brown_academy Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Ok so my 7 year old son is BRILLIANT at science and these electric circuit board things and music ability is insane how great he is-BUT he just struggles to read and we also notice that if he gets in trouble or if he feels intimidated in any way he just, "checks out" he is just not there anymore and I can all his name and get him back in focus but he has no idea what I am saying and if I ask him what is going on-he says, "I just don't want to be wrong". I am so frustrated by this-he has an awful time in first grade with a terrible teacher who really was awful to him considering how shy he was-his reading level went backwards-seriously backwards and it slowly getting better but he still just doesn't seem to get it. I took him to the pediatrician and they tested ears, eyes, and such-and they also said it in no way looks like ADD to them but they are going to send him for neuro psych exam-but I am worried-I think that it may just be anxiety and I don't want him labeled with something else if it is JUST anxiety. However, if its something else then we need to catch it and address it immediately-any thoughts, suggestions-I am just worried. He checked out with his guitar teacher the other day as well-so I know this is really something he is struggling with I just don't want to completely blow it out of proportion either! Thanks in advance for any help or advice you may have!:confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Read Linda Silverman's Upside Down Brilliance (check the library) http://www.amazon.com/Upside-Down-Brilliance-Visual-Spatial-Learner/dp/193218600X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1286416464&sr=8-1 see also http://www.visualspatial.org/ Sounds like introversion + perfectionism + difficulty learning to read of unkown origin I think a neuropsych exam is an excellent idea. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ME-Mommy Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Have you ever checked out Dianne Craft's website? I just heard her speak today at the Old Schoolhouse Magazine Schoolhouse Expo. She has some wonderful material that may help you determine what is going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dobela Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Check out the signs and symptoms for vision problems at www.covd.org. My son's reading didn't pregress because he had tracking issues that the pediatrician, the regular opthamologist and optometrist couldn't identify. My concern with spacing out would be seizures honestly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 (edited) You can give him the MWIA to determine if his reading problems are caused by sight words and/or balanced literacy and whole word teaching at school. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/readinggradeleve.html If he misses more phonetic words than holistic words or reads the phonetic words more than 15% slower than the holistic words, you'll need to do some phonics remediation. And, to overcome the effects of sight words, you'll need to do some nonsense words to break the bad habits learned from whole word teaching. My remedial students work through my free online lessons and the program on my how to tutor page. Edit: I thought you might appreciate this link to a book I discovered in my research about reading and spelling, it's about Wayne County, Indiana! It is a fascinating book to me, and I've never even been there. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/historyofwayneco.html Edited October 7, 2010 by ElizabethB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaffodilDreams Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 My concern with spacing out would be seizures honestly. I would bet that it's less a seizure issue and more of a flight or fight mechanism. The OP stated that he "checks out" when he is intimidated or under pressure. Flight/fight mode fits the situation. I know about that because it's common among previously institutionalized children, but it's certainly not unique to children with such backgrounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown_academy Posted October 7, 2010 Author Share Posted October 7, 2010 (edited) 1 Edited October 7, 2010 by brown_academy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown_academy Posted October 7, 2010 Author Share Posted October 7, 2010 (edited) ELIZABETHB-dit: I thought you might appreciate this link to a book I discovered in my research about reading and spelling, it's about Wayne County, Indiana! It is a fascinating book to me, and I've never even been there. I read this and I had wondered about this approach as well since spelling is not an issue for him-he even got perfects on his spelling at school-if there maybe some way to teach him to read by learning to spell first-this is fascinating. I am also going to try that test thing as well and see if I can figure out where we are going wrong with this. I have to say he like the "fly guy" books,and has really started this week, wanting to read on his own. So I let him,I just figured at least he is trying, even if its just looking at the pictures and then all of a sudden yesterday he began asking what certain words were. He struggles with "about","because", "could" "would" "should" -these are words that no matter how many times he comes across them he just cant ever seem to remember them! If he sees an f he tries to say the v sound for some reason-he catches himself and changes it but never the less it always starts out that way- and the "th" sound he wants to say the f sound and i have to remind him, "what sounds does th make?" then he corrects it. But if I ask him to spell "the" and "then" and "three" he can or to find them on a paper and he also can do that. I am not sure if this helps information helps anybody have a little more insight, I just think that ElizabethB might be on to something. Also do you think then that i should have him tested? My hesitation is that he is already apprehensive and feels "stupid" and if its a LD I want to know so we can help him BUT I also dont want him to feel any more pressure, you know the whole "Why am I am being tested" scenario. Does this make sense? I am so sorry to ramble! Edited October 7, 2010 by brown_academy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 (edited) ELIZABETHB-dit: I thought you might appreciate this link to a book I discovered in my research about reading and spelling, it's about Wayne County, Indiana! It is a fascinating book to me, and I've never even been there.I read this and I had wondered about this approach as well since spelling is not an issue for him-he even got perfects on his spelling at school-if there maybe some way to teach him to read by learning to spell first-this is fascinating. I am also going to try that test thing as well and see if I can figure out where we are going wrong with this. I have to say he like the "fly guy" books,and has really started this week, wanting to read on his own. So I let him,I just figured at least he is trying, even if its just looking at the pictures and then all of a sudden yesterday he began asking what certain words were. He struggles with "about","because", "could" "would" "should" -these are words that no matter how many times he comes across them he just cant ever seem to remember them! If he sees an f he tries to say the v sound for some reason-he catches himself and changes it but never the less it always starts out that way- and the "th" sound he wants to say the f sound and i have to remind him, "what sounds does th make?" then he corrects it. But if I ask him to spell "the" and "then" and "three" he can or to find them on a paper and he also can do that. I am not sure if this helps information helps anybody have a little more insight, I just think that ElizabethB might be on to something. Also do you think then that i should have him tested? My hesitation is that he is already apprehensive and feels "stupid" and if its a LD I want to know so we can help him BUT I also dont want him to feel any more pressure, you know the whole "Why am I am being tested" scenario. Does this make sense? I am so sorry to ramble! Yes, that makes sense. With my students, I just tell them that I need to see how fast and how well they read 2 different sets of words so that I can figure out the best way to teach them. (The MWIA is a timed test.) I don't call it a test, I just tell them I need to see how they read the different sets of words to figure out how to best teach them. If you must call it something, assessment is the best word. Webster's Speller teaches phonics by teaching spelling along with phonics. I've had great success with Webster's Speller with my remedial students! I'm also using it to teach my son to read, and used it with my daughter, although she already knew a bit of phonics when I found the Speller. Spelling is basically the opposite of reading: reading is decoding and spelling is encoding. The words could, should, would, because and above are all Dolch sight words. Many of my struggling students have extra problems with words they were taught as wholes by sight. My sight word page explains how to teach the Dolch words phonetically and explains a bit about why teaching them by sight causes problems. If he learned them as wholes, learning them phonetically and working on some nonsense words and spelling should help. Edit: The sounds v and f are consonant pairs, they are made with the mouth in the same position. Watching my free online phonics lesson 6 (linked below in my signature) should help explain this, and also, here is a website that can help show how these sounds are similar yet different: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/# Edited October 8, 2010 by ElizabethB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown_academy Posted October 8, 2010 Author Share Posted October 8, 2010 Elizabeth you rock! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown_academy Posted October 8, 2010 Author Share Posted October 8, 2010 ok so elizabeth maybe you can help me with my results my 7 year old took 9 min to read phonetic-he kept wanting to tell me stories about the words-and he also really worked to sound some out-he had 9 errors then on the holistic he had 9 errors but took him 5 min then the vote 1 I was impressed with he took 13 min but he really did well i have to say he missed today, tuesday, have , please(only 1 time)-he missed NOW(every single time) because(2 times-got it after that) people(once toward the end-got it right above) then over(he said voter) elected want(he says went) good(then got it after) and sure(he said it like it looks with out the shhhh sound-our language is stinky to learn), material, office(he said it with hard c) does any of this help see anything I actually think he did really well to be honest-so I guess I really dont know-but he has on days and off days(dont we all) ALSO i printed off the webster thing and am going to start working with it-but I have an 11 year old who reads the words for words but has NO IDEA what he has read-he struggles with new words and sounding them out and he also, like i said cannot retain what he reads-any advice there! my 7 year old believe it or not even with stumbling can tell you exaclty what the story was about-thanks so much for alllllll of your advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown_academy Posted October 8, 2010 Author Share Posted October 8, 2010 ALSO when we did the spelling and the read it-it didn't seem to matter but he did try and SOUND out the word first in like dark-he had the d then ar the k but when he said it together it came out derk but he sounded it out ok-when he separated it-he did not try to sound out goat or boat he just said bot with a short o and same with goat-good he said god and for tree he did try to sound out but kept putting the r sound at the end so it was teeeer then teeereee then finally tree try was tire then tre then try or he said of(i think he just was in a hurry and saw it wrong) anywhere-was just a big word so he freaked out and you could tell he wasn't trying-but did sound our house and mouse!! on phoentic he really really really really struggles with the U sound-guess we will be working on that one for awhile- that was his only real issue it was luck, cut, duck, hunt, bulk. dust, hump, and i think once he had missed so many and he knew they weren't right because he kept saying mom that's not it but I cant remember what it is-so he KNOWS it isn't right but is just not recalling that silly u sound!! then he messed up lamp near the end just i think out of frustration-the u he says like a short e sound-if that tells you anything-BUT I def got what I need-we need to figure out U for sure!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 It is hard to tell for sure over the internet! But, it looks like there is at least some problems due to sight words and incomplete phonics based on the much longer time it took to do the phonics and some of the errors made. I would sit down as a family and watch my online phonics lessons (linked below) and play my concentration game. (Even the 11 year old. The online lessons should help with spelling as well as phonics, and are targeted for older students. You may need to pause the movies halfway through for those longer than 20 minutes if they are too long for your 7 year old.) Also, you can work through the ideas on my how to tutor page. It may also be dyslexia; like I said, it is hard to tell for sure over the internet! But, my lessons and the things on my how to tutor page have also helped students diagnosed with dyslexia, and they will teach you things you will need to know whether or not is it dyslexia or caused by incomplete phonics teaching and too many sight words and whole language practices at school. If there isn't much progress after a month, you can ask back here for ideas on things to do. I will post some more later with more thoughts and things to look for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown_academy Posted October 14, 2010 Author Share Posted October 14, 2010 Thanks again Elizabeth! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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