GET YOUR GOALS RIGHT!

The concept of Inference is one of those things that we rarely think about because so much of it is automatic and unconscious. That is also why it is so important to be sure that our students are given the opportunity to actually learn and use inference in the right way. It often does not come naturally to them and it is our job to address the how through their IEP goals.

If your inference goals read like this:

John will increase his ability to make inferences and draw...

But What Did You Mean?

In the world of education, when we talk about the theory of mind we are referring to the ability to understand other people by attributing beliefs, desires, intentions, emotions, opinions or thoughts to them. These ideas may be different from one's own beliefs, desires, intentions, etc.  Theory of mind is considered to be cognitive perspective-taking where one is trying to respond to an event with an appropriate response verbal or otherwise.

Individuals with the...

There are 18 Types of Inference. Do your inference goals include 3 types of literacy,  skills needed to make inferences, the types of inferences and inferential outcomes. If not you are not assessing or teaching inferences. Our three buddies do seem to be surprised, or are they scared, maybe even amazed!. There is no clue as to what is happening  but we could probably have a little fun guessing. Since there is no text to go along with the picture can we draw accurate conclusions?...

When teachers decide to use past norms as teaching tools it is incumbent on them that the planning, modeling, and direction of all aspects of the lesson do not inadvertently give the impression that past wrongs are acceptable. I do not know what that North Carolina school was thinking when they allowed  Black students to be "sold" at a mock "slave auction" by their white classmates.  A student was “bought” for $350.00 and another was a slave master because he ‘knew...

Oral and Written Language activities can greatly impact comprehension, fluency, and other aspects of reading. The following checklists are guides to the tasks that are common in those areas which point to deficits and which may need more comprehensive evaluation and /or remediation.

WRITTEN LANGUAGE

Dysgraphia
o Difficulty copying (far or near point)
o Difficulty with handwriting and written language organization

 o Poor fine motor skills
o Poor or slow handwriting
o Unorganized or...

Buried by the Numbers

Dyscalculia is a learning disability in which a child has  trouble with math at many levels. Dyscalculia is NOT math anxiety, it is the inability to understand the concepts and or the functions of math and number relationships. They will often struggle with key concepts like less than vs. greater than. They will often have difficulty doing basic math problems such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing as well as more abstract math. Dyscalculia makes it...

DYSLEXIA - DEVELOPMENTAL READING DISORDER

A Language-Based Learning Disability.

“Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom...

So What is Hyperlexia?

There are some children who can read or decode words far beyond their understanding. In fact, at first glance, some of these children might be considered savants when what you generally have is a splinter skill called hyperlexia. It is often associated with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and the skill does tend to draw attention and a misperception of a high IQ when these same children may have trouble understanding speech.

Hyperlexia is characterized by advanced word...

Figuring Out How to HELP!

As we continue our quest to identify all the potential roadblocks to reading success we come to our last two major categories of pseudoword decoding and comprehension. At first glance, pseudoword decoding really does look like nonsense. It is that nonsense however that can give you a much clearer picture of the types of errors that are being made and how to address them.

Comprehension is something that most of us take for granted and have no idea of just how...