How Do I Know of My Child Is Making Progress in Reading?

Reprinted from Perpectives, Winter 2006, The International Dyslexia Association

Beginning with the end in mind, I like to ask parents about their goals for their child. Most say that they want their child’ to love reading’,’ to be a reader’, and ‘to go to college’. Such responses suggest that parents’ goals typically go far beyond the goals of the typical public school. Naturally, schools have a more short-term, micro view of student goals than do parents. To track the child’s language-literacy growth, parents need to combine observations from home with information from the schools – and other helping professionals (reading teacher, psychologist, speech-language pathologist). Persistence is generally required, but the effort is usually worth it. read more