Characteristics of a Sound Remedial Reading Program:

1. Assessment

The teacher must accumulate a comprehensive set of data in order to work intelligently with the child. The diagnosis should extend not only to the reading but also to the reader, and should be concerned with all educational, emotional, and environmental factors (e.g. ability to follow directions, feeling of security, parents’ attitude toward child’s reading). Continuous assessment makes “patterns of error” more apparent. An isolated observation may in itself be valid, but it is the sum of many observations and their relationship to each other which gives a total picture of the remedial reader. Assessment must be seen as part of the whole remedial process, not just the prelude to remedial instruction. Documentation is essential.

2. Stress Evidence of Progress

Assessment will reveal certain mechanics or reading in which the child is weak. Employing strategies to tackle these revealed weaknesses should yield objective evidence of progress to counter the impaired reader’s sense of frustration stemming from a long history of failure associated with reading. Lack of confidence and aversion to reading must be overcome, and one of the best ways to do this is to dramatize progress.

3. Help Child Gain Insight

Students must cease to think of reading as an unpleasant activity and begin to see it as pleasant and rewarding. Since his/her previous reading situations produced tension and threatened the child, a climate which he/she can tolerate must be developed. To do this, a teacher should establish rapport with the child, and encourage him/her to expressed his/her true feelings about reading. The student’s reading progress depends upon his/her perceiving and accepting the fact that he/she actually can succeed at reading, which in turn may depend on his/her gaining insight into the causes which have contributed to his/her poor reading. A remedial program should help the child gain such insights. The direction and motivation which result can be used in goal setting and goal attainment.

4. Variety of Learning Materials

The more reading ability the child has, the easier it is to find supplementary material on any given subject. During recent years, more and more supplementary materials at the easier levels have been published. Teachers should be familiar with a number of books and series of books which are available and of particular interest to poor readers.

Developing and Maintaining Interest in Reading

Reading materials should parallel a child’s interests. A number of techniques can be used either to discover or to arouse a remedial reader’s interest:

Books with colorful jackets, or books opened to interesting pictures, may be left where they will be noticed. The teacher then observes which ones grab the student’s attention.
Lesson plans should include alternate tasks in case a particular task fails to motivate the remedial reader or hold his interest.
The child can participate in a sentence completion task where he states possible motivators: (e.g. “When I grow up, if I am able to do the type of work I like to do best, I will be a ____”)

Therapy Should Always Accompany Remedial Reading to:

Reduce tension connected with reading.
Change the child’s attitude toward self (ego-rehabilitation, self-confidence, etc.)
Change the child’s attitudes toward authority (school and parents)
Build interest in reading.
Base instruction on a thorough diagnosis.
Build interest in reading–have a large stock of supplementary reading materials.

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