At our first meeting we will fill out the Initial Meeting Checklist. First, we will cover the policies and procedures of JS Reading Services. You can find most of these online on our FAQS page. Next, you will sign the Statement of Acknowledgement and Permission to Test form. By signing this form you agree that you are aware of our testing and payment policies and you give respresentatives of JS Reading Services permission to test your child's reading skills. The next form you will be asked is an Emergency Contact form. If we are meeting at a place other than your home, it is important that we know how to contact you. Questions are encouraged throughout the entire process!
Then begins the interviewing stage of the Inital Meeting. Both you and your child are asked about your child's reading strengths, weaknesses and interests. Next your child will be given three assessments. The first two are surveys that tell us about your child's attitudes towards reading and writing. The final assessment that will be done gives us information about your child's ability to recognize and decode words. This test provides information on where future tests of reading level should be started.
At this meeting we will also give you the Teacher Comment Sheet. You can choose to have your child's teacher fill out the questionaire about their reading achievement in school.
The assessment is completed in a quiet environment with no interuptions. This is done over two to four sessions. Your child will be given an Informal Reading Inventory. This test will provide a range for your child's reading abilites. By looking for patterns during the Informal Reading Inventory accessors can determine what your child's strengths and weaknesses. Depending on how your child performs on the Informal Reading Inventory more testing of specific skills may be needed.
The results will be used to create your child's Reading Improvement Plan.
At this meeting your child's assessor will review the Reading Improvement Plan with you. If your child's tutor will be different than their assessor the tutor will be at this meeting as well.
We will do our best to make sure that when this meeting is over you will have all your questions answered.
This is where your child works individually with a tutor to meet their goals. If your child is working with a tutor, they will keep in contact with your child's assessor to maintain that your child recieves the best services possible.