should I push my son to read more

[Jmac]

My 8 year old son hates to read. We are on all about spelling level 2 and I have the books that go with it. He does amazing with the spelling and writing the sentences but when we pick up any book to read he shuts down. Seriously I can get him to read one word at a time but he immediately forgets that word and if I ask him to read the sentence again he has to sound out nearly every word all over again. I will say his reading has improved greatly but he is nearing the end of second grade and is still essentially in Bob type books. Should I be pushing him harder? Should I make him read more pages a day or maybe read several times a day? I have tried to be patient thinking one day reading will just click for him and he will want to do it but what if that day never comes?

[ElizabethB]

With my remedial students, I've found that working on phonics, spelling, and spelling rules until they can fluently sound out any word is what leads to reading enjoyment and increased time spent reading.

 

I would keep working on phonics and spelling until he can sound out any word, then the reading should follow.

 

Nonsense words, syllables, and spelling are what help most of my remedial students the most. My student with speech apraxia is helped with marked print; many of my other students find it a bit helpful, but it is almost a necessity for him, it has been the thing that has helped him progress the most.

[mo2]

My 8 year old son hates to read. We are on all about spelling level 2 and I have the books that go with it. He does amazing with the spelling and writing the sentences but when we pick up any book to read he shuts down. Seriously I can get him to read one word at a time but he immediately forgets that word and if I ask him to read the sentence again he has to sound out nearly every word all over again. I will say his reading has improved greatly but he is nearing the end of second grade and is still essentially in Bob type books. Should I be pushing him harder? Should I make him read more pages a day or maybe read several times a day? I have tried to be patient thinking one day reading will just click for him and he will want to do it but what if that day never comes?

 

:lurk5: I'll be watching this thread because I have a 9yo who hates to read. We are also on AAS level 2. Right now I require her to read one story each day regardless of whether she wants to or not. It is usually either a story from the AAS reader, Dr Seuss, or a Frog and Toad type book.

[wapiti]

IMO, it's likely time to get things checked out. Before doing testing for LDs like dyslexia, etc., I'd want to rule out vision (sometimes it's both vision and a learning difference). By vision, I mean how the eyes work together, not just 20/20 acuity - see www.covd.org . A regular eye exam would not involve the same type of testing.

[justamouse]

:grouphug::grouphug:

 

brush up on those foundations. Reading--decoding and then understanding-is hard, especially if you're so busy decoding, you can't think about what it all means.

 

So read, and keep using those phonics flashcards and reading together.

 

Keep the lessons short and sweet-20 minutes.

 

Also, make sure you do dictation and copywork if they can write. It all goes into the pot and out comes reading.

[sharon family school]

:grouphug: Sounds like MY 8 year old little boy!! Around here we are just persevering, reading aloud to him a LOT and praying he will come around soon:) One thing that has helped some...we have tied wii/computer minutes to number of minutes he reads by himself. 20 min of reading by himself earns him 20 min of computer/wii time. He does not take advantage of this daily, nor do I "make" him read on his own outside of school requirements...but suprisingly he does choose it some.

All kids are different for sure...my dd was an avid reader at 8...my twin boys did not read well until about 9 and now at 11 they enjoy reading but do not "devour" books like their sister.

Hang in there!

[foxbridgeacademy]

IMO, it's likely time to get things checked out. Before doing testing for LDs like dyslexia, etc., I'd want to rule out vision (sometimes it's both vision and a learning difference). By vision, I mean how the eyes work together, not just 20/20 acuity - see www.covd.org . A regular eye exam would not involve the same type of testing.

 

This is my thoughts also. When reading from a spelling list (large font) or spelling verbally is no problem, I would check into vision issues.

[Boxing Hare]

I'd make sure you're getting him books that he really likes. I read the Star Wars novelizations to my son before he could read well enough. Or I would read him the book, and make watching the movie the reward. Most kids' movies have a book that goes with it.

[Osaubi]

My ds who is almost 9 was like this until a couple of months ago. I found HOP Master Reader at the 1/2 Price Bookstore. He loved the program because he could do some of his school work on the computer. Once he played the "games" then he would have to get a card out and read it. The cards start easy and get harder. At the end of the level they read a chapter book. For the first level we took it slow. He always had to read the card to me, and the first book I only required a couple of pages at a time.

 

A couple of months ago he finished the last level. Then he went out and bought 6 lengthy chapter books. Now he reads every night before bedtime on his own.

[joyfulhomeschooler]

My son ( a little younger) had this problem too. He kept saying the words were moving around on the page. So we had his eyes tested. They came back 20/20 so I started using incentives. We put up a chart and he was to read for 15 min to me and 15 min silently every day. It was his job to remember and then when he finished he put a sticker on the chart. At the end of the week if the chart had five stickers, he would get to pick a prize out of the "treasure box" a shoe box with wrapping paper filled with dollar store toys/candy/stickers, etc. This worked really well for us. Also another thing that helped was the magic tree house books. I know they have a bad rep. for being twaddle, but they got him reading more and more and now he finishes one of these books in a few hours and is beginning to read for longer and longer periods without complaining.

[wapiti]

He kept saying the words were moving around on the page. So we had his eyes tested. They came back 20/20 so I started using incentives.

FWIW, words moving around on the page are a classic symptom (if there ever were such a thing) of the types of problems that VT addresses, about the eyes working together. 20/20 isn't everything that's involved in vision. Just a public service announcement :) (www.covd.org )

[joyfulhomeschooler]

FWIW, words moving around on the page are a classic symptom (if there ever were such a thing) of the types of problems that VT addresses, about the eyes working together. 20/20 isn't everything that's involved in vision. Just a public service announcement :) (www.covd.org )

 

Good to know! So what do I do to have him tested for this? Should I take him back to the pedi or optomotrist? He saw the optomotrist before. They put that stuff in his eyes and did a few tests and said he was fine. But after reading through the page you linked I am wondering. He rubs his eyes and squints ALL the time. I thought it was maybe from having dry eyes. I feel kind of ingorant now.

 

Just found this site http://www.childrensvision.com/reading.htm good info. I am definately having my sons eyes checked again. Thanks for this thread and sorry for the hi-jack. The ideas I mentioned before did work well though. He does still complain of the words moving around though so I think it is worth getting checked out.

Edited March 29, 2011 by joyfulhomeschooler

[wapiti]

Good to know! So what do I do to have him tested for this? Should I take him back to the pedi or optomotrist? He saw the optomotrist before. They put that stuff in his eyes and did a few tests and said he was fine. But after reading through the page you linked I am wondering. He rubs his eyes and squints ALL the time. I thought it was maybe from having dry eyes. I feel kind of ingorant now.

 

Just found this site http://www.childrensvision.com/reading.htm good info. I am definately having my sons eyes checked again. Thanks for this thread and sorry for the hi-jack. The ideas I mentioned before did work well though. He does still complain of the words moving around though so I think it is worth getting checked out.

 

I would see a COVD optometrist - there's a place on the website to search for a provider. The more senior(?) ones are fellows and have "FCOVD" by their names. It's a different type of exam from a regular checkup - don't just call and say you'd like a checkup; instead explain the problem he is having in spite of being 20/20.

Edited March 29, 2011 by wapiti

[VBoulden]

My daughter went through the same stage of being reluctant to read. However, we were using The Handbook for Reading (and that's all we used for reading until she was really, really far along). I didn't do this deliberately. I just never had any other books around and didn't know which books to offer, etc. One thing about using Abeka's Handbook, was that my daughter always had to get right down to the "work" of reading. She never had letter tiles or workbooks or anything "fun" that the other phonics programs offer to distract her from the work of dealing with the words on the page... if that makes any sense... So, phonics was never fun for us... aside from the fact that we would snuggle up on the couch or in bed before nap time and spend that quality time together... But, she is a great reader now. She's six and reading chapter books with enthusiasm. However, it should be said that she can't spell for the life of her. We plan to use AAS next year... ;) to teach her how to spell the words she can read (and review the phonics she already knows, just in a different order). My advice is to get The Handbook for Reading. (They are a dime a dozen.) And then have your student read through it from the beginning... maybe doing only five minutes a day... It's boring compared to reading Frog and Toad books, but what it does do is progresses through phonics step by step and makes your child really deal with the words on the page... By the time you get through The Handbook, I bet your kid will have discovered that he/she can read really well so then they will want to read all the time. :grouphug:

[VBoulden]

Please note: My dear friend called me crying, convinced that her daughter had a learning disability and really couldn't learn to read... But, she explained what they were doing for phonics and it was mostly seat work... not actually interpreting the words on a page, one after another and building meaning from them...

 

I suggested that she use The Handbook for Reading. She already had one but had never used it. (That's all I knew to suggest to her because it had worked for me...) Anyway, she started using it. And, after a week, her daughter was reading better than she had read in years of work in phonics workbooks and phonics exercises, etc.

[momto3innc]

I second (or third) the suggestion to find an eye doctor through COVD. We did earlier this year when my son could sound out words but seemed to only be able to see one word at a time...it went so slow and he was frustrated. He also rubbed his eyes or closed his eyes a lot. His vision is 20/20, but he really needed vision therapy (he could not converge, track, or zoom). I can't tell you the difference it has made in his reading. It's not for everyone but for us it has made a huge difference.

[mellie]

There's a great book called Reading Reflex, that is one of the best approaches for remediating reading (as approved by the National Reading panel.) I borrowed the book from library, so you could do that or buy it for about 20 bucks. It starts off with an assessment, so you can see where he is actually having difficulty, and then tells you step by step what to work on from there. The book requires phototcopying much of it and doing the exercises, so at least it's a little more interactive. Your son might like this aspect of it, and some children are helped by actually being able to manipulate the letters, rather than just sounding out the letters. One of the first things the authors note is that you need to read a little every day regardless of whether the child wants to or not, as of course, the only way to improve reading is to actually read.

 

From what you have said, I would have your son read each sentence, and then you read it back to him. That way he gets to understand what it says, as right now all of his cognitive resources are tied up in decoding the words. Good luck to your son.

[Jenny in Florida]

I can't be helpful with the question of whether to do an evaluation, although it probably couldn't hurt.

 

What I do know is that many kids seem to go through that stage in which the reading ability hasn't kept up with the interest level. In other words, they aren't reading well enough to tackle the books they would actually enjoy, and the things they can read are "boring" or "babyish." Each of my kids went through that, and what I did was to keep working on the skills of reading, while also making a point of reading aloud to them books they would love.

 

In other words, I tried to help them fall in love with the idea of reading to give them an incentive to learn to do it well.

 

So, I'm not sure I would "push" a child to read more, but I would certainly be reading TO that child a lot!

[RahRah]

I second (or third) the suggestion to find an eye doctor through COVD. We did earlier this year when my son could sound out words but seemed to only be able to see one word at a time...it went so slow and he was frustrated. He also rubbed his eyes or closed his eyes a lot. His vision is 20/20, but he really needed vision therapy (he could not converge, track, or zoom). I can't tell you the difference it has made in his reading. It's not for everyone but for us it has made a huge difference.

 

:iagree:

 

My nephew was diagnosed last year (when he was 8) with (I don't remember the clinical name) roving eyes - basically his tracking of words, across sentences on a page, through paragraphs, is problematic. The school (he goes to PS) didn't pick it up, my sister did when she had him reading aloud to her - he'd jump sentences or words....she had him tested and since the diagnosis, he's gone to therapy to stregthen his eyes - not sure what it entails, but it's working....his reading has improved significantly in the last year and he's now ahead of grade level, so my sister is happy.

[susesmiles]

I had this discussion with a friend who had been a 1st grade teacher. I used her advice and my son is now reading much better than he was just 2 months ago. I had been following the curriculum, reading a new story every day, it was not working, he was not enjoying it, he had to sound out most of the words. Here are her suggestions that worked for us:

 

*Read the same story every day for a week.

*You as the parent first read the story to the child. This gives the child an idea of what words are in the story and what the story is about.

*The next day or two, you and the child take turns while reading the story. Every other sentence, paragraph or page.

*You can even have the child act out the story as you read it.

*By reading the same book several times a child then actually learns the words. The first time reading a story the child is spending most of their time decoding the words. The repetition builds fluency and long term memory of the words.

*Spend reading time in books that have new words for the child to learn. The rest of the time, let the child read books that are below his reading level. This builds confidence, fluency and word recognition.

 

 

This had made a world of difference with my son. He now enjoys reading. We saw progress the very first week.