Teaching an older child to read (x-post)

[Chris in PA]

Hi everyone,

One of my dearest friends began homeschooling her 3 ds's this school year. Her middle ds is 11. The PS sysytem couldn't teach him math or reading. Her ds is now using MUS and doing math well. He is now mutiplying with ease. Her biggest issue is reading. He is currently at a beginning 2nd grade level. She is using Scaredy Cat reading with him. He knows his sight words and all his phonics rules. When it comes to reading words in a sentence, he has a lot of difficulty. He is a very bright boy.

I was wondering if anyone has experienced a similar thing with one of their children. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

TIA

Blessings

[Veronica in VA]

My dd was only 7 when she came home, but she couldn't read too much either. I found Reading Reflex to be of the greatest help with this. However, she also had trouble tracking - her eyes would jump from one line to another and would sometimes skip over words - particularly "the", "and", and some other easier ones. She does have borderline dyslexia, but she also needed glasses just for reading. The doctor said it would help with tracking. He also recommended she use a bookmark, or something similar to keep track of what line she is on. She has found that to be very helpful, and still does this (she is 15 now) when she is tired.

 

Others on this board have more experience, but your friend might want to take him to a development eye specialist.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Veronica

[Claire]

He knows his sight words and all his phonics rules. When it comes to reading words in a sentence, he has a lot of difficulty. He is a very bright boy.

 

She needs to get him in for a developmental vision evaluation. This website has a lot of good information about commonly undiagnosed visual efficiency problems that can interfere with learning to read. She can locate board-certified developmental optometrists in her area at the COVD website. The ability to read individual words but then have difficulty reading words in text is a common symptom of an undiagnosed visual efficiency problem.

 

My dd had both severe phonemic awareness delays and multiple severe visual efficiency problems (which were undiagnosed by her opthalmologist). Visual efficiency problems are *not* evaluated in regular eye exams, whether by an optometrist or optometrist. That's why I recommend seeing a developmental optometrist. If your friend decides to do this, post here and I can give her some tips on finding a good one and also on keeping costs down (if money is an issue when it comes to therapy, and that is a common issue).

 

I agree that she should get Reading Reflex by McGuinness. Libraries often have it, bookstores carry it for under $20 new, and it can sometimes be found remaindered online for $5 or $10. She should read the first three chapters and then give her son the assessments in the book. This will tell her a *lot* about where he is with reading subskills: segmenting, blending and phoneme manipulation.

 

Our route to full remediation of reading started with Reading Reflex. My dd learned to decode individual words quite rapidly with that system. Once she could decode individual words, though, it became obvious something else was wrong because she was extremely disfluent reading text. That's when I took her in for the developmental vision eval. Vision therapy corrected her visual efficiency problems, but she needed the follow-up of cognitive skills training to develop her visual *processing* skills and other skills that never developed because of her visual efficiency problems. Dd made dramatic progress in reading with the cognitive skills training. We topped off the remediation cycle with a one-week Phono-Graphix intensive to teach her advanced code.

 

Anyway, first step would be for your friend to get the developmental vision eval.

[Ottakee]

http://www.roadstoeverywhere.com/3RsPlusRead.html and http://www.iseesam.com

 

This is the program that I used to teach my girls to read and they learning difficulties. It is super easy to use, very reasonably priced, and you can even resell the whole set of books at the end.

 

It is phonics based but does it in a unique sequence--they learn the long i I, the ee (long sound) s, m, and a (short) in the first lesson. They start reading 3 words I , see and Sam. They build up from there.

 

If he is reading more than this level you can take placement tests and start where he would need to start.

[Laurie4b]

When you say that he knows his sight words and his phonics rules, but that he can't read words in sentences, do you mean that words that he can't read words in sentences that he would be able to read if they were presented individually, or do you mean that he can't apply phonics rules to new words?

 

Put Reading First is an excellent free online publication that covers the necessary components of a reading program. Your friend can also get a hard copy. Additionally, I consider Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz to be a must-read for any parent of a child who struggles with reading. If he is 11 and only reading at a second grade level and he has at least average intelligence, I would strongly recommend a tutor, at least to get him started and to show the mother how to teach him. Look for either a Phonographix tutor, or a Wilson or other Orton-Gillingham tutor. Because of his age, he is fast losing the window of time for intervention to happen before he becomes too embarassed and self-defeated to accept help. This really can't wait through a trial and error approach.

 

I assume the school did testing. What was the result of the testing? Do you know? Knowing what the problem is is very important to making recommendations as to what to do.

 

(If they did not provide a "free and appropriate public education" she may actually be able to recuperate $$ for homeschooling in that the school didn't provide what it was mandated to do. That could include $$ for a tutor. )

[Chris in PA]

From what my friend tells me, he can apply the phonics rules to new words. I think his issue is reading them in context of a sentence. She downloaded a reader from the internet yesterday for dyslexic children. The words "puddle" and "pebble" were on the same page and he read them both as "puddle".

She is currently working on getting a tutor for him. He was tested so much in PS. What she was told was that he needs to increase his fluency. I am certain no one has ever diagnosed him as having any other issues. Someone else gave me the recommendation for the book Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz. She is going to purchase that. She has also purchased Reading Reflex.

 

Thanks so much to you and everyone else on these boards. You ladies are simply amazing and we are all so blessed!

[Claire]

From what my friend tells me, he can apply the phonics rules to new words. I think his issue is reading them in context of a sentence. She downloaded a reader from the internet yesterday for dyslexic children. The words "puddle" and "pebble" were on the same page and he read them both as "puddle".

 

That is a very common indication of a visual efficiency deficit. I hope she gets him to a developmental optometrist.

[Kathy in MD]

That is a very common indication of a visual efficiency deficit. I hope she gets him to a developmental optometrist.

nt

[Laurie4b]

There is a free online publication called Put Reading First that describes the important components of a reading program. Fluency is one of them. (You can also order a free hard copy) The best way to develop fluency is through repeated oral readings. These would be done slightly below the child's reading level. The point is to develop automaticity in reading. It is not odious to do --10 minutes or so per day will be very helpful.

[Rod Everson]

I also agree with the recommendation to see a developmental optometrist before spending any more time and money on phonics instruction.

 

Here's a Vision Assessment Checklist that you can print out and give your friend. See if she checks off some of the higher-numbered items (those with 4's and 5's.)

 

Rod Everson

[Chris in PA]

Thanks to everyone on this board! :) Your suggestions have been wonderful. She is working on getting him an appointment with the optometrist as well as a tutor.

 

Blessings