Internet Special Education Resources
Special Education & Learning Disabilities Resources: A Nationwide Directory
How to Choose Age and Skill Appropriate Books for Your Child or Teen
www.learningrx.com/eden-prairieHow do you ensure the books you choose for your child or teen are appropriate and interesting for their age? While librarians can be a wonderful resources for parents in terms of recommendations, if you're looking for some guidelines to make your own decisions, consider this quick reference guide for books by age.Ages 3-5
What to look for: Books in this age category are typically picture books—heavy on illustrations and bright colors, often written with shorter, simpler sentences.Ages 6-8
What to look for: Books in this age category are often referred to as "early reader" books. It’s common for these types of books to use lots of sight words or words that can be easy deciphered with the rules of phonics. The illustrations typically reflect the text in order to offer clues to more difficult words.Ages 9-12
What to look for: This age group (or ages 8-12) is often referred to as "middle grade" readers. Books tend to run longer than for younger children—typically 30,000 to 50,000 words. The protagonist is usually between 10 and 13 and topics are frequently focused on friends and family. The voice is often third person.Ages 13-18
What to look for: Young Adult (YA) books are longer than middle-grade books, ranging from 50,000 to 75,000 words, and typically told in first person in order to hear the main character reflect on what happens to and around them. YA books for the lower ages in the category (13 and 14), is usually free of violence, cursing and sexually explicit language, while books for the older ages in the category are more edgy.If your child or teen is struggling to read at grade level, you may want to consider having their cognitive skills tested. Auditory processing is the cognitive skill the brain uses to hear, segment and blend sounds, and its foundation to successful reading. In fact, studies show that weak auditory processing skills are at the root of approximately 85% of all reading struggles. This is why interventions that use cognitive training techniques to target and strengthen auditory processing and other cognitive abilities get such tremendous results.
Using the results from the cognitive skills assessment, specialists can develop a personal brain training program to target and train auditory processing and any other weak cognitive skills. One-on-one brain training pairs clients with their own brain trainers for challenging but fun mental workouts consisting of game-like mental exercises. Children, teens or adults work with their trainers for about an hour a day. Most programs run between 12 and 32 weeks. In some cases, you'll see dramatic improvements in cognitive performance and a newfound love of reading!
LearningRx Eden Prairie offers one-on-one cognitive skills training with programs backed by peer-reviewed research studies. Based on more than 35 years of research, development and testing, we target the underlying skills that are important to how you learn and perform. By pairing students up with their own brain trainers, we give them the push they need to overcome their learning barriers. www.learningrx.com/eden-prairie.