Research shows that approximately 20 percent of children in the
United States have substantial difficulties learning to read. As
these boys and girls grow up, the problematic effects of their
reading difficulties are abundant and clear. During the early
grades when they should be learning to read, they are
embarrassed by their difficulties. This early humiliation leads
to a decrease in self-esteem and motivation for school. A child
can be easily frustrated and ashamed of poor reading skills once
they notice that many of their classmates read fluently. Many of
us can probably remember that the slow readers in our elementary
school class were the "stupid" kids. During the later grades,
when students are finished learning to read and should be
reading to learn, their knowledge and interests in other
academic areas are severely limited because they can not readily
read information and texts about a given subject. The
consequences of reading failure go far beyond academic success
or failure. A significant percent