Reading Skills For All Seasons

As the temperature rises and the school calendar nears completion, parents are beginning to focus on summer reading schedules and keeping their children’s reading skills sharp throughout the warmer months.

It is a formidable task for any parent. For those raising children with special needs, the obstacle is even greater.  

To assist parents and teachers in this endeavor, the Westfield Parent Teacher Council’s special education committee dedicated their monthly meeting to a discussion of multisensory reading techniques and other methods of keeping the brain active both inside and outside of the classroom.

Maria Auricchio, a teacher for seven years and a certified Orton-Gillingham multisensory reading instructor, gave a 75-minute presentation focusing on the challenge of reading and spelling for special needs children. While strategies that employ more modalities tend to prove more effective, she said any significant progress in education starts with motivation.

“Getting your child motivated to read isn’t the easiest thing to do, but it’s the most important,” Auricchio told the group of about 30 parents and educators gathered in the library of Edison Intermediate School Wednesday evening.

Auricchio emphasized the usefulness of tactile activities for younger children, enabling them to learn their reading and spelling skills through hands-on exercises such as alphabet cards, tracing paper, and breaking words and syllables into “chipping blocks.” Audible methods, such as using PVC piping as a type of “whisper phone,” enable children to listen to themselves closely and catch their own mistakes. Auricchio also discussed the difference between automaticity and fluency and the best means of developing each of those crucial skills.

Several dos and don’ts of cooperative reading were discussed for parents to use when reading with their children. Auricchio discouraged “Round Robin reading,” where parents and children alternate reading paragraphs aloud, a practice that results in children reading ahead and reducing their comprehension of the material. Instead, she recommended tools such as memorizing word lists (no more than 10 words), learning short poetry, and using literature written in responsive reading format. Above all, Auricchio emphasized the importance of positive reinforcement in order to minimize frustration and keep children confident as they develop their skills.

 “The more confident they are, the more likely they will feel that they are good readers,” she said.

Auricchio’s presentation is available on the committee’s website, along with presentations of previous guest speakers.

The committee’s final meeting for the school year will be held on Wednesday, June 15. Among the topics to be discussed are getting new members involved with the committee, creating events to raise funds for the group’s scholarships, and the addition of more school-specific support groups for special needs children – an expansion of the program piloted this year at Roosevelt Intermediate School.