Smart
Kid, Can’t Read: Reading Expert Offers Sage Advice for Parents and Others
Entrusted with Helping Children Who Struggle to Read
One
third of U.S. school children have problems reading. It’s easy to think
of low literacy as someone else’s problem—until it’s your child about to be
sentenced to a lifetime of difficulties. Public school systems, unfortunately,
are ill-equipped to help. Getting your child reading assistance that
results in meaningful improvement requires that you advocate for your
child. Fortunately, there’s help out there.
Dr.
Lorna Kaufman’s important new book, Smart
Kid, Can’t Read: Five Steps Any Parent Can Take to Get Help (Ash
Point, paper, $14.95), offers step-by-step real-world advice for anyone trying
to navigate the hurdles of getting a child the help he or she needs—a task that
can be amazingly daunting.
“Most
reading problems can be prevented,” explains Kaufman, a developmental
psychologist, reading expert, and past president of the Massachusetts Branch of
the International Dyslexia Association. “We’re spending billions of
dollars on a problem we know
how to prevent.” The problem is inertia on the part of
the very people who are supposed to be solving this problem: school systems and
the colleges of education training our teachers. The good news: armed
with the information Dr. Kaufman provides, children can get the help they need before it’s too
late.
Smart
Kid, Can’t Read
offers parents—and grandparents—everything they could possibly need to help
them become effective advocates for their children.
Kaufman, who has worked with parents and school systems for thirty years, draws upon a career’s worth of experience and smarts to create a guide full of step-by-step advice. From red flags for reading problems to why schools don’t act soon enough—and how to get them to—is laid out cleanly and clearly in language accessible enough that anyone can follow. “Over the years parents of children I’ve worked with have urged me to write this book,” says Kaufman, who speaks regularly on efforts for improving reading instruction in the nation’s schools. “I know the ins and outs of the reading remediation system very, very, well. Let’s just say I’ve been in the trenches.”
Kaufman, who has worked with parents and school systems for thirty years, draws upon a career’s worth of experience and smarts to create a guide full of step-by-step advice. From red flags for reading problems to why schools don’t act soon enough—and how to get them to—is laid out cleanly and clearly in language accessible enough that anyone can follow. “Over the years parents of children I’ve worked with have urged me to write this book,” says Kaufman, who speaks regularly on efforts for improving reading instruction in the nation’s schools. “I know the ins and outs of the reading remediation system very, very, well. Let’s just say I’ve been in the trenches.”
Smart
Kid, Can’t Read
distills Dr. Kaufman’s considerable expertise into five critical steps for
parents to take in order to get their kids the help they need:
Step 1: Trust your judgment and act as soon you
suspect there’s a problem with your child’s reading. Don’t wait. Catching
and fixing reading problems early is the key.
Step 2: Find out precisely what your child needs.
Make sure to get an independent expert diagnosis.
Step 3: Learn as much as you can about the reading
the process. The more you know about The ABCs of reading, the more powerful an
advocate you’ll be for your child.
Step 4: Know your legal rights. You’d be surprised
how effective you can be when you know the special education laws that are on
your side.
Step 5: Advocate
for your child. From networking with other parents to organizing a team, Smart Kid, Can’t Read shows
you what you must do and when you must do it.
Dr.
Kaufman’s book offers easy-to-administer tests that parents can give their
children to help decide whether a reading evaluation is warranted.
“Most reading problems can be prevented with explicit, systematic, phonics-based instruction in the early grades, says Kaufman. “The tragedy is what happens if the problems aren’t fixed in time.”
“Most reading problems can be prevented with explicit, systematic, phonics-based instruction in the early grades, says Kaufman. “The tragedy is what happens if the problems aren’t fixed in time.”
Fixing
them in time is what Smart
Kid, Can’t Read is all about. “Children whose parents
advocate on their behalf receive more help and better quality help than
children whose parents do not advocate on their behalf.” When you’re fighting
for your child, it’s good to have a reading expert on your side.
About
the author
Lorna Kaufman, PhD is a Boston-based developmental psychologist specializing in the psychological and educational evaluations of children, adolescents, and adults. She has taught in the Graduate Language and Literacy Program at Simmons College and in the School of Education at Wheelock College.
Dr. Kaufman has worked in leading clinics including Boston Children’s Hospital, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, and the Learning Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In addition to her private practice, she writes and lectures regularly on reading and reading disorders.
Dr. Kaufman and her colleagues, Sandra Doran, EdD and Leigh Leveen, are cofounders of www.SmartKidCantRead.com, which provides training and resources leading to successful reading experiences for all children.
###Lorna Kaufman, PhD is a Boston-based developmental psychologist specializing in the psychological and educational evaluations of children, adolescents, and adults. She has taught in the Graduate Language and Literacy Program at Simmons College and in the School of Education at Wheelock College.
Dr. Kaufman has worked in leading clinics including Boston Children’s Hospital, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, and the Learning Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In addition to her private practice, she writes and lectures regularly on reading and reading disorders.
Dr. Kaufman and her colleagues, Sandra Doran, EdD and Leigh Leveen, are cofounders of www.SmartKidCantRead.com, which provides training and resources leading to successful reading experiences for all children.
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