Careless mistakes while reading

[LMCme]

I know there are worse problems to have, but I want to intervene on this posiively and early if possible and advisable.  My 5yo is an excellent reader.  He reads fluently, with great intonation, and sounds very conversational.  However... he makes a lot of careless mistakes.  By that, I mean he makes a lot of careless mistakes given his general reading level rather than that he makes a lot of careless mistakes for a 5 year old.  For example, he can read "Mac and Dave rode into town quietly and looked for a restaurant."  However, sometimes he might read that as "Mac and Dave had ridden into the town quietly..."  Or, he might just move to the next sentence after the word "looked" and skip the last few words of the sentance.  Once he has misread it, it is very hard to get him to go back and read anything other than what he just said, i.e. "try again" gets me whatever he just said rather than him realizing he might have made a mistake and slowing down to re-read.  We use a cursor (his primary phonics program is Dancing Bears) and everything -- but he actually reads ahead under the cursor so that he can read a little faster and more fluently!

 

The thing is, his comprehension is excellent.  He sits and reads books for hours every day on his own.  He loves reading.   I'm also open to the more experienced moms telling me to just let it go!

 

Any ideas on how to help him or whether to help him?  Is he fine?

 

Thanks,

LMC

[Arcadia]

He probably read the sentence, comprehend it, and retell his way. Nothing wrong with that :)

 

For testing reading, my kids' public school kindergarten teacher used a cardboard to cover the rest of the text so that kids don't get distracted reading ahead.

[OneStepAtATime]

FWIW, if I am reading silently I skip over words, too.  I don't need to read every single word to comprehend the story.  Reading out loud takes longer and can be draining because you are expected to read each and every word.  It is inefficient, to be honest.

 

If he were struggling with decoding and fluency I would think maybe he was dyslexic but that doesn't seem to be the case here at all.  He is bright, he seems to read well, he just may not want to waste time reading every single word.

 

 At some point you might consider getting a developmental vision screening through a developmental optometrist to confirm both visual acuity and developmental vision are good.  Kids can pass pediatric vision screenings with flying colors and still have vision issues.  And many eye doctors are not trained to screen for developmental vision issues so they won't catch those.

 

Honestly, though, he sounds like he is doing well.

[kaxy]

You said "cursor," so I'm assuming this is an on-screen reading? Sometimes I have trouble with tracking if I've been looking at a screen too long. How does he do with a physical book in hand? (Or whoops, is this a physical book with some sort of physical tracking?)

[LMCme]

The cursor is like an index card with the top left corner cut out.  You glide it accross the page to reveal words left to right, and then move down to the next line.  Early on in Dancing Bears, you use it to uncover one phoneme at a time, but at the point DS5 is at now, it's a word at a time in a smooth "reveal".

 

We use it religiously when doing Dancing Bears per their recommendation, but during free reading he does what he likes.

 

Best,

LMC

[kiwik]

It is one of those things. On the one hand I want them to read what is on the page because they are learning to read or may be tested. On the other hand I read Harry Potter out loud last night and made a lot of errors. Like your son though I kept meaning and tense. It is harder to see how to do it with a cursor though unless he is reading a line ahead and retelling. What happens if you put a sheet of paper over the lines underneath?

[...................]

Perfectly normal especially for right brained visual spatial

Kids that think I'm pictures and whole

Ideas.

 

 

However just to be sure I took my dd to a DEVELOPMENTal optometrist and she passed the screening perfectly. He said she's just highly intelligent and moves so fast she can rewrite the story while she's reading it, if she wants. And he recommended a natural ADD vitamin regimen :)

 

Just FYI this may be your first sign that this kid thinks and sees the world very unique and is amazing!

[LMCme]

Thank you ladies for all the advice :) 

[RenaInTexas]

At this age the issue may be tracking. He is still developing the ability to track across the page/screen. I make the font bigger on my ds' tablet so there are fewer words on the screen. You could also try a read to me book with the volume off -- it will still highlight the words, but may be too fast. In paper books, I just use a sheet of paper folded in half to block out the next line.

Edited July 27, 2016 by RenaInTexas