Helping Children Love to Read

Making reading into a step by step chore takes the fun out of reading.  Sure we all need to learn some reading skills so we can read, but learning to love reading can't be taught. As adult,s we can not give it to a child, or force them into it. All we can do is put out our hands to gently shield the small spark until it becomes a fame -- a true love of reading. Brad Wilcox, a BYU education professor, wrote the best article I have ever read on how to encourage children to love to read.

12 Things Not to Say to Young Readers
https://magazine.byu.edu/article/12-things-not-to-say-to-young-readers/

Autistic Babies and Children

Here are some comments by different parents of mildly Autistic children. These children are said to have Asenberger Syndrome.  By "syndrome", they mean a characteristic group of behavior. An example is that most Asenberger children have difficulty dealing with change. It does not mean that they have an illness or anything is "wrong" with them. They are who they are. We each have different strengths and weaknesses. These people often are exceptional on left brain skills such as structure, linear logic, memory for details, math, and spelling. Recognizing behavioral patterns and predicting behavior often is very difficult for these logical, literal people. Their particular personality results in some common behaviors.

I am grouping the comments. Since there are five times more boys than girls that are autistic, most quotes will refer to "he".

Dealing With School Discouragement

When my oldest was young, we dreaded school beginning.  Soon it would start again.  She would come home sobbing, “They called me dumb!”.  By the end of second grade, she knew she was “dumb”.

My heart ached to see someone so young already without hope.  I prayed and studied all I could about those who have difficulty learning.  I found myself remembering my own struggles in elementary school, and wondering why the Lord had not blessed me as others.  I was startled out of my self-pitying mood, as these words filled my mind, “You have not understood.  These are not your weaknesses, but the strengths I have given you.”

People Learn Differently

Being a person who struggled in elementary school myself, I really believe that people learn differently. Based on my own experiences and what I have learned in over thirty-six years of tutoring children, I  agree that most children are not disabled learners, but simply people who learn in a different way.

Some of us can not learn merely by hearing something. We need to see and experience to learn. Visual aids such as pictures, time lines, graphs, demonstrations, and DVD’s really help me follow a lesson, but they don’t always have to be things you can touch. Stories, parables, examples, and analogies also enable me to “see” the ideas. I have found  Teaching No Greater Call to be a invaluable resource of teaching ideas.

Learning Disabilities

Learning Disabilities is defined as

1. a condition giving rise to difficulties in acquiring knowledge and skills to the level expected of those of the same age, especially when not associated with a physical handicap.

ADHD, ADD, and Autism, though not strictly included, could also be considered  learning disabilities since they affect learning.

I have written many articles about what is called "Learning Disabilities". (See categories "Learning Disabilities) These are posts about coping with weaknesses, and appreciating and developing our strengths. We are all human. We are all "disabled" in some way and gifted in some way.

Helping Autistic People

I've seen parents come in to talk to the teacher about their autistic son. The mother forcefully wants her son "fixed",  made "normal", while the father just sits there in quiet blankness. Why? Because he recognizes that his son is very like him.

So how do you help an autistic child? What can you do to make it easier for someone who lives in a world of pure logic? I think of the old Star Trek 1 movie, V'ger, where a machine created a world in it's own image; completely logical and predictable. Of course the "biological infestations" of the machines had to be eliminated.

Symptoms of Autism

What is autism?  No one knows really.  It does seem to run in families and there are four times more male than female. (I will therefore use "He" when referring to these people) These are my personal thoughts about what is called autism. I have known six highly functioning autistic people and their families. They look like everyone else and have needs and talents like every one does. They just have trouble relating to people; seeing behavioral patterns. They also find any abstract thought very difficult.  I wonder if we might be talking with extremely "left brained" people (Sensing, Thinking). I also wonder if this this why there are more males than females; girls have more nerve fibers connecting the two halves of their brain (Corpus Callosum).

Auditory Learning

Perceptual Mode-  AUDITORY Learning
The different ways that Left Hemispheric Dominate, Mixed Dominate, and Right Hemispheric Dominate people learn from listening and speaking.

Left Hemispheric Dominate - Primary Learning Channel 
likes to read aloud even when should be reading silently
makes up rhymes
monopolizes conversations
verbalizes all activities

Determining Brain Dominance

How Children Learn - Determining Brain Hemispheric Dominance

Dominate Side of Body - uses opposite side of brain

Left H. Dominate Mixed Dominate Right H. Dominate
right handed ambidextrous                      left handed
uses right foot uses mixed uses left eye, foot, hand
looks through right eye combinations (note some left handers
reverse hemispheres)

Books for Third Graders

High Interest Books

Easier
Bailey School Kids Books by Debbie Dadey
Encyclopedia Brown Books by Donald J. Sobol
Jigsaw Jones Mystery Series by James Preller
Junie B. Jones Books by Barbara Park

Basic Ideas for Helping Children Become Creative Writers

Basic Ideas for Helping Children Become Creative Writers

● Read, Read, Read
to your child and with your child