Reading Clinics

Our goal is to identify your child’s current reading strengths and needs and provide appropriate instruction to support your child’s reading growth. We strive to help your child learn at least a few new strategies that will support his or her reading. Ocasionally, children make gains in reading levels, but this is not to be expected in one 12-week round of instruction.

 

Prior to instruction diagnostic tests are administered to determine literacy strengths and needs. We look carefully at word recognition needs: sight vocabulary, phonetic analysis, structural analysis, and contextual analysis. We thoroughly examine reading comprehension, analyzing oral, silent, and listening skills. Additional diagnostic analysis is conducted through instructional observation. The combined results of testing and observation are used to determine an appropriate and thorough course of literacy instruction.

 

The Reading Clinic provides tutorial and small group instruction. Typically one teacher tutors two children. In some instances, one-on-one instruction is provided. The teacher, in consultation with the supervising professor, determines and implements an appropriate course of instruction based on diagnosis and instructional observation. Clinic supervisors and teachers constantly monitor student progress. Instruction is adjusted as necessary. Instruction focuses on each child’s needs and strengths. This may include an emphasis on any of the following areas: comprehension, word recognition, writing, literature, fluency, study skills, and oral language. Children nearly always make progress in literacy as a result of clinic instruction. For struggling readers, pace of growth is typically slow but steady. Seldom do children fail to make progress when provided excellent tutorial instruction over an appropriate span of time. At the end of the Reading Clinic parents are provided with oral and written reports.

 

Since the clinics are focused also on supporting the learning of the master’s students who teach your child, we video-record all sessions so that teachers can review and discuss their teaching practices with colleagues and their university supervisor. We would like your permission to use this video also for research purposes to improve reading instruction and teacher preparation, and will ask for this permission in the first session. However, you are free to decline your permission for this use of your child’s videos. Your child will still receive the same instruction, and be video-recorded, but the videos will not be used for research purposes.