Apraxia and Reading"Above all, children love to be read to. It is a special time for them to be close to the grown-ups who care for them, and a wonderful way to feel loved" (B. Bush, 1993)
Reading improves vocabulary, memory skills and speech skills. Using books with rhyming text has been useful. Simple activites to encourage speech can be done at that time, such as reading “the cat in the ___” and having your child say “hat”. Sturdy board books with pictures to identify helps your child learn new vocabulary words and to consistently practice naming familiar objects. For a list of great books from Amazon.com that are so helpful in learning to speak, click here:
Ways to Improve Reading SkillsSpend time reading with your child. Select books related to your child's interests. Make reading fun! Read every day. Set an example. Have a family reading time. Make going to the library a regular habit. Listen to your child read. Show enthusiasm for your children's reading. Talk about the books you read with your child.Learning to ReadHow do you teach a child struggling to talk to read? One of the biggest struggles with teaching a child with apraxia to read is difficulty with phonetic awareness - she had a lot of trouble identifying the letter sounds and some letter sounds she simply couldn't produce. Any activity to increase awareness of the sounds of letters would be helpful. Some things to try are: when driving in the car ask you child to point out all the things that begin with a certain letter, list names of all the people you know starting with a certain letter, sing nursery rhymes, read poems, read children's books focusing on a letter and find appropriate preschool activity books.We worked with our daughter at home in teaching her to read. She was still struggling with pronouncing some of the letter sounds and had an initial problem with reversing letters, which are early warning signs of dsylexia. 75% of apraxic children are diagnoised with dyslexia. Sound therapy and EFA supplementation both have a positive effect on dyslexia and research has shown they can greatly reduce the symptoms. For additional information on dyslexia and a list of early warning signs, please click here - Dyslexia It only took 20 minutes a day for about 6 months to teach her to read, and now she is reading above her grade level. It was such a rewarding experience teaching her. It may sound like an overwhelming task, but with good instructions and the programs they have today it is manageable. After learning to read, we noticed a gain in her speech. She had a lot of trouble with dropping off the ending sounds of words. Seeing the ending letter in print made her more aware of it and sounding out the words gave her a lot of practice in her speech. For the same great resources we used to teach our daughter to read, please click here: Nursery-Rhymes-Fun.com is a great resource for fun nursery rhymes, poems and stories which are excellent for speech development and learning to read. Academic Associates of Prince George and the World offers a systematic, easy-to-learn reading program. This program will take the student [child or adult] through the steps of reading. When finished, they will be able to read the majority of words in the English language. The program is taught one-on-one with one of our Reading Instruction Specialists. Help-someone-learn-to-read.net for a free phonics based program called Learn 2 Read, Read 2 Suceed
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