A reading specialist is someone who works with students at various levels to help them come to terms with the issues they have relating to reading. Some students simply don’t like reading the books assigned to them, but others may have problems sounding out words in their heads or understanding words they never saw before. Before you consider becoming a specialist, make sure you know some of the duties and functions of these specialists.
Helping Students Read
Helping students read is the biggest function of a reading specialist. Specialists can essentially act like tutors and help students both in the classroom and outside of the classroom. Parents concerned about their children falling behind their peers and having trouble in their classes may hire a specialist to go over the child’s homework every night and to help them with both reading and writing assignments. Some specialists may also work with kids at the same reading level in small groups.
Assessing Students’ Skill Levels
Teachers often have a hard time focusing on individual students because there are so many kids in their classrooms. If there are 20 or more kids vying for the teacher’s attention, those who have reading problems can fall by the wayside. Specialists offer individualized instruction and can assess the skills that a student has. He or she may ask the child to read a short passage from a book and then tell the instructor what happened in his or her own words. They can also ask kids to read aloud from books to identify what level they are at and what they need to do keep up with their peers.
Working With Parents
A reading specialist may also work with the parents of the children he or she counsels or tutors. Parents sometimes have a hard time coming to grips with the idea that their children have reading problems. Specialists can help them understand that kids develop at different rates and that their children may need a little extra help to catch up. They can also suggest ways parents can help their kids at home, including reading books together at night or taking trips to the library to pick out books.
Assisting Educators
Though you may spend more time working with students or talking with their parents, you’ll also spend time working with teachers as a specialist. According to the International Reading Association, specialists will need to pass the information they have about students to teachers and help those teachers understand what they need to do about those kids. They may also work with other specialists and counselors to come up with new reading programs for individual children or small groups of kids. Some specialists even create programs that teachers can use with an entire classroom of kids to make everyone feel included.
Identifying Learning Disabilities
Identifying learning disabilities is another function of a reading specialist. Learning disabilities like dyslexia causes children to confuse letters and numbers, rearrange words in a sentence and makes it harder for them to concentrate on simple tasks like reading. As a specialist, you’re responsible for looking at the signs of learning disabilities in struggling students and speaking with guidance counselors and other professionals to arrange for tests that will diagnose or verify that condition. Once you know why the child struggles, you can better teach him or her.
Specialists can help children of a younger age improve their reading skills, but some specialists may work with struggling students in high school and even adults. Some of the duties that a reading specialist may include identifying learning disabilities assessing the reading skills of students.
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