How to Help a Child With a Reading Learning Disability

Helping a child with special needs can be extremely stressful if you do not know what method would be most beneficial to the child's success. Learning disabilities can be a impediment on a child's social and educational development and can cause significant emotional problems if not dealt with in an informed and compassionate way. Help a child with a reading learning disability and give him the tools to succeed.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Begin by determining what the nature of the child's learning disability is. Get an official diagnosis from a behavioral therapist or pediatrician who can explain the nature of the disorder to you and confirm its existence.

2. Make learning an interesting and non-frustrating experience. Along with teachers, develop an exciting and stimulating way to learn spelling since it is often a major problem with children who have reading disabilities. Realize that English is one of the hardest languages to learn, so don't be frustrated with the child.

3. Learn patience as you will need it when working with a child who has trouble with basic English words. Teach words using a mixture of phonics and game stimulation as the child will need to hear the words and understand the verbal structure of the word in order to integrate her comprehension into real life. Note that children with learning disabilities get frustrated easily.

4. Work in small spurts, about 30 to 45 minutes at a time on a specific word or skill. A child's attention span will not engage much longer than this period. Work on segmenting phonemes, which are the smallest, most distinct sounds we hear in the words we speak. Use instructional programs and multimedia learning tools on the computer and through DVD to create a visual frame of reference for sounding out words.

5. Strive for memorization of words that have a strange spelling that deviates from phonic rules. It will be the easiest way for the child to grasp that particular word. Finding objects to symbolize different sounds such as a fake snake to symbolize the "sss" sound of "s" words to give a physical reference point in the brain and speed along the phonics remembering process.

6. Help the child recognize patterns with invisible letters such as "walk" or "talk"; it will be easier than teaching the reasoning behind the silent "l". Be very familiar with spelling structures so you can know which method to use in a particular situation to explain the spelling of a particular word.

Tips & Warnings

• Find out about the reading assistance programs in your local school system and what method they use to help children with difficulties. Coordinate this system with your home system so the child isn't confused.
• Music is a great way to teach phonics information, as it stimulates the creative mind and engages interest in children.

Resources

• Here's a website for more learning disability resources.
• Visit a great site for parents of LD kids.