Parenting a Struggling Reader: A Guide to Diagnosing and Finding Help for Your Child's Reading Difficulties

by Susan L. Hall, Louisa Cook Moats

The first completely comprehensive, practical guide for recognizing, diagnosing, and overcoming any childhood reading difficulty.

According to the National Institute of Health, ten million of our nation’s children (approximately 17 percent) have trouble learning to read. While headlines warn about the nation’s reading crisis, Susan Hall (whose son was diagnosed with dyslexia) and Louisa Moats have become crusaders for action. The result of their years of research and personal experience, Parenting a Struggling Reader provides a revolutionary road map for any parent facing this challenging problem.

Acknowledging that parents often lose valuable years by waiting for their school systems to test for a child’s reading disability, Hall and Moats offer a detailed, realistic program for getting parents actively involved in their children’s reading lives. With a four-step plan for identifying and resolving deficiencies, as well as advice for those whose kids received weak instruction during the crucial early years, this is a landmark publication that promises unprecedented hope for the next generation of Information Age citizens.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 16, 2002

Reviews

[Rykki · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book did absolutely none of what it said it would. The title indicates that it will help parents raise a struggling reader. The implication is left that you will be given helpful strategies on how to help your child learn to read and become more confident. I picked this book up, as a homeschool mom, in hopes that it would help me work with my daughter to encourage her to be a strong reader. I know she has the skills, but she fights me every step of the way. Maybe this book would offer a few suggestions that could help.

Unfortunately, this book should have been titled "How To Work The School System So They Can Better Improve Your Child's Reading". The entire content of the book dealt with school reading programs, why they don't work, and how you can get the school to work with you. They talk about reading lessons that don't work, such as the "whole language" program. They continue on to talk about getting your child diagnosed with a learning disability and how to get proper assistance from the school.

For someone like me, this book is a total disappointment. It takes the parents out of the equation all together and encourages a school-oriented approach to learning, as though all a child's lessons should occur under the guidance of a professional teacher. The parents are totally removed from the process, aside from fighting for their child to receive the best possible services.

Personally, I would not recommend this book to anyone unless they're gearing up to fight the school system for help with their child's reading problems.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars - the parts I found useful were excellent, but I also ignored a large part of the book that dealt heavily with advocacy for IEPs/504 plans. The importance of catching reading difficulties early and key indicators to watch out for were well presented. I’ve encountered some of the examples of educators downplaying potential issues with my own child (“not a big issue to worry about yet; some kids are later bloomers; we don’t start to worry until they’re x levels behind”) and this book made it clear that waiting until it got worse would be a much harder problem to overcome.

The authors’ suggestion is to become an advocate within the legal protections of the school system by fighting for an IEP. This sounds time intensive and likely would cause further delay (in my school district, kids must be at least two grade levels behind before they even get evaluated for a possible need for an IEP, which would then go into effect several months later).

I was instead looking for advice on “parenting my struggling reader” as the title suggests. Instead of trying to navigate school resources, I’d rather just supplement by doing extra teaching at home.

There was an excellent resource list at the back of the book. Since it’s quite dated at my time of reading many were no longer available, but it did equip me with key terminology to start my search for newer resources and to know what I should be looking for related to my child’s issues. I was able to find several good online assessments to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses as well as targeted phonics programs for home use.

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. Most of the info included a struggling reader in a traditional school setting, which didn’t apply for us. The resources seem really dated. An updated edition would be helpful. I still got some helpful tips though.

[Rolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good start in terms of finding resources for your child, though in my opinion it is unnecessarily antagonistic in the way it describes parents’ relationships with their kids’ school systems.

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel the title is misleading, which is leading to the low ratings and bad reviews. This is not a book for homeschooling parents. This book guides parents, in the public school system, to recognizing problems and advocating for their children.
I'm new to this subject and I found this book extremely helpful. I often thought of a question while reading and found it answered on the next page. It covers almost every aspect of the process of identifying and getting help for a struggling reader.
This is a great book for someone like me, who is just starting the process of getting my child evaluated and who feels very overwhelmed by tutoring options and teaching methods.

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

This books was interesting. As an educator I felt that I knew much of the information she shared about reading programs. I also felt like it was geared more towards children who did not have IEP's yet and younger children. I wanted more than the brief one chapter entitled "Older Children" which I think was the shortest chapter in the book. The sections on advocacy and how best to work with the schools were useful as well as how to prepare for meetings. I also think the book is a bit dated and would have liked a more updated version esp. regarding IEP laws and more recent reading programs.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The material about the reading process was presented in an understandable way, using as little educational jargon as possible to make it accessible to more readers. It gave information about a lot of reading resources that parents and teachers a like should utilize.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just started reading today 2.7.09, finished on 2.24.09.
Must have "manual" for parents with pre-school to 2nd graders.
If I had read this book back when my daughter was entering into 1st grade, we would not be dealing with the same issues now that she is in 6th grade.

[Stephanie Hatsis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have liked more hands on how to help my child be a better reader and less statistics. There was some good information on how to advocate for your child and what you need to do in the school to get help.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent resource for parents of struggling readers, particularly those who will need to navigate the traditional education system. It is a thorough primer of what is needed for good reading instruction and support versus a how-to for teaching children to read.