Improve reading skills

Our gorilla can protect himself from threats he can see.
Can a tiny invisible germ make his life miserable?

A strong connection to comprehension is amazingly easy and boosts the performance of all reading levels.

Tip: quit stopping to sound out; it breaks the short term memory and all collected meaning - comprehension - is lost. This is the way the brain works for everyone. If your child is in 1st or 2nd Grade, tell your child any unknown words and have your child keep reading onward. With all age children use the steps below:

Find a topic your child will like - animals, space travel, etc. Get a short story or book your child can write in. Ask your child to look through the 1st paragraph, putting a dot under every word he knows, sliding over unknown words. (You do not interrupt even if you hear errors.)

At the end of the paragraph, you ask questions: what is happening in the story?  

Once your child has a feel for what is going on in the 1st paragraph, ask your child to read that paragraph to you. If he has not figured out unknown words - tell him the words. Move on to the next paragraph with the same steps. It will be bumpy at first, but your child will start picking up much better comprehension. (A struggling 3rd Grade tutor student of mine got the highest social studies test score of his entire class, using this method. Three middle school kids made the Honor Roll at their school.)

The brain likes for things to make sense, so as your child gets better at this, the words will start popping into place. Many words cannot be sounded out, like canoe, but the meaning, boat, will come to your child and soon the word itself will come. Your child has a big speaking bank but he does not recognize his words in print. And, your child does not yet have good letter sound skills to help him. 

The good news is there are only about one dozen tricky letter / sound lessons. A child will not be able to figure out these lessons without someone showing him. These tricky, invisible units are scattered across every page of print, starting with 1st grade. Pointing them out makes a huge difference for your child.

I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help my books will pop up. All books are brand new, full of everything you need, and include my contact info; email or call for help. 

               Have a great day,  Mary Maisner