Guest Blogger Dale Brown is the Manager of LD OnLine, a website designed to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities. LD OnLine features expert advice on learning disabilities and ADHD and a library of research-based information on learning disabilities. Dale is also a well-known author in the learning disability world and her work includes Steps to Independence for People with Learning Disabilities and Job Hunting for the So-Called Handicapped as well as hundreds of articles.

Like most writers, I love reading. I am blogging from the home of my niece and nephew, Jessica and Jason, who are fellow book lovers. Jessica told me that she goes to the library almost every day. I shared with her my childhood memory of going to the library and coming home with twelve books or more–and having a hard time carrying them all!

The summer is a great time to enjoy your children and expose them to reading. I thought I would share some ideas with you about encouraging reading this summer with some particular emphasis on supporting children who have a hard time in the classroom during the school year.

• Take the time to learn about learning disabilities. A good place to start is LD Basics and Questions + Answers. The more parents and teachers know, the more children succeed and grow. Read about dyslexia (reading problems), dysgraphia (writing problems), dyscalculia (math problems) and ADHD. Review the signs, the symptoms and how to help.
• Read everything aloud. When you pass a sign or just see something interesting, read it and comment on it. Carry books with you everywhere for spontaneous reading sessions. If your child struggles with reading, tactfully make accommodations. Keep them out of situations which require them to read aloud publicly, or example. But read aloud together with them, letting them speak the words with you. Read something to them and discuss it. And provide projects that have written instructions available at their reading level.
• Have recordings of books available. As child author Ben Buchanan explains in his essay, a library you can listen to offers both comfort and a sense of community. Children can also profit from a summer listening program. Listening is the cornerstone of language and can be an alternative way of reading. Expose them to plays, radio shows, and speeches.
• Support your child in his or her summer activities. When the child with special needs goes off to summer camp, a whole new system for parent-child communications is in order. And for the child with dyslexia, summer reading offers special challenges and opportunities.

Summer is a great time for parents to allow children’s love of learning to flourish. It is also a great time for adults to reach out to the children in their lives that are not their own. Some of you are counselors and tutors who are working with children for summer programs. If you have or are working with a child who has difficulty in school, remember that you have a chance to be the one who will light that spark of motivation. The child might have an experience of curiosity or success that lets them realize that they want to know more.

I hope your summer is full of these magic moments—and that you’ll remember to bring a bag to the library for those arm loads of books!