Looking for help teaching reading :-/

[Guest jenibo]

My son is almost 5 and we are homeschooling him for kindergarten. He attended public pre-k and hated it, there are many reasons we chose to keep him home this year. However, I am completely stumped on how to teach him to read. He has eye tracking/teaming issues and poor depth perception, so expecting him to learn the typical way just isn't going to work, it's way too exhausting for him. I'm trying to figure out some hands-on ways to teach him to read that won't strain his vision any further than it is. I know how nearly impossible that sounds, but there must be something I can do. Curriculum, activities, anything. I'm looking for any and all suggestions I can get! He is a very bright boy with a huge vocabulary, but ask him to look at words on paper and it's completely overwhelming to him. However, he loves knowing his letter sounds and "decoding" the sounds in the words he says, and says he wants to read like me.

 

Here's some more info about him and what we've tried in case it helps:

Learned letter sounds in pre-k

Hates handwriting and all worksheets

Enjoys being read to

Only participates in hands-on learning and only on topics he's interested in

Tried: First Start Reading, IEW-PAL, BOB Books, Reading Rods, all with no success. Has hated every science curriculum I've tried (won't do the worksheets or answer questions to help me record experiments, etc.), but loves experiments, hates math worksheets and equations and hated Horizons Math, will only play math games and use manipulatives, interested in history and science topics the most.

 

Diagnosed with: Apraxia of speech/stutter, sensory processing disorder, currently in process of possible autism diagnosis, eye tracking/teaming and depth perception issues, delayed integration of primitive reflexes, poor motor planning, including poor fine and gross motor skills, hypotonia, executive dysfunction, possible dyslexia (will be retested after vision therapy).

 

Thanks!

[OneStepAtATime]

So he will be starting VT?  Or has started VT?  

 

While you are working on vision therapy and possible additional assessments (maybe I misunderstood that though) what about just letting him "read" with something like a Kindle HD that you can pair the audio with, right on the device?  DS loves this because it is easy to carry around, he can read any of the books he has on his device, he can make the font quite large and the book is actually reading the material to him so if his eyes are tired (heterophoria) or the material is more advanced than he can currently fluently decode (dyslexia) he can still have independence in reading and get exposure to more advanced concepts/grammar/vocabulary without wearing out.

 

Your son is so young and is dealing with quite a few things.  VT alone can be exhausting and demoralizing and even genuinely painful at times.  Formal reading instruction may work better just a bit further down the road, after some of the issues that make independent reading of text challenging have been hopefully dealt with to some extent, but he can still be exposed to great reading material.

 

Not sure I helped much, but best wishes.

[Starr]

Welcome! My first bit of advice is to remember he isn't 5 yet. He doesn't have to read now. You have plenty of time to sort this out. I would do science experiments, build, play, art, read to him, audio books, talk about what you are reading, and let the print matter go for now.  :grouphug:

[Guest jenibo]

Thank you! I appreciate the responses, I guess I'm just so scared he won't ever learn to read, my father is illiterate and I've seen how he struggles in so many ways because of it. It's hard to remember he's still so young, because he converses like a little grown-up! I'll let the reading instruction go for a while. Thanks again for the advice :-)

[OneStepAtATime]

Hugs.  My DD didn't actually learn to read fluently until she was 13 (dyslexic) but she did learn (we still have a ways to go but books like Divergent are now possible whereas chapter books were not possible before).  She just needed more time, some work in other areas first, and a different approach.  Same with DS.  Both were articulate at a very young age, speaking full, long, complex sentences either before or around 18 months (DS was more determined to communicate so he talked a LOT :) ).  But neither was able to read for a very long time.  Pushing them when they had other issues to deal with and having undiagnosed dyslexia just made them feel like failures, get frustrated on a regular basis and eventually think they were incapable  of reading.  I wish I had just done a lot of hands on learning and recorded books early on.

[kbutton]

VT should help a LOT. We are wrapping up VT with our ten year old. He had problems with convergence/eye teaming and with accommodation, but his tracking was good. His issues showed up mostly with motor skills, like catching a ball, but he was starting to be symptomatic with reading as well.

 

I would hold off on a lot of reading sorts of things at his age. If he is still eager to learn, he can still learn to map sounds to letters, he can sort objects (or pictures, etc.) into piles by sound, do rhyming words, memorize poetry, use large muscles to draw huge letters on a chalkboard/whiteboard (if it doesn't bug him vision-wise), clap syllables, etc. If the apraxia is severe, and learning to speak letter sounds interferes with his speech therapy, I would do a lot of having him point to stuff that makes the sound you're saying vs. having him make the sounds. You can have him tell you stories and such. If he wants real words, and it doesn't frustrate him, maybe you can get a really large whiteboard or chalkboard so that you can make words large enough that they won't bother his eyes (or put them on slides on your computer?).

 

With the OT, speech, and vision issues, I would just dump as much stuff into his brain as he's interested in and let the reading, etc. sort itself out later. If you dump content in now, then if you have to slow down and take longer with literacy, you won't have to worry so much about the content subjects. I would encourage him to use as many math manipulatives as he can take in and understand. You might be surprised what he can do with them. We used MUS Primer with my younger son for preschool, and he taught himself to carry and borrow just by playing with Decimal Street and answering some questions that I asked him. (He still doesn't do that on paper though.) Have you seen the Education Unboxed videos? You might still have to modify all kinds of things for vision, but I'd let him go to town with manipulatives if he's picking up on concepts.

 

I would find out what the various therapists are going to be doing and see what you can do that won't interfere with it or that will give him a break. If they can tell you what they're working on for the next week or two or whatever, you'll have something to go on that way.

 

He sounds very bright--I hope they will do a full WISC on him (assuming the results would be valid with his vision issues, etc.) so that you can see his areas of strength.

 

As far as only participating in hands-on stuff and things he's interested in, that could be spectrum, or it could just be 5 y.o. boy! I have one on the spectrum and one who is not (but has his own quirks). They both are that way sometimes, but it comes from a different place and works a little differently for each of them. :-)

[PeterPan]

Jenibo, I'm so sorry I missed this.  I'm right there with you.  My ds5 (soon to be 6) has moderate verbal apraxia.  He has gotten PROMPT since he was newly 2.  He's clearly going to be in therapy a few more years, but it is working and he has good speech.  So yes, like your ds, he's full of contradictions.  He'll use words like "impregnable" and then not know 7 vs. 8 on his fingers.   :svengo: 

 

So you're getting VT?  That's GREAT!!!  There's another poster around here (Jennifer, I forget her username) whose ds is older than ours who also has verbal apraxia and a list of problems.  I've been talking with her about what her K5 year was like, trying to get my head on straight.  Basically she said K5 for them was INTERVENTIONS, INTERVENTIONS, INTERVENTIONS.  As you're finding, without the foundation, it's really hard to go forward.

 

Are you getting OT for the retained primitive reflexes and motor planning?  Does your OT do Interactive Metronome?  If they don't, you might like up Heathermomster's instructions here on the board and consider adding it to your mix yourself.

 

That's awesome that he can hear the sounds in words!  My ds can't and I think he's going to turn out to be dyslexic.  In your case he can hear the sounds but has the vision issues.  Have you looked at Spell to Write and Read, WRTR, and some of those veins of programs.  They vary, but they all tend to spell their way into reading.  It's stuff you can do mentally or with tiles.  I have jumbo bananagrams that you can spell with, and you can use letter tiles, letter magnets, etc. Getting the size up may help.  Harnessing his ability to visualize may help.  My dd did VT and I think you just have to use your sense about how much to try vs. how much to wait.  I'd split the difference and work on the reading and spelling and ability to hear the sounds in words, but I wouldn't necessarily push the part about reading on paper.  If you can get a breakthrough with the retained primitive reflexes and get the VT to work, he may start to see improvement in just a couple months.  So my advice is to focus on the therapy, put your energy there, and let the formal, print reading come later.  But anything you can do with auditory or visualization will be good. Write the letters on his back and have him tell you the word, that kind of thing.  

 

On the math, you might look at Ronit Bird, Family Math, or RightStart.  They're each a little different.  I used RS with my dd, but my ds just had NO click, no comprehension, even with the first lesson.  For him RB is working out really well.  I ADORE RB.  Did I mention how much I like it?  :)  We're using the ebook for dot patterns.  $10 through iTunes and throw it on the iPad or your computer.  I use it on my iPad, so it's easy to bring to the table to sit and teach.  It has integrated videos and is easy to use.  

 

I'm sure you'll have more questions.  This is a long process.  It's ok that there's a gap between when he wants to read and is reading.  My dd had that and she's now a FABULOUS reader.  He may need a lot more repetition than you expect, and he's not really ready to get there yet with his vision problems.  So just work on the parts you can do, and let the interventions do their magic.  You won't regret working hard on those interventions.

 

My ds is really enjoying Popular Mechanics for Kids.  You can stream it on amazon prime.  He just watched the Building Big dvd series and LOVED it.  There are Knex kits for a lot of simple mechanics stuff (levers, bridges, etc.).  Look at the chart on their site, because they have kits at multiple levels.  I've got the kit for grades 3+ for my ds to do this year.  Officially he's K5 (unless the psych changes that next month to a grade lower?), but he'll be turning 6.  He's sort of all over the place.  He's K4 for handwriting, below the chart for math, struggles for any phonemic awareness, but oh btw uses words like impregnable and watches adult documentaries, lol.  

 

I got him a kindle and I try to keep it stocked with quality audiobooks. (unabridged chapter books like the Chronicles of Narnia, Three Musketeers, Huck Finn, etc.)  I'm trying to provide him more access to documentaries.  He watches dd's high school biology videos along with her.

 

I did get him the BJU science 3 to try this fall, but I figured we'd use it as a starting point for hands-on.  There's a workbook, but I don't expect any writing, mercy.  I thought I would chop it and turn it into manipulatives somehow where the things are interesting.

 

But that's not typical K5 either.  Sort of all over the place, kwim?  Have you seen the Memoria Press enrichment guides?  They have made some wonderful reading lists.  You get the guides and they have all the lists.  The books you just get through the library.  We had a ton of fun with that this past year when he was 5.  I'm only stepping things up because he's turning 6 and walks around the house saying how bored he is.  Sigh. I need a new body to get all this done, lol.  He pretty much wears me out!

 

I assume you know this, but you need a full neuropsych eval.  You're probably getting some labels, and you want them.  Try to get the best neuropsych you can.  I was going to wait till ds turned 7, or at least that's what I had always told myself.  Approaching 6 now I realized I couldn't even begin to do this without more help.  Sounds like you're getting some help, but don't stop with whatever testing the VT doc does.  You need to move on and get a full neuropsych eval.  You need to make sure you get a good OT eval.  

 

I don't know, that may not have answered your question!  Teaching a child to read is the MOST STRESSFUL thing a new homeschooling mother does, whether there are disabilities or not.  Seriously.  Like don't assume you're doing something wrong because you're stressed.  There's sort of this tension, like being pregnant and overdue, where you just wish it would happen and get it over with!  So recognize the tension and that it's normal.  If you put your focus on the VT, things are going to come together for him.  Many kids, even kids without disabilities, don't really read till the 2nd half of K5 or as they're approaching 6.  So this whole myth about how teaching reading is so easy and every child can read before 5 is just that, a MYTH.  My dd's reading didn't take off till she was almost 6, and she's an AMAZING reader right now, always blows the charts off on tests.

 

The fact that your ds has that phonemic awareness and can decode words and hear the sounds in words is a really good sign.  I may be reading too much into what you're saying, but if that's accurate then it's a good sign.  My dd was like that, able to hear the sounds but just really slow to have it come together.  We used SWR.  She later got some labels.  In her case it was the developmental vision problems.  She had terrible visual memory and really never did decode words until we started VT when she was 10/11.  She read anyway, hehe, and quite well!  With her we did SWR so that she understood the words, then we put them on flashcards and drilled them to automaticity.

 

My ds on the other hand can't even hear the sounds.  He can now hear initial sounds and some rhyming.  He can finally discriminate vowels.  I think he'll get a dyslexia label.  Or some label.  Or drive me crazy.   :w00t:     And every time we work on phonemic awareness with sounds in isolation, he says them and messes up his speech motor planning.   :toetap05:  So I haven't got a CLUE how I'm supposed to help him hear the sounds without having him say them.   :svengo: So consider me officially JEALOUS that your ds can hear sounds in words!  You're lucky on that one, believe it or not.

 

 

[geodob]

Given that he has 'eye tracking/teaming issues'.

He quite likely has good vision in each eye.

Where something that you could do, is do some daily reading with him.

Using an 'eye-patch'?

Doing it with one eye, and then switching to the other.

Using the same time for each.

 

The way that vision works, is that each eye uses its own side of the brain.

Where importantly, each eye saves images in its own memory bank.

So that when we recall an image from memory?

The image is retrieved from both sides, and then merged together.

 

But to cope with 'Teaming issues', the brain ignores one eye.

Which means that their are no images being saved in that side of the brain.

 

So that with reading with alternate eyes patched?

What this is doing, is to develop a memory of images, in both sides of the brain.

Which can then be merged.

[ElizabethB]

You can work in oral spelling of simple words and syllables. My apraxia student did better with marked print, I would use the 1908 marked print Webster, but write it big on a white board. Still, focus mostly on oral work and just a bit of written work with large letters on a white board. Most of my students with visual problems do best with a green pen.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/webstersway.html

 

Also, you can model oral blending and spelling skills.

 

You can try my phonics game, I would make extra large cards and make them myself in the best color for him, experiment with different color paper and markers and use large letters. Some of my students also do better with all uppercase at first.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html

[Rod Everson]

Jenibo, a few thoughts for you to consider: 

 

First, regarding the suggestion to patch your son's eye, that might actually enable him to handle reading because it would remove the confusion of getting two conflicting images when he has poor convergence, but vision therapy is far and away the preferred route because VT addresses the underlying problem. Also, don't do any patching while going through VT unless it's prescribed by the vision therapist, or you could be frustrating the therapy in some way.

 

Second, I agree with those who recommend putting off reading instruction for a bit yet. Wait until he's far enough into vision therapy for his comfort level with near work to increase. Preferably, ask the vision therapist if he's at that point yet or if you should wait. Don't be too concerned with his getting too far behind; he'll have a much faster learning curve if his vision skills are improved by VT, and he really is young yet. He's not too young to learn to read, but he's not yet ready visually. In the meantime, read a lot to him so his comprehension and vocabulary continue to improve.

 

Finally, with regard to all the other issues, I have what you might consider to be a somewhat off-the-wall recommendation, but I'd get his vitamin D3 level checked and then consider supplementing him for a while to see if you notice improvement in his other developmental issues. Rather than get into a long discussion as to the reasoning behind that recommendation, take a look at this exchange between the mother of an autistic child and Dr. John Cannell, one of the stronger proponents of vitamin D3, to see if you notice some of the same things, particularly the winter/summer changes she mentions. Here's the link: http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/newsletter-another-autism-case-report/. (It's been a while since I've posted here, so I hope the link will work as intended.)

 

In my opinion, having worked with many struggling readers, vision therapy can be the key to getting many of them started down a successful path. As others have also said, consider using a good phonics-based reading program once he's more comfortable visually.

 

Rod Everson

OnTrack Reading