1. Regard children with disabilities as children first
- Approach children with disabilities as being more alike other children than different
- Instead of seeking out new strategies, make use of regular teaching strategies
- Hold the same expectations for reading for all children in your class
2. Make positive reading experiences a priority for children with disabilities
- Read the research on reading success for children with disabilities
- Have a positive attitude
- Encourage children to have a love of books
- Obtain support, if needed
3. Identify reading problems early
- Start looking for indicators during the preschool years
- With boys, look for behavioral problems
- With girls, look for withdrawn behavior
4. Begin intervention early
- Understand that time is of the essence; intervention needs to be started as soon as a problem is identified
- Intervention programs need to be intense and fast-paced
- Utilize intervention strategies that work with children without disabilities
5. To learn to read, children with disabilities need to have a solid foundation
- Create appreciation of the written word
- Develop awareness of printed language
- Teach the alphabet
6. Children with disabilities need to develop phonological awareness and know phonics in order to read
- Help children to understand that language is made up of words, syllables, and phonemes
- Teach children letter sounds
- Help children to sound out words
7. Make use of technology
- Individualize instruction for each student using teacher control features
- Pace instruction to meet student needs
- Match programming to student learning styles
8. Encourage support staff to have the expectation that even children with profound disabilities can learn to read
- Provide training , if needed
- Reassure support staff (librarians, RIF coordinators) that they don't need to be special educators in order to work with children with disabilities
- Encourage support staff to help identify children with reading disabilities
9. Work with families to help their children with disabilities learn to read
- Partner with parents on reading strategies
- Encourage parents to read aloud to their children daily
- Exhort parents to believe that their child can and will learn to read
10. Make use of bibliotherapy
- Read books to children that have characters with similar disabilities
- Make frequent trips to the school library where children can select books on their own
- Share children's favorites with families
