Is she guessing when reading?

[mo2]

What to do about this? My 8yo made the following mistakes today when reading:

 

crash---trash

flash---fish

scamp---smell

trash---trish

shack---snack

shell---smell

swish---swash

hits---has

 

There are more, but you get the idea. I was thinking that she was just guessing, but the words she is guessing don't even make sense in the sentence. :confused:

 

After she would read the word on one line, the next time she encountered it, she would act like she had never seen it before.

 

Any tips?

[Hedgehog]

I've just watched SWB's video - Questions and Answers series 3 where she discusses something very similar to this. It might help you if you haven't already watched it.

 

Sounds very much like she's guessing the words to me. JMO.

[dcjlkplus3]

She might be only glancing at the words, not looking at them very carefully, trying to read quicker, I'd remind her to look at all the letters in the word.

[kathkath]

she is focusing only on phonics, not meaning. She needs more strategies.

[mo2]

she is focusing only on phonics, not meaning. She needs more strategies.

 

Like what??

[Mallory]

Is she understanding the story?

 

Is she enjoying it or bored?

 

Mine 9yo does this sometimes, usually when he is reading ahead of himself. He often has understood the story it is just that the words coming out of his mouth are behind where he is actually reading or he is trying to look at the pictures and try to read at the same time.

 

Usually it helps if we talk about slowing down and telling me the story, not racing through to see what is going to happen.

[Rene']

What to do about this? My 8yo made the following mistakes today when reading:

 

crash---trash

flash---fish

scamp---smell

trash---trish

shack---snack

shell---smell

swish---swash

hits---has

 

There are more, but you get the idea. I was thinking that she was just guessing, but the words she is guessing don't even make sense in the sentence. :confused:

 

After she would read the word on one line, the next time she encountered it, she would act like she had never seen it before.

 

Any tips?

 

I highly recommend ElizabethB's online phonics videos. My girls are watching one a day, and we are only up to lesson 5 but already I've seen tons of improvement with each of them. Today we will start with the Phonics Concentration Game.

[RamonaQ]

How is the rest of her reading? Is she skipping words, or getting lost in the page?

[siloam]

What to do about this? My 8yo made the following mistakes today when reading:

 

crash---trash

flash---fish

scamp---smell

trash---trish

shack---snack

shell---smell

swish---swash

hits---has

 

There are more, but you get the idea. I was thinking that she was just guessing, but the words she is guessing don't even make sense in the sentence. :confused:

 

After she would read the word on one line, the next time she encountered it, she would act like she had never seen it before.

 

Any tips?

I would make her slow down. Generally what I do with my kids is when they make a mistake I repeat the words right before, and then know this is my clue that they have made an error and need to go back and re-read from the words I just said. After about 5 times of doing that they get tired of being corrected and generally slow down on their own.

 

Overall I would work on her letter to sound recall. Generally I do that buy playing games (phonics bingo, phonics go fish), going through flash cards, tracing sand letter cards or writing the phonograms in sand while saying their sounds, and I will simply dictate the sounds and have them write the letter.

 

Heather

[Tabrett]

It look like she is reading based on the shape of the word. The word she says is very close in spelling to the word on the page.

 

Or she is just looking at the beginning and ending of the word and guessing the middle.

 

crash---trash =if you cut the top of the t off it looks like a c

flash---fish = an l can look like an i

scamp---smell =????

trash---trish = just picked a vowel sound :confused:

shack---snack = h and n look very similar

shell---smell = h and m both have a hump. I could all see her saying snell

swish---swash = just picked a vowel again

hits---has = looked at the first and last sound and guessed

 

Have you had her eyes check lately? It could also be a focusing problem. Maybe an astigmatism where the individual letters seem to change shape on the page and she is quessing which letter it actually is? I needed glasses to play violin. I couldn't tell which line the note was actually on. It looked like notes would jump form one line to another.:tongue_smilie:

[katilac]

she is focusing only on phonics, not meaning. She needs more strategies.

 

I disagree. A child who is focusing on the phonics would never read scamp for smell. Guessing a random 's' word because you see that it starts with 's' is not focusing on phonics. I do agree that she is not focusing on meaning, because most of the mistaken words would not make sense in any context.

 

The simplest fix to try first is to maker her slow. down. Don't let her keep going if she reads something silly like "The hot dogs scamped really good," lol. Stop her and start her again at the beginning of the sentence. You can try blocking other words; use a big index card and hold it under the text to show only the sentence she is reading, or cut a square into the index card and show only one word at a time (if she rilly, rilly needs to slow down!). Or you can have her use a pointer or her finger. Experiment a bit.

 

You will likely be saying "slow down" a lot at first. Sometimes it helps to put your hand on their shoulder as they read, giving them a bit of pressure if they speed up too much.

 

If she makes the same mistakes when she is reading slowly, then I would think vision problem and have that checked.

[Susan in KY]

Vision problem crossed my mind as well.

:iagree:

[MerryAtHope]

Vision problem crossed my mind as well.

 

Me too, in fact I suggest looking at vision processing issues in addition to regular vision--check out www.covd.org. It may or may not be a fit. Kids who guess at words based on a first letter or the shape of a word are struggling with reading for some reason. They have to really work at reading--much harder than a regular reader--and it can take some detective work to find out why. If it's not a gap in phonics knowledge, then look for other reasons. Not recognizing the same word in the very next sentence at 8 yo makes me suspect some kind of vision issue. (My son who has vision processing issues did this at this age). I hope you can find out what's going on!

 

Merry :-)

[Snowfall]

My DD makes odd mistakes like that when she's rushing, but she is also going to be evaluated for vision problems, so we'll see if it's a vision issue or a rushing issue. :)

 

I disagree. A child who is focusing on the phonics would never read scamp for smell. Guessing a random 's' word because you see that it starts with 's' is not focusing on phonics. I do agree that she is not focusing on meaning, because most of the mistaken words would not make sense in any context.

 

:iagree:with your disagreement. Phonics teaches a child to read the word that's on the page. The only other strategy there is (that is not whole language) is to guess the word based on context. While guessing the meaning of a word based on context is a good idea, guessing what the actual word is doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

[Murmer]

You've gotten a lot of really good advice...I will add that you may want to encourage her to think about if the word she just said made sense...once she realizes that is does not make sense at all have her go back and look at it phonetically again.

It looks like she is using phonics but not looking carefully enough but she has no strategy for noticing it was a mistake so she needs a way to notice what she said was wrong. The way to encourage the independently is to focus on if it made sense (because it doesn't).

[mo2]

Is she understanding the story?

 

Is she enjoying it or bored?

 

Yes, she understands the stories. She gets the gist of it anyway. I wouldn't say she is bored per se, but she totally dreads reading and it is like pulling teeth to get her to sit down with any book. Not because she is bored but because it is "hard."

 

 

How is the rest of her reading? Is she skipping words, or getting lost in the page?

 

Yes, she gets lost on the page, like forgets which line she is on, and occasionally skips words.

 

I would make her slow down. Generally what I do with my kids is when they make a mistake I repeat the words right before, and then know this is my clue that they have made an error and need to go back and re-read from the words I just said. After about 5 times of doing that they get tired of being corrected and generally slow down on their own.

 

Overall I would work on her letter to sound recall. Generally I do that buy playing games (phonics bingo, phonics go fish), going through flash cards, tracing sand letter cards or writing the phonograms in sand while saying their sounds, and I will simply dictate the sounds and have them write the letter.

 

Heather

 

She IS reading slowly. When she says a wrong word, I say, "Wait, let's try that again. Look at each letter in order." I use a paper or my finger to uncover the letters one at a time.

 

Have you had her eyes check lately? It could also be a focusing problem. Maybe an astigmatism where the individual letters seem to change shape on the page and she is quessing which letter it actually is? I needed glasses to play violin. I couldn't tell which line the note was actually on. It looked like notes would jump form one line to another.:tongue_smilie:

 

I just had her eyes checked about a month ago. No astigmatism. 20/20 vision, but that's all they check for. I've looked on the COVD website and the nearest developmental optometrist is 2 hrs away, not easily do-able.

 

 

Thanks to everyone who responded!

[Snowfall]

You could see an ophthalmologist, I think. I know they can also test for convergence issues, although I'm not sure what they can actually do about them. Anyway, if they could get the appropriate testing done, at least you would know if she has a vision problem or not. But that's only if you think it's a possibility anyway. I just wanted to throw it out there that you should be able to get testing from someone closer to you.

[mo2]

You could see an ophthalmologist, I think. I know they can also test for convergence issues, although I'm not sure what they can actually do about them. Anyway, if they could get the appropriate testing done, at least you would know if she has a vision problem or not. But that's only if you think it's a possibility anyway. I just wanted to throw it out there that you should be able to get testing from someone closer to you.

 

 

I'll have to do some calling around. There are only 4 eye docs in town, and one of those is WalMart. Thanks for the suggestion.

[EKS]

After she would read the word on one line, the next time she encountered it, she would act like she had never seen it before.

 

 

 

This can be a classic sign of dyslexia. It can also be a sign of vision problems (the type that are diagnosed by a developmental optometrist and corrected with vision therapy). In my son's case, it was a sign of both.

 

I spent *years* with a pencil under each word my son read. When he misread a word, I would point with the pencil at the part that was tripping him up.

Edited November 8, 2010 by EKS

[siloam]

She IS reading slowly. When she says a wrong word, I say, "Wait, let's try that again. Look at each letter in order." I use a paper or my finger to uncover the letters one at a time.

 

Then it will come in time. It took my 3rd dd a whole year to consistently read vowel consonant silent e words correctly. Not because she didn't know the rule or couldn't read them, it just took that long for it to click in her reading so she did it automatically.

 

Just keep swimming...

 

Heather

 

[Snowfall]

Then it will come in time. It took my 3rd dd a whole year to consistently read vowel consonant silent e words correctly. Not because she didn't know the rule or couldn't read them, it just took that long for it to click in her reading so she did it automatically.

 

Just keep swimming...

 

Heather

 

 

I know this isn't my thread, but thanks for sharing this. My DD has a very hard time switching back and forth between cvc and cvce words. If we're doing all cvce words, she can keep up, but going back and forth is hard for her. She's getting better, but it's still hard.

[LND1218]

Did they check her for being farsighted?

Did they dilate her eyes?

 

My dd had the same issue - turns out she is farsighted. She has what appears to be 20/20 vision, but she is farsighted. And her eyes get so tired that she often guesses or just reads words wrong.

 

If she hasn't had that done, that may be something to check.