learn-to-read plateau AFTER blending?

[eternallytired]

I'm completely puzzled by just about everything about my youngest, and his learning process is no different.  For my older two, they learned their letter sounds a good year or more before they started blending.  Then, once they started blending sounds into words, they gradually increased fluency over the next six months, at which point they started reading short books on their own. 

 

Not so with this one.  He surprised me by spontaneously building a word last summer, sounding it out as he did so.  This was surprising because he only knew about a third of his letter sounds at the time (if I'm being generous--he's been MUCH slower and later at this than the older two), so I didn't think he'd be ready for spelling/blending yet.  Since then, he has learned pretty much all of his letter sounds, though some of them still confuse him (even n, which is in his name).  Over the past year, he has continued to sound out 3-5 letter, phonetically-regular words--but only one at a time (more than one word makes him angsty), and not increasing in fluency at all.  Even short words like "in" and "it" he approaches as novelties each time he sees them.  And somewhere over this past year, he's picked up the letter names, which have made it harder for him to sound things out because he can't decide whether to sound out using the name or the sound anymore.

 

He enjoyed some of the Progressive Phonics Alphabetti readers, but none of the words became automatic even after we read a book a few times through.  (He might recognize a word by the time we got through the book, but the next time we read it, he experienced each word anew and improved at them at the same rate as before--so progress made one time did not last in any way until the next time.)  I let him try Teach Your Monster To Read and Reading Eggs because he wanted computer games like the bigger kids, but in both instances he got stuck when they tried to have him learn sight words.  He could pick the word that visually matched the sight word, but once they progressed to only oral cues ("Click on THE.") he couldn't figure out which one was right.  But this same child is drawing cute little buildings with sidewalk chalk and writing "Pet Str" on them, which my other kids didn't do until later in their reading journeys. 

 

It's now been a year since he started sounding words out.  I've heard of lots of people whose kids couldn't get blending, but I haven't heard of others whose kids can blend but haven't progressed beyond that.  I expected slow progress with some plateaus, but this seems more like a dead stop.  Has anyone else had a kid who did this?  Do you think it's merely developmental?

[Ellie]

I'm completely puzzled by just about everything about my youngest, and his learning process is no different.  For my older two, they learned their letter sounds a good year or more before they started blending.  Then, once they started blending sounds into words, they gradually increased fluency over the next six months, at which point they started reading short books on their own. 

 

Not so with this one.  He surprised me by spontaneously building a word last summer, sounding it out as he did so.  This was surprising because he only knew about a third of his letter sounds at the time (if I'm being generous--he's been MUCH slower and later at this than the older two), so I didn't think he'd be ready for spelling/blending yet.  Since then, he has learned pretty much all of his letter sounds, though some of them still confuse him (even n, which is in his name).  Over the past year, he has continued to sound out 3-5 letter, phonetically-regular words--but only one at a time (more than one word makes him angsty), and not increasing in fluency at all.  Even short words like "in" and "it" he approaches as novelties each time he sees them.  And somewhere over this past year, he's picked up the letter names, which have made it harder for him to sound things out because he can't decide whether to sound out using the name or the sound anymore.

 

He enjoyed some of the Progressive Phonics Alphabetti readers, but none of the words became automatic even after we read a book a few times through.  (He might recognize a word by the time we got through the book, but the next time we read it, he experienced each word anew and improved at them at the same rate as before--so progress made one time did not last in any way until the next time.)  I let him try Teach Your Monster To Read and Reading Eggs because he wanted computer games like the bigger kids, but in both instances he got stuck when they tried to have him learn sight words.  He could pick the word that visually matched the sight word, but once they progressed to only oral cues ("Click on THE.") he couldn't figure out which one was right.  But this same child is drawing cute little buildings with sidewalk chalk and writing "Pet Str" on them, which my other kids didn't do until later in their reading journeys. 

 

It's now been a year since he started sounding words out.  I've heard of lots of people whose kids couldn't get blending, but I haven't heard of others whose kids can blend but haven't progressed beyond that.  I expected slow progress with some plateaus, but this seems more like a dead stop.  Has anyone else had a kid who did this?  Do you think it's merely developmental?

 

I can't tell how old he is, so I can't tell if it's developmental. :-)

 

My go-to for teaching children to read and spell is Spalding. Although some children learn to read seemingly by osmosis, most children benefit by specific instruction, and your little guy might be that person.

[eternallytired]

I can't tell how old he is, so I can't tell if it's developmental. :-)

 

My go-to for teaching children to read and spell is Spalding. Although some children learn to read seemingly by osmosis, most children benefit by specific instruction, and your little guy might be that person.

He's only four.  ODS was reading solidly by 4.5 and DD by 3.5 (both having started sounding things out 6 mos prior), so I thought his starting to read last year was not completely out-of-the-blue.  Give his age, I'm not super concerned about his lack of progress yet--but DH is.  I just find his progression odd since it looks nothing like the progression of my older two, and I thought if others have had similar learn-to-read journeys it might help DH relax a little.

 

[reign]

Normal! My youngest was able to blend to sound out words at the youngest age for my girls. She was a newish 2 year old and sounding out cvc words. She is now 6 and just recently began reading fairly fluently at a 3rd grade level. So she was blending and reading choppy for years. My older two started reading at 3/4 years and became fluent much faster.

Edited May 29, 2016 by reign

[Ellie]

He's only four.  ODS was reading solidly by 4.5 and DD by 3.5 (both having started sounding things out 6 mos prior), so I thought his starting to read last year was not completely out-of-the-blue.  Give his age, I'm not super concerned about his lack of progress yet--but DH is.  I just find his progression odd since it looks nothing like the progression of my older two, and I thought if others have had similar learn-to-read journeys it might help DH relax a little.

 

Oh, then absolutely age appropriate, and Mr. Etternallytired should quit worrying about it at all. And you know you should never, ever compare your children to each other. Your older dc learned to read much earlier than most, so your little one is still doing fine.

Edited May 30, 2016 by Ellie

[gratitude]

My second born blended easily and spelled and wrote and drew long before his reading launched like the other two. His reading did hit some sort of dead end in progress for a year or two after being able to blend easily. He is highly imaginative, kinesthetic, and detailed. Yes, the learning journey has been different with him then with my natural readers. Spelling and writing came more easily for him then my natural readers, and reading took longer to fully launch.

 

At age 4 you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

[kbutton]

At 4, I think you have nothing to worry about, but here are a couple of things you might want to check...BTDT with finding out my kids have problems later down the road. (You may have done these things already.)

Get his eyes checked--not the pediatrician's screening. Find someone good with kids. I HIGHLY recommend establishing a relationship with a developmental optometrist (COVD optometrist) and one that is involved in the InfantSee program (http://www.infantsee.org/). We have one child with horrible vision that was not caught as early as it could have been because I'd never heard of infant eye screenings, and we didn't really see obvious signs of vision issues. He got glasses at 4, and by that time, he basically had incomplete visual development and ocular motor issues (therapy for these things has been life-changing). Our other child has 20/20 vision, but he also has ocular motor issues. These issues are usually brain-based and respond very well to therapy, and the therapy often "fixes" other quirks. 

Some of what you talked about sounds like it could be vision-related. It could be a problem, or it could be that his stamina is age-appropriate. Given the skills he has (which are advanced ones) and the trajectory of your older kids, I would find out if his visual acuity, visual/ocular motor skills, etc. are age-appropriate. Even teeny-tiny issues can fatigue a child, especially at that age.

 

If he gets the all-clear (which might not be 20/20 vision at that age), you might find that he simply needs much larger fonts, or that he needs a lot less text presented at one time. My younger son (the one with the bigger vision issues), liked things written on 3x5 cards. We'd build or sound out single words, and then we'd play games with the cards, one word per card. We might rearrange them and build sentences with them and things like that.

 

From what you've said, my guess is that he's working hard to hold things in his short-term memory--that could be from poor working memory, poor visual memory, a combination of little glitches, or just being 4. But if he's trying to write with sidewalk chalk and things like that, my bet is there is a small glitch somewhere that is making this task a little fatiguing. That glitch could be a difficulty, or it could be a normal visual fatigue based on age.

 

Best wishes!

[eternallytired]

At 4, I think you have nothing to worry about, but here are a couple of things you might want to check...BTDT with finding out my kids have problems later down the road. (You may have done these things already.)

Get his eyes checked--not the pediatrician's screening. Find someone good with kids. I HIGHLY recommend establishing a relationship with a developmental optometrist (COVD optometrist) and one that is involved in the InfantSee program (http://www.infantsee.org/). We have one child with horrible vision that was not caught as early as it could have been because I'd never heard of infant eye screenings, and we didn't really see obvious signs of vision issues. He got glasses at 4, and by that time, he basically had incomplete visual development and ocular motor issues (therapy for these things has been life-changing). Our other child has 20/20 vision, but he also has ocular motor issues. These issues are usually brain-based and respond very well to therapy, and the therapy often "fixes" other quirks. 

 

Some of what you talked about sounds like it could be vision-related. It could be a problem, or it could be that his stamina is age-appropriate. Given the skills he has (which are advanced ones) and the trajectory of your older kids, I would find out if his visual acuity, visual/ocular motor skills, etc. are age-appropriate. Even teeny-tiny issues can fatigue a child, especially at that age.

 

If he gets the all-clear (which might not be 20/20 vision at that age), you might find that he simply needs much larger fonts, or that he needs a lot less text presented at one time. My younger son (the one with the bigger vision issues), liked things written on 3x5 cards. We'd build or sound out single words, and then we'd play games with the cards, one word per card. We might rearrange them and build sentences with them and things like that.

 

From what you've said, my guess is that he's working hard to hold things in his short-term memory--that could be from poor working memory, poor visual memory, a combination of little glitches, or just being 4. But if he's trying to write with sidewalk chalk and things like that, my bet is there is a small glitch somewhere that is making this task a little fatiguing. That glitch could be a difficulty, or it could be a normal visual fatigue based on age.

 

Best wishes!

 

Hmm...  DH received therapy for eye-tracking issues in 1st grade, so it would probably be good to check his eyes.  Thanks for that reminder!

 

 

[Cake and Pi]

I think you'll have to let go of what your older kids did.  I know that each of mine has had a very different early reading progression.

 

My oldest knew all his letter names and sounds around 2yo, but didn't blend until about 5yo.  He has progressed steadily since.

 

I have no idea when #2 figured out letters/sounds, but he asked me to teach him to read at 3yo and was reading late kindy level by 3.5yo... and then, no progress.  Nothing.  For a long time.  When I offered more difficult material, he'd whine or goof off or say he was bored.  I thought it was developmental and I needed to let him mature a little more.  Finally at 4.5yo I took him to the eye doctor, and low and behold, he has astigmatism!  Then I realized that the higher level reading material was written in smaller fonts than the easier stuff.  I felt pretty dang bad for putting off getting his eyes checked for so long.  But he got his glasses and took off.

 

#3 was totally different than #1 and #2.  At 3.5 I decided I'd better start trying to teach him letters/sounds, even though he'd shown zero interest, but he refused to cooperate.  I decided he wasn't ready and put OPGTR away.  At 4yo I pulled it back out and tried again, but got nowhere again.  So I tried TYCTR in 100 EZ Lessons.  He went along with it for about a week, then stalled and wouldn't participate.  I was just about to give up and put it all away for another 6 months, when during a lesson that was going absolutely nowhere he repeated the scripted part of 100 EZ Lessons I'd just said, then continued reading the rest of the scripted teacher paragraph!  And that's when I realized that he wasn't interested in my lessons because he already knew what I was trying to "teach" him.  He somehow taught himself to read without me noticing.  When I talked to some of our relatives about it I found that they noticed he was reading at 3.5yo (signs and other environmental print).  So I guess I get bad mom of the year award twice, lol.

 

#4 will be 3yo in 3 months and is just starting to speak in 2-word phrases.  I don't think he even knows what a letter is.  Obviously I can't predict, but I'd guess that reading is still several years away for this one.

 

All that to say, you really can't compare kids.  They each have their own path to take.  That and *do* get your kiddo's eyes checked; the sooner the better.

[Ruthie in MS]

My eldest dd learned to read on borrowed curriculum (Horizons Kindy copyright 1994) and it was the worst organized and disjointed mess I'd ever seen! Somehow she learned to read at a 2nd grade level by the end of the year. I'm convinced I could have used anything and she still would have learned to read. With that much confidence, I decided to take my next dd and have her start Kindy at the age of four. Worst. decision. EVER. We struggled, fought, switched curricula, waited and played games......everything, but hardly any progress. She hated her lessons and she didn't actually learn to read fluently until she was almost 8 years old. I'm obviously not an advocate for teaching babies to read but maybe your little guy just isn't ready or interested. Boys tend to mature later than girls and need more time to play and develop.

 

All that other testing and so on may be needed but you might just find out that your little one just needs more time to play and explore.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Ruthie in MS

[ElizabethB]

Normal. You can use my sound cards to make reading snd spelling words more fun and my phonics concentration game for fun practice.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/Resources/40LChartsCombined.pdf

 

Recent brain research has found that good readers are actually processing every sound in every word, just really fast in parallel. It takes some students a lot more time and repetition to build up speed after learning to blend. My son took a lot more repetition than my daughter, and some of my remedial students take even longer. With some students, adding in a bit of spelling can speed the process. You can use the cards for spelling, too, or magnetic letters.

[Coco_Clark]

Sounds like one of my boys. Learned to blend at early 4, BEFORE he could recognize most letters. Slowly, painstakingly slowly, he learned the rest of his letters by 5.5. But could consistently sound words out as each new letter was mastered.

 

But "sight words"? He's 6.5 now and STILL struggles manfully with the word "the" Every. Single. Time. Basically every shwa sound is killer because it plain breaks the rules. He just has very poor visual memory.

 

I've taught a good handful of kids to read, lol, but no one makes me bang my head on a wall like this one.

[eternallytired]

Normal. You can use my sound cards to make reading snd spelling words more fun and my phonics concentration game for fun practice.

 

I already use your phonics concentration game for fun with my older kids!  I actually have some little cars with letters taped to the top; earlier in the week he was asking for "work" to do and I remembered the older kids LOVED practicing spelling and sounding out words by parking letter-topped cars, so I thought I'd get some ready for the next time he's interested.

 

[eternallytired]

**Snip**

With that much confidence, I decided to take my next dd and have her start Kindy at the age of four. Worst. decision. EVER. We struggled, fought, switched curricula, waited and played games......everything, but hardly any progress. She hated her lessons and she didn't actually learn to read fluently until she was almost 8 years old. I'm obviously not an advocate for teaching babies to read but maybe your little guy just isn't ready or interested. Boys tend to mature later than girls and need more time to play and develop.

 

All that other testing and so on may be needed but you might just find out that your little one just needs more time to play and explore.

 

This is exactly why this child has zero requirements as of yet.  My older kids keep complaining that he doesn't have to work, but I remind them that they didn't have any work to do until they turned 5--and at that point it was 10-15 minutes of handwriting practice.

 

[eternallytired]

Sounds like one of my boys. Learned to blend at early 4, BEFORE he could recognize most letters. Slowly, painstakingly slowly, he learned the rest of his letters by 5.5. But could consistently sound words out as each new letter was mastered.

 

But "sight words"? He's 6.5 now and STILL struggles manfully with the word "the" Every. Single. Time. Basically every shwa sound is killer because it plain breaks the rules. He just has very poor visual memory.

 

I've taught a good handful of kids to read, lol, but no one makes me bang my head on a wall like this one.

This is what I'm afraid of.  He seems to expect every word to behave the same.  After one of the reading games introduced the word "me", he spent the next week sounding out every E with the long sound.  I think he that "the" was a complete mystery to him.  So far I'm hoping and praying that a bit more time will turn on the light.  If not, I'll know where to turn for a sympathetic ear!

[ReadingMama1214]

This is what I'm afraid of. He seems to expect every word to behave the same. After one of the reading games introduced the word "me", he spent the next week sounding out every E with the long sound. I think he that "the" was a complete mystery to him. So far I'm hoping and praying that a bit more time will turn on the light. If not, I'll know where to turn for a sympathetic ear!

It helped me when I realized that the long vowel sounds and different consonant sounds, were actually 1st grade level and not introductory. Except as sight words. It's hard when they start so young but then progress seems to stall. My daughter hasn't progressed like I thought she would, but then I have to remind myself that she's only 4.5.

 

We've been playing a reading card game that my daughter loves. I found it on teachers pay teachers website and have altered the pdf so that I can make my own cards. Today I made cards for the soft and hard "c" sounds. Dd loves it and begs to play every day. She doesn't even know she's learning! If you go to teacherspayteachers.com and search for POP silent e nonsense word game it should pop up. It's free!

[ReadingMama1214]

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pop-a-long-vowel-silent-e-nonsense-word-game-502457#

 

This is the game. I simply edited the balloons so that I blocked out the existing word and had a blank spot for a new word. I made cards with Cvc words, phonograms we're learning, and other concepts. I make cards for every new phonics concept we cover in our lessons.

[dessertbloom]

My first dd now age 6.5 started blending a year ago and is stalling out, too. Her sister, now age 5, started learning along with her (I hadn't planned to start her blending at age 4, but she wanted to and could do it.) They are both now stalling out, too. We're almost through AAR 1, having done all short vowels, consonant blends, and digraphs. I am suspecting the older girl may have a vision problem that's holding her back and I'm trying to arrange an evaluation for her. The younger may just be fatiguing due to her age. Every child is definitely different. Everyone keeps telling me one day it will just happen for them. It definitely helps to change up the way you approach teaching reading, but developmental stages just can't be rushed, either.

[Ruthie in MS]

This is exactly why this child has zero requirements as of yet. My older kids keep complaining that he doesn't have to work, but I remind them that they didn't have any work to do until they turned 5--and at that point it was 10-15 minutes of handwriting practice.

 

My older children think the same thing about my little one. They compare their school work and chores to little sister and think she should contribute more. They just don't remember what its like being 5 years old. They think she should be on almost the same playing field as them. Even down to the silly things she does and says (like a normal child her age) they think is babyish, but they did the same thing at that age; they just don't remember it.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

I don't have any advice for you I'm afraid, but I will say that I'm in a similar position with DS3.

 

He knew letter names and sounds by 18mo. He began decoding at 2.5yo, at which point he asked to learn to read. We gave 100EZ a shot. Made it a handful of lessons, but it was painfully dry. At that point he could blend CVCs, but hated phonetic readers. He read one book, then refused to ever do it again. More than one word per page took every ounce of his effort & was exhausting. His heart was in it, but he simply wasn't ready.

 

About two months ago his interest rekindled. He began trying to decode environmental print. I pulled out our old CVC cards & he was much more confident blending. We agreed to try again this summer.

 

He's now halfway through Level A of LOE (just began reading CVCs) & is doing very well. I anticipate that we will make it through Foundations this year, but am also prepared to shelve it if needed. He has YEARS to master this. I'm not concerned.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Expat_Mama_Shelli

[FO4UR]

He's only four.  ODS was reading solidly by 4.5 and DD by 3.5 (both having started sounding things out 6 mos prior), so I thought his starting to read last year was not completely out-of-the-blue.  Give his age, I'm not super concerned about his lack of progress yet--but DH is.  I just find his progression odd since it looks nothing like the progression of my older two, and I thought if others have had similar learn-to-read journeys it might help DH relax a little.

 

 

Oh, he's too young to worry about.

 

But, you likely are seeing some differences in learning. It's still nothing to worry about, but maybe something to take note of so you don't worry. kwim.

 

 

Reading is a complex skill with many different little sub-skills underlying the foundation. Some kids will have one or two sub-skills lag behind the rest. At 4yo, you have plenty of time to do things that help develop those skills.  All of the traditional Kindergarten activities are needful things.  Monkey bars, skipping, riding a bike, Memory Match games, etc...

 

 

I would not jump to seeing a COVD doc just yet.  But, I would add in some things that help the visual development along.  Use junk mail and newspapers to practice visual tracking.  With every letter you learn, make a seek and find game out of it.  Underline each line, left to right, looping the letter-of-the-day (or phonogram of the day....or sight word of the day...) as you go. 

 

He might be ready for the Pre-Primer I wrote (found in the lulu Author Spotlight linked below).  It is a Kindy level program designed to build a solid and broad foundation upon which to build reading and writing skills.  I am in process of finishing the 1st grade level.  It's a project I started b/c, after teaching 2 dyslexics to read, I wanted something (one program, not bits of 4 different programs) easy to implement for my youngest.