Does your child struggle with sounding out words when reading? Does he have difficulty recognizing sight words or understanding what he reads? Perhaps he loses focus when reading or avoids reading at all costs. If so, your child may be experiencing reading difficulties. Reading is a skill that affects all aspects of school, so the earlier you can help your child build this skill, the better. Help your child build stronger reading skills with the four tips detailed below.

Read, Read, Read!

One of the best ways to help improve your child’s reading skills is by doing lots of reading! Starting when your child is a baby, make reading a ritual – every night before bed pick 2-3 books to read to them. Eventually let them pick the books and try to integrate topics they are interested in – mermaids, trucks, animals, you name it!  Any topic that peaks their interest is a good one. As they get older, talk about the plot of the story, the characters, and the setting. Ask questions, like “What do you think will happen next?” or “Why do you think Sara feels this way?” Remember that struggling readers often choose shorter books that they perceive as “easy” so feel free to pick longer, more complex books when you’re doing the reading. 

Make it Multi-Sensory

Most kids learn best by engaging the senses, especially those who are struggling with reading. Rather than sticking a worksheet or mundane workbook in front of your child, engage their visual, auditory, and kinesthetic senses when helping them learn to read. For instance, when teaching your young child how to form letters, gather some colored sand, sugar, or flour, and spread it out on a cookie tray. Say the formations aloud as you model tracing each letter. For example, for the lowercase letter “a” use your pointer and middle fingers and say “around, up, and down” as you form the letter a in the sand. Then ask your child to do the same. Practice this technique for all of the letters of the alphabet, and also numbers! Additionally, you can use magnetic tiles, mini whiteboards, and shaving cream for forming letters and words. These elements are part of the Orton Gillingham methodology, which is a research-based, multi-sensory technique for helping students with or without learning disabilities, including dyslexia, develop stronger reading and spelling skills. 

Use a Structured Reading Program

Many children who struggle with reading benefit from a structured, Orton Gillingham based reading program. For instance, the Flags and Stars Orton Gillingham Multisensory student workbook program teaches students to read and spell words starting at a very basic foundational level and moving upwards using a structured, systematic approach. The program starts by teaching students to identify individual letters and their corresponding sounds and blend them together to read and spell CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. It then progresses to words containing blends, consonant digraphs, vowel digraphs, silent e patterns, multisyllabic word patterns, prefixes, suffixes, and roots. This Orton Gillingham, multi-sensory program is a great way to help students who struggle to read, including students with learning disabilities, ADHD, and dyslexia, to build stronger reading skills. 

Get Help!

If your child is still struggling to read despite practice and reinforcement at home, you may want to consider speaking to his teacher about any reading challenges at school, and possibly look into further testing. Public schools offer testing for learning disabilities free of charge, or some families choose to undergo a private neuropsychological evaluation. This evaluation will help determine whether or not your child has a learning disability (like dyslexia or dyscalculia), ADHD, executive functioning challenges, or other formal diagnoses. Oftentimes, if your child struggles with reading, the evaluator will recommend a structured, multi-sensory approach, such as the Orton Gillingham methodology, since this is a highly effective research-based approach for building reading and spelling skills.

Reading is a skill that plays a role in all aspects of school. The earlier you can help your child build stronger reading skills, the better! Use a multi-sensory approach, help engage your child with books on topics he enjoys, and work on strengthening his foundational skills – and he will be well on his way to reading success! 

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Completing homework with your child may feel like a daily never-ending battle. Kids with executive functioning challenges in particular often struggle with planning, time management, and completing tasks effectively — all of which play a paramount role in getting through homework. Assignments will only continue to increase in complexity as students progress through school, so it’s important to help your child build stronger homework and overall executive functioning skills. Try some of the ideas detailed below.

Looking for educational games that you can play with your kids from EBL Coaching? Check out Best Learning Games to Play with Your Child

Executive Functioning Skills: Pick a Homework Spot
Some children come home from school, plop their belongings down on any spot that looks clear, and begin to do their homework in that randomly selected place. Sound familiar? Help your child change this haphazard habit and create a regular, consistent homework spot where he will complete their homework every night. Some kids prefer working at a desk in their room, but others find that being in their room presents too many distractions. In that case, a more central area, like a dining room or kitchen table, may work well. Also, assess whether your child works better in a room alone or needs to be in a space where a parent or other adult can be around to answer questions as they arise. The key is maintaining a consistent spot every time homework is done.

Stock Up!
Once an appropriate homework spot is selected, it’s important that it is always fully stocked with supplies that your child may need. These supplies may be in a non-movable spot, like desk drawers, shelves, or cabinets if your child works in a private space. However, a homework crate or bin may work better if your child works in a more centralized location, like a dining room or kitchen table. Just be sure to include all of the supplies your child may need, including pens, pencils, paper, a calculator, scissors, a laptop, and so on.

Set Up a Regular Homework Time
Try to identify the time of day after school when your child works best. Some‎ kids prefer working right after school, when they are still in “work mode” and can plow through their homework efficiently. They may enjoy the feeling of accomplishment they get once their homework is done, and like having free time for the rest of the night. Others need a small break, like a snack or even some athletic activity, before sitting down to do their homework. Yet others are “night owls,” and do best working on their assignments after dinner. Generally speaking, earlier tends to be better since most kids start to tire as the day progresses.

Come Up With a Study Plan
Students with executive functioning challenges often feel overwhelmed with the volume of homework they receive and sometimes don’t even know where to start. To combat this struggle, sit down with your child when they come home from school, open her homework pad (yes, they need one of those!), and help them come up with a study plan. Start by going over each assignment with them and make sure they know what to do for each one. Then have them estimate how long they think each assignment will take‎ (and even write this “ET,” or Estimated Time, in their assignment pad next to each one). Once that is done, have them order their assignments based on the ones they want to do first, second, third, etc. (with 1, 2, 3, and so on). They should then start completing each assignment in that order. They may need to build in breaks, like 10-15 minutes per hour, so they do not feel overwhelmed or burnt out, especially as the volume of work increases.

Try Rewards!
Some kids are motivated by grades; they notice how their hard work and diligence at completing assignments leads to good grades, which makes them feel good. ‎Others, however, are not very motivated by grades and may need an additional motivational tool, like concrete rewards. You can try a simple motivator like if your child finishes their homework they can watch a show or make a phone call. Alternatively, you may need a more detailed rewards program, like earning points to “trade in” for prizes, like video games, screen time, a trip to the movies, etc. Just be sure to involve your child in the prize picking, since they need to feel motivated to earn them.
Creating structure and consistency with your child’s homework time is important for long-term success. Try these ideas with them and they will be well on their way to building stronger executive functioning skills and excelling in school.

The post How to Build Executive Functioning Skills With Homework appeared first on EBL Coaching.

The Orton Gillingham tutoring that EBL Coaching provides starts at the student’s initial levels and teaches them phonetic sounds and concepts by integrating the visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic modalities. Our Orton Gillingham tutoring utilizes tools such as colored sand, shaving cream, magnetic tiles, white boards, and learning games to help students develop their reading and spelling skills. The Orton Gillingham tutoring we provide can take place either at your home or at one of our learning centers, as well as virtually. Our Orton Gillingham materials and workbooks help reinforce the concepts learned from students’ Orton Gillingham tutoring.

Every student learns differently, and EBL Coaching is always focused on the specific needs of each individual student.

What is Orton Gillingham?

The Orton Gillingham approach is a multi-sensory, language-based methodology that has been used since the 1930’s. The method teaches the basics of forming words using the auditory, visual, and kinesthetic modalities simultaneously. It is flexible, individualized to the needs of each student, and integrates:

• Phonemic awareness
• Phonics
• Vocabulary
• Reading fluency
• Comprehension

When working with students who have learning disabilities, EBL Coaching provides individualized Orton Gillingham instruction that is consistently adjusted as the student progresses, to best suit their needs. With our specialized tutoring program, EBL Coaching provides Orton Gillingham instruction and integrates multi-sensory techniques to help students with dyslexia develop stronger skills and strengthen their self-esteem.

Our Orton Gillingham tutoring engages students and helps them enjoy learning while building their fundamental reading and writing skills. The tutors providing this instruction are highly experienced in working with students who have academic skills difficulties, as well as those with learning disabilities, ADHD, dyslexia, and executive functioning challenges. Our methods are effective and evidence-based. Whether you bring your child to one of our learning centers or prefer an in-home Orton Gillingham tutor, your child will receive individualized, research-based instruction that is custom-tailored to their needs. Students with academic challenges, learning disabilities, dyslexia, focusing difficulties, or ADHD all benefit from this instruction. Read more at How to Improve Your Dyslexic Child’s Reading Skills – EBL Coaching.

As a supplement to our teaching methods, we also utilize multiple evidence-based, multi-sensory workbooks designed to help children build their reading, writing, math, phonemic awareness, note taking, test taking, executive functioning, and auditory processing skills. Our EBL Coaching learning centers use these and other research-based techniques that are most appropriate for the needs of each child. Using our Flags and Stars Orton Gillingham materials, EBL Coaching helps students build their reading, writing, phonemic awareness, and fluency skills. With our dyslexia tutoring, we integrate these materials and corresponding manipulatives to provide multi-sensory instruction that helps students with dyslexia build their academic skills and develop a stronger self-esteem.

While the Orton Gillingham approach was originally designed for students with learning disabilities, this method can help all children improve their reading and spelling skills. The 26 letters in the English language combine into 44 speech sounds, with hundreds of ways to spell these sounds. Our tutoring program integrates engaging multi-sensory tools to supplement the Orton Gillingham method, including magnetic tiles, white boards, colored sand, shaving cream, and learning games to help make learning fun while solidifying these important skills. Students with reading and writing challenges, learning disabilities, dyslexia, and ADHD all benefit from this type of learning.

Learn more about resources for dyslexia at Home | Dylexia Resources.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Orton Gillingham research-based?
Yes! Orton Gillingham is a research-based, multi-sensory approach that helps students develop their reading and spelling skills. It is systematic and individualized to each student’s needs, integrating previously taught concepts as new concepts are introduced.

How is Orton Gillingham different from Wilson?
Orton Gillingham is a multi-sensory, flexible, individualized approach that helps students with dyslexia and reading challenges develop their reading and spelling skills. Wilson is a step-by-step program and workbook series that is based on Orton Gillingham principles.

How long does Orton Gillingham tutoring take?
All students respond at a different pace to tutoring but because of the effectiveness of the Orton Gillingham approach, we tend to see positive changes quickly. Frequency of sessions also plays a role in a student’s progress.

Do you offer Orton Gillingham tutoring in-home in NYC and NJ?
Yes! We offer Orton Gillingham tutoring at the home in NYC and all surrounding areas. We also offer in-home Orton Gillingham tutoring in Bergen County, NJ and the surrounding areas. Additionally, we offer tutoring virtually and at our learning centers.

The post Who Benefits from Orton Gillingham Tutoring? appeared first on EBL Coaching.