skywriting the letters on their own, then trace them in colored sand or shaving cream. Next, they might do workbook exercises corresponding to that sound, and later use magnetic tiles or other similar tools to practice blending sounds together, including “sh,” to form words such as ship, shut, or shop. These multi-sensory Orton Gillingham tutoring lessons provided by a reading specialist can help your child develop much stronger reading skills.
Structured plan
When your child begins their tutoring sessions, it’s important that the reading specialist has a structured plan in place for the tutoring. Instead of bringing in random unrelated worksheets or books to each session, they should have a systematic learning plan, starting with the levels and skills your child needs help with and building upwards from there. For example, if your child is struggling to read consonant-vowel-consonant words (like hug, mit, rag), the reading specialist should begin with a structured, multi-sensory plan that teaches individual letters and their corresponding sounds and work on how to blend those sounds together to form basic words. Once your child has mastered reading these basic words, the reading specialist should move onto words containing blends, consonant digraphs, vowel digraphs, r-controlled patterns, and so on, all following a systematic plan.
Age and grade speciality
Some reading specialists focus on teaching older students comprehension strategies, including making inferences and synthesizing main ideas. Others might focus on early childhood reading, and some may have expertise in teaching decoding and reading fluency to middle and high school students. It’s important that your child’s reading specialist has expertise in working with students at their age and grade level, and will use tools and strategies appropriate to your child’s specific needs.
Personality match
The right personality match is key in effective tutoring sessions. When you look for a reading specialist for your child, try to find someone who you think your child will click with. If your child prefers younger, bubbly personalities, try to find a reading specialist who fits that profile. If your child prefers quieter tutors or perhaps older, more seasoned reading specialists, look for those qualities when searching for the ideal tutor for your child.
Reading is a skill that affects all aspects of school. Finding the right reading specialist who has expertise in your child’s age, grade, and individual needs can truly transform their performance in school and help them feel confident and successful.