Covid19 Parenting How to Narrow or Close the Reading Gap

Covid19 Parenting is very difficult. While health issues are very important, we believe one can and should address the reading and related issues.

In this article from the Child Mind Institute they discuss Coronavirus Parenting: Managing Anger, Frustration and Academics. In another article we discuss the importance of managing anger and frustration. What we do not agree with is the following: 

“If you do nothing academically and just focus on your relationship with your children, then it will be time well spent,” explains Rebecca Schrag Hershberg, PhD, a clinical psychologist and parenting coach. “Kids can’t learn if they’re not feeling safe and loved. If there’s a strain in the connections at home, and it feels very tense and miserable, your child’s brain isn’t going to take in what they’re learning because they’re stressed and angry. Your relationship is the precursor for everything else falling into place.”  

The risks of avoiding academics during this period include:

• Your child may fall further behind their peers
• Homework next year is likely to take much longer as your child’s skills have weakened
• The cost and time to remediate will be higher as the gap has widened
• You may squander a couple of months where there is ample time to either narrow or close the gap

We believe it is possible and preferable to:

• Get diet/nutrition, activity level and sleep right
• Have your child feel safe and loved
• Narrow or Close the reading gap, while addressing these other issues

Covid19 Parenting – We Suggest Narrowing or Closing the Gap

Diet/nutrition, activity level, sleeping right and having your child feel safe and loved are all essential. It is delightful to see how many children have learned to ride a bike during these trying times.

The good news with Covid19 Parenting is you may have more time to devote to academic issues and to help you child to Narrow or Close The Gap.

The challenge is that many students will suffer from the Covid19 Reading Slide. We have already seen cases where students are 3 months below where they were in March. The blue line on the graph below shows a student falling further behind.  The orange line shows a student making modest progress, with the gap staying the same.  The top line shows grade level performance.

The GOLD Line represents a student who went from well below grade level to grade level — this is what 3D Learner focuses on — Closing the Gap.

Covid 19 Parenting – 2 Different Strategies we recommend

For every parent, we recommend doing what you can to avoid the learning slide. This might include:

A Minimize The Risk Strategy, that might include:

• Putting closed captions on the TV – allowing your child to match the written and spoken word

  Covid19 Parenting – Mealtime is an excellent time to build language skills

• Using the more common family dinners to discuss interesting subjects to build vocabulary
• Doing collaborative reading — where you alternate reading with your child
• Doing story telling games as discussed in this pbs storytelling article
• Investing in online reading programs like Learning Ally or Raz Kids — These are books, read on line that offer a wide variety of books. contact us at 561-361-7495 if you would like to discuss these options — we are offering special pricing on both options.

A “Close the Gap” Strategy that might include:

• Identifying where your child’s reading comprehension level is at

  Covid19 Parenting — 1-on-1 Tutoring Can Now Be Done, While You Do Your Own Work

• Setting a BOLD Goal to be accomplished in months not years
• Finding out if your child is a visual learner; seeing if your child has an attention, visual processing an/or related issue
• Then choosing the right program for your child

We offer three ways to get started with a Closing the Gap Strategy

• Take our Success Assessment with your child. It screens for the visual learner and for attention, visual processing and/or related challenges.
• Call us for a Closing the Gap Strategy Session at 561-361-7495
• Do a comprehensive assessment that identifies your child’s present level of performance, and their learning style, strengths and challenges. 

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