Lots of trouble reading! What to do??

[parias1126]

I am really beginning to get worried about my 7 yr old (8 in Sept). She is REALLY struggling with reading. Last year she was a rising 2nd grader. She apparently just makes the cut off for her grade level. She would get frustrated at the beginning of the year if there were more then 3 sentences on one page. She has done a lot better this year and will attempt to read the starter chapter books, BUT.... Her reading is extremely "choppy". She still sounds a lot of the words out.

 

For instance, the sentence in the new book I just got today from Amazon is, "Though I'm not sure why you're worried about ponies when you're so crazy about gymnastics." She reads it like this, "Though(t) I'm not sure (I had to tell her this word) why (I had to tell her this word) you're (I had to tell her this word) worried (I helped her sound it out) about ponies when you're so crazy about gymnastics (I had her sound it out in sections and she did great). She will also sound the word out out loud and then say it so her sentences when she is reading sound like this... She couldn't think think of (for instead of "of") anything anything more wonderful wonderful!

 

I don't know what else to do for her. My son who just finished K can read sentences in his readers and just knows the words and only sounds out one word every couple sentences.

 

She is supposed to be going into 3rd this year and I am seriously thinking of "redoing 2nd" (I don't usually go by grade levels but go at their pace, but the grade level means a lot to the little ones it seems which it never did to my oldest daughter who is now graduating).

 

I am going to take her to get her eyes checked, but don't know what to do past that. I don't want to assume that there is a disability, but maybe she just hasn't "gotten it" yet. I also don't know if maybe its ME! I have homeschooled for almost 10 years, but my oldest went to public school to learn to read and write so this is my first child I taught to read. I can only think that maybe I'm doing something wrong. I am using McRuffy Phonics and follow the program exactly as its written out and don't ever skip anything!

 

I would say that the McRuffy worked this past year and she did make leaps and bounds, but she still needs LOTS of help. She can read Frog and Toad pretty well, but I believe thats end of first grade??? She can also read Level 3 books pretty well. Maybe she just isn't ready to read Chapter books yet? She does have the Breyer Chapter books and does very well with those, but its because she reads them over and over and over! She loves them.

 

The other day I asked her to write the word "awake" in a sentence I was dictating to her. She had no clue how to write this word which amazed me. Her K brother walked in the room and says, "this is how you do it Leanna", and continued to write it down on the paper for her which REALLY upset her and she says, "He always knows everything!!"

 

I don't know if maybe the reading/spelling thing could be hereditary. My husband has the same problems with his reading/spelling which is very embarrassing for me. :(

 

The funny thing is that even though she reads everything extremely choppy and sounds words out aloud before saying them again, she can still comprehend everything she has read. My oldest daughter has the opposite problem so I am lost! :confused:

 

What to do next .....

[LizzyBee]

She is still within normal parameters for learning to read (ages 4-8), so she may just need more practice. If you go to http://www.dys-add.com, there is a list of signs and symptoms of dyslexia at all ages from preschool up. That list might help you decide whether you should be concerned or not.

 

My oldest dd more or less taught herself to read at age 3-4, my 2nd dd learned on the later side but within normal parameters, and my 3rd dd is dyslexic. When I would question why my 2nd dd learned things so much later than her older sister, my dh would remind me that they are 2 different children and they will do things on their own timetable.

 

My 3rd dd just turned 9 and is reading at Frog and Toad level. I am still calling her a 4th grader because she is graded by age for Sunday School and I don't want to hold her back there, and I'm hoping that eventually she'll catch up to her peers. If she doesn't, we'll either repeat 8th grade and start high school a year late, or we'll do a super-senior year.

[Ellie]

Well, under no circumstances do I think you should "redo" second, not for just one thing.

 

Sounds to me as if she just needs a different phonics approach. There are many good ones; my preference is Spalding.

[EKS]

A few ideas:

 

Make sure she is evaluated by a developmental optometrist. They will do a vision exam that includes checking for things like tracking.

 

The book Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz is a good place to start when contemplating reading problems in young children. It has lists of symptoms of dyslexia in children as young as toddlers.

 

As for redoing second grade, I think it's a bad idea. If reading is the only problem, I would (and did when my son was at that stage) move forward in all subjects at her pace.

[hsm6kids]

My DD (11) had a very hard time reading.....pretty much like what you describe. No matter what I tried she struggled and was so frustrated, she wanted to read so badly but just couldn't get it. I took her to the eye doctor and sure enough she needed glasses, her vision was pretty bad in both eyes but the left eye she could hardly see with at all. That's why she repeated words because she wasn't sure the letters were what she thought they were. They eye doctor told me that she would be delayed for awhile just because she was seeing things clearly for the first time. It was really amazing how much her world changed when she got her glasses. She was 7 then, she still struggled a little while after her glasses just because she had no confidence in her ability to read. Now she reads at grade level and really enjoys reading.

[laundrycrisis]

Make sure she is evaluated by a developmental optometrist. They will do a vision exam that includes checking for things like tracking.

 

 

:iagree:

 

You can look for one here:

 

http://www.covd.org/

 

A "regular" optometrist does not know how to do these exams. After six months of patching an amblyopic eye, we were told our 7 yo's vision was "great". It turned out that he saw double up close, suppressed his amblyopic eye to shut off the double vision, could not track across a line of text, had a big fuzzy spot in the middle of his visual field, could not see the different proportions of letters, or the spacing between them, had no depth perception at all even with his glasses on, and could not visually discriminate right vs left. The "regular" optometrist missed all of this. Definitely for a child with reading difficulties, I would go to a developmental optometrist.

[hsm6kids]

:iagree:

I should have mentioned that she did see a pediatric optometrist. When she had eye tests at her regular doctor visits she always passed them. It wasn't until her left eye started crossing a bit that we were referred to the pediatric optometrist.

Edited July 22, 2010 by hsm6kids

[MerryAtHope]

:iagree:

 

You can look for one here:

 

http://www.covd.org/

 

A "regular" optometrist does not know how to do these exams. After six months of patching an amblyopic eye, we were told our 7 yo's vision was "great". It turned out that he saw double up close, suppressed his amblyopic eye to shut off the double vision, could not track across a line of text, had a big fuzzy spot in the middle of his visual field, could not see the different proportions of letters, or the spacing between them, had no depth perception at all even with his glasses on, and could not visually discriminate right vs left. The "regular" optometrist missed all of this. Definitely for a child with reading difficulties, I would go to a developmental optometrist.

 

I third. Definitely look into this.

 

I don't want to assume that there is a disability, but maybe she just hasn't "gotten it" yet.

 

You don't need to "assume," but I would definitely look into the possibility. That can be a scary thought--people have so many misconceptions about what learning disabilities are. Many kids with learning disabilities are gifted in other areas. At this stage, knowledge is power, is understanding, is help. Find out as much as you can. Now is a good age...I wouldn't wait much past age 8 if you do wait. The link on dyslexia that was posted upthread is a good idea to check too. Don't let the thought intimidate you--it really can help to find out (sooner rather than later) if something is going on. Whether or not your dd has dyslexia or another learning disability, I would look for an Orton Gillingham based program for reading, and consider posting on the special needs board. It's not just you, but it could be that the curriculum isn't a good match for her needs. Reading Reflex really helped my kids, and All About Spelling has helped them for both reading and spelling (link to my blog review in my siggie if you want to know more about that). And Vision Therapy is really helping my son--sooo glad we're doing this! Wish I had known more when he was younger.

 

HTH some! Merry :-)

[silliness7]

I think you're on the right check getting the vision checked. She could have 20/20 vision but have some other vision deficiency that hopefully your dr. will be trained to check for or at least knowledgeable enough to refer you elsewhere. My son struggles with focusing on small print, tracking, and visual memory. He is doing vision therapy exercises and is improving. He has finally taken off in his reading. He's in the 5th grade.

[parias1126]

Thank you all for all the amazing responses! I am going to contact a Developmental Optometrist tomorrow morning first thing. We don't have health insurance so I am not sure how much this will end up costing. Are they quite a bit more money then a regular eye doctor?

 

I guess thats the first step before I look at other curriculums. I have been thinking bout AAS, but haven't purchased it yet. I was trying to see if there is an actual reason for why she is not reading so well yet. I just keep thinking that maybe she hasn't "gotten it" quite yet.

 

I spent so many years taking my oldest to this doctor and that because everyone always wanted to blame the things she couldn't do in school a "disability". It drove me bonkers! That is the whole reason I decided to homeschool. I just got sick of all the public school teachers saying she had a disability. She still does not get math. Has been doing Algebra 1 for 2 years and is ready to graduate, but no one has ever found a "disability". I just finally gave up and am going to let her live her life and be who she is.

 

I just don't want to start the same things with my younger daughter because everything my oldest went through really hurt her self esteem at times. This is why I said I don't want to "assume it was a disability".

 

Thank you all!

[parias1126]

I think you're on the right check getting the vision checked. She could have 20/20 vision but have some other vision deficiency that hopefully your dr. will be trained to check for or at least knowledgeable enough to refer you elsewhere. My son struggles with focusing on small print, tracking, and visual memory. He is doing vision therapy exercises and is improving. He has finally taken off in his reading. He's in the 5th grade.

 

The funny thing is that she can read better on my Kindle when I make the print bigger. She always wants me to make the print huge so she can see it. This is why I had the first thought to get her eyes checked. More and more signs are leaning towards vision problems. I just hope to get it all straightened out. Come to think of it, the chapter books are small print and she has a harder time reading (its not really that the words are much harder). The Breyer horse books she is reading, the print is pretty big in those as well. The Frog and Toad books also have bigger print. All of that she can read just fine!

 

I did notice she would skip a lot of lines in the chapter book with the smaller print, skip over words, etc.

[TengoFive]

At 7, I would wait and see. My kids have all had the tools they needed to read long before they were comfortable reading. I found that once I had taught them what they needed to read, if I backed off it clicked eventually. It has taken from 0-2 years for each of mine to "click" after learning phonics. I was quite worried about my 8 year old who still wasn't happy reading, but one day he found a chapter book he wanted to read and was off! He read that series of 10 books voraciously (within a week) and we haven't look backed since. My oldest was 7 when she clicked. She went from reading being an incredible chore to reading a 900 page book literally overnight.

My middle one clicked at the same time she was learning phonics and basically knew the rules before we got to them. My next one is learning phonics now, and I can see the light is about to go on. She can read pretty well, but its not automatic yet.

I certainly would not hold a child back at this age for not reading. I would try giving her a little time off from reading, before I did anything else. What book of ETC is she in?

[parias1126]

At 7, I would wait and see. My kids have all had the tools they needed to read long before they were comfortable reading. I found that once I had taught them what they needed to read, if I backed off it clicked eventually. It has taken from 0-2 years for each of mine to "click" after learning phonics. I was quite worried about my 8 year old who still wasn't happy reading, but one day he found a chapter book he wanted to read and was off! He read that series of 10 books voraciously (within a week) and we haven't look backed since. My oldest was 7 when she clicked. She went from reading being an incredible chore to reading a 900 page book literally overnight.

My middle one clicked at the same time she was learning phonics and basically knew the rules before we got to them. My next one is learning phonics now, and I can see the light is about to go on. She can read pretty well, but its not automatic yet.

I certainly would not hold a child back at this age for not reading. I would try giving her a little time off from reading, before I did anything else. What book of ETC is she in?

 

She is in book 5 of ETC, but we are breaking for the summer. That is the book she should had been doing over the summer and it kinda got put on the back burner because I got sick of seeing my kids frustrated everytime I said we needed to get some schoolwork done, read, etc. So..we are officially taking a break aside from reading a little ever other day or so or me reading to them.

[Susie in CA]

You just described my older son!! He had no eye problems at all. It took him a long time to read. He just needed to mature. When he was in first grade I simply made a family reading time after dinner for 30 min every day. We would all read. I had to sit next to ds to make sure he was actually reading/looking at a book because he would drift off and just wait until the time was up. He got much better at it. As he started to be able to just look/read a book for 30 min. I slowly started to eliminate books with pictures. He could read those any other time; just not during family reading time. The reason for this was that he could spend the entire time looking at the pictures and not read a single word. That year his reading improved tremednously and he LOVED family reading time. He still reads slower then his little brother but not much. He is in 6th grade now. Like you dc, he never had comprehension issues. All is well! Maybe she too needs more practice.

 

Susie

 

BTW, all we did was silent reading during this time.

[EKS]

The funny thing is that she can read better on my Kindle when I make the print bigger. She always wants me to make the print huge so she can see it. This is why I had the first thought to get her eyes checked. More and more signs are leaning towards vision problems. I just hope to get it all straightened out. Come to think of it, the chapter books are small print and she has a harder time reading (its not really that the words are much harder). The Breyer horse books she is reading, the print is pretty big in those as well. The Frog and Toad books also have bigger print. All of that she can read just fine!

 

I did notice she would skip a lot of lines in the chapter book with the smaller print, skip over words, etc.

 

These all are signs that it is a vision problem--or vision that needs more time to develop.

[parias1126]

Thank you again for all the suggestions. I went to the site for the optometrist and found one in my area....thank goodness there is one! It seems they are the only one in all of Charlotte! Those of you that have children with tracking issues, etc., do they all have to have therapy? I am just worried that I won't be able to afford this. The appointment alone is $350, then if she needs therapy, its $135 a week?? YIKES!

 

Do they sometimes just need glasses or is it always therapy that is recommended?

[EKS]

Thank you again for all the suggestions. I went to the site for the optometrist and found one in my area....thank goodness there is one! It seems they are the only one in all of Charlotte! Those of you that have children with tracking issues, etc., do they all have to have therapy? I am just worried that I won't be able to afford this. The appointment alone is $350, then if she needs therapy, its $135 a week?? YIKES!

 

Do they sometimes just need glasses or is it always therapy that is recommended?

 

One child just needed therapy and the other needed glasses and therapy. It is expensive, but maybe you can work out something where you do more homework and have fewer office visits. There are also computer programs (that need to be prescribed by the optometrist) that can help.

[AHASRADA]

I would definitely take a long, hard look at the symptoms for dyslexia. I began to worry about my dd's reading when she was 6/7 in mid 1st grade. We worked through 3 different phonics programs, but they always moved too fast for her and just kept "hitting a wall" with all of them. I had heard from so many hsing moms that kids learn at different ages and to just give it time, so we would take a break and try not to push for a while. I think dh started thinking maybe I didn't really know how to teach her, and I secretly had some doubts inside myself.

 

We wasted a lot of time wondering and hoping she would just "catch on" with more practice. In mid 2nd grade, I met a hsing mom whose son was dyslexic. Over weeks of casual conversation, I saw so many similarities, it gave me goosebumps. She showed me her Wilson materials she had used with him (an OG-based program) and decided it couldn't hurt to try it. It has done wonders for her! We finally had her professionally evaluated mid-4th grade, and she is severely dyslexic. We have now finished Wilson, and are doing a fluency program this year along with Megawords, followed by Rewards Intermediate for 6th (hopefully completing Megawords in 8th).

 

Of course you don't want to jump to conclusions and assume she has a "disability", but it is important to be open to the possibility. A lot of precious time can be wasted with our heads in the sand while remediation could be happening.

 

I would recommend either AAS (which is primarily for spelling but can work for reading too) or Wilson (a complete program).

 

HTH,

[jenniferlee]

My first two read very early and easily, so when my third daughter seemed to be having trouble, I was a little concerned. At 7, she was barely reading, still sounding out everything. Sometime around 7.5 she got a little better, something seemed to "click on" and she started trying to read more things independently of me making her read during school time. But it really wasn't until this last year - (she turned 8 last october) that I would say she was actually "reading". Just this summer, I have noticed a huge leap. She reads out loud to her younger brother and does a great job with inflection, etc. She reads longer chapter books now, although still a little slower than the other kids at that age. And she'll be nine in a couple of months.

I did get her tested for dyslexia at the eye dr. when she was 7 and the test was inconclusive (mainly because she really couldn't read at all then) they wanted me to retest her because they were concerned, in 6 months, but she had improved enough by then that I didn't think she needed it.

 

Now, she does have several vision issues - amblyopia since she was little, eye surgery at 5, which only partially corrected the problem, she wears glasses with bifocals for the eye turn and for far sightedness.

She always wears them to read and says she can't read very well without them. So I'm sure all of that played some part in her reading issues, but I also am sure she just needed some more time. It was really clear when things kind of switched over in her brain and the reading became so much easier, and it didn't coincide with a change in eye care. She's had the same prescription since she was 6.

 

Hope this is encouraging.

Also, I did try a couple of different programs, none seemed to make much difference. We started with 100 ez lessons and it was a good as anything else...

 

Jen

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

I recommend the syllabary and Webster's Speller:) The speller was used to teach reading and is fantastic IMHO:)

 

I strongly recommend Webster's Speller 1824 or 1908 editions found online here for free:

 

http://www.donpotter.net/education_pages/spelling_books.html

 

http://www.donpotter.net/PDF/Webster's%20Spelling%20Book%201824.pdf

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=TOANAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=webster%2Bspelling%2Bbook&lr=&as_brr=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

 

One thing to be aware of is that there a couple of words in the word lists that had different meaning back then so you may want to preview the word list before using with your child. You can decide whether to explain the old meanings as I did or choose to edit the word list that day;) I literally have only had about 4 words that needed careful explanations so far:)

 

Also here is a public school version of Webster's speller by Don:

 

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf_files/websters_spelling_book_1824.pdf

 

I use them in PDF format on the computer with a lap-size whiteboard and dry erase marker

 

I also highly recommend ElizabethB's site that has spelling and phonics lessons:)

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/index.html

Both of these sites have a wealth of info and the Webster Speller is the best I have ever seen:)

 

I review the word list(s) with my son and have him read out loud. Then I dictate the words for him to write on the white board In the 1908 version, there are many sentences that use the many of the words from the word lists. When we get to them, I will dictate them to him. I also after a bunch of word lists will dictate random words from all of the lists recently used.

 

My son is 8 in 2nd grade at a K12 cyber school. You will have to judge how many words and sentences to give him in a sitting based on his abilities. At the very least I review one word family in a list such as day, pay, lay, etc. You could spend one or more days on a word family depending on your son. My son learns spelling words quickly so I go through them quickly, but try not to over do it. I would also make sure to review the syllabary and that your son know it cold before moving on.

 

Here is an explanation of Webster's way:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/webstersway.html

 

Here is another guide to Webster's Speller:

 

http://www.donpotter.net/PDF/How%20To%20USE%20NOAH%20WEBSTER.pdf

 

 

Here is ElizabethB's movie on how to use Webster's:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/usingwebstermovi.html

 

ElizabethB also has phonics and spelling lessons to re-enforce Webster's:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/phonicslsnslinks.html

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellinglessonsl.html

[MerryAtHope]

Thank you again for all the suggestions. I went to the site for the optometrist and found one in my area....thank goodness there is one! It seems they are the only one in all of Charlotte! Those of you that have children with tracking issues, etc., do they all have to have therapy? I am just worried that I won't be able to afford this. The appointment alone is $350, then if she needs therapy, its $135 a week?? YIKES!

 

Do they sometimes just need glasses or is it always therapy that is recommended?

 

Wow, that is higher than what we've had to pay. Is there anyone else within driving distance at all? Our initial appointment was $150, and then therapy is $85 per appointment. We go every month or so and they give lots of homework so we do the bulk of therapy at home--we are 2.5 hours from our office, so weekly would be too hard. If you have any options at all, I'd call around and see if there's an office willing to work with you a bit. Maybe it's just more expensive in larger cities though, I don't know--we're in the midwest. Therapy is usually at least 10 weeks/appointments.

 

You could also call back the office and see if they will be willing to work with you.

 

Insurance doesn't usually cover Vision Therapy, but ours did cover our initial appointment. If it's not in the budget right now, you could save up for it & in the meantime work with Orton Gillingham based materials and see if they make a difference. When I wasn't sure (and plus we couldn't afford it at the time), I started off with All About Spelling. It made a big difference for my kids. After a year and a half I could tell my son still had some other issues going on, and our financial situation was different then, so then I went for a consult.

 

I hope you can find out what's going on and find something to help! Merry :-)

[laundrycrisis]

Thank you again for all the suggestions. I went to the site for the optometrist and found one in my area....thank goodness there is one! It seems they are the only one in all of Charlotte! Those of you that have children with tracking issues, etc., do they all have to have therapy? I am just worried that I won't be able to afford this. The appointment alone is $350, then if she needs therapy, its $135 a week?? YIKES!

 

Do they sometimes just need glasses or is it always therapy that is recommended?

 

The need for lenses and the need for vision therapy are different issues - it could be one or the other, or both.

 

The costs you have are very close to what I have paid, at two different COVD optometrists.

 

We were able to get medical coverage for part of the exams but not all parts, and no coverage for the therapy. Last year in IL it was covered by BCBSIL as a type of physical therapy but this coverage was dropped in January 2010. (Our son's VT had already been approved over the phone until the policy update came through.) I believe BC still covers it in other states though (which is the basis for legal action our doctor may possibly pursue.) Our optometrist files all of the claims which even though they get denied, will be helpful to us if they are successful in getting the coverage back.

 

At both offices we have gone to, I have been able to get a discount on the therapy by paying for a block of sessions in advance. I put them on a low interest credit card and am paying it off as I can.