I need your thinking caps on for reading help!

[Jan in SC]

My 7yo ds is reading pretty well and fairly fluently. He just finished The Sword in the Tree and various other similar level books. (He will be 8 in May.)

 

He has the worst trouble with blends. SPs, SPLs, any of them! He tries to add the letter L in any word he doesn't know. Any ideas?

 

We have used PP and OPG for reviewing, but he went to a "guess it if you don't know the word" public school through the first half of 1st grade.

 

Thanks,

Janet

[Lori D.]

Though he never went to public school -- he's mildly dyslexic and, frankly, a little lazy; it's "easier" to make a guess than to slow down and figure it out. : )

 

 

We've done lots of out loud reading together -- "popcorn" reading ("you read a page, I read a page") -- which has helped some. We use a blank index card to help keep his focus on the individual line, which helps a lot. I have seen colored transparency overlays* which also help the student focus on one line at a time. Also, if it's a longer word and I am reading aloud, I point to it and read it broken into syllables. If he stumbles or "guesses", then I put a finger under it and have him stop and sound it out by syllables. Usually it is just a matter of not wanting to slow down and look carefully and sound things out.

 

BEST of luck, warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

 

*A teaching aid for increasing the reading efficiency of a dyslexic. The teaching aid comprises a transparent sheet of material having a plurality of horizontal color gradient that is placed over an area of text to be read. Preferably, each color gradient covers a single line of text. When the color gradient covers the text area, a less distracting environment is created and allows the dyslexic reader to more readily focus and concentrate on the lines of text.

 

See interesting article at: http://homepages.wmich.edu/~j9brazea/ezcreader.htm

[kellycbr]

I have a ds who is 7 and reading ok, just not where I think he should be. I'm almost finished reading the book "Read Right!" by Dee Tadlock. She also has a website that explains her reading theory. I think this book is going to get us over the reading fluidly hump and into reading with excellence. Good luck!

[Adrianne]

My ds5 likes to put an "n" in words and just guess when he does not feel like working to read the work. (GRRR:().

 

They will outgrow it with practice. My ds9, an avid reader, also did this (and still tries) and each time he has to go back and reread the word for me. I sound like a broken word with "no guessing!".

 

It will get better as they grow older. Keep up the practice reading!