According to the Reading Foundation there are 5 stages of reading. I believe that a lot of children with disabilities miss important early reading skills, which will hinder them in the future! You can use these 5 stages to ensure that your child is taught all of the appropriate reading skills that they need!

Stage 0 skills include:
1. Extensive vocabulary, and growing understanding of sentence structure
2. Turn Taking
3. Conversational Repair
4. Capacity for sustained attention
5. Rudimentary knowledge of plot structure
6. Pretend reading
7. Names letters of the alphabet
8. Prints own name

Stage 0 Transition  Phonological Awareness
This is the ability to recognize sound patterns of oral language. Children who are phonologically aware can distinguish, remember, and manipulate sounds in words. This capacity enables children to break up words into their component parts and to blend them back together again to form seamless words.

Stage 1 Sound to Letter Correspondance  (occurs approximately at age 6-7 1st grade)
Most children at this stage can understand 4,000 or more words when heard; they can read only about 600 words. Readers are glued to the print, this means that children focus much of their energy on word recognition skills. An explicit code emphasis approach helps children to develop insights into the relationship betrween print and speech. Children taught by sight word methods make slower progress.

How to help Stage 1 readers:
1. Teach frequent, highly regular, sound spelling relationships systematically (phonics).
2. Break words into their sounds; show children how to sound words out.
3. Use controlled vocabulary texts to ensure sufficient practice on new skills and pave the way to more meaningful words and stories as soom as possible.
4. Use interesting stories to develop language comprehension, an understanding of plot and characterization, and an aappreciation for good literature.
5. Teach each skill to mastery. Children who have gaps in phonics sills will have difficulty understanding what they read.

Stage 2 Fluency and Automaticity (occurs approximately in 2nd grade)
Students enter stage 2 when they are in second grade, or when they are able to apply phonetic skills to one syllable words. In this state students increase their fluency and automaticity through the extensive reading of familar texts.

How to help Stage 2 readers:
1. Continue explicit instruction in advanced structural analysis skills. Students learn how to identify syllable patters in words to enhance their recognition skills. Vocabulary also increases during this stage.
2. Allow them to Practice, Practice and more practice with familar text. Students become fluent readers when they read a lot, students who do not like to read do not get the same practice in reading as their peers.
3. Help them learn increasedconfidence and willingness to take risks in reading decoding.
4. Will need improved control of eye movements.

Stage 3 Comprehension (occurs approximately in third grade)
Students are able to focus their efforts on the content without expending energy on word recognition.

How to help Stage 3 readers:
1. Focus on Decoding: Ensure that students are able to read the words.
2. Focus on Vocabulary: Develop knowledge of word meanings prior to reading
3. Focus on Questioning: Pose questions that will focus students attention on the purpose of the text.

Stage 4 reading  (may begin in high school or college)
Stage 4 readers are able to appreciate abstract concepts and issues from multiple points of view. They are able to read selectively from a collection of sources in order to focus on relevent information. Not all readers reach stage four, however it is necessary for success at the college level.

Stage 5 (occurs at the college level)
Stage 5 is considered the ultimate stage of reading ability, in which readers are able to synthesize new information with their background knowledge in order to create new, complex knowledge.

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A wonderful resource is available from the Department of Education: No Child Left Behind; A Parents Guide! You can E mail a request to: edpubs@inet.ed.gov or call in a request to 1-877-433-7827.

According to the Parent Guide: In Reading First programs students are systematically and explicity taught the following five skills identified by research as critical to early reading success. These five skills are:

1. Phonemic awareness: The ability to hear and identify sounds in spoken words (According to the stages above this is Stage 0 Transition).
2. Phonics: The relationship between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language (According to the stages above this is Stage 1 Phonics first grade).
3. Fluency: The capacity to read text accurately and quickly (According to the stages above this is Stage 2 Fluency second grade).
4. Vocabulary: The words students must know to communicate effectively (According to the stages above this is Stage two second grade).
5. Comprehension: The ability to understand and gain meaning from what has been read (According to the stages above this is Stage three Comprehension third grade).

Even if your district is not getting Reading First Funds I would try and make sure that your child's reading program contains these five things!!

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If your child is struggling to learn to read they may benefit from a Multi sensory reading program. According to www.dyslexia-parent.com "Using a multisensory teaching approach means helping a child to learn through more than one of the senses. Most teaching in schools is done by sight or hearing. A child with dyslexia may experience difficulties with tracking, visual processing or seeing the words become fuzzy or move around. The child may have difficulties with auditory memory or auditory processing. The answer is to involve the use of more of the child's senses, especially the use of touch and movement. This will give the child's brain tactile and kinetic memories to hang on to, as well as the visual and auditory ones."

The Dyslexia Association uses the terminology "Simultaneous Multisensory." 

Principles of Instruction: How it is taught:

1.Teaching is done using all learning pathways in the brain (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile) simultaneously in order to enhance memory and learning.
2. Systematic and Cumulative: Multisensory language instruction requires that the organization of material follows the logical order of the language. The sequence must begin with the easiest and most basic elements and progress methodically to more difficult material. Each step must also be based on those already learned. Concepts taught must be systematically reviewed to strengthen memory.
3. Direct Instruction: The inferential learning of any concept cannot be taken for granted. Multisensory language instruction requires the direct teaching of all concepts with continuous student teacher interaction.
4. Diagnostic Teaching: The teacher must be adept at prescriptive or individualized

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A wonderful article that talks about what skills are important for reading comprehension! The article is entitled "Proficiency in Reading Comprehension: Implications of Reading First at 3rd grade by Bruce Randel and Judith Fried"  This article can be found at:
http://www.ctb.com/resources/general_assessment_main.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id

The article has a lot of good information in it including statements about a child's ability to read is critical for academic success!  The National Reading Panel found in 2000 that children need to receive systematic instruction in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, and reading comprehension and vocabulary! The article also states that children who are proficient in reading have skills that are beyond basic understanding of letter sound relations. The skills of vocabulary, reading fluency and reading accuracy contribute more to the child's ability to understand what they are reading than their phonics skills of decoding and spelling!
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Check out the Florida Center for Reading Research: www.fcrtr.org
They have a lot of good information about reading that parents can use. This information includes names of effective reading curriculum!!