Elementary teachers and other educators are working on Progress Report Cards. They will soon be calling or emailing you, in advance, to let you know that your child may be struggling and will have the “Progressing With Difficulty” box ticked off in the Language box on their Progress Report. Many educators will have shared this news already if your child has scored low on a screener or a diagnostic assessment. Screeners are used with all students and then a diagnostic assessment is used to narrow down the focus with students who have not done well on the screener. For example, a grade 1 Acadience or Dibels screener shows that a child is struggling with sound and symbol correspondence, “b” says /b/ or “s” says /s/. The Core Phonics or locally developed diagnostic assessment shows the educator that the child needs helps specifically with “w” and “y” as well as short vowels. This helps the educator determine where to begin. Maybe a grade 2 student does not blend sounds together to make a word on a screener. For example, when they blend /c/ /a/ /t/ they don’t say the word cat or they get stuck at /c/ /a/ and don’t pronounce /t/. The diagnostic assessment will show the educator whether it’s all sounds or just a few. It may only be stop sounds or continuous sounds.
Educators will identify your child’s areas of need and that is where I can be of help. I have 100 hours of Orton-Gillingham Academy training, so I know how to target your child’s area of weakness. I can create a plan to help them get what they need in a 1:1 online environment, whether they need support in reading, spelling or writing.
If you get the call from your child’s teacher or educator indicating the screener or diagnostic assessment shows your child is “Progressing With Difficulty,” connect with me and we will set up an individual plan to get your child the support they need.
