Teaching my 6yos to read.... help

[Pam H]

Hello my friends.

 

Background... My 6yo was dx w/PDD-NOS in 2006. He was non-verbal until age 3. His st taught him to the basic concepts of communication using PECS in just 3 months. He grew by leaps and bounds in the following two years. I was so unsure about how to teach him, we sent him to the ps for K. He learned easily and is reading CVC words and doing fairly well in math. Relieved, we brought him home this year. This is our 14th year hsing. He is my 6th son.

 

I cannot teach him about variations to the rules he's already learned!!! I have used sooo many reading/phonics curricula. Not all with him, but I am stuck with what I should use.

 

I am currently using Horizons 1. Also have Plaid Phonics. Looked at Scaredy Cat. In the past I have used 100 EZ Lessons, Blue LLATL, WRTR, MFW, maybe others.... I've tried to sleep since then.

 

I'm seriously considering looking closer at WRTR for him. My other three at home are currently using SOS, so I have some time to invest in my baby. Can anybody offer some counsel?

[Ottakee]

I would check out the I See Sam books from http://www.3rsplus.com or http://www.iseesam.com They are wonderful. I have posted several times about these books and how they worked with my special needs daughters.

[Pam H]

Ottakee,

 

I have read your posts about these books and looked at them briefly. I spent more time looking at them tonight. Where would I start with him? He is already reading short vowels well and many blends. He has several sight words. Is there a placement test or something?

[merry gardens]

...I cannot teach him about variations to the rules he's already learned!!!

Could you elaborate on what you mean by that? Is he stuck on CVC words because he can't understand how new rules affect what he already knows, or is he stuck on exceptions to the rules? I don't understand if he's having problems learning new vowel sounds, blends, digraphs or what specifically. ??? Are all his speech problems corrected so that he can make the sounds in the words you want him to read? (Warning: I still might not be able to help even if I knew more details.:tongue_smilie:)

[Pam H]

Could you elaborate on what you mean by that? Is he stuck on CVC words because he can't understand how new rules affect what he already knows, or is he stuck on exceptions to the rules? I don't understand if he's having problems learning new vowel sounds, blends, digraphs or what specifically. ??? Are all his speech problems corrected so that he can make the sounds in the words you want him to read? (Warning: I still might not be able to help even if I knew more details.:tongue_smilie:)

 

Basically, after one and one half week of school, he will not accept that the vowels have another sound beside the short vowel sound. Granted, I've only been at it a short time, but there is no light going on. I don't think he believes me. :001_huh:

[ElizabethB]

Basically, after one and one half week of school, he will not accept that the vowels have another sound beside the short vowel sound. Granted, I've only been at it a short time, but there is no light going on. I don't think he believes me. :001_huh:

 

I would do WRTR.

 

Here is a good chart if he is mathematically minded:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/Resources/Letter%20sound%20reada.pdf

 

(I also have one for spelling, they are both linked here.)

 

You might also want to invest in "The ABCs and All Their Tricks," and some phonogram cards, I like Michael Brunner's, they are correlated to the book and cheap:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Phonics-Made-Plain-Chart-Flashcards/dp/0880621486/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284435142&sr=8-1

 

"The ABCs..." is based on a study of the most common 17,000 words in English and explains all the sounds and exceptions each letter and letter pair in English can make. (My chart is a summary of that, the book has more details and lists of words and exceptions.)

 

It can be hard for any student to make the switch over to long vowels if they have been working on the short vowels too long. I find it best to explain that the vowels generally say their name at the end of syllables and short words and to start with simple words like be and me and hi and go and no. (And, if he needs to know everything up front, that there are other combinations where they say their name like with a silent e and in letter teams like ee, ea, igh, oa, ow, and oe.)

 

Here are the ways to sound out the most commonly taught sight words and the rules that apply:

 

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

[Ottakee]

http://www.teacherweb.com/CA/PomeloDriveElementary/Mrssakamoto/printap2.stm'>http://www.teacherweb.com/CA/PomeloDriveElementary/Mrssakamoto/printap2.stm'>http://www.teacherweb.com/CA/PomeloDriveElementary/Mrssakamoto/printap2.stm'>http://www.teacherweb.com/CA/PomeloDriveElementary/Mrssakamoto/printap2.stm Here you can print out the first 2 sets for free. He might need to start here--even if they are easy as they teach from book one that ee says the long e sound and later on they have the word me (e at the end says the long sound). They also use words that are very similar to make sure the child is really decoding--things like Nan and Nat, this, than, that, etc.

 

There is a placement test at http://www.teacherweb.com/CA/PomeloDriveElementary/Mrssakamoto/printap2.stm If in doubt at all, start lower. There is also a yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Beginning-Reading-Instruction/ that is WONDERFUL and full of free advice, things to download, etc. There are several homeschooling moms there as well as teachers and tutors from around the world using this program.

[merry gardens]

Basically, after one and one half week of school, he will not accept that the vowels have another sound beside the short vowel sound. Granted, I've only been at it a short time, but there is no light going on. I don't think he believes me. :001_huh:

ah!! so he doesn't believe you! His ps teacher told him about vowels and he understood her, and now you're telling him something else that conflicts with what he already knows!

 

I use Bartons for my dyslexic son, and that system works with short vowels only for the first couple of levels. Vowels can be very confusing to some children learning to read. I don't have time now to write more right now, but I will later.

[ElizabethB]

You could have him watch the Starfall movies "Silent e" and "lonely vowel" a few times! (The far right of #5 and #10.)

 

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/load.htm?f

[merry gardens]

Basically, after one and one half week of school, he will not accept that the vowels have another sound beside the short vowel sound. Granted, I've only been at it a short time, but there is no light going on. I don't think he believes me. :001_huh:

You could try a couple of things.

 

The simplest might be if you live in the area of his old kindergarten teacher, maybe take him on a little field trip. If she told him that vowels can make other sounds and that he's now doing so well with short vowel sounds that he can learn about more vowel sounds, maybe then he'd believe you.:) If the problem is simply that he doesn't believe you, maybe that would do the trick.

 

Vowels and all their various sounds really confused my little guy. Just when he starting to understand letters, I told him they made a "kazillion" other sounds! o oo oe oi---it's not even as simple as when two vowels go walking-they can make lots of other weird sounds. Sometimes they say the other vowels' names like "ew". Then there's the r influenced vowels that say something entirely different like "ar" and "er" and "air" "or". Just five little letters and sometimes y--but they can make a lot of sounds. Some of those sounds are nearly identical--and many children with speech and reading problems have difficulty distinguishing some of the similar sounds from one another.

 

Anyway, maybe try the simplest thing first. See if he believes you if his old K teacher tells him vowels can make different sounds and his mommy will teach him them. Then, once he believes you, see if you can teach those various other vowel sounds slowly. It sounds like you have strong phonics materials and maybe the materials you already have will work. If they don't work, you could work exclusively with short vowel sounds for a while then at a later time, re-introduce other vowel sounds slowly. He can develop his other reading skills with consonant blends and such.

 

Hope that helps!

[liltrees]

Thank you so much! Ladies, you are incredible. I just happened upon this thread and you have given me resources for helping my 8 yo with reading.

 

Thank you again for sharing!

[Pam H]

Thank you all for your ideas, links and encouraging words. :001_smile:

 

Tim had a breakthrough today. And this is what did the trick...

 

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/short_long_vowels_lapbook.php'>http://www.homeschoolshare.com/short_long_vowels_lapbook.php

 

the "two vowel rule flapbook" is what clicked with him.

 

Also, I'm going to work with this:

 

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/short_long_vowels_lapbook.php

 

The last resource is not a lapbook, but just a workbook-ish item.