BEST Reading Resources for ADHD

As the summer begins to wind down, it will be more prudent than ever to encourage your child or teen to spend time reading. This will further help them to avoid "The Summer Slide" and be better prepared for a more successful fall term. Students with ADHD may need even more support along these lines.

For this reason and because of our experiences with students of all abilities after the summer vacation period, we thought it would be beneficial to our readers to provide a list of ADHD reading tips and resources, especially right now during the fast-approaching back-to-school season. One of our previous articles entitled Let's Deal with Distractions---ADHD Strategies for Home & School included a rather extensive list of general home and school resources for ADHD.

This week, we are helping parents and teachers prepare for a new school year with a new ADHD resource list for reading. We hope this list will assist our readers in helping students experience improved focus, more sustained attention and better concentration when reading (whether online or offline). It is important to note that these resources can be helpful not only to children with ADHD but to ALL children with reading issues. We hope the list and its "goodies" will provide you with the needed resources to help a child you know with the reading challenges of ADHD.

Helpful Reading Resources for ADHD

11 Every-Night Ways to Build Stronger Reading Skills
by Matthew Cruger, Ph.D. and ADDitude Magazine
Children with ADHD and learning disabilities often struggle to become confident readers with strong comprehension skills. Here’s how easy-to-follow tips — like forming a book group or encouraging note-taking — can help your little reader.
https://www.additudemag.com/adhd-reading-comprehension/

Many ADHD Kids Also Have Reading Problems
by Denise Mann, WebMD Health News
About half of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may experience problems with reading, according to a new study in Pediatrics. It was found that 51% of boys with ADHD had reading problems, as did 46.7% of girls with ADHD. More information about this study and many reading resources for ADHD are offered here.
https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/childhood-adhd/news/20100927/many-adhd-kids-also-have-reading-problems

Print & Use Tools: Study Skills from SchoolFamily.com
FREE worksheets, lists and activities to help children (especially those with ADHD) become better organized, more motivated & more on top of school work.
https://www.schoolfamily.com/print-and-use-tools/category/77-study-skills

Summer Ways to Prepare for a Better School Year from ADDitude Magazine
A guide to preparing your child for the upcoming school year.
https://www.additudemag.com/summer-school-for-parents/

Saving Summer with Structure from ADDitude Magazine
Combine fun and structure to give children with ADHD the best summer ever. Parents and experts reveal how to boost smarts and avoid boredom during the lazy days of summer.
https://www.additudemag.com/saving-summer-adhd-routine-children-vacation/

Desktop App: Reading Focus Cards (U.S. Patent 8,360,779)
($5.99-per device w/ no subscription) from Brennan Innovators, LLC
Desktop app for Windows PC's and Macs is the digital version of the physical Reading Focus Cards (U.S. Patent 7,565,759). Provides practical focus and reading support for children and adults with ADHD, dyslexia,autism and other conditions that can affect reading success.
1. For Macs: Visit the Mac App Store at
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/read-and-focus/id920617853?mt=12
2. For Windows XP, 7, 8 & 10 PC's: Visit Gumroad at
https://gumroad.com/l/ReadingFocusCards
3. For Windows 10 PC's only: Visit the Microsoft Windows Store at
https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9WZDNCRDF33D

5 Back To School Tips for Your ADD or ADHD Child
by Dr. Robert Myers, Child Psychologist
Here are some back-to-school tips to make things seem a lot easier and smoother for parents and kids.
https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/5-back-school-tips-add-adhd-child/

ADD/ADHD Resources for Teachers from TeacherVision
Articles and many FREE resources to help educators manage the special nature of students with ADD/ADHD.
https://www.teachervision.com/add-and-adhd/resource/5348.html

For more information on customizable reading tools for better focus & attention, please visit: FocusandRead.com ---Tools for struggling readers of all ages!

Tools and Strategies to Help Unfocused, Overwhelmed and Visually-Fatigued Readers

There is no doubt that in today's world, most of us are often unfocused, inattentive and overwhelmed as a result of the amount of reading required of us each day. There was a time (and not that very long ago!) that we were not faced with a hundred emails in our inbox, various "white" papers needing our attention and attached digital documents requiring review and signatures. Needless to say, that has all changed, AND these kinds of digital media vie daily for our attention in addition to the physical media demanding our readers' eyes. To say the least, we are fast becoming immersed in text 24/7. Is there any wonder that we feel overwhelmed by it all?

Then, for a moment, imagine a challenged reader who also struggles with ADHD, dyslexia or another reading issue, too. This individual is frequently overwhelmed and often unfocused even BEFORE attempting to read. What can the average amount of media currently presented daily cause for such a reader? The result is much more challenge and struggle than many of us can visualize.

There are ways to manage such focus and overwhelm issues with large (or small) amounts of reading or text. Sometimes the right tools can make all the difference for a number of readers. For others, it might be a particular tool, focusing strategy (or combination of tools and strategies), resulting in more attentive reading with better comprehension and retention.

We have gathered here a list of resources that include BOTH tools and strategies for such readers. In fact, most readers could benefit from knowing about these resources for those times when they are fatigued or just have too much reading to accomplish in a specific time period.

We hope these resources will help you or someone you know who struggles with focus and overwhelm when reading!

Other Resources to Help with Focus and Overwhelm

How to Stay Focused: Train Your Brain from Entrepreneur
Amid the noise, understanding your brain’s limitations and working around them can improve your focus and increase your productivity. This article will provide some tips for how to do that.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225321

The RIGHT Strategies Get the Job Done for Challenged Readers w/ ADHD & Others
Refer to this set of specific strategies often, and then match the appropriate strategies to every reading situation in order to improve focusing and tracking skills as well as overall reading success.
http://helpforstrugglingreaders.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-right-strategies-get-job-done-for.html

Distracted Reading in the Digital Age by Elizabeth Randolph and Vassar
This article describes how an English professor and a librarian help students focus and read with more success.
https://vq.vassar.edu/issues/2015/01/features/distracted-reading.html

Strategies and Accommodations for Challenged Readers
This web page provides a FREE downloadable list of strategies to help unfocused and overwhelmed, challenged readers of all ages.
http://www.focusandread.com/learning-strategies

Kindle & Reading Focus Cards Apps Work TOGETHER to Help ADHD & Dyslexic Readers Succeed!
The combination of these two desktop apps can work together to provide more FOCUS and less OVERWHELM than any other tech device for ADHD or dyslexia.
http://helpforstrugglingreaders.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-kindle-and-reading-focus-cards-apps.html

10 Bible Verses For When You Feel Overwhelmed by Rachel Wojo
Sometimes, the best remedy for feeling overwhelmed is reading God’s Word. The article here may be a simple post, but it is a beeline of verses that might hit the heart of the matter and could be just what the doctor ordered.
http://rachelwojo.com/10-bible-verses-for-when-you-feel-overwhelmed/

18 Tips to Support Dyslexics & Other Challenged Readers
This article offers readers a list of 18 tips to help and support the challenged reader(s) in your family or in your classroom.
http://helpforstrugglingreaders.blogspot.com/2017/02/18-tips-to-support-dyslexics-and-other.html

Feeling Overwhelmed is a Common Anxiety Symptom by CalmClinic
Feeling overwhelmed is perhaps the most common symptom of anxiety, and it can actually affect you on a very base level. This resource from CalmClinic will provide some ideas to help you manage the anxiety of being overwhelmed.
http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/symptoms/feeling-overwhelmed

Low-tech Reading Focus Cards - Customizable reading tools for physical books, documents & other applications (From $16.95)
http://www.focusandread.com/products

Reading Focus Cards App - Virtual index card-like reading tool to aid visual focus, tracking, fluency, comprehension & retention---infinitely customizable (Mac, PC-$5.99)
https://focusandread.com/reading-focus-cards-app/

OpenDyslexic - Font designed by Abbie Gonzalez to ease visual aspects of reading for dyslexia (FREE)
http://opendyslexic.org/

For more information about tools & resources for children & teens with ADHD, please visit:
www.FocusandRead.com Tools for struggling readers of all ages!
www.BrennanInnovators.com Info & support for struggling readers
314-892-3897

Image sources:
Brennan Innovators, LLC at www.focusandread.com AND
Pixabay.com at https://pixabay.com

The RIGHT Strategies Get the Job Done for Challenged Readers with ADHD and Others

For students to become good readers, they need to be shown how to adjust their reading behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and reading purposes. Each student must develop a set of specific strategies and match the appropriate strategies to every reading situation in order to improve skills and overall reading success.

The following 5 strategies can make all the difference for readers who lack the needed focus and attention to content that must be read. In fact, these strategies have the potential to help all individuals experience more reading success!

The RIGHT Strategies That Help Students Read More Quickly & Effectively

1. Previewing
Review titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of the purpose, structure and content of a reading selection prior to actually reading that same selection.

2. Predicting
Use your prior knowledge of the subject matter and about the author to make predictions about content, vocabulary and writing style.

3. Skimming and Scanning
Do a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions.

4. Guess-timating with Context Clues
Use your prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas provided in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words (instead of stopping to look them up).

5. Paraphrasing
Stop at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text.

How Teachers Can Help Students Learn When & How to Use These Reading Strategies

1. Model the Strategies
By modeling the strategies aloud, talking through the processes of previewing, predicting, skimming and scanning, and paraphrasing. This shows students how the strategies work and how much they can know about a text before they begin to read word by word.

2. Allow Class Time to Use the Strategies
By allowing time in class for group and individual previewing and predicting activities as preparation for in-class or out-of-class reading. Allocating class time to these activities indicates their importance and value.

3. Use Cloze Exercises for Vocabulary
By using cloze (fill in the blank) exercises to review vocabulary items. This helps students learn to guess meaning from context.

4. Encourage Student Discussion of Successful Strategies
By encouraging students to talk about what strategies they think will help them approach a reading assignment, and then talking after reading about what strategies they actually used. This helps students develop flexibility in their choice of strategies.

In conclusion, when students are shown and then learn how to use the right reading strategies, they find that they can control the reading experience and gain confidence in their ability to read the content. These are the important keys to reading success both in current learning situations as well in the future.

Source: Strategies for Developing Reading Skills from NCLRC-The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC
http://nclrc.org/essentials/reading/stratread.htm

For information on digital & low-tech reading tools for ADHD, dyslexia and other challenges, please visit:
www.FocusandRead.com Tools for struggling readers of all ages!
www.BrennanInnovators.com Info & support for struggling readers
314-892-3897

Image courtesy of:
Brennan Innovators, LLC at www.focusandread.com

Kindle & Reading Focus Cards Apps Work TOGETHER to Help ADHD & Dyslexic Readers Succeed!

With these 2 DESKTOP apps added to your tech toolbox, you'll be ready to support even more challenged readers in your classroom this year!

With the estimated 1 in 5 persons in the U.S. challenged with dyslexia and the 8 to 13% (depending on the state) of school-aged children in our country who have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorders (ADHD), there is a significant need today to provide support for challenged readers and learners. These individuals can find it particularly difficult to focus, decode, track, concentrate, comprehend and retain information when reading, especially for extended periods or when many pages of text must be read at a time. Assistive technologies in recent years have begun to provide this much-needed support.

1. Turn Your Computer into a Kindle with This FREE App from Amazon!
One of the most popular and easily recognizable technologies to help these challenged readers is Amazon's Kindle, the well-known e-reader launched in late 2007 that has been most disruptive in the publishing world. The Kindle technology enables readers to eliminate glare with a unique screen, diminish the starkness of white page backgrounds behind virtual text, manipulate font or text sizes and more to assist persons with various reading issues.

Did you know that readers can actually download the FREE Kindle app to a desktop or laptop? Whether the hardware is a Mac or Windows PC, it costs nothing to turn one's computer or laptop into a virtual Kindle and then immediately purchase and download e-books to that computer from Amazon.com.

2. Add the Reading Focus Cards App to the Kindle App & Watch What Happens on Your Desktop!

For challenged readers who often struggle with focus and attention, tracking, comprehension and retention, it would be hard to beat the combination of the Kindle app AND an innovative application called the Reading Focus Cards desktop app (Patent 8,360,779) for Macs and Windows PC's. If you know a challenged student or other struggling reader with ADHD or dyslexia, this 2-app combination can enable that individual to experience more comfortably focused, sustained and successful reading of e-books or other digital media. ($5.99 per download)

3. When in use, the virtual Reading Focus Card actually floats on top AND stays on top of e-book pages or any underlying application to more easily read a web page, Word or PDF document, Excel spreadsheet, e-book or other digital media. If readers become overwhelmed with too much text on a digital page of an e-book, the Reading Focus Cards app directs the eye to what needs to be read WHILE covering as much or as little of the surrounding text as selected by the reader. Nearly an entire digital e-book page can be covered to improve focus on the text line needing attention.

4. Easily move the virtual Reading Focus Card over an underlying e-book or other application on the screen with a touch pad, mouse, arrow keys or even with your fingers, where touch technology is applicable. No speed reading here. Move the virtual card at your comfortable reading rate.

5. With this app's pop-up Toolbox, independently customize the color, level of transparency, height, width and orientation of both the virtual Reading Window and Reading Card, respectively, to provide more reading comfort and focus to block out distractions and keep you focused on the text you are reading.

6. Never worry about the virtual Reading Focus Card disappearing from the screen unexpectedly, even when using with the Kindle app or other underlying programs! It floats on top AND stays on top of your computer screen, so you can scroll through e-book pages as well as read documents without interruption. You decide when to close the application.

Special Note: Currently, mobile devices are unable to successfully support this unique, overlay-type Reading Focus Cards app that stays on top of and moves independently of the underlying media applications.

Now, readers of any age and ability can improve their focus to read e-books as well as other digital media in greater comfort and with much more reading success. Now it is possible to create your own reading system by combining these 2 great literacy apps, the Kindle app AND the Reading Focus Cards desktop app---and all for less than the price of a paperback!

Happy Reading---now for everyone!

Sources
By the Numbers: 120+ Amazing Amazon Statistics (2016)
by Craig Smith, of DMR
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/amazon-statistics/

e-Book Statistics Update
from Writing for Life
http://www.livewritethrive.com/2012/06/18/ebook-statistics-update/

Research-Based Literacy Tool – Helpful App for Struggling Readers
by Jayne Clare, of Teachers With Apps
http://www.teacherswithapps.com/research-based-literacy-tool-evolves-helpful-app-struggling-readers/

Reading Focus Cards Desktop App---Patent 8,360,779 (for Macs & PC's)
For Macs: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/read-and-focus/id920617853?mt=12 or visit the Mac App Store and search for the Reading Focus Cards.
For Windows PCs: https://gumroad.com/l/ReadingFocusCards OR visit the Microsoft Windows Store and search for the Reading Focus Cards. (No URLs provided for apps in the Windows Store.)

Kindle App for Macs, Windows PC's & Other Tech Devices
from Amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com/gp/digital/fiona/kcp-landing-page/

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations [1867 Edition]. A Public Domain Book. N.p. N.d. e-Book.
This is the e-book available via Amazon.com used for the screenshots in this article.
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Expectations-Charles-Dickens-ebook/dp/B0082SWC30/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1472929542&sr=1-1&keywords=great+expectations

For information on digital & low-tech reading tools for dyslexia, ADHD and other challenges, please visit:
www.FocusandRead.com Tools for struggling readers of all ages!
www.BrennanInnovators.com Info & support for struggling readers
314-892-3897

Image courtesy of:
MrRental: http://www.mrrental.com.au/media/computers-office/v5-431p-05_-copy.jpg?sfvrsn=0 and
Brennan Innovators, LLC at www.focusandread.com