One of the most puzzling situations a homeschooling mother finds herself in is when she has a child who can read the words in a book but cannot answer the questions or tell her what has just been read. These moms frequently hear the phrase “I don’t remember” when queried about the reading material.

When working with bright, hardworking fourth through eighth graders in my reading class, I often had students who were experiencing this particular reading difficulty. I realized that these students were not proficient at converting the words they were reading into a “movie” in their head, as the rest of us do when we read. They were “word calling." I found that “movie making” was a skill that could be developed in them, using an easy 15 minute a day exercise. This exercise only uses the brain. “Word calling” is a left-brain auditory task, while creating a picture or movie of those words is the responsibility of the right-brain hemisphere. I showed them how to create a flow of words to pictures as they were reading.

Dianne Craft has a master’s degree in learning disabilities. She speaks widely at homeschool conventions across the country. Her books, Brain Integration Therapy Manual, Right Brain Phonics Program, and her DVDs, Understanding & Helping the Struggling Learner, Teaching the Right Brain Child, Smart Kids— Who Hate to Write, and The Biology of Behavior have helped hundreds of families remove learning blocks in their struggling children at home. Visit her website for many articles on children and learning and to download her free Daily Lesson Plans for the Struggling Reader and Writer.