ADHD / Anxiety Archives

ADHD and Executive Function: The Power of Positive Routines

August 12, 2021 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Most parents and educators are already aware that an ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) diagnosis can correlate to significant academic challenges for students of all ages. From mindfulness to medication, there are lots of ways for families looking to support their students’ success at school. But for kids with ADHD diagnoses to really shine, strategies at home are just as important as classroom strategies. Executive function techniques are a great way to build at-home supports for students dealing with ADHD, and it can be particularly helpful to focus on developing positive routines that make students’ lives more predictable. Here are three kinds of positive routines to consider if your child has an ADHD diagnosis:

1. Take charge of tools

Binders, backpacks, and plain old stuff can be enormous stumbling blocks for children with ADHD. Homework gets buried under sports gear; permission slips get crumpled into instrument cases; bags fill up with unneeded books until they’re too heavy to lift. Building positive routines around backpacks, binders, and anything else your student carries to and from school can be a powerful way to corral all the mess and minimize distractions from actual schoolwork. Make a daily rundown of these items part of your child’s routine; the idea is to glance—quickly!—at each item in each container and practice making decisions about where each one belongs. In general, it’s helpful for kids to think in terms of three categories:

Stays where it is;
Goes somewhere else (like a storage bin at home, back to the school library, or into the laundry);
Gets thrown away (or recycled).

Even just sorting into these simple categories can go a long way toward helping students with ADHD learn basic executive function skills. What’s more, there’s lots of room here for students to customize this routine. Some students might want to do this right after school; some might prefer after dinner. Some students might want to keep pencils in a fancy case, while others are happy stowing them all in a backpack pocket. Some students might want to carry a book to read for fun with them at all times (never mind the extra weight!), and some will enjoy the challenge of keeping their bags as light as possible. There’s no one right way for students with ADHD to decide what to with all their stuff; rather, the important thing is that they do decide, and that doing so becomes a positive routine with an outcome that they value.

2. Make homework predictable

For many students who have ADHD diagnoses, the issue with homework isn’t academic content; it’s figuring out how to tackle the homework process itself. Staring down a pile of assignments and a packed planner can leave even strong students feeling anxious. One great solution for this issue is to work with your student on building a personalized, positive routine to structure the homework process. This kind of positive routine will be different for different kids, but no matter the specifics, an effective homework routine should help students answer three key questions:

Where do I start?
What comes next?
How do I know when I’m done?

Accordingly, a positive routine for homework should always start the same way. For most students, part of this starting phase will be looking over assignments and gathering up stray materials, but it will also include different components for different students. For example, it could mean getting a favorite snack or drink, settling into a familiar workspace, or turning on a white noise playlist. The more consistent, the better, but again, this kind of positive routine works best when the student has a real say in shaping it—that is, forcing a student to sit at a desk when they’d rather work on the floor usually won’t do much good. Then, the homework routine should also include a predicable way to organize assignments: Should the hardest assignment come first? The easiest? Or maybe the math assignment? For students with ADHD, knowing how to tackle assignments is as important as mastering content. Finally, be sure that the routine ends on a positive, consistent note; this could be as simple as putting a sticker on the date in the student’s planner. Again, the idea is to reduce stress and demands on the the student’s attention by making homework as predictable as possible.

3. Expect the unexpected

Daily routines are great for students with ADHD, but it’s just as important to build positive routines into your student’s long-term planning. ADHD can sometimes cause students to get caught up in day-to-day concerns, which only creates more stress when they realize they’ve forgotten to plan for a big project or event. Try picking a time once a week to guide your student in thinking through the big picture of the coming weeks and even months. As with the positive routines described above, it’s helpful to do this at a consistent time and place—Monday evenings after dinner, for example. During this conversation, you and your student (along with other members of the family as necessary) will want to look over the following resources:

The student’s personal planner;
The school’s calendar and online schedule tool (be sure your student is familiar with how their school’s web resources work!);
The family’s overall calendar.

By checking each of these resources (and any others that serve similar purposes) on a regular basis, your student won’t be unpleasantly surprised by that science project, basketball tournament, or long weekend out of town. What’s more, this positive routine gives students a chance to plan out necessary steps ahead of time (like buying supplies for the project)—which can in turn give them an increased sense of mastery over their lives. Planning is empowering, and with practice, most students will learn to stick with this positive routine even without guidance from parents.

School can be daunting for students with ADHD, but by building these simple, positive routines outside the classroom, they’ll have another valuable tool for reducing stress and increasing focus.

By Hannah Sheldon-Dean, MSW

School Planning Considerations: 2021-2022 and 2022-2023

May 12, 2021 Brad Hoffman

Summer and Fall School Planning

It is with gratitude and hope that we proceed through the final push of this most unusual 2020-2021 school year. The rules of the road have changed continuously since the start of the pandemic with each week bringing new surprises; announcements from schools, colleges, and publishers along with local, state, and federal government agencies have made surviving this school year a real test of flexibility, tenacity, and creative problem solving. The resilience of our families, faculty, and professional colleagues is inspiring, and we’re grateful for our close partnerships with everyone, including school teams and related service professionals across the country. Together we’ve mastered new technologies to support continuous, high quality instruction; we’ve successfully navigated admissions and school planning for day schools, boarding schools, and colleges entirely virtually; we’ve speculated and hedged with plans A through Z to address learning and emotional challenges in a way that takes executive functions and our “future glasses” to a new extreme. Despite all the challenges, our students have come out on top, and we’ve delighted in their incredible successes!

With the 4th quarter of this school year now coming to a close, we look ahead to the summer 2021 and next school year with hope and anticipation of a return to more normal operations. Realistically, we expect next school year will have continued challenges as schools manage shifting policies, social distancing, and safety protocols, but it’s our hope that everyone will have a chance to recover and rejoice this summer by safely reuniting with family and friends in person, enjoying camp and summer travels, and breaking some of the difficult routines that have been so necessary to manage the past 14 months. Last summer was spent in nonstop speculation and school planning mode, and we hope this summer will provide some much needed relief from the constant feeling of uncertainty.

In order to make the most of summer 2021 and truly enjoy some respite from a wild school year, we strongly encourage families to make the most of May and June with regard to school planning for the fall and addressing any significant academic concerns as a result of the past 14 months. Remediation works best when the pressure is dialed down, and there’s no question that slow and steady wins the race. Moreover, test preparation for independent school admissions and college admissions works best when it’s structured and mapped out over a reasonably long runway to avoid cramming and unnecessary stress ahead of early decision and regular decision deadlines spanning November, December and January. Test-optional policies create a lot of confusion about what’s expected to be a competitive candidate, and now is the time to organize these planning conversations to avoid a fall blitz.

Whatever planning support you may need, we’re here for you, and we look forward to our continued partnership with your family.

Below you’ll find more information about: 1) benchmarking your child’s progress this school year, 2) summer enrichment teaching opportunities, 3) standardized testing in this climate, and 4) starting the common application essay.

Benchmarking Student Progress

The 2020-21 school year was more organized than the 4th quarter of the 2019-2020 school year, but it was a very challenging year nonetheless. For September 2021, all classroom teachers and schools are going to need to adjust their typical expectations to some degree because of Covid disruptions. Our lower school students — and particularly our students in the primary grades — are likely going to be reading, writing, and completing math work below typical benchmarks as a result of missed instruction. Despite a school’s best efforts, pivoting to distance learning and online learning so quickly was a Herculean effort, and there was simply no way to perfectly optimize it under these circumstances. Moreover, there’s simply no replacement for in-person instruction and live classroom discourse. Digitals tools provide lots of opportunities and accessibility, but we typically prefer to use them as a complement to in-person instruction, especially with our younger students.

Many parents have inquired about benchmarking and making sense of report cards in this climate for school planning purposes. They aren’t sure if their child is meeting grade level expectations or not. It’s surely not a guessing game, and parents don’t really need to wonder. The Common Core State Standards provide an excellent starting point for benchmarking, and while private schools don’t strictly follow these standards, many of them use these standards to guide their own curriculum mapping. For competitive NYC private schools, parents should look at typical grade level standards and reading benchmarks and then skew up a grade level. Keep in mind that standards aren’t “one and done” but rather build over time and across grade levels.

Since the Common Core website can be overwhelming for many parents to navigate, we like this alternative format developed by Jill McEldowney and Cathy Henry at The Curriculum Corner. For Kindergarten through 8th grades, they have created parent-friendly checklists based on CCSS in the form of “I Can…” statements available as both Excel and PDF formats.

We also make use of the Teachers College Columbia University Reading and Writing Project independent reading level quarterly benchmarking. It’s best not to get hung up on a single exit level for June but rather to think about reading levels in bands of two to three alpha letters. Performance with fiction and nonfiction texts may differ, and writing response work needs to be factored into benchmarking, particularly as students move into grades 2, 3, 4, and 5.

So while benchmarking doesn’t need to be a guessing game, it’s also not simple and quick. Ideally a portfolio of work from the entire school year is available to help guide benchmarking and school planning in addition to a variety of data points, including classroom work, homework, projects, grade level achievement testing (e.g. CTP testing), and informal classroom assessments (e.g. running records and spelling inventories). As for typing skills, typing.com offers typing speed guidelines for grades K-5.

Summer Enrichment Opportunities

Because this was such a strange school year, and because many camp and summer programs are modified, there’s an opportunity to use the summer season as an extended school year term, thus helping to avoid the summer slide. But summer learning can and should look different from academic year learning. Kids need to feel like they’re getting a break. They need to feel like the instructional time is something different. Summer learning, without school parameters in place, allows for more targeted instruction as well as project-based, interdisciplinary learning. The summer is a good time to close gaps, build expertise, or expand a passion. Ideally, the learning goals are driven by each student, which we can help to scaffold depending on age. With the help of creative and nimble educators — and the mindset that learning happens all the time and everywhere — the sky’s the limit with summer planning and school planning at large, and we welcome any special requests.

Here are some ideas from our teachers:

- Physics Lab at Home combines the rigor of an in-person lab while using the constraints imposed by remote learning to foster creativity and stimulate critical thinking. Students perform experiments at home with whatever materials they have at hand. They make measurements with both simple instruments they may have and with their cellphones. Students explore mechanics, electromagnetism, optics and thermodynamics in one-on-one sessions designed to illustrate a simple, profound truth: the world around us is governed by the laws of science.

- Book Groups for a few friends who haven’t been able to see each other in person. A group of cousins or other family members who usually gather during the summer at the family vacation house might also want to “meet” to discuss a high-interest book of their choosing. Mixed age groups can discuss a book that focuses on topics relevant to all or that might illuminate different perspectives. A group of students from the same school can read their assigned summer book together. Our teachers can help groups choose books, come to the meeting with ideas to share, and engage in a friendly, dynamic conversation. This can be a one-time activity or a group may choose to meet a few times over the summer.

- Journal Writing Circles for teens interested in using writing to explore feelings and ideas that might be difficult to talk about or that might normally be shared with friends in more normal times. Budding writers and all students would be encouraged to write informally without worrying about judgment or “correctness,” rather focusing on recalling memories, capturing fleeting thoughts or ideas and expressing themselves through writing. Prompts would be provided either between meetings or at the beginning of the sessions to help students write about a range of experiences. Sharing would be optional.

- Family History Interviews of older relatives with stories to tell! With more time on their hands, students can prepare generative questions to elicit grandparents or other family members’ stories. Working with a supportive teacher, individual students or a small group of students can prepare questions, practice interviewing, read profiles written in different formats and eventually write their own pieces that capture the experiences of their favorite relatives. Photos can be used to enhance the final stories, creating high-quality photo-journalistic pieces.

- Comedy writing is a fun and creative way for kids to learn the conventions of writing and producing content while expressing themselves. My Learning Springboard is offering lessons from TV writing/screenwriting to improv comedy to expository writing and more to keep students’ writing skills sharp in a fun, relaxed setting where they can write pieces that are true to their experiences and personalities. Looking for portfolio pieces to include in art school applications? Our team of teachers have won screenwriting competitions, been nominated for Sports Emmys and more, and they are happy to help hone your student’s voice as a writer and content creator.

- Super-Hero stories is a collaborative course in which students explore the traits and challenges of their favorite superheroes, including Thor, Moana, the Incredibles, and Studio Ghibli’s Chihiro. We will watch video clips and read stories to better understand how superheroes are created (their “origin stories”) and how they change over time. We will also discuss villains and whether so-called “evil” characters such as the Joker, Syndrome, and Disney’s Evil Stepmothers are born “bad” or become this way due to misfortune. Students will get a chance to present their own favorite superheroes from books and film. Then, inspired by the wide world of superheroes, students will get a chance to start thinking of their “superpowers” and how they might use their own special traits to deal with challenges and difficulties. Then, they will create their own unique superhero characters and send them off on missions and adventures. Their superhero stories will be workshopped and we will develop them using imaginative writing prompts. At the end of the course, students are invited to dress up as their characters and share their special superhero stories.

- Real-Life Math and Writing Connections for elementary and middle school students means searching for ways to take fundamental skills that the students need to practice, and repackaging them into activities that target the students’ interests. For example, when practicing mean, median, range, and mode, we might analyze statistics from a student’s favorite sports team. To facilitate teaching writing skills, we pick articles on topics that are interesting to the student. Music, movies, and sports can all provide opportunities for practicing skills. We’re able to push our students to read higher level discussions of the topics that interest them and are intrinsically motivating.

Standardized Test Preparation

The summer season is also an excellent time to get a jump start on standardized test preparation at every level from lower school through college. Given the pandemic, many schools adopted a test-optional policy, which has been confusing for families to navigate and factor into their school planning. The large majority of our students stayed the course with standardized test preparation, which proved to be advantageous. Competitive independent schools and colleges saw huge surges in admissions activity, and it was arguably the most competitive year ever. A solid to strong performance on a standardized measure provides advantageous data for schools to review as part of the process, particularly when the spring term of 2020 and this school year was so unusual. And truly the ISEE or SSAT is just a vehicle for middle or high school readiness. Going through the process closes any gaps and advances reading, writing, and math skills. We typically see huge growth for our students between now and December.

For now, it seems the only age groups that are surely saved from standardized testing are our rising kindergartners and first graders. ERB has officially phased out use of the AABL, and they are not planning to resurrect the ECAA. Schools have created their own assessment protocols for kindergarten and first grade admissions.

The Common Application Essay

Each year, the Common Application itself “resets” in early August, so we advise rising seniors to wait until then to fill out its typable forms; similarly, colleges tend to post their individual supplemental essay prompts in August or early September. But the Common Application has already released its essay prompts for the upcoming application cycle, making spring and summer an ideal time to begin the writing process—particularly this year. Focusing on this effort over the summer gives students some control while challenging themselves creatively, with no pressing deadlines. It is one of the concrete steps that they can take in shaping their future and actively managing their school planning; it’s an opportunity to reflect on where they’ve been—such as a nook on a living-room floor, a treacherous rock wall, or a thumping concert arena—where they are, and where they will go.

By Brad Hoffman, Faya Hoffman, and Laurie Gross
My Learning Springboard Leadership Team

How Can We Help Our Students With Anxiety and ADHD?

April 15, 2021 Brad Hoffman

How often have you heard these statements?

“I just want to get this right.”

“If I can’t find the right word to use here the sentence won’t be perfect.”

“It’s so hard to put all the pieces together on paper.”

“What if I don’t get an A?”

“How do I compare with my peers?”

“Sometimes I worry so much that I can’t think about anything else.”

“There are so many things to keep track of, I’ll never get finished.”

“I never had trouble with school before, now I am, what’s wrong with me?”

“If I don’t turn it in, I won’t make any mistakes.”

“I’ll do it, just leave me alone about it.”

Anxiety and ADHD

Anxiety and ADHD — these diagnoses often come together and one may look like the other, but they are quite different when looked at closely and situationally. The Anxiety Disorders Association of America estimates that 50% of people diagnosed with ADHD also have an anxiety disorder, and anxiety in children and teens often overlaps with depression. Each of these diagnoses, separately and together, has a negative impact on executive functions, too. These overlaps can make it challenging to tease out the primary or driving issue, but what’s most important is identifying the contributing factors and strategically and systematically planning for intervention at home and at school to disrupt the negative loop.

ADHD

As diagnoses are refined, we find that students with ADHD (whether it’s inattentive type, hyperactive type, or combined type) often find it difficult, if not challenging, to focus and concentrate most of the time in a multiplicity of situations and locations. It’s often a struggle for a student with ADHD to follow multiple steps of a process, manage multiple deadlines, and shift gears without becoming overwhelmed. Students with ADHD can become anxious and panicked due to their worry about missing deadlines, not turning in work or struggling to pay attention in school as this is a pattern which has often been repeated with negative consequences and feelings of distress. Their challenges are generally not situational in nature, though it’s notable that children with ADHD can often focus extremely well, even hyperfocus, on a self selected and high interest task or activity.

Anxiety

Anxiety can be generalized as well; however, it is more often than not triggered by specific situations or events, which can cause students to find it difficult to concentrate and/or focus at that specific time. Students with anxiety may worry about their peer relationships (maybe also family relationships or the home situation) and how their peers view them both academically and socially. These students often become distracted by their worries, which can lead to the development of physical symptoms, such as stomachaches, rapid breathing, and trouble sleeping to name a few. Additionally, many of our students with an anxiety disorder also have perfectionist tendencies, and/or compulsive tendencies, which can render them unable to begin an assignment or assessment due to the anxiety about not being able to complete it successfully or perfectly.

With our very bright, persistent, and perfectionist students, it’s not uncommon to see some rigidity and performance anxiety. Attention and anxiety are closely related, and if a student is focused on “being right” or “not making mistakes” or “needing it to be perfect”, it can make it difficult to begin, or complete, a new and challenging task. Moreover, with these students who are used to “getting it” on the first try, being in a situation where they might not “get it right away” can feel incredibly humbling and frustrating, thus leading to avoidance and/or resistance and overwhelming anxiety. We often see these challenges with our students who are openly labeled “gifted and talented” at very young ages and then encounter certain academic challenges as they age up.

How do we help students manage their anxiety and ADHD?

First, we have to consider the specific factors, variables and triggers in each child’s situation. An intervention plan should be carefully developed that considers both the home and school environment as well as any other activities or transitions in a student’s week. Small changes can often have a big impact, so we like to look for those opportunities first. If there’s a longer history or more escalated concern, the value of a comprehensive evaluation with a skillful and thorough psychologist cannot be underestimated. Then we help families to translate that information into an actionable plan at home and at school.

Second, all of our students, and especially our students with anxiety and ADHD, benefit from consistency, predictability, and order. Having and practicing routines leads to mastery and ease with transitions and provides great comfort to children. Parents can establish morning routines, after school routines, evening routines, bedtime routines, and weekend routines. At the same time, we need to also help our children develop comfort with flexibility and change. For our children with high levels of anxiety, this flexibility can be extremely difficult, so we need to plan for practice opportunities in a safe space. Students with anxiety and ADHD also benefit from having clean, organized, and thoughtful spaces at home and at school. Organized spaces provide comfort and structure while modeling successful executive function skills for our students.

Third, all of our students, and especially our students with anxiety and ADHD, need parents and teachers to impose technology boundaries. Technology use is a major “time robber” and contributor to off-task behavior and anxiety in children and adolescents. Teaching our students how to responsibly use technology as a tool is critical to their academic and personal success. Achieving responsible use is a much more complicated discussion, but undoubtedly it starts with planning, discussing, and establishing expectations that are enforced with consistency, predictability, and transparency. To the extent that expectations and messages can be consistent between home and school is especially valuable, but it’s okay to have specific expectations at home that differ from school or from friends. Creating a “phone jail” during homework time and dinner time could be very useful for all members of the family. Consider “silent” times when all mobile devices are set to silent or “do not disturb.” Consider “screen free” times within the course of your family’s week. Parents and teachers need to model their own responsible use as well.

Fourth, we encourage families to consider a second sandbox when thinking about school placement. Boarding schools (and Junior Boarding Schools) — which come in many shapes and sizes — are often a better environment for our students with stress sensitivities triggered by city stimuli. New York City is incredibly fast-paced and energized, which is great for the adults who choose to live here, but it’s not always so great for our students. We’re fortunate to have such easy geographic access to so many campuses offering incredible academics, learning support, advisory, arts, sports, and diverse communities, which become extended families and neighborhoods. For students needing therapeutic school environments, we have tremendous resources in that category as well.

Faya, Laurie, and I help families everyday with educational problem solving, which includes school planning and school placement, developing and implementing intervention plans, refining (or overhauling) their weekly schedules, and partnering with their schools more effectively. Whenever possible, we work in close collaboration with psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians, occupational therapists, speech therapists, school leadership, school learning specialists, and classroom teachers to optimize resources and coordinate planning. A big challenge for families is knowing what to do at home to support learning and how best to partner with their child’s school. Without this close partnership between home and school, it’s very difficult to successfully mitigate challenges around anxiety and ADHD. If your child is struggling, we can help. Please contact us for more information.

These links may also be of interest:

Anxiety Disorders Association of America

Anxiety and Depression Association of America

NIH: Anxiety Disorders

CDC: ADHD

Child Mind Institute: Resources for Parents

Written by Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed., Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist, Faya Hoffman, M.A., Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist, and Laurie Gross, M.A.T., Special Educator and Reading Specialist. Brad, Faya, and Laurie comprise the senior Leadership Team for My Learning Springboard.

Managing Virtual College Visits

March 2, 2021 Brad Hoffman

Ordinarily, spring is a popular time for high schoolers to pursue college visits. But with the Covid-19 outbreak closing or significantly limiting access to universities, those typical college visits are mostly impossible this season. Strong executive function skills which require nimbleness and flexibility as well as contingency planning and focused “future glasses” will be of great value during these rapidly changing times. Fortunately, prospective applicants can learn a lot about colleges through other sorts of college admissions research. Below are some ways to explore colleges when physical visits are canceled.

Set time goals

While many college admissions trips involve visiting lots of schools in just a few days, that speed is hard for students to replicate at home without a cheerful tour guide to direct them. Set goals that make it easier to approach your virtual college visits and to digest information — exploring one to three schools per day, or spending no more than two hours per day on college admissions research.

Set content goals

If your family had already identified certain college visits to prioritize this spring if possible, your child can use that list to begin their college research at home. If your child has not yet started any lists, we can certainly help. We also suggest making use of online resources to search for a combination of two or three appealing attributes — for instance, small liberal arts colleges in the northeast — and exploring the results. The U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges’ feature labeled “Students Also Applied To,” near the bottom of a college’s profile, is a good tool for building lists of schools similar to each other.

Make checklists and keep notes

Comparing colleges is easier if students gather the same points of information about each of them. To stay consistent in their college admissions research and virtual college visits, students can create a digital checklist or spreadsheet to fill in as they work. Some universal items are student population size, location, average SAT or ACT scores, and interesting majors or departments. Applicants can also add personalized items, such as relevant extracurriculars, study abroad opportunities, and special programs. Below the checklist, or in an additional spreadsheet column, students should make notes on anything else they want to remember.

Use Google to find solid sources

While every college’s website has a search function, it’s often faster to use Google to find content on those websites. In addition to schools’ own pages, the U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges site, referenced above, is a reliable source. Hint: for hard-to-find statistics, such as average test scores, try googling the name of the school plus the phrase “admitted class profile.”

Zoom in through a virtual tour

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram — admissions offices maintain a presence on all of them. We recommend taking the virtual tour that each school offers and reading their online lookbooks in addition to any opportunities for online information sessions or virtual open house events. We also recommend seeking out content that shares students’ voices, such as an admissions blog, Instagram stories, and student newspapers and magazines.

Reach out

One-on-one conversations are often the most impactful way for a prospective student to learn about a college. If your child has any acquaintances or relatives who attend a college that interests your child, this is a great time to ask the older student to chat about their impressions of the school.

Zoom out to the Common Application essay

When your child needs a break from researching individual colleges, they can brainstorm an essay for the Common Application, which streamlines the process of applying to multiple schools. While students must wait until August for the application form to open and for colleges to post their supplemental essay prompts, the Common App has already posted the prompts for the main essay, which is sent to all schools. Writers typically go through several drafts of this essay, so getting an early start will help their summer and fall go smoothly.

Prioritize

Finally, we want to acknowledge that no matter how central college visits were to your original spring plans, families have bigger concerns right now. While teenagers are experts at staying digitally connected, they will still miss their friends and their school routines. If college admissions research seems to be too much for your child right now, encourage them to press pause. The first deadlines are several months away. The top priority right now is what also should be their guiding principle when they eventually choose what college to attend: their happiness and well-being.

In these uncertain times, rest assured that your well-being and safety remain our highest priority. Everyone’s concerns are understandable and real. If we can help in any way over the coming weeks with e-tutoring or supplemental college counseling, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We sincerely hope that you and your loved ones get through this situation as well as possible and that we will be able to return to a reasonable amount of normalcy soon.

By Brad Hoffman, Faya Hoffman, Laurie Gross, and Elizabeth Walters

Choosing A Reading Intervention Program

February 16, 2021 Brad Hoffman

If your child is struggling with a reading disorder, such as dyslexia, or another language-based learning disability, you may be looking for the best reading intervention program to support your child’s learning needs. With so many programs available, it is often difficult to determine which one is the best choice for your learner, and often skillful educators make use of components from more than one program. We prefer a systematic, multisensory, and content-driven approach that follows an Orton-Gillingham sequence with integrated opportunities for comprehension work (verbal and written), spelling and word work, and handwriting instruction.

Some of the most successful and commonly used programs to support struggling readers and students with language-based learning disabilities are Orton-Gillingham, Preventing Academic Failure, Wilson Fundations, and Lindamood-Bell. Orton-Gillingham was the first program developed for 1:1 reading intervention in the 1930s by Dr. Samuel Orton and Dr. Anna Gillingham. Preventing Academic Failure and Wilson are both based on the Orton-Gillingham sequence. Lindamood-Bell is not.

Orton-Gillingham

Orton-Gillingham is known for being direct and explicit, multi-sensory, and systematic in its approach to reading intervention and building phonemic awareness, developing advanced phonological understandings, and integrating word study and vocabulary development. Orton-Gillingham can be used with students of any age, and it is recommended to be delivered in a 1:1 or small group setting. The OG lessons are very structured, sequential, and cumulative, always building upon past lessons to review and reinforce previously learned skills and concepts. The lessons are also diagnostic and prescriptive, allowing them to be very individualized based on the successes and errors of the learner. Through multi-sensory techniques and repetition, students overlearn new skills and concepts to build automaticity and confidence.

Preventing Academic Failure

Preventing Academic Failure, or PAF, is an Orton-Gillingham based reading intervention program designed for whole group instruction. It was developed by Phyllis Bertin and Eileen Perlman at The Windward School, which has locations in White Plains and Manhattan. Although it is often used with a whole group in the classroom, PAF can also be modified for use in a one-on-one or small group setting. Preventing Academic Failure is most typically used with students in grades K-3, but that’s only if early intervention has been put in place; often students aren’t identified for targeted intervention until grade 3, 4 or 5, which is terribly unfortunate and unnecessary.

Because it’s based on the Orton-Gillingham program, PAF also uses a multi-sensory approach, but it’s significantly differentiated from a traditional OG approach in that it systematically integrates phonics instruction, spelling, handwriting, and reading comprehension. Skywriting is one multi-sensory activity that PAF focuses on to support students’ spelling needs. By using gross motor movements to form the letters while spelling words aloud, the children are more actively engaged in the process using verbal, visual and kinesthetic modalities.

During each PAF lesson, when a new sound or rule is taught, dictation is used to practice spelling words or sentences including words that focus only on that new rule. This dictation exercise allows students to not only practice their new spelling rule, but to work on their handwriting skills as well. As students develop stronger spelling and decoding skills, students can then improve their reading comprehension skills through PAF’s carefully scaffolded texts.

The program believes that “only when reading is accurate and fluent can students then develop meaning.” At the end of each lesson, students read stories in Merrill Readers to reinforce decoding words with the sounds they have just learned, as well as to develop and strengthen their reading comprehension skills.

For writer’s workshop, PAF is complemented by Judith Hochman’s Teaching Basic Writing Skills.

Click to visit The Windward Teacher Training Institute site.

Wilson

The phonetic sequence in Wilson is also aligned with the principles of Orton-Gillingham, and it offers a variety of programs for different ages and learners, including: Fundations, Just Words, and the Wilson Reading System.

The Wilson programs are designed to fit within the tiers, or levels, of the Response to Intervention (RTI) framework. All three programs support students with learning and language-based disabilities through multi-sensory instruction and differentiated pathways, but these programs aren’t as fully integrated as PAF with regard to scaffolded texts mapped to each lesson.

Fundations is used for prevention and early intervention for grades K-3 and focuses on phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, and sight words. Just Words is typically used for intervention in grades 4-12 for students who need greater support with decoding and spelling skills. The Wilson Reading System is a more intensive program for learners in grades 2-12. This program focuses on teaching the structure of the English language to students with language-based disabilities, such as dyslexia, who have severe language deficits and are not making progress with their standard classroom curriculum.

Lindamood-Bell

Lindamood-Bell is comprised of five reading programs and one math program for students with dyslexia and other language-based learning challenges as well as students with general learning challenges or autism. These five programs include: Seeing Stars, Visualizing and Verbalizing, Talkies, LiPS, On Cloud Nine Math.

Lindamood-Bell’s reading programs are not based on Orton-Gillingham principles but rather focus on the sensory-cognitive functions that support reading, including symbol imagery and concept imagery, both of which involve creating mental pictures. Instruction is typically implemented 1:1 but can be adapted for small groups or classroom settings.

Though not an exhaustive list by any means, Orton-Gillingham, PAF, Wilson, and Lindamood-Bell are especially popular programs to support struggling readers, and there are components from each program that would benefit ALL learners. While many practitioners discuss or recommend programs with a purist approach in mind, we recommend not fixating on a single approach because it’s not entirely that simple, particularly when instruction is being delivered at home in a 1:1 setting.

Each learner is different and reading intervention needs to be targeted to meet specific needs at specific times. Motivating and engaging each learner must be carefully factored in as well. In our experience, it’s best to coordinate support between home and school with skillful teachers, experienced in a variety of programs and intervention techniques, making professional judgments based on a palette of instructional approaches and strategies rather than rigidly following a scripted curriculum. That said, these judgments should be based on evidence-based research, and we prefer a systematic, multisensory, content-driven approach that follows an Orton-Gillingham sequence.

If you suspect your child has a reading challenge, don’t wait to organize targeted support. Engage your child’s classroom teacher in conversation and seek the school’s input, but don’t ignore your parental hunch. There are a variety of classroom assessments that can help to determine current levels of performance and needs. These are different from formal assessments used by psychologists to make diagnoses as part of a comprehensive evaluation.

It’s a lot for parents to consider, which is exactly why we partner with parents so closely. Our leadership team can help you figure out the right next steps taking longer term school planning into consideration, curate a program for your child, and then organize in-home support while also collaborating with your child’s school team and/or related service professionals as appropriate. Please contact our office to discuss your child’s reading and writing needs.

By Brad Hoffman, Curriculum & Instruction Specialist, Nicole DeMartino, Special Educator, and Laurie Gross, Reading Specialist

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