Blog

Help Your Child Read Right from the Start

March 29, 2021

by Dee Tadlock, Ph.D.
Founder & Director of Development
Read Right Systems

One out of three children have significant reading problems. These children cannot easily and comfortably get information through reading, they certainly don’t find pleasure in it, and they struggle in school. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, if the reading problem persists until the age of 9, there is a 75 percent chance that it will persist forever.

This alarming situation is not confined to children who are limited in life experiences, come from dysfunctional families, or who come from parents who struggle with reading themselves. Chances are, if you talk to parents in your neighborhood, you will find several families whose children cannot read very well, even though loving parents have spent years reading to them, and nurturing their love of books.

Today, most early reading instruction focuses on systematic, explicit instruction in decoding–or, using sound-symbol information to sound out words. That’s because reading experts view individual word identification–including decoding, word attack, and sight-word recognition–as the all-important foundation of reading ability.

The idea seems like common sense. From history, however, we know that lots of seemingly common sense ideas turn out to be untrue: it would “seem” that the Earth is flat; it would “seem” as if the sun revolves around the Earth. Galileo was arrested and excommunicated from his church for suggesting otherwise! The following paragraph challenges the idea that we have to decode words in order to read:

“Aoccdrnig to rscheearch, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr teh ltteers in a wrod aer prseetend. Teh olny iprmoatnt tihng si taht frist adn lsat ltteres aer ta teh rghit pclae. Teh rset cna be a toatl mses adn yuo cna sitll raed ti wouthit a porbelm.”
— Modified from the website: languagehat.com

To learn to read excellently (proficient and above), developing readers must learn sound-symbol associations for the 15 stable letters of the alphabet (b, d, f, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, and w) and must then figure out how to plan, integrate, and coordinate information and systems from all over the brain to make it possible to anticipate the author’s intended meaning. This may sound intimidating, but, quite wonderfully, children are equipped to figure out how to do it. Evidence that this true: Thousands of children across America (approximately 1 percent of children ages 4, 5, and 6) each year figure out how to do this on their own, before starting kindergarten or first grade. The number would increase if we all stopped asking children to “sound out” words in text.

You may be asking, “Is it really that simple?” Yes and no. The brain is wonderfully adept at figuring out all kinds of complex things (crawling, walking, speaking in meaningful sentences, swimming, bicycle riding, etc). Unfortunately, the brain can also be easily misled to believe that looking at one–word—at—a–time–and–figuring–out–each–word is the right path to reading excellence. It isn’t. It can’t be. The idea violates too many fundamental aspects of brain science.

For more information, order the book Read RIght! Coaching Your Child to Excellence in Reading (by Dee Tadlock, Ph.D., New York: McGraw-Hill from the Read Right Store. The entire “brain system theory” theory of reading development is laid out there.

Literacy Shapes Life–Invest In It!

March 2, 2021

by Read Right Staff
Read Right Systems

Our intention is not to inspire fear; it is to point out that becoming an excellent reader–not a “basic” reader–is a life-shaping event.

So–invest in it.

Flying under the radar for several years now is the reality that lower literacy levels have a direct correlation to homelessness. Low literacy means individuals struggle with multiple areas of routine life: completing a job application; creating a resume and writing an accompanying cover letter; and even completing forms required to rent an apartment–or to apply for public assistance.

Low literacy holds people down. A hallmark of low literacy is the struggle to read text above a second or third grade level.

Read Right Systems is dedicated to eliminating low literacy. Our focus is not achieving a basic reading level. Our focus was, is and always will be reading excellence–or, reading comfortably and with full comprehension at or above a level that matches an individuals age and/or level of intellect.

The secret to excellent reading is not decoding, or the ability to sound out words in a text. Presently, federal and state public education programs believe this is the required foundation of reading ability. As of 2018, there were an estimated 1.5 million homeless children in the U.S. (three times as many as 2008) and, when they arrive in schools, they are frequently funneled into reading support programs that begin with phonics and decoding. Federal and state-funded programs do this to children regardless of age–kindergarten through Grade 8.

Through 40 years of successful work with struggling readers of all ages, this is what we know: If children and adults already know the sounds made by the stable letters of the alphabet (letters that only make one sound), it is a waste of time to teach decoding–as well as a contributor to continuing frustration and low self-esteem when it doesn’t work.

The secret to excellent reading is helping the individual student discover that combining basic phonics knowledge with all kinds of knowledge they’ve already stored in their minds is the key to reconstructing an author’s intended meaning. Once they understand that the sole purpose of reading is to create a meaningful message from text, they begin to fly.

We know this with certainty because we’ve rapidly eliminated reading problems with children of all ages (pre-K through high school) and adults (young adults through senior citizens). And, the methods we use don’t take years. More often than not, it takes less than a year.

Homeless in America needs to end–but so does low literacy. Please consider sponsoring a homeless child in a Read Right Reading Intervention program. Call this number to learn more: 360-427-9440, ext. 115.

From Education News: “Reports Offer Good News on Adolescent Reading Front”

February 5, 2021

By Read Right Staff

With more than 328 million people living in the United States, good news about reading remediation programs often sneaks unseen past educators and parents.

Such was the case in 2010, when the national publication Education News reported that Read Right methodology offered hope for pre-teen and teen students struggling with reading. For decades, reading experts have warned that students need to be reading at grade level by the end of Grade 3. If not, they will be “four times more likely to leave high school without a diploma than proficient readers.” (See related story here.)

But, why? Why is it so difficult for common reading intervention programs to help pre-teens and adolescent readers overcome their reading problems?

Simple: The common methods they use to fix reading problems do not work. Read Right methodology does–and it does so efficiently and rapidly.

Education News’ July 13 report by Debra Viadero stated:

Good news comes from “a randomized experiment on a program called Read Right. …The [Read Right] model calls for students to be taught in separate classes during the school day with no more than five students per tutor. (This is in addition to their regular English language arts classes.) Another hallmark of the program is that it emphasizes teaching comprehension, accuracy, pacing, and intonation, rather than phonics or vocabulary.

“For their study, which was funded by the Omaha-based Sherwood Foundation, researchers from Education Northwest tested the program last fall with 424 students in Omaha secondary schools. They concluded that the program resulted in significant positive effects on students’ reading comprehension and spurred more students to read for fun outside of school.”

Read Right has been highly effective in classrooms for 40 years. Since the late 1990s, dozens of middle and high schools in the U.S. have reduced the need for special education classes, while simultaneously increasing their graduation rates.

What does this suggest? Rapid remediation is possible for students of all ages. The key is the right methods. Read Right methodology works!

Reading Instruction vs. Figuring Out How to Read

January 18, 2021

by Rhonda Stone
Read Right Tutor & Communications

The mother of one of our youngest students recently shared uplifting news. After a few weeks in our online tutoring program, her six-year-old was beginning to love school again.

The comment resonated with me. Fourteen months before, I was helping my adult daughter address my grandson’s disappointment and resistance to classroom reading instruction. As a kindergartner, Ray arrived at school already knowing how to read. In a few short weeks, the upper first-grade reading group where they placed him was turning his already excellent reading ability into halting, stopping, annoying word-by-word reading. It is the way classrooms all over America teach reading these days. It didn’t take long for traditional classroom reading instruction to destroy Ray’s delight and interest in books.

Fortunately, we used “parent power” to insist he return to his kindergarten classroom, where he could simply read books he enjoyed while his classmates received the traditional phonics and decoding training that leads to word-by-word reading. It was heart-breaking, though, because we knew it was NOT how Raymond figured out how to read.

Read Right methodology is truly special. We do not tell children how to read, which is the essence of “reading instruction.” Instead, we create the right kind of environment where children can apply ALL of their neural resources to figuring out the complex process for themselves. Actually, this is the only way any of us learns how to perform complex processes: how to walk, talk, ride a bike, or how to become an excellent athlete, musician, or reader.

Our highly trained Read Right tutors are ready to serve you and/or your family. The process begins with a phone call or an email…

Important Words from an Educator and Mother

January 8, 2021

The following is an excerpt from a 2009 Presentation by Tony Buffalo at a National Indian Education Administration conference, during a joint presentation with Dr. Dee Tadlock. It is an excellent message for all.

“There (are) so many negative things in our daily lives sometimes that it’s hard to dream and, if you cannot read, the door is shut so tight you don’t see a way out.

“And so, for me, I appreciate and thank Dee Tadlock (developer of Read Right methodology) for being a mother…that persevered to find a way for her son to overcome his reading problem; a mother that cared to seek a way that he could have that door open that he could have that chance.

“Through her perseverance, my reading problem has been corrected. For me as a Lakota woman, I have dreams for our nation. I have wants and wishes for our people all over, but also for our own reservation–and that’s not possible unless we can educate. …We can’t overcome 200 years of oppression unless we can educate ourselves. And the way we do that is to be able to read and understand what is out there in the world. It’s the only way we can do it.

“So, I tell my own children this is going to take you anyplace that you want to go, anywhere in this world. When you open these books you will understand. They can take you anywhere. There’s no end to possibilities of where you can be, what you can do, or what you can become. I try so hard to light that flame of hope and desire within our children. Because I know how much they face, I see it every day.”

The Best for 2021: Read Right Tutors

December 30, 2020

by Dee Tadlock, Ph.D.
Developer, Read Right Methodology

Read Right Certified Tutors are the best trained, hardest working, most focused educators we know. Why are we so sure? The next time you meet a tutor from another reading program, ask how many hours of training they’ve received.

Then, consider this: Read Right Online Tutors and Read Right school-based program staff receive about 240 hours of training in the process of earning their Read Right certification. Our training process is not a “packaged program.” It is a hands-on training system. Yes, our tutors work with a manual. However, our training also involves active use of the manual with students every day for months as tutors perfect their skills.

With 40 years of experience behind us, we know this with certainty: Excellent reading ability cannot be explicitly “taught.” It can only be developed by each individual learner through a process involving implicit attempts, failures, analyses, adjustments, and more attempts until success is achieved. Our tutors are trained to create the right environment where students can do this complex work and, in the process, totally eliminate their reading problems.

It sounds simple, but of course it isn’t. Fortunately, every one of our tutors knows how it works and knows how to coach students on the path to reading success.

We are proud to do this work–and, moreso, Read Right Systems is very proud of our many online and school-based tutors.

I really enjoyed the class. I am more confident when I read. Before, I was in an abusive relationship, and he constantly put me down and made fun of how I talk. Now I am more confident when I talk or read.

— Betty, age 33 —