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When to Seek Additional Help for Your Struggling Reader

  Nothing breaks my heart more than meeting middle school students who are embarrassed because they can't read. What's even sadder... many of these clearly intelligent students were placed into special education programs, because schools did not have the tools to deliver the intensive reading intervention required to remediate these students reading skills. These students end up suffering both academically and emotionally. One of the main problems is that the foundational mechanics of reading are generally taught in the primary grades, which span from kinder to third grade. After third grade everyone assumes that students already know how to read. Translated, if you have a student in a primary grade who consistently receives "C's" in reading they are probably weak in one or more of the essential reading components, and they will probably struggle to keep up in every subject. Study after study shows that these students have a much higher high school drop out rate.