Case Study: The Reading Clinic Effectively Improves Reading Skills

Aydin, a bright and sensitive first grader, was falling behind his classmates academically.

Palo Alto, CA (prHWY.com) July 24, 2012 - SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, JULY 24, 2012 - Aydin, a bright and sensitive first grader, was falling behind his classmates academically. Acting on concerns raised by his teacher, Aydin's parents sought a professional evaluation at a learning center to determine if underlying learning differences were a factor in his struggle to acquire beginning reading skills. After a thorough neuropsychological evaluation, Aydin was diagnosed with dyslexia. The report recommended he receive intensive reading intervention and a fellow parent steered Aydin's family to The Reading Clinic.

During our initial observations of Aydin, we discovered that he was able to identify and write the letters associated with 23 of 32 basic vowel and consonant sounds and that he had acquired only a limited number of sight words. Aydin was able to sound out some new, unfamiliar words, but the process was very slow and difficult for him. Using these observations, and the information contained in his neuropsychological evaluation, we customized a program to teach Aydin how to read.

Starting in October of 2011, Aydin came to The Reading Clinic four days a week for an hour session each day. His program consisted of tasks meant to strengthen his auditory processing (to further strengthen his ability to sound out unfamiliar words) and his visual memory (to improve his ability to learn and retain sight words). By the end of November, after approximately 20 hours of instruction, Aydin was able to identify all the simple vowel sounds in isolation. He knew all the consonant sounds and was reliably able to decode (read) and encode (spell) at the consonant-vowel-consonant (cvc) level. Aydin had learned, and was consistent in applying, the final 'e' and two-vowels-go-walking rules and he was reading simple books that had pictures and a very few words on each page. After 40 hours of instruction Aydin had progressed to reading Primary Phonics level-1 books. His parents, his teacher and his speech therapist had all noticed the improvements in Aydin's reading. Fast forward to the 80 hour mark and we find Aydin reading Primary Phonics, Level 3 books and working on decoding and encoding complex one syllable words with initial and final blends. His reading rate was still very slow so we introduced fluency exercises to help him improve in this area.

To date Aydin has received just over 100 hours of instruction at The Reading Clinic. He has learned to read Primary Phonics level 4 books (~second grade level) at a slow to medium rate and with very high accuracy. Aydin has learned the first few rules used to break multi-syllable words into manageable chunks and using these rules he is able to break and correctly read many simple two-syllable words. This beginning mastery of multi-syllable decoding puts him right on track for entering second grade. Next steps for Aydin's program include teaching him the remaining breaking rules and introducing him to grade level chapter books.

It's been exciting to see Aydin's progress. With each new accomplishment, Aydin's confidence and willingness to tackle harder tasks and reading material has grown. Because of the dedication of his parents, and with the help of The Reading Clinic, Aydin's learning differences are no longer holding him back from being a happy and successful student.

Aydin's mom said, "When we were first informed that our son was falling behind his classmates, we were devastated and worried about his future. However, very shortly after our son started to attend his sessions at The Reading Clinic, our worries were put to rest. He started to read within a month after starting at TRC. He became very comfortable with his reading and whenever he found a word that he could not read he would just ask for help, instead of getting frustrated. Before the end of first grade, he was reading at second grade level. Most importantly, our son has never lost his enthusiasm for learning and loves going to school."

For More Information Visit: http://www.thereadingclinic.com

Contact:
Beth Powell
(800)790-5302
445 Sherman Ave, Suite N
Palo Alto, CA 94036.

###

Tag Words: learned to read

Categories: Education

Link To This Press Release:

URL HTML Code