Info on Institute of Reading Development

Can you tell us more about what this “Institute” is and what they do?

There are really good reading programs out there.
On the other hand, there are some profit-making companies that use outdated and scientifically-debunked “speed-reading” techniques that do little good and more harm.

And anybody can call themselves an institute and claim expertise; some have it and some don;t.

While I don’t have any direct experience with IRD, the sibling of a student I tutored last summer participated in one of their programs locally. As far as the child reported, and the mother and I could tell, it’s alot of worksheet practice, with very little individualized instruction.

I also called the company to see if they had any research available that demonstrated their success. They assured me that the research had been done, and that they could show progress with all program participants. However, they refused to share any specifics about their research data, and the information has also never been published.

My feeling is, for parents who want to keep their kids reminded about school for the summer, it doesn’t do any harm, but there is very little, if any, true remediation that takes places in the classrooms or from the homework.

It does sound like a canned program. The schedule awful. I’d rather have a kid a half hour 3-4 days a week than 2 hours once a week. The schedule itself will lead to forgetting anythign they might have learned. And the schedule really sounds like someone doesn’t know what they are talking about.

—des

Its being offered here too.

As was said, a canned program with little remediation.

If I had an NT child that needed a little extra, then it might fit but it wasn’t for my LDers.

Barb

Yea, it sounds a bit like our weekly swim team practice. It can keep skills from backsliding — except that worksheets tend not to help LD students maintain, much less develop skills anyway. But it does keep the brain engaged on School Type STuff and sort of keeps that habit going.