This month, I have been diligently working with one of our younger students. Omar is a first grader who struggles in a lot of learning areas, but perhaps none more than reading and comprehension. At the beginning of the month, Omar started reading a book called, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” Many of his peers can easily read this book without help. Omar on the other hand, struggled with the story and soon felt discouraged.
I made it a priority to encourage and work with Omar. We practiced every day and before he knew it, he soon had the rhythm of the story down and began paying close attention to the words he was reading.
Omar can now read the same book as his friends with confidence. It has also encouraged him to challenge himself to begin reading other books. We are now working on “The Little Mouse, The Big Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear.” Our goal by the end of the month is for Omar to able to read this book on his own.
-Kent Youth and Family Services
