10 Questions to Ask about Your Child's Reading Program

1. What is the name of the reading program you are using with my child?
2. Is that reading program research-based?
   Does it include the 5 essential elements identified by the National Reading Panel and required by No Child Left Behind?
3. Is it an Orton-Gillingham-based program?
4. Is the teacher certified in that program?
5. How many hours on instruction a week does my child receive?
6. Is the instruction one-on-one?
   If not, how many children are in my child's reading group?
7. Who is providing the instruction?
   Is it a teacher trained and certified in that program or is it an untrained aide?
8. What type of progress do you expect my child to make by the end of the year?
9. At that rate of progress, how long will it take my child to be reading at grade level?
10. How will I know whether my child has achieved that goal?

Common Questions from Parents

• My 7-year-old is making very slow progress in learning to read. I mentioned Orton-Gillingham methods to his IEP team. They said, "We don't do that." What can I do?
  
  To read the answer from Sue Heath of Wrightslaw, go to:
  www.wrightslaw.com/info/read.gethelp.now.heath.htm

• My 8-year-old daughter has dyslexia. Her diagnostic report stated she needed to be taught using an Orton-Gillingham-based method. Her resource teacher said she was using the Wilson System, which is an O-G method. Later I found out that teacher had not received any training in the Wilson System. Yet the school says she is "high qualified" because she has 10 years of teaching experience. What can I do?
  
  To read the answer from Sue Heath of Wrightslaw, go to:
  http://wrightslaw.com/heath/read.teach.certified.htm

Classroom Accommodations

Even with the right type of tutoring, it will take a while until a dyslexic student is able to read, write and spell at grade level. Until he reaches that point, classroom accommodations are absolutely essential.

Common classroom accommodations include things like:

• Not counting off for spelling
• Textbooks on audiotape
• Oral testing
• Dictate homework assignments; someone else writes it down

These are just a few of the accommodations that can make the difference between learning the content and succeeding, and failing.