In episode 29 of the Are they 18 yet?™ podcast, I did part 3 of a 3-part series on literacy (you can find parts 1 and 2 in episodes 27 and 28.)Since the influx of technology, a lot of us are left wondering how this will impact our children's learning; especially their reading and writing skills. ✅That's why I discussed the following in this episode:✅The difference between "explicit learning" and "implicit learning".✅The kind of opportunities kids need in order to develop solid reading/spelling skills. ✅Why typical reading instruction leaves some kids behind; plus what pieces are typically missing. ✅The pros and cons of technology for struggling readers.In this episode, I mention a blog post called "What is texting doing to reading and spelling skills?" where I dive further in to this conversation. I also mentioned a simple protocol you can use to study challenging spelling patterns (like affixes), which I outline in this article. Finally, I also talked about my Word Study Toolkit, which offers a set of definitions and concepts you can use to help build the skills kids need to be fluent readers and spellers. Here’s what’s inside the Word Study Toolkit:Over 200 flashcards with prefixes, root/base words, suffixes, and multiple meaning words to build strong reading and spelling skills.Word lists with key orthographic concepts, so you have a quick guide to important word parts needed for strong vocabulary skills.Descriptions of 17 key concepts for building morphology/orthography skills.All flashcards and word lists have definitions, so your students actually remember how words are spelled.BONUS: Video tutorials with a quick-guide for using the toolkit to build reading and spelling skills.You can get instant access to the Word Study Toolkit here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/wordstudy