LA for my 7yo on the spectrum

[Pam H]

I don't know what to do. I know he can read. He is so smart. He just doesn't want to read. We have worked through the Plaid Phonics grade 1 this year. When we come to the reading portions... won't do it. High interest books do NOT interest him. Books about things he is passionate about do not interest him. I have to bribe him basically to get him to accomplish his school work.

 

What would you do?

[Plink]

My newly 8yo is exactly the same. She has done best with BJU because there is a fun built in reward to the LA work. Their books are very colorful, contain lots of short read-aloud stories, and it all revolves around a theme. For example, they will write a letter about the circus with a focus on proper punctuation, learn the many ways to build the short o sound (au, aw, etc.) centering around circus themed words, and discuss synonyms and antonyms for circus words. At the end of the unit the kids celebrate with clown shaped ice-cream treats.

 

We don't use the videos, so I can't give you any info on them, but we love the BJU teacher's manuals.

 

I sound like a BJU rep - I'm not. I just love their LA.

[chiguirre]

Do you think that he can track the text? If he can read individual words, but is overwhelmed by a page of text, that might be the problem. It's my ds's biggest hurdle. It took a lot of patience and practice and, finally, it took setting the text to a large font, widest line spacing and landscape on my Kindle to start to overcome the problem. When ds was younger we used an index card, but it still was hard. I just got some reading guide strips and those are a bit better.

 

There is hope, ds2 is finishing The Adventures of Jimmy Skunk today. We're going to start reading a unit in Harcourt Science 3 as our "reading book" next and ds isn't freaking out, so we're making progress building his reading stamina bit by bit.

[Pam H]

Is that Jimmy Skunk on your Kindle chiguirre?

[Plink]

Do you think that he can track the text? If he can read individual words, but is overwhelmed by a page of text, that might be the problem. It's my ds's biggest hurdle. It took a lot of patience and practice and, finally, it took setting the text to a large font, widest line spacing and landscape on my Kindle to start to overcome the problem. When ds was younger we used an index card, but it still was hard. I just got some reading guide strips and those are a bit better.

 

There is hope, ds2 is finishing The Adventures of Jimmy Skunk today. We're going to start reading a unit in Harcourt Science 3 as our "reading book" next and ds isn't freaking out, so we're making progress building his reading stamina bit by bit.

:iagree: tracking was a big issue for my dd also. Vision Therapy helped. Increasing the font on an e-reader is a great idea.

[blessedmom3]

If you mean reading- decoding the words, I recommend Phonics Pathways.

If you mean phonics & comprehension, I highly recommend Pathway Readers with the workbooks. You can do the workbooks orally if handwriting is an issue as it is with many dc in the spectrum .

 

I heard a lot of praises for Pathway readers from parents who used these with dc in the spectrum.

 

Also , the accompanying LA workbook from the same publishers - Climbing to good English - is excellent. A lot like Rod & Staff but in a workbook format .

[Critterfixer]

I know he can read. He is so smart. He just doesn't want to read.

How do you know he can read? Being able to read words in isolation does not always translate to being able to read sentences, expecially if it is a struggle, either visually or in other ways. My son (7, hFA) has difficulty in reading when he has a sentence to read, but doesn't stuggle with most words in isolation (unless it's a db or qp or if the vowel is e vs i) The first trouble seems to be letter reversal. I'm fortuanate that he's a pretty stubborn and confident kid who doesn't regard a mistake as a reason to quit trying, but not all children are that confident. The e vs i thing is that he has trouble detecting the subtle difference. The broad southern accents he is exposed to on a regular basis might account for the confusion. (My husband was suprised the other day to hear both boys talking with a pronounced clipped British accent--but the books on tape read with the different accent have a better e-i difference that he is hearing better:001_smile:) I'm actually in the process of moving from teaching straight phonics to Webster's Speller, because the concept of "bites of words" made immediate sense to him.

 

I feel your pain about not wanting to read books on things he is passionate about. My son loves both helicopters and windmills, but when he gets a book about both he would prefer to look at it and make up his own narrative for it rather than read what it has to say. The best way I have found to get around this is to first let him ask the question (what is such and such, or how does this work, etc.) and then I will say, "Well, here's where it says...and read through it while he watches my fingers underline the words, hoping that he gets the connection that information is stored in the words.

 

I have not had to bribe him to get him to do schoolwork, so I can't help you there. He's complient with the idea that there are just things he has to do whether he likes them or not. I keep reading lessons with phonics far shorter for him than I do for his twin brother, because I think it takes some time to build up tolerance for a difficult or unpleasant activity. I also make sure that the break after a difficult lesson is longer than usual and allows for plenty of physical activity, which seems to help him work off the stress. Again, I think he's actually a very, very complient hFA, and I don't know if this would help with your son.