by Melvin Palmer

Created on: July 03, 2009

Want to make a big impact on a person's life that will change it forever? Your precious child has been diagnosed as language delayed. Your choice is to intervene now. The schools may also have an intervention plan and your taking charge. The impact of language on reading is huge.

First of all remember that the assessment about your child is a great diagnostic tool. It will point out the strengths and weaknesses in their language area. Hopefully you know the areas you need to work on. You also have a baseline that will help you evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. In no way is this report going to tell you how to teach effectively. If it does, take the teaching recommendations with a grain of salt. If schools knew how to teach effectively, education would not be in the fix it is today.

Whatever you do to help your child make it fun. Don't get too serious. If it is during a school break add more work time. If it is during school support what the school is doing and add to it.

Phonics works so use it. Drop the alphabet for now and teach sounds for letters. A second grader who is reading needs these skills. Students need to know the alphabet to alphabetize, not how to read. Critical skills are letter to sound correspondence, blending and using a finger to point. A great program to teach all these skills is 'Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons' and may be reviewed at http://www.startreading.com/.

Working on oral language is the most important task you can do. Oral language helps your child understanding the instruction that happens in a classroom. In addition language is a major factor in understanding what is read. The most effective program for teaching oral language is published by SRA http://www.sraonline.com/ and may be found under the Direct Instruction tab. The program is titled 'Language for Learning'. You can obtain help in determining what level of Language for Learning is right for you child by going to http://www.adihome.org/.

Finally be a good language model. Speak clearly and slowly in front of your child. By slowing down the rate of speech, language will be more comprehensible. Play language games like 'I Spy'. A web site to learn how to play this game is at http://www.ehow.com/. Another great resource for games to play may be found at http://www.brainsarefun.com/

The importance of oral language cannot be stressed enough. It doesn't matter how well you read if you can't understand what is read. It is the foundation to all learning. Teaching phonics is the most successful approach to acquiring reading skills. You now have the enough information to change a life forever.

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