Individualized Reading Instruction

A paper written by Carol Connor, a researcher with the Florida Center for Reading Research, and her colleagues from Florida State University and the University of Michigan, report that individualized reading instruction based on each student’s individualized needs are more effective than any one “best” reading method. You can fine the article in the January 2007 issue of Science.

Why do some children have difficulty developing speech?

Variety of factors:

Biological issues present t conception or occurring during gestation.

Various degrees of difficulty in dev. speech are associated with MR, CP, Autism, and Developmental apraxia of speech.

Speech Impairments also may be associated with factors that are acquired after birth such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Multiple sclerosis, Traumatic Brain Injury, Stroke, and Spinal Cord Injury.

In the case of Autism, we do not know how the disorder is specifically related to difficulties in acquiring speech—that is, we do not yet understand what parts of the brain are influenced in such a way as to affect the dev. of speech. In general, there does not appear to be any distinct problem with the structural aspects of speech production (an intact tongue, lips, palate. etc.) or the motor aspects (moving the tongue, lips, jaw, etc.) We do not understand why some rapidly dev. speech (including speech with unusual features such as echolalia) while others remain mute(do not use speech to effectively comm.)

How prevalent? Recent estimates indicate that approx. 1 in100 individuals will need significant assistance in acquiring effective comm.. strategies that do not depend on speech.

Before relatively effective early intervention programs were designed, it was widely estimated that half of all children with autism remained mute.

With aggressive early intervention, the rate of mutism drops substantially to 15% or less depending upon the characteristics of the children beginning the intervention.

Bondy and Frost 2002