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Understanding & Enhancing Comprehension

by | Feb 16, 2026 |

Let’s go once again into the “Way Back Machine.”  This time we will go to the mid 1980’s.

What was the red-hot topic in the field of reading and cognitive psychology?  I will give you a hint.  It wasn’t decoding or reading fluency.

The topic of the decade, the one receiving millions of dollars of grant money across the country to major university centers, was not dyslexia.

The central topic was reading comprehension, with a particular emphasis on higher-order thinking, inferential reasoning and that funky term that almost no one seemed to understand –  “metacognition.”

Sadly, like most of these hot topic educational initiatives and movements (anyone out there remember Reading First), over time they are largely forgotten and put into the educational/psychological dustbin, sort of like an education  psychology version of Toy Story.  (“Hey, remember me, I was the toy you  played with all of the time  and now you’ve forgotten me.”)

Interactive Nature of Reading Process

Even though we are squarely in the era of dyslexia (Is everyone “dyslexic” these days?), there are important research findings from that earlier era that are important to remember.

One of the points is the interactive nature of the reading/learning process.

We used to think about reading in more one-directional terms. That is, information was on the page and went up into our head resulting in comprehension.

The cognitive psychologists studying this stuff in the 1980s told us that the one directional view is erroneous. Reading is not a one-directional process. Instead, we have “schema,” (i.e.,  prior knowledge or the stuff in our head) that gets activated while reading, making the process more interactive than previously understood.

The more “stuff” (schema) we have in our head, the better will be our understanding of the material on the page.

Another big takeaway that is now in the dustbin is that in order to improve comprehension we need to interact with different types of questions that stimulate a child to seek information and find justifications in the text.

In other words, just answering questions on a worksheet is not how to teach comprehension.

Inferential thinking is a skill that does not come naturally to many kids, but can be taught with good facilitated instructional practice and questions that guide this type of thought process.

Comprehension is not an easy skill to develop, but if research findings are followed, it can be improved.

Takeaway Point

Some of the toys forgotten in the toy chest may still have some value.

(More to follow next week.)

 

IEP’s & 504’s: What’s the Difference?

by | Sep 19, 2025 | ,

IEP’s & 504’s What’s the Difference?

​Do you know the difference between a 504 Plan and an IEP?

It’s fine if you don’t, but in case these are relevant to you, here’s a basic primer.

504 Plans

  • 504’s only provide accommodations, not direct services. The provision of extra time is a classic accommodation given. There are about five other typical accommodations offered in most 504’s.
  • To obtain a 504, the child needs a diagnosis of a disability stated on letterhead by a medical practitioner (e.g., physician or psychologist).
  • Once you have the diagnosis on letterhead, 504’s are not usually that difficult to obtain.
  • The majority of children receiving 504 plans are those who have been diagnosed with ADHD.
  • 504’s are reviewed annually.

IEP (Individualized Education Plan)

  • To obtain an IEP the child is deemed to be classifiable under the special education categories governed by federal law. There are 13 special education categories based on Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA. The categories are interpreted somewhat differently depending on the state you reside.
  • IEP’s are generated by the district’s special education team. An outside evaluation (e.g., a psychological or neuropsychological) may offer a diagnosis, but the school’s team needs to come to its own conclusions based on their assessments.
  • The vast majority of children with IEP’s fall under the classification of Specific Learning Disability (SLD).
  • Compared to the relative ease of obtaining a 504, the IEP process can be lengthy and complex.
  • Different than a 504, with an IEP the child receives some level of direct service (remediation), along with accommodations.

Takeaway Point

Of course, there’s a lot more to it than what is indicated above, but these points will get you started.

​

“A Pediatrician’s Perspective”

by | Jun 27, 2025 | ,

The following quote is from the Foreword of The Shut-Down Learner: Helping Your Academically Discouraged Child. I have always loved this quote and feel that it timelessly captures the impact that school struggling has upon the child and the family.

“I have been a practicing general pediatrician for more than thirty years and in the course of that time have gained some understanding of children.  Every child is different.  Every child has their own personality, temperament, strength, and cultural background.  I know that children love to learn and look forward to different learning experiences.  When things are going well, they love to go to school.  If a child in kindergarten or first grade is not enjoying school, this is a problem that needs further investigation immediately.

The work of childhood is navigating the waters of school.  For many reasons, not all children do well in school.  When children struggle in school, their whole family system is affected.  From my perspective as a pediatrician, the child’s health is affected by their negative school experiences.  Increased incidents of depression, anxiety, and family turmoil are the common side effects of school struggling.  By the time the child is in their teens, it is often too late to break the downward spiral.”

(William Sharrar, Professor of Pediatrics, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School)

 

Uncomplicating

by | Apr 4, 2025 |

When a child is school struggling, 99.9% of the time the parents get it.  They know there’s something up.  They are looking for validation.

This is where it gets murky.

When the parents raise the question of dyslexia with the school, typically they are told that the diagnosis of dyslexia is conducted by a medical professional and that they should contact their pediatrician (or a neurologist).

The fact of the matter is that pediatricians don’t test for dyslexia, as such testing involves a number of tests that are simply not given by medical doctors.

In spite of this, the pediatrician may send a letter back to the school offering a diagnosis (largely based on the parent’s report) that the child has something like ADHD or dyslexia with the request of a 504 or an IEP.

The school then feels like their hands are tied, since the normal process of determining eligibility was not followed.

It can all be very frustrating and confusing.

If I had my way (which I don’t), simplifying would be the guiding principle.

When a child is falling below the 25th percentile on a respectable reading measure, that child needs help whether they are eligible for service or not.

Whether you call it “dyslexia” or “eligible/ineligible for service,” struggling is struggling.

Parents need plain language and guidance.

For example:

School to the Parent:  “You’re right.  Your child is struggling.  We gave a good screening measure and his reading fluency is weak and phonics skills are poor.  We don’t diagnose dyslexia, but we see the struggling.  If you want to pursue an assessment for dyslexia, then this is usually done by a psychologist or a neuropsychologist.  In the meantime, let’s get down to business with good remediation.”

I think parents would appreciate statements like that and feel validated and supported.

If the parent does seek an outside assessment, then this assessment should be factored into the school’s understanding of the child.

It would be nice to hear, “Wow.  We see Dr. Smith agrees with us.  The decoding skills are very weak.  Glad we started targeting them.  Let’s keep close watch on the child’s progress.”

Seriously, does it need to be more complicated than this?

Does Spelling Matter?

by | Aug 2, 2024 |

Georgia is a lively, spontaneous and friendly 10-year- old student entering the fifth grade.  Cognitive testing placed her between the average to above average range for most of the domains assessed.

Spelling and writing were a different story for her.

Here are some of Georgia’s spelling errors and samples of sentences she wrote to a prompt:

  • cook/cooke
  • reach/reche
  • circle/courkel
  • ruin/rowen
  • watch/wauch
  • explain/espan
  •  I whish for my best fierd to live with Me.
  • I whish to get a nother dog.
  • I love to do hoars backrinding camp and playing with firendes.

In this era of increased involvement with artificial intelligence and other technologies, the question I ask relative to spelling and writing samples like Georgia’s is, does it matter?   Does it matter that she can’t spell or barely write a sentence.

It is my sense spelling and writing issues do not seem to be ringing too many bells of concern at the school level.

Perhaps it’s generational.

To a young teacher in their 20’s or so, something like spelling and being able to write sentences may be old school, so yesterday, something that can be easily remedied.

Why spend time on something like spelling when autocorrect is right there?  Why bother worrying about complete sentences, when “Grammarly” is your technology assistant, cleaning up your sentence fragments, run-ons and punctuation.

What’s your opinion?  Does it matter?

(****This post is dedicated to the memory of Stanley Sterenberg, a dear friend and devoted reader (and commenter) to this blog since the first one was written over 12 years ago.  May his memory be a blessing.  You will be missed my friend.)

To receive future blog posts, register your email: https://shutdownlearner.com.

To Contact Dr. Richard Selznick for advice, consultation or other information, email: shutdownlearner1@gmail.com. 

Copyright, Richard Selznick, Ph.D.  2023, www.shutdownlearner.com.

 

“Ineffective, Inefficient, Irrational, Immoral and Indefensible”

by | Mar 8, 2024 | ,

Most of you understand the concept of standard error of measurement (SEM).

In a nutshell, SEM tells us that on any given day that you can be within an interval of confidence that an obtained score is accurate.

For example, if the obtained IQ score is 100, you can have about 99% confidence that with repeated administrations the score would fall within a range, say between 95 – 105.

For standardized tests such as the WISC-V (the gold standard cognitive measure used in special education assessments), there is no such thing as a “true score” as there is always the standard error of measurement to consider.

That explains the fury when a parent was told that her clearly struggling child was not eligible to receive services because the child missed eligibility by one point.

This is what occurred with 10-year-old, fourth- grader, Charles,  who has been struggling greatly with his reading, spelling and writing since kindergarten.  Some months before his special education assessment, I  had conducted a dyslexia screening with Charles,  which showed clear indicators of concern.

The school conducted a comprehensive special education evaluation that also identified significant issues with word identification, phonemic awareness, reading fluency, spelling and writing, which are the typical academic indicators for a learning disability, such as dyslexia.

When the school met with the mother to review the findings, stunningly she was told that the child was ineligible for services. That is, he would not be classified as eligible for an IEP.

As told to the mom, Charles fell short by one point, which did not meet the very strict standards of the discrepancy model utilized to determine eligibility.

Along with a few other states in the country,  New Jersey uses and outmoded model that often leaves children like Charles struggling without any support or direct remediation.

This model requires there be a statistically significant difference between the child’s Full-Scale IQ and an overall score in reading.

When a pure quantitative discrepancy model is used, as it is in New Jersey, many kids are left completely in the lurch.

In an article written by Emerson Dickman, a special education attorney and former president of the International Dyslexia Association, he quoted leading experts regarding the use of a discrepancy model.

Here are a few choice ones:

“For 25 years we have used  the IQ-achievement discrepancy model, a wait-to-fail model that is known to be ineffective, inefficient, irrational, immoral and indefensible.”  (Dr. Douglas Carmine presentation during testimony to Congress on reauthorization of IDEA.)

“The formula is a “wait and fail” model and is immoral.”  (Dr. Thomas Hehir, Director of Special Education Programs during Clinton Presidency.)

“IQ-Achievement discrepancy is not a valid means for identifying individuals with learning disabilities Robert Pasternack, Assistant Secretary for Office of Special Education)

Not only is the model unfair and immoral often offering no support to struggling children,  it also leaves everything entirely up to parents to try and find outside services like tutoring that are never covered by insurance.

Basically, the unstated message given to parents  with a struggling ineligible child is something like this, “Sorry, we’re done.  Maybe you should talk to your pediatrician.”

As you can imagine, this is infuriating to parents.

(In next week’s post, we will elaborate on this point.)

Feel free to make comment below. 

To receive future blog posts, register your email: https://shutdownlearner.com.

To Contact Dr. Richard Selznick for advice, consultation or other information, email: shutdownlearner1@gmail.com. 

Copyright, Richard Selznick, Ph.D.  2023, www.shutdownlearner.com.

“Beyond the Power Struggle: A Guide for Parents of Challenging Kids”

by | Dec 1, 2023 | , ,

Exciting News!!!!!

Over the next few weeks, my latest book, “Beyond the Power Struggle:  A Guide For Parents of Challenging Kids” is scheduled to be released.

If you are a beleaguered parent or know a beleaguered parent, you might want to get a copy.

Here’s a link to the the full cover with the  endorsements:

(Click Here):  Beyond The Power Struggle 2023

Please spread the word and share.

“wuns a pon a time their was a boy…”

by | Jun 23, 2023 | ,

 wuns a pon a time their was a boy wgo had no frends so he was always alon But than on day evry thing change His mom gave him a voilinto play it sounded horabel so he said I am never playing this again so one Day he went to in the stor and heard the guy play the vialin it sounded awsome so he said to his mom thats how I want to play well then you need to pratis his mom said and then he did and he was so good at it.

 Completed  by James, a 10-year-old boy, this writing sample was written after he was asked to write  a story to a picture of a boy looking at a violin.  (The story is is written as he wrote it minus the chaotic handwriting.)

Writing can be a window or an x-ray revealing a person’s feelings, as well as showing their basic understanding of written language.

The more I got to know James, who was diagnosed with a severe reading disability, the more this story became a true window on two levels.

Metaphorically speaking, James looks around his classroom and sees others playing the violin fine, while he cannot.  Acutely aware of the fact that he is not measuring up, in spite of hearing his parents tell him repeatedly that he is “so smart and so amazing,”  James feels pretty discouraged, as expressed in his story (although there is a spark of optimism at the end).

Besides being academically discouraged, James also feels outside relative to the social dynamics in his classroom. James thinks the other kids snicker at him behind his back (sometimes not behind) and James tries too hard to make friends, which often backfires, making things worse.

So, what does James need?

James needs two things that he is not getting.

First, he needs a sense of personal connection  Perhaps James can form a good working relationship with a therapist who can be encouraging, while helping him recharge his battery.

As part of the counseling, James’ parents can be guided to find a way to talk with him more effectively, as they are becoming overly testy with him, which only leads to sparks flying around the household during the nightly homework battles.

James also needs good tutoring  using structured, systematic direct instruction, focusing on his writing, starting with writing a simple sentence.

Tutoring can have magical effects, as noted in an earlier blog, “Relationship  the Secret Sauce of Success.” (“Relationship – The Secret Sauce of Success”

(***Please note:  All blogs represent the opinion and perspective of Dr. Richard Selznick.  Comments and questions are welcomed, but are blocked by the hosting site.  Please email questions or comments: rselznick615@gmail.com)  

Copyright, Richard Selznick, Ph.D.  2022, www.shutdownlearner.com.

To Contact Dr. Richard Selznick for advice, consultation or other information, email rselznick615@gmail.com.

To receive future blog posts, register your email: https://shutdownlearner.com.

 

Blog #1 from 2009

by | Jun 1, 2023 | ,

Started in 2009 upon the release of my first book, The Shut-Down Learner, there have been nearly 600 blog posts completed on a weekly basis over those years..

I thought it would be fun to look back on some of the earliest ones (slightly edited), to see what I was saying and to see if they still hold up.

So, in that spirit, here is Blog #1 from April, 2009.

———————————————————————-

“Anxiety over your child’s school-based problems can start very early. A mom recently contacted me after reading “The Shut-Down Learner.”

“My son is drowning in school. Do you think he could be a shut-down learner,” she asked.

After asking a few more questions, I was struck by the fact that the child in question was only in kindergarten.

When I wrote The Shut-Down Learner I was envisioning a disconnected, shut-down teenager. However, as I gave more talks to parents, so many of the concerns being raised concerned young children. This led me to understand that so much of the concept of a shutting down adolescent begins very early and made me think about how this can be prevented from happening as early as possible.

A formula I used frequently in talks to parents helps to explain the shutting down process  over time.

Here’s the formula:

Cracks in the Foundation + Time + Lack of Understanding + Widening cracks + Increased  Family Tensions (around the school issues)  = Shut-Down Learner

So, if you are the mom of a kindergarten or first grade child who is starting to  shut-down, there likely are cracks in the foundation. The next step is to know what those cracks are and how to identify and address them.

As we progress with future blogs, I will break down this formula for you in depth so that you will understand each of the parts and what you may be able to do as the child’s parent.”

Takeaway Point

OK, some 14 years later, I still agree!!!

More to come.

(***Please note:  All blogs represent the opinion and perspective of Dr. Richard Selznick.  Comments and questions are welcomed, but are blocked by the hosting site.  Please email questions or comments: rselznick615@gmail.com)  

Copyright, Richard Selznick, Ph.D.  2022, www.shutdownlearner.com.

To Contact Dr. Richard Selznick for advice, consultation or other information, email rselznick615@gmail.com.

To receive future blog posts, register your email: https://shutdownlearner.com.

“‘Barn Kids’ & the ‘Populars'”

by | May 12, 2023 | ,

In my ongoing education, this week I learned about the “Barn Kids” and the “Populars.”

Mother of 12-year-old Marla explained to me that her 12-year-old daughter was one of the “Barn Kids”  and not one of the “Populars.”

Instinctively, I sort of knew what she meant,  but asked for elaboration.

“Well, the Barn kids are like in their own corner of the universe.  They love hanging with the horses, shoveling hay, cleaning stalls and doing all sorts of other odd jobs around the barn.  They don’t have phones or other screens down at the barn.  They just hang with the horses and sometimes a little with each other.”

I ask, how  Marla get along with the other Barn kids.”

“Great…totally the opposite of how she is with the Populars or in school.  An interesting side-note is that the Barn Kids are all different ages, from maybe seven up to teens.”

“With the Populars,” she continued, “they’re always clustering on their phones, going on Tik Tok, talking and gossiping with each other.  From what I can tell, they can be a pretty tough group.  Marla is very skittish about them.”

When I meet Marla we talk about her love of the barn and she tells me how it all works. She didn’t feel like an outsider there, pressing her nose to the glass trying to get in the club as she always feels around the popular kids.  She also proudly shows me a video of herself in a jumping competition that she had recently won. (The Populars knew nothing about her victory.)

There wasn’t much she had to say about the Populars, other than on occasion they could make fun of her, but she felt she was learning to cope when she had to be around them.

Beside, when she started to feel stressed and had trouble coping, she knew her horse was a great listener!

(***Please note:  All blogs represent the opinion and perspective of Dr. Richard Selznick.  Comments and questions are welcomed, but are blocked by the hosting site.  Please email questions or comments: rselznick615@gmail.com)  

Copyright, Richard Selznick, Ph.D.  2022, www.shutdownlearner.com.

To Contact Dr. Richard Selznick for advice, consultation or other information, email rselznick615@gmail.com.

To receive future blog posts, register your email: https://shutdownlearner.com.

 

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