Reading Strategies - Reading Strategies to Adapt Materials for Your Child

By Ann Logsdon, About.com Guide

Strategies for Reading - Adapting Reading Materials for Children with Learning Disabilities
Almost any reading material can be adapted to meet the needs of your learning disabled child. Whether your child's difficulty is in basic reading or in reading comprehension, these tips can help him understand the content of reading material with less frustration. Continue with instruction in basic reading skills such as decoding and fluency, but when your child must read material for the purpose of learning the sub ect matter, adapt the reading task!

"he first and most important thing you can do to ensure your child does not get behind in reading material necessary for all of his school sub ects, ask your district's special education director to assist you with obtaining te#tbooks on tape or te#t reading software for digital reading material on computer. "e#tbooks on tape are often a$ailable through printing houses that ser$e people with disabilities. %ost re&uire submitting an application and purchasing a license for their ser$ices. 'our school district can co$er this e#pense if your child's disability re&uires it, and the ()* team agrees he needs them to learn. Contact your district's special education director or your state's department of education for information on how you can obtain these materials. +btaining the books on tape can be a lengthy process, so begin right now for the ne#t school year. (n addition to publishing houses for the disabled, many general te#tbook publishers offer C, -+% $ersions of their books. "hese may include audio files or may work with te#t readers. 'our district director of special education can assist you in finding out if these resources are a$ailable and how to obtain them. Before reading te#t, identify unfamiliar $ocabulary, and help your child look up the meanings of words. /how your child how to pronounce new words, and help him make up sentences using them. When reading books and no$els, ask the school or public librarian if there are lower0le$el reading $ersions of the assigned book. /chool or local librarians can assist you with finding unabridged books on tape and study guides for many books and no$els that are commonly used in schools. (f your local library does not carry these materials, it may be possible to get them through other libraries on an inter0library loan. Librarians can assist you with this. Consider purchasing an electronic te#t reading program to help your child with digital reading material. and Be a$ailable to help your child through difficult reading passages. Alternately, take turns reading pages to help keep frustration down for her.