Washington, D.C. – Acclaimed researcher Sally Shaywitz, M.D., will field questions from visitors to www.readingrockets.org in a live, online chat to kick off "Target the Problem," a new, collaborative project designed to help children with reading disabilities. The centerpiece of the project is an innovative online tool that helps parents and teachers recognize and assist children with specific reading difficulties.
Dr. Shaywitz, author of the bestseller Overcoming Dyslexia, is one of the nation's leading experts on reading skills development and dysfunction. A pediatrician, neuroscientist, and member of the National Reading Panel, she is co-director of the Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention at the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Shaywitz will respond to questions beginning at 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, January 27, 2005. Questions can be submitted during the chat or beforehand by sending them to readingrockets@weta.com (include "Chat with Sally" in the subject line). Autographed copies of Overcoming Dyslexia will be awarded from random drawings of those who submit questions beforehand, as well as from those who participate in the live chat.
The new project, "Target the Problem < http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target > " is a dedicated area within the Reading Rockets Web site that was created to be the destination of choice for teachers and parents of children with suspected or identified reading disabilities. Problems with auditory processing, language processing, visual processing, auditory/visual integration, memory, attention, fluency, and comprehension are defined in lay terms, making it easy for parents and teachers to match a child's behavior with characteristics of a reading disability. "Target the Problem" also includes specific things parents, teachers and children can do to increase skills, accommodate weaknesses and build upon a child's strengths.
The project also features a "Put Downs and Comebacks < http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/putdowns > " interactive that recognizes how self-esteem and motivation plummet when children struggle with reading. The roll-over interactive includes self-defeating comments ("put downs") that children who struggle in school often say or think and the responses ("comebacks") that parents and teachers can use to turn around these debilitating thoughts and feelings.
"We're very excited about ‘Target the Problem' because we haven't found anything like it anywhere on the Web," said Pamela McKeta, director of online services for Reading Rockets. "By outlining specific characteristics of reading difficulties, the interactive helps demystify labels such as ‘auditory processing problems.' It helps parents and teachers identify the issue and move on to detailed suggestions for helping a child who is struggling to read."
The information for "Target the Problem" was researched and created by the Access Center: Improving Outcomes for All Students K-8 ( www.k8accesscenter.org ), which is housed at the American Institutes for Research in Washington, D.C. The Access Center is a national technical assistance project supported by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. Its goal is to increase awareness of effective practices and programs that can help students with disabilities learn the content and skills embedded in the general education curriculum.
"Target the Problem" is part of an ongoing initiative called Reading Rockets, which looks at how young children learn to read, why so many kids struggle, and what can be done about it.
"Target the Problem" is also a collaborative project of Reading Rockets' partner site www.LDOnLine.org , the Web's premier site for learning disabilities. "Because as many as 80 percent of students with learning disabilities have reading problems, it made sense to build a bridge to LD OnLine, our other Web-based education project," said Noel Gunther, executive director of Reading Rockets and LD OnLine. "We wanted to make it easy for parents, teachers and other users to access the wealth of information that already exists, coupled with the new content that we've created for this project."
The online chat with Dr. Sally Shaywitz is being offered in cooperation with The Partnership for Reading, a collaborative effort by three federal agencies – the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the U.S. Department of Education.
Reading Rockets and LD OnLine are national educational projects of WETA, the flagship public television and radio station in the nation's capital whose educational projects focus on making learning available to all. The station's television productions and co-productions include "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer"; "Washington Week"; and documentaries by filmmaker Ken Burns, including "The Civil War," "JAZZ" and the upcoming "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson." Sharon Percy Rockefeller is president and CEO. More information on WETA and its programs and services is available on the Web site at www.weta.org .
Reading Rockets is funded primarily by a major grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.
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