Suggestions for Reading skills/Comprehension Software?

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

Hi everyone!

I’m desperately looking for a good substance-filled reading software program for one of my students to use over the summer. Her mother cannot afford an expensive program and asked me to look into Earobics. Although I do think the skills practiced on this program will help her greatly I also think the program will not hold her interest for very long. The student is a 4th grade girl who reads well/almost at level, but who struggles with comprehension. She also also being tested in the next few weeks for a central processing disorder…she is actually the only student in my resource room who does not have a learning disability, but who desperately needs the extra support of the small classroom.

Anyways, if any of you know of a program that will help this girl and her mother out I will greatly appreciate it!!!

Thanks in advance!
Christie

Submitted by Janis on Tue, 04/06/2004 - 7:00 PM

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Christie,

Can you give us her test scores for word attack, word identification, vocabulary, and reading comprehension? Do you hav fluency scores, too? I’d need to know exactly what her deficits are to give you some meaningful advice.

Janis

Submitted by sunnyhost on Wed, 04/07/2004 - 6:49 PM

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Hi Janis! Thanks for the prompt response!

The only test results I have are from her initial evaluation which was done exactly two years ago.

Back then she was 7.6 years old and in the 2nd grade. These were her scores on the Woodcock Johnson III:
AE PR GE
Letter-Word identification - 7-7 48 2.2
Reading Fluency- 7-6 46 2.1
Story Recall- 9-10 77 4.3
Calculation- 8-4 80 2.9
Math Fluency- 7-10 57 2.4
Spelling- 7-6 45 1.8
Passage Comprehension- 7-3 37 1.9
Applied Problems- 7-2 39 1.8

Personal note: This student loses attention very quickly in almost every class period. She’s constantly singing, dancing, day dreaming, and into her own thoughts throughout lessons. She’s been tested for ADD/ADHD, but has not been identified as such…she’s not really a “behavior problem” either, but just needs constant redirection in order to get her back on task.

If you need anymore information in order to assess what software will be good for this student please let me know!

Thanks so much for your interest, help, and knowledge!!!
Christie =o)

Submitted by Janis on Wed, 04/07/2004 - 10:21 PM

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Hi, Christie,

You know, what I have found out is that those early grade WJ-III scores are a little inflated. So it’s really tough to tell if she has gaps in phonics knowledge, a problem with fluency, or low language comprehension causing her problems. It sounds like from your message today that it may partially be an attention problem, though.

I’m sorry that I have never used a reading comprehension CD, but I did locate one the other day that just might be worth trying:

http://www.criticalthinking.com/series/015/index_c.html

If she does have a language comprehension problem (which may be possible if she has an auditpry processing disorder), then you’d want to use a program like Visualizing and Verbalizing by Lindamood Bell with her (that incidentally has a CD, but it is for practice after the child has been taught the content).

Janis

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