From Our Experts — Therapy applications

“Carter won’t sit for stories. He just wants to turn the pages and toss the book. I don’t even leave books out for him because he rips them when I am not looking.” This lament is heard over and over from the parents of reluctant toddlers. They want to share books with their tots but struggle with making story time productive. Having worked with this age group for over fifteen years I have devised some strategies that really work. We know how important it is to read to our young kids. Some research even supports starting to read to them while they are in the womb. However, knowing that we should read and making reading time enjoyable and productive can be two very different things.

In 2000, the National Reading Panel, based on a comprehensive review of the relevant literature, issued a report that identified 5 skills that were found to be most critical to reading success. In other words, “what works” in teaching children to read.These five skills are: Phonemic Awareness: the ability to identify and manipulate the SOUNDS in spoken language Phonics: The ability to match a sound with a symbol Reading Fluency: Reading aloud with appropriate speed, accuracy, and prosody Vocabulary: the body of words an individual can identify and use Text Comprehension: the ability to understand the material being read There are...