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Including Readers with Special Needs

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  Summary and Key Messages


Reading is equally important to children with and without disabilities. Being able to read is important to success in school and other areas of life. Fortunately, most children with disabilities — even children with severe disabilities — can be taught to read. It is, therefore, incumbent upon schools and families to help all children achieve this goal.

The first step in meeting this goal is early identification. Once identified, problems can be addressed and ameliorated. Even children with profound disabilities can learn to read if they are identified in preschool or kindergarten and intervention is given in a timely fashion.

To help children with disabilities learn to read, teachers and parents may need to rethink their practices. Research points to the fact that teaching children with disabilities to read does not require special strategies; they need to learn the same skills that all children — and readers — do. Children with special needs may need extra help to support their disability. In this regard, technology has proven to be a dramatically effective teaching tool for children with disabilities. Families need to heed a similar message: Children with disabilities should be provided with the same types of reading experiences their non-disabled siblings receive.

With a positive attitude and the belief that nearly every child can learn to read, schools and families can make this goal not just a hope, but a reality.

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