Review of the Need for Reading Program

I am a fully qualified teacher with a Diploma in Teaching (Infants/Primary) and a Bachelor of Education Degree (Special Education). I commenced teaching with children after working in various public service departments and also taking part in instruction in adult education through universities, colleges and TAFE. I have been teaching infants and primary students (K - 6) for a period of over 12 years.

I have used the "Need for Reading" Program within the educational environment for a number of children over a period of time. In one particular class with high needs, I was able to rotate twelve children with reading difficulties through the program on a daily basis during their ordinary class lessons. I have found the program to be most successful in improving childrens ability to read and as an aside in improving their skills in spelling. (Their ability to decode and encode text).

The program is easy to use and able to be completed by children without direct supervision. "Need for Reading" has its own inbuilt monitoring so that children are unable to progress to the next level until they have achieved success in the one they are attempting. The program has been developed such that the commencement level of a particular child can be changed to suit the reading level of the child. I have found it most useful for younger children to start right at the beginning, as the revision assists in determining any particular areas of concern for the child.

"Need for Reading" requires minimal time to show a child what to do, however it is critical to teach the child the discipline of timing of responses in order to complete each stage. Once the child masters the timing, they are able to achieve great successes! (In my experience I have only had one child who was unable to manage the timing sequence, and hence did not complete the program.)

What I particularly like about the program is the fact that children get to view a person speaking sounds, (blends, words) and to see the placement of the mouth (and tongue) for correct diction. They are also increasingly challenged to find the letter (or blend, or word/s) within a series of alternatives which makes use of similar looking letters (targeting visual discrimination) or words with similar sound patterns or the beginning and ending sounds (targeting reading). As the children progress through the program, they take part in comprehension activities, which target the correct placement of words in sentences. In my experience I have found this cues into their skills in memory and sequencing and further builds their reading skills at the same time.

I have found that the children participating in the program feel quite confident in their ability to read as they progress throughout the program. In addition it has been my experience that their ability to read for meaning develops progressively as they undertake the comprehension activities.

I would definitely recommend the program to other teachers for use in the classroom environment and further, I would thoroughly recommend the program to parents to support the reading needs of their children.

HU (NSW Teacher)