NCW Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Other than vision therapy (currently in progress) can you tell me everything you know that can improve fluency? Perhaps I've been missing something. Thanks in advance! NCW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RamonaQ Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 I have asked our reading tutor about this...concerning paired fluency reading. She said that those do not really improve fluency (data doesn't support). Here is what we have done... I have seen dramatic, DRAMATIC improvement in my son's reading fluency this year from two things: 1) Wilson tutoring (just about done) 2) Here is the one thing I think really think is the greatest though....Reading with audio. Ds is silently reading close to 700 pg/ week with audio. Just yesterday, I was completely shocked as he read 10 pages of The Phantom Tollbooth at a normal rate, no skips, very few mistakes (less than 3 per page) etc.... Prior to tutoring/ reading with audio ds would tire after about 2 pages, it was slow and there were some skips. Ds and I were discussing this last night. He said he felt that the things he thinks have helped are VT for the convergence insufficiency (not the extra phonics tutoring/ combined with vision therapy that the COVD provided), and tutoring/ reading along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dobela Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 I was told by my son's reading tutor that the best way to increase fluency is just by reading. She would have us read aloud books about a grade below his actual reading level. I would read pages first and then he would repeat trying to repeat my inflections and such. By using a book below his learning level he was not likely to stop and sound out words that were newer. Books on tape were also highly recommended. Even small children's books that he could listen to several times a day as he followed along in the book. She also taught Winston Grammar as part of increasing fluency. At first I questioned it but as he had a much better understanding of word position and punctuation his fluency increased as well. http://www.readingresource.net/readingfluencyactivities.html has a list of activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 (edited) Practice decoding words, especially multi-syllable words, divided with Webster and learning to divide on their own with syllable division rules and exercises. Also, reading difficult words before a reading selection and building up what they are able to read while progressing through more and more difficult selections. Webster's 1908 Speller and the 1879 McGuffey readers are set up well for this. Nonsense words and spelling. Edited February 15, 2011 by ElizabethB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Other than vision therapy (currently in progress) can you tell me everything you know that can improve fluency? Perhaps I've been missing something. Thanks in advance! NCW Have the re-read easy material. This builds speed. I generally have two sets of readers going, one at an instructional level, and one a year or more behind that. Thus my dyslexic dd who is still finishing up the Advanced Reading Instruction readers is also reading Now I'm Reading level 3 books, about the end of 1st grade material. Also having them read with a recording is good. The one problem with it is sometimes it is hard to find recordings that are slow enough for them to keep up with. I try to keep them on the easy side so they can be sure to keep up. There are also full fluency programs, like Great Leaps. It has three sections, one focused on phonics, one on words and one on sentences. The child reads a page from each daily, till they can read it correctly all the way through in a set time. It didn't work for my dd because she is slightly OCD and she decided to re-read everything till she could read it perfectly. Not good! I ended up having to record all her books for her for a year (and ban her from the rewind button) in order to break her of the habit. The program was solid, though. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
min Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 I'm curious about the reading with audio... Are these "special" books - as in, can you buy a set of them? I'm thinking it would be useful, and am getting DD to read while I'm reading to her, so that's the same idea, I guess. She picked up when I made a mistake the other day, so I think that's useful. We also did "smooth reading" and I thought that was helpful. Min Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCW Posted February 16, 2011 Author Share Posted February 16, 2011 Thank you, everyone. I really appreciate this. Some we've done, some we've tried - like the reading with the audio. He's extremely resistant to that, but will LISTEN to audiobooks all day long. I'm going to look everything over in more detail in the morning when I'm more alert. Best, NCW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RamonaQ Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 I'm curious about the reading with audio... Are these "special" books - as in, can you buy a set of them? I'm thinking it would be useful, and am getting DD to read while I'm reading to her, so that's the same idea, I guess. She picked up when I made a mistake the other day, so I think that's useful. We also did "smooth reading" and I thought that was helpful. Min Reading with audio...Can be as simple as reading actual book along with book on CD. In our case, we use text-to-speech on Kindle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
min Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Ah, that's an interesting thought. I'd not considered that option. Hmmm, you're making the Kindle really interesting! Thanks Min Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RamonaQ Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 min- The Kindle you can also increase the font size. Note that not all (purchased) books will do TTS. We convert bookshare.org books and they all allow TTS. Also-bookshare.org is developing an app for the iPad/iTouch/iPhone that will allow check out of books and TTS. I am anxiously awaiting that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Reading with audio...Can be as simple as reading actual book along with book on CD. In our case, we use text-to-speech on Kindle. I was wondering about the text to speech. I was worried that the computerized voice doing the reading would be an issue, have you had an yproblems with this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RamonaQ Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 I was wondering about the text to speech. I was worried that the computerized voice doing the reading would be an issue, have you had an yproblems with this? No. :001_smile: My son uses a lot of TTS. I introduced another friend whose dd is 9 yo, dyslexic, to Kindle/TTS/ increasing the font size. The mom was highly skeptical but the dd LOVED it and read an entire book in a week. The mom was skeptical because of some the the mispronunciations (ie R/u/.thee instead of R/oo/.thee) but when I asked the dd about she said, "oh no, it (kindle) said "R/oo/.thee)". My ds is similar, I have asked my ds what happens when he hears TTS mispronounce things, and he said he just automatically fixes it in his head (because there is text and he knows the words). So I do think that having a large vocabulary and context seems to help some of the glitchy-ness of TTS. I have read of others that do not like/ work well with TTS, so you may want to delve into what others do not like or why it doesn't work (I have wondered if differences in how people process auditory inputs may account for this). Or, alternatively, just do the experiment. Borrow someone's kindle, put a book your child would like to read on it, and turn on the TTS. See why your kid thinks. If you live near me, you are welcome to try mine :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCW Posted February 16, 2011 Author Share Posted February 16, 2011 My son said he tried to turn on TTS on his Kindle, but couldn't figure out how to do it. For some reason he's decided he prefers "real books" to the Kindle, when we all thought he'd like the font size change option. Instead, his older sister is the one currently in love with it! I need to get my hands on it and play around with it myself...it's all been dh/in-laws/kids so far. All I've done is purchase a few books which magically appear on there. Definitely feeling like a luddite this minute! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 No. :001_smile: My son uses a lot of TTS. I introduced another friend whose dd is 9 yo, dyslexic, to Kindle/TTS/ increasing the font size. The mom was highly skeptical but the dd LOVED it and read an entire book in a week. The mom was skeptical because of some the the mispronunciations (ie R/u/.thee instead of R/oo/.thee) but when I asked the dd about she said, "oh no, it (kindle) said "R/oo/.thee)". My ds is similar, I have asked my ds what happens when he hears TTS mispronounce things, and he said he just automatically fixes it in his head (because there is text and he knows the words). So I do think that having a large vocabulary and context seems to help some of the glitchy-ness of TTS. I have read of others that do not like/ work well with TTS, so you may want to delve into what others do not like or why it doesn't work (I have wondered if differences in how people process auditory inputs may account for this). Or, alternatively, just do the experiment. Borrow someone's kindle, put a book your child would like to read on it, and turn on the TTS. See why your kid thinks. If you live near me, you are welcome to try mine :-) Thanks! I am going to see if I can borrow a kindle to see if we like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
min Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 I don't know anyone with a Kindle to borrow, but a number of local stores have other brands on display that I may be able to try out. Will spend half an hour on the net today checking out features! Thank you all so much for this discussion! Min Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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