The education trends parents should know more about.

Your child is struggling to sound out words, write simple sentences, and solve even single-step math word problems. He has a learning disability and is drowning in school, as he watches his peers learn to read, write, and calculate with ease. You have tried just about everything to help him—workbooks, flash cards, drills, computer games, and the like—but nothing seems to be working. We now know that using evidence-based techniques for teaching students with learning disabilities, a trend in special education, can solve this long-standing dilemma of how to truly help struggling learners. So, what exactly are evidence-based techniques, and how can you reinforce this instruction at home?

Several techniques and interventions for students with learning disabilities are scientifically-based and have been found to be effective. One such technique is direct instruction, which uses straightforward techniques to explain a concept, and can help a student with a learning disability retain new material. For instance, an instructor might directly teach students that proper nouns or new sentences always begin with a capital letter—or they might directly explain the “floss” spelling rule, where we double the last letter if a single syllable word ends with an f, l, or s.

Strategy instruction is also evidence-based, and is an effective tool for students with learning disabilities. With this technique, a teacher provides a clear strategy that helps students come up with a response or solve a problem. For instance, the “OINS” strategy can help students with learning disabilities solve math word problems in an organized fashion. With this strategy, students read a word problem, then break it down into four steps: O (Operation, where they write down correct operation symbol), I (Information, where they write the relevant information needed for solving the problem), N (Number Sentence, where they write the complete number sentence), and S (Solution Sentence, where they write the solution to the problem as a full sentence).

For reading, however, using a sequential, multi-sensory approach has been considered one of the most effective evidence-based approaches for teaching students with learning disabilities. Multi-sensory instruction engages more than one sense at a time. As a basic example, your child may learn about shells in school. Rather than simply reading about them in a book, he may collect shells in their natural environment, then feel them, smell them, and even put them to his ear to listen to the sounds they may project. He might also search for facts about shells online, forming a connection with this information from the visual, auditory, and tactile modalities he used when studying the shells.

Multi-sensory instruction can help students with dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities in particular develop their basic reading skills. Orton Gillingham pioneered this approach, by helping students make connections between letters and sounds and learning to blend these sounds together to form words. Many Orton Gillingham-based programs now exist, but they all share the common elements of using the auditory, visual, and tactile approaches to help students develop their reading skills. Some multi-sensory components of these programs, many of which you can reinforce at home, are detailed as follows:

Audio-visual card drills: Students learn to connect a given letter and sound to a key picture. The letter is often written on the front of a flash card with a key picture on the back—like P (on the front) and pizza (on the back), or a (on the front) and apple (on the back). An instructor might orally model to the student that “P makes the sound p, like in ‘pizza’” and have the student repeat back that sequence.

Sand or shaving cream writing: Using a tactile tool like sand or shaving cream can help students further connect letters to sounds and remember these connections for the long run. In doing so, they trace a letter in the sand or shaving cream while saying its formation. For instance, when writing the letter P, they would say aloud, “around, down, and across” as they write the letter—followed by the sound it makes, which in this case is p.

Skywriting: Students utilize muscle memory with sky writing to help them further connect sounds to letters and form the letters properly when writing. They may stand up and use their gross motor muscles to write a letter formation in the sky with their pointer and middle fingers, like “down and across” for the letter T.

Magnetic tiles: Students can learn to effectively combine sounds to form words using a multi-sensory tool such as magnetic tiles. An instructor may dictate, for instance, the word “cat,” and ask the student to spell the word using magnetic tiles. The student would select from a group of letters first the letter C (which says c), then the letter A (which says a) and finally the letter T (which says t)—then blend those sounds together to form the word.

Students with learning disabilities often continue to struggle as they progress through school and the academic demands increase. Yet the trend towards evidence-based instruction in the classroom can help ease this struggle, ultimately helping students with learning disabilities feel confident and successful in school.

The post Evidence-Based Instruction Opens Doors For Students With Special Needs appeared first on EBL Coaching.

14 apps for developing children’s reading and writing skills from pre-K through high school

Though many parents lament the distractions that electronic devices can present, much of what makes tablet and smartphone content so engaging and addicting—interactive games, visually rich graphics—can help students develop the skills and enthusiasm necessary for success as readers and writers. To help you sort through all that’s on the market, we turned to Dr. Emily Levy, the founder of EBL Coaching—a local, one-on-one tutoring program for K-12 students—to share some of her favorite reading and writing apps.

READING

Montessori Crosswords (Pre-K-Kindergarten) 

This app helps students develop their decoding, spelling, and writing skills by teaching them to build words with different phonics patterns. Students start by building basic CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, then move into words with blends, digraphs, silent Es, vowel teams, and other combinations. Students are initially given a picture (like “bag” or “kid”) and are asked to drag letters from the alphabet at the bottom of the screen to spell the displayed word. Later, students spell words following specific phonics patterns in the form of crosswords. Students can also choose themes for the activities, like animals, food, clothes, and more. $2.99, iTunes, Google Play &amazon.com

Short Vowel Word Study (Grades K-1)

This is a great app for reinforcing basic word decoding at a Kindergarten/grade 1 level. The app contains three main sections: Word families, short vowels, and longer words. The first game is “Sort It,” where the child must sort a word into its proper vowel category: I, U, or A. In the “Find It” game, the child must find the “oddball” word that doesn’t belong in the same vowel family, and drag it to the bottom of the screen. The “Spell It” game reinforces spelling by displaying an image (like a hat) and the child must drag letters to spell the word. The “Write It” game teaches students to trace and then independently write words. Other related fun and engaging reading games are also integrated into this app. $2.99, iTunes &Google Play

Super Why! (Pre-K)

This app is a great one for building reading, spelling, writing, and phonemic awareness skills. It includes four games, each led by a different character: Alpha Pig, Princess Pesto, Wonder Red, and Super Why. In the Alpha Pig game, students find letters on a path to form different words. In the Princess Pesto game, students practice writing letters to form words that are first modeled by Princess Pesto’s magic wand. In Wonder Red’s game, students identify rhyming words, and in Super Why’s game, students build their reading comprehension skills by identifying words that complete sentences in a given story. $2.99, iTunes, Google Play & pbskids.org 

MeeGenius (Ages 2-8)

For a wide selection of interactive, digital story books, MeeGenius is a great app that provides access to more than 700 children’s e-books for children up to age 8, which are accessible on iOS, Android, Windows 8, Amazon, Nook, and online. Free,meegenius.com 

Reading Comprehension at the Paragraph Level (Middle School)

With this app, students read a series of stories on stimulating topics and are then asked various types of comprehension questions, including identifying the main idea and important details and making inferences. At the end of each story, an open-ended question is included to generate discussion. With practice using this app, students will develop critical thinking, reading comprehension, attention to detail, and memory skills. $3.99, iTunes

iAnnotate (High School)

This app helps high school students develop active reading and note-taking skills by reading, highlighting, underlining, striking out, and annotating text to create effective study guides and improve overall comprehension. Students can import Word, Power Point, and PDF documents and use the app’s built-in tools to engage with the text while reading. $9.99, iTunes; Free, Google Play & amazon.com

SAT Vocab By MindSnacks (High School)

This app is a great one for learning SAT-level vocab words or for simply developing vocabulary skills. Students learn definitions, antonyms, and the proper spelling of words by first reviewing a set of words and then playing nine different colorful, uniquely-illustrated games. The app includes 25 levels and more than 500 words, and tracks students’ overall progress. Free, iTunes

WRITING

iWriteWords (Pre-K-Kindergarten)

This app is helpful for developing handwriting and fine motor skills for preschool and Kindergarten students. Students choose from numbers, lowercase, or uppercase letters, and practice writing with their fingers using proper formation. They help Mr. Crab “collect” numbers in order to properly form each letter or number. Students are rewarded with a colorful picture at the end of each segment. $2.99, iTunes

StoryBuilder (Grades 1-2) 

This app gives students practice creating their own stories using picture prompts. Students are asked a series of questions about a picture. Aided by an initial written phrase, they must answer each question in a full sentence while being recorded, creating a well-sequenced narrative. After each exercise, students can listen to themselves telling the story and can then email it to anyone who’d like to hear it. Using this app, students strengthen higher level comprehension skills (including inferencing), sequencing, paragraph formation, and storytelling abilities. $7.99, iTunes

Sentence Builder (Grades K-5) 

This app teaches elementary school students to form well-written sentences in “slot machine” format. To play, students select words to form a sentence that best describes a whimsical picture presented at the bottom of the screen. Through these exercises, students build grammar, punctuation, and pronunciation skills, starting with shorter sentences and gradually moving into more complex ones. $5.99, iTunes & Google Play

Kidspiration Maps (Grades K-8) 

This app is a great one for brainstorming, prewriting, and helping elementary and middle school students organize their ideas. Students create visual diagrams using shapes, symbols, and images that they can connect together in a web-like format to organize their ideas—a great first step before writing! Students can also work on reading and writing, social studies, science, and math skills using pre-set activities. This app develops many skills, including critical thinking, creativity, verbal expression, written expression, and organization. $9.99, iTunes 

Writing Challenge for Kids (Grades 5-7) 

Many students have trouble beginning the writing process. This app is a great one for combating that challenge—it helps students begin their writing and keep their creative juices flowing. After pressing “Start,” students are given a prompt, such as: “Start writing a story that takes place in an evil river. Include the word rabbit.” After every minute (or whatever time is set), the student is given another prompt for adding details, characters, and other ideas to help them form a more elaborate story. $1.99,iTunes & Google Play

Writer’s Studio (Grades 6-12) 

This app is useful for aiding middle and high school students in creating eBooks and presentations. Students can import graphics, photos, music, and clip art, and can also add drawings and paint to their text to create innovative visual stories and presentations. Students strengthen their writing skills while “bringing stories to life” with creativity and color. $4.99, iTunes

Inspiration Maps (Grades 6-12) 

As the “higher level” counterpart to Kidspiration Maps, this app helps middle and high school students plan, organize, and brainstorm their ideas before writing. Students can take notes in a web-like format while integrating icons and different bubbles, and can easily translate their web into outline form. $9.99, iTunes

The post Top Tech Tools to Help Kids Read, Write, and Learn appeared first on EBL Coaching.