Stressed about Reading progress

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

I need help. please.

 

I'm teaching ds2 to read. I felt pretty comfortable doing this again, as I successfully taught ds1 to read (his "lightbulb moment was the summer after K -- he just took off).

 

My ds2 has an oct. bday; so he is going to be 7, but is legally a 1st grader. His K year, we used AAS level 1 to work on reading/spelling. That worked great (short vowels, blends, simple compound words, plural -s/-es, and beginning work on open syllables). I purchased the Beehive Reader, which also was wonderful; however ds really wanted to read, and after reading the Beehive Reader a couple times (or more), he got bored of it, and wanted to read more; I just never could find decent books (outside of Bob-style books and Hop on Pop) that matched what he was able to read. Towards the end of K, we had started AAS level 2; I must admit (sheepishly) that we didn't maintain as much with ds2's reading skills as I would've liked to.

 

So, I decided that in August, we'd start with OPG; we started below his level (short vowel sounds), and have progressed up to lesson 53 or so. Some days, he does great, but he does still confuse short vowel sounds "he might say "chup" for "chop"), and he does the old "guess-what-the-word-is-after-only-reading-the-first-or-second-letter" technique. I've been doing the "review 2, teach 1 new" technique recommended by Jessie as well.

 

Well, today he told me he doesn't like reading. "Why" I ask. "Because I can't read any of the words." Well he can; he needs me to slow him down so he doesn't use his guessing routine; sometimes I need to ask him to try again, because he's just not decoding the printed letters correctly.

 

Basically, I'm feeling frustrated; I know that many of the behaviors/ struggles he's having are typical for new readers. I'm discouraged that he doesn't want to read. I'm fretting because I hopped from one reading program to another, and I don't want to do that to ds.

 

I'm also using ETC 2 1/2 for ds2 now (we used the online version last year, and he progressed through books 1 and 2, but i really wanted to solidify what we'd done last year, so that's why we're using the 1/2 book), and he is doing quite well with that.

 

I just don't know what to do. I've got homeschooler's amnesia because I don't remember these struggles with ds1 -- I'm only remembering the good stuff. :lol:

 

Maybe just a cheer up, it'll get better would be helpful. Or a pat on the back. Or a hang in there, kid. That would help.

 

If you are still awake and made it this far, thanks for reading.

[mlbuchina]

:grouphug::grouphug:

 

I am having the "guess the word/add words that aren't there" problem with my dd6. She is a great reader, but she does try to go too fast. When I make her slow down and read it again, she gets so frustrated. Most of the time, I think she is just reading from memory, like sight words, and is not decoding at all. :glare: I struggle with teaching without getting frustrated myself, especially when she can read things like "procedure", but gets hung up on "salad"!

 

My dd4 is just starting to blend, which is very exciting, but she is still sounding out every word even after she just read it. This makes Bob books take forever!:tongue_smilie: Also, she sounds out cvc words, but when she goes to blend them she moves the last c sound to the front, so we get ccv words. Too funny. I know this is part of the learning process, and she will get it soon.

 

Not too much practical help here, but I hope knowing you aren't the only one helps with the feelings!

[LizzyBee]

On the one hand, he's not quite 7. The normal parameters for learning to read are ages 4 to 8. He's made some progress with instruction, but it hasn't really clicked for him yet. Maybe he's just not ready.

 

On the other hand, my kids who started out this way are dyslexic, one mild, one moderate to severe. I'm a big fan of not panicking when a 6-7 yo is not reading, but taking some time to educate yourself about dyslexia in case you do end up needing the information. This website is fabulous - you can read or watch videos, whichever you prefer - http://www.dys-add.com. Other websites I found particularly helpful include http://www.visualspatial.com and http://www.mislabeledchild.com. Some books that were very helpful and encouraging include The Mislabeled Child, Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World, The Everything Parents Guide to Dyslexia, and The Edison Trait.

 

If your son is not frustrated with OPGTR (not crying or begging to skip his phonics lessons), I'd keep using it for now. It's a solid program.

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

 

If your son is not frustrated with OPGTR (not crying or begging to skip his phonics lessons), I'd keep using it for now. It's a solid program.

 

Well, yes he is frustrated. So now what?

[ElizabethB]

My phonics concentration game is a fun way to get in the repetition needed, some children need more repetition that others. My daughter didn't need much phonics repetition, but math just jumps right out of her brain and it also takes a while to get in. My remedial reading students all need a lot of repetition.

 

Starfall also has some fun activities.

 

And, Read, Write, Type is a fun way to get repetition in--it's a bit expensive, but you can try a free demo, and you can get it and the follow on for not much more than the original.

 

Edit: you could also try my phonics lessons. You might need to pause them halfway through for a break, depending on his ability to sit through them, they are designed for a bit older student, but students as young as 5 or 6 have successfully used them.

 

Also, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, I like abc pocket phonics.

Edited September 23, 2009 by ElizabethB

[thowell]

My phonics concentration game is a fun way to get in the repetition needed, some children need more repetition that others. My daughter didn't need much phonics repetition, but math just jumps right out of her brain and it also takes a while to get in. My remedial reading students all need a lot of repetition.

 

Starfall also has some fun activities.

 

And, Read, Write, Type is a fun way to get repetition in--it's a bit expensive, but you can try a free demo, and you can get it and the follow on for not much more than the original.

 

Edit: you could also try my phonics lessons. You might need to pause them halfway through for a break, depending on his ability to sit through them, they are designed for a bit older student, but students as young as 5 or 6 have successfully used them.

 

Also, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, I like abc pocket phonics.

 

We have used Elizabeth's phonics lessons with great success. I was using HTT but my ds got confused with the method. We are now reviewing Elizabeth's phonics and using Progressive Phonics. It is free online and she loves the books. She was also reading the wrong words, adding words that weren't even there. I point to each word and make her say the words one at a time. This stops the guessing and she sounds them out. If he knows he letter sounds and knows them when he sees them individually I think he will be fine in time. He just needs practice and focus. My oldest was like this and it came slowly but now is a great reader. Hang in there it sounds like maybe take a break for a while and just do some phonics games and slowly start reading again when he's ready. Good Luck!!

[AngieW in Texas]

My youngest is dyslexic. Teaching her to read was an entirely different experience from my other two.

 

Your ds might enjoy the I See Sam readers. They have more of a story than the Bob Books do and have a lot more text as well. They build up code gradually. They use a lot of words that differ by just one letter so your ds has to read through all the sounds rather than guess based on just the first letter.

 

Headsprout was extremely helpful for my dyslexic dd. It isn't cheap, but it is a solid program. They have a demo lesson and a 30-day money-back guarantee. You'll be able to tell by the end of 30 days whether or not the program is working for your ds. My dd hadn't gotten to any new code by the end of 30 days, but her reading had improved tremendously by that point because her reading speed had more than doubled. She was actually able to recognize some words on sight for the first time.

 

And just so you know, your ds is way ahead of where my dd was at the same age. She did ETC1 for 1st grade, but struggled all the way through. She redid ETC1 at the start of 2nd grade and actually did well with it. Then she did ETC2 for the rest of 2nd grade, but struggled all the way through. She repeated ETC2 at the start of 3rd grade and then did ETC3. We tried ETC4 at the start of 4th grade, but it was a total bust. Even though my dd really wanted to do ETC, it was finally clear to her that it didn't work for her.

Edited September 24, 2009 by AngieW in Texas

[LizzyBee]

Well, yes he is frustrated. So now what?

 

I can tell you how it worked out for us.

 

With my 13 yo, I wasn't sure I even needed a phonics curriculum when we started homeschooling her for 1st grade, because she'd learned to read pretty well in ps kindergarten. My oldest dd just took off after a bit of phonics instruction at age 4, so I thought my younger kids would too. I ordered Phonics Pathways just in case, and I found out pretty quickly that she was sight-reading and guessing even though the school she'd attended taught phonics. It took us 2 years to work through PP. Even though her progress was slow, she wasn't resistant, so we finished the whole book. Her reading was okay at that point; not what I would have liked, but not terrible. Her spelling, however, was very poor. So for 3rd grade, we used Spell to Write and Read. We had lots of tears that year. I found that she was not hearing the individual sounds in words, but I didn't know what to do about it. She made very limited progress with SWR. For 4th grade, we tried Calvert Spelling on CD. This should have been a big mistake for a dyslexic kid, but for this kid, it was the key that opened spelling for her. That was the best $15 I've spent in 8 years of homeschooling. By 5th grade, she suddenly began decoding accurately and her reading really took off. She's still not a great speller, but she's good enough to get by.

 

Her younger sister is a little more complicated! By age 4, I suspected she might be dyslexic because she is just like my dyslexic nephew. When she was 5, she was showing no reading readiness. I tried a reading curriculum, but she didn't get it at all. So for K, I just read to her. For 1st grade, I told her she had to do reading lessons because that's what 1st graders do. We tried Phonics Pathways. Way too fast and too much information on a single page. We tried All About Spelling. She liked the tiles and cards, but she wasn't understanding or retaining the information. We tried McGuffey's Primer and I taught her the phonics rules as we encountered them. She could read the words in the book, but she didn't retain the phonics rules, so she couldn't apply them to new words. Even worse, she didn't recognize the words when she saw them elsewhere. She also didn't recognize rhyming words and couldn't count syllables.

 

After 1st grade, I started planning for 2nd grade and realized how little progress dd had made. By this time, I'd done some reading about dyslexia and realized that 13 yo had it, and I was now becoming certain that dd8 has it too. Since auditory processing problems are the underlying cause of 70-80% of dyslexia, I made an appt for an APD evaluation. Our audiologist didn't even wait to score the results but told me immediately after the testing to go ahead and make an appt for comprehensive testing. (She did score the results and go over them in detail with me later.) DD could not pass any part of the APD evaluation. (But she is so eager to please and do well; as we were leaving the office, she said, "I think I got them all right, Mommy.") She'd previously had 3 years of speech therapy for severe articulation deficits, so that combined with the APD diagnosis made it pretty clear that she had dyslexia. Dh and I debated whether to have an EdPsych evaluation since the money we would spend on that could be used for curriculum. Ultimately, we decided to have both girls evaluated. Their evaluations confirmed that we were on the right track.

 

I had dd8 take the student screening test for Barton Reading and Spelling, an Orton-Gillingham program written for kids who have dyslexia. Based on her results, LiPS (Lindamood Bell Phonemic Sequencing) was recommended. This is a program that develops phonemic awareness, the ability to hear and manipulate the individual sounds that make words. I bought the clinical kit and we used part of the program. It definitely helped. Next, we used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. This is not an Orton-Gillingham program, but dd did very well with it. It teaches one sound at a time, gives visual cues which works well for kids who have poor auditory skills (but the visual cues are taken away before the end of the program), and includes phonemic awareness exercises. This program teaches blending in a way that worked for dd when nothing else had.

 

After 100 EZL, dd didn't pass the Barton Reading screening test, but she was very close. So I went ahead and bought Level 1, which is entirely phonemic awareness work. She's doing great with it and she's nearly ready to begin Level 2!! She is 8 yo and reading books like Go Dog Go. So she's still behind but I can't tell you how excited we are about the progress she's made.

 

We are also doing occupational therapy with dd. She's having therapy for sensory processing disorder, Therapeutic Listening Program, and Interactive Metronome. I probably wouldn't have done TLP or IM if our insurance didn't cover them as part of her OT, because I'm a skeptic. But dd has made such great progress this summer that I have to think the therapy is helping.

 

My personal philosophy was that I would not make my kids cry over reading lessons, because I didn't want them to hate reading. As a result, I've probably moved slower with my kids than many people would have. But even my 8 yo loves reading. Her ability to read independently is limited, but she enjoys reading and she really makes an effort to learn more. She listens to books on CD quite a bit.

 

So what next? It's a process of trial and error with every kid, I think. Even with a diagnosis, no 2 kids are the same. If parts of my story resonate with you, start reading on the websites I listed in my earlier post and check out the curriculum I've mentioned. In the meantime, put the curriculum on the shelf and read out loud to your son every day. Give yourself a couple weeks to read, research, and make decisions about the next step.

Edited September 24, 2009 by LizzyBee

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

I second ElizabethB's recommendations. I also highly recommend Between The Lions on PBS. I taped the shows for my son and had him watch them 2 times a day for about 3 years. Of course, I read aloud to him every day with occasional sounding out of words to him. Lastly, I put the closed captioning on the TV set since I was hard of hearing and found it helped as well.

 

P.S. PBS also has a couple of other reading shows that are great. They can also be found online on pbs.org and often the library may have dvds as well.

[nata]

I feel your frustration. I went though this with my son who attended PS kindergarten and came out of there convinced he'd never learn to read. We did tons of phonics work and I did a lot of skipping around trying to find our "fit" and it frustrated both of us. Finally we just took a break. Completely. We did our family read alouds, but other than that, reading was not mentioned. He relaxed, I took the time to find a program I liked and after several months we started up slowly. Very slowly... It didn't really click for him until a couple years ago. I think he just needed time to mature a bit more...or rather his eyesight needed to mature.

 

He still gets frustrated occasionally...especially by his little sister who inhales huge volumes on a daily basis, but he can read. Yours will too.:)

[LizzyBee]

My phonics concentration game is a fun way to get in the repetition needed, some children need more repetition that others. My daughter didn't need much phonics repetition, but math just jumps right out of her brain and it also takes a while to get in. My remedial reading students all need a lot of repetition.

 

 

I need to check this out. My 8 yo LOVES games.

[LizzyBee]

I thought of another excellent resource - a yahoo group:

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartofReading/

[ElizabethB]

I need to check this out. My 8 yo LOVES games.

 

Even my adult students like it!

 

I hope it works for you and helps out.

[kalanamak]

Well, yes he is frustrated. So now what?

 

Have you looked at Reading Pathways by Hiskes? If you need more basic, her first book is a starter.

 

I encourage kiddo, when he wants to just speed up and not be precise, that with some diligence, it WILL become automatic, and to prove it, I pull out all the things he has accomplished so far. "Remember when this was really hard?" I have also shown him the books I was reading at 7 (about what he is doing) and those at 8 (e.g. King of the Wind).

 

This helps my guy.

[mom31257]

I did A Beka K4 phonics with my ds when he was 4. He did get to reading some short vowel words, but that was all. It was hard not to compare him to his sister, who was reading very well at 4.

 

I wasn't sure what to do with my K son last year. He is a workbook lover, so I used Horizons K. It moves very fast, so we're really covering it in 2 years. I may not even finish the phonics workbook part because his spelling has a lot of phonics in it. I like the readers, though. They are intended to be read by the parent and stop and let the child sound out words they can. I started off having him read it and me help him when he needed it. I felt like his reading leaped forward very quickly. I believe the reading stories instead of so much emphasis on phonics has helped the most.

 

He is doing BJU 1st grade reading this year. I know...reading programs aren't supposed to be that great, but I like them because they cover things I would never think to cover. We still read plenty of good books.

 

He still isn't the reader his sister was at this age. I've had to come to accept that he may never love books as much as her, but she is a HUGE book lover. We have found that he really likes non-fiction. His sister asked to start the Magic Treehouse books with him. It's been great. She reads some. She lets him read some, and helps him with words he can't pronounce correctly. They just finished up #5.

 

As far as easier readers goes, our library marks easy readers with blue tape. I would ask if your library if there is a way to search for them. I pray you will find what works best for both of you.

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

...I decided that for the next month, we're going to go back to AAS. DS was the one who made the choice (although his first choice was to NOT do reading at all:glare:).

 

Yesterday he read a story in his Beehive Reader (sure which they were printing the next one soon!) and was SO proud of himself. I made sure there was LOTS of encouragement (tickles, too).

 

Then today, he we went through and reviewd the phonograms, dictation, and Key Cards for level 1. There are a couple items we have to review in level 1, but then we'll re-start Level 2.

 

At the end of the month, he'll be officially 7, and I told him we'd review where he was and decide what to do from that point on.

 

I was a Speech Therapist pre-kids and still have some materials for phonological awareness, auditory processing, etc. so I might pull some of these things out and throw them in the mix as well.

 

Thanks for all your encouragement, advice, and help. I gleened much from everyone's posts. :grouphug: Hugs to all of you who've taken up the challenge of educating your hard-to-teach-to-read kids!

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

Thanks, this looks good. He loves games!

[FO4UR]

I've struggled with my ds6, and just recently discovered he has vision problems despite having 20/20 vision. I thought he was dyslexic (I still haven't completely ruled it out...but I'm just watching for signs) b/c he *knows* how to decode, but can't read words on a page. I noticed the gap between what he can read in isolation and what he can read in a book increasing and asked about it when he had his normal vision check-up and then we went in for a long evaluation from a vision therapist. Sure enough, the evaluation showed me exactly where he's struggling - makes sense now.:001_huh:

 

I tell you that to say; rule out underlying vision problems before driving yourself crazy.

 

OPGTR/PP/100EZ did not work for my ds...he doesn't *SEE* the words when they are altogether on a page. (" Can you just tell me the sounds and then I'll tell you the word, Mommy?" has actually come from his mouth:lol:....like "my eyes are tired, but I can put the sounds together...") I have been using SWR with him and he can spell. He can spell MUCH better than he can read btw. I keep going with SWR on faith that he will take a great leap in reading as his vision therapy "catches him up" visually.

[sandalwood]

Hang in there, I know it's frustrating. Reading took literally years to catch on with us. We started trying to learn in K & I don't think my son really "read" hardly anything until 3rd grade and then he took off. It was sooooooooooooooooo frustrating. I was almost at the point of giving up. What worked for us was Explode the Code, Starfall.com, SIMPLE readers like Bob books, and those old Dick & Jane books like I had in school (showing my age :) ) That was after I had exhausted several phonics programs. He had a late birthday, too and I think it just took a while to "click" with him. Then, he picked up chapter books and in 5th tested at 12th grade reading level. So, hang in there. It will get better, I promise! I know it is frustrating.

[EKS]

My older boy is dyslexic too. Teaching him to read was like beating my head against a wall for two years (and we started in 2nd grade as he had attended school before that).

 

I agree that the I See Sam readers would be a good choice.

 

I'd also recommend the book Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz. She has lists of symptoms in it for even very young children.

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

Thank to everyone's suggestions. Taking a chill pill and knowing that others have BTDT is encouraging.

 

We've been back at AAS level 1 for review for about 4 days now. My son's attitude is so much better, and he doesn't whine anymore about having to do his reading lesson. I've also been trying to make it as multi-sensory as possible and adding in some daily extra phonological awareness skills (which reminds me that I need to go in the basement and look through all my old speech therapy materials and see what I have that I can use with him). So, daily we're doing:

 

AAS - 1 review with phonogram dictation, focusing on 1 Key Card (we're counting out syllables right now), spelling all the words from this level (10 or so at a time), and then I give him the green card to "correct" his work, then I give him a dictation phrase to write out on a dry erase board (why is it kids will write for.ev.er. on a dry erase board?).

 

I'm having him do silent reading with the Beehive Reader, then he reads the story to me (his fluency is so much better than it was last spring or even at the beginning of August!).

 

Then, we're using ETC 2 1/2, which is also something he likes.

 

Oh, and he and I made a great lapbook for distinguishing between long and short vowel sounds. I found it here at homeschool share.

I'm impressed with the lapbook because we can use the words (for reading practice) or their associated pictures, and then he sorts them into their correct pockets. In essence it is something I can have him do with me or by himself and then I can "correct" it.

 

Hopefully, I'll be back at the end of Oct. with more good news about our measured progress!