Sometimes I feel like my 7 year old is the only one not reading.

[ChristusG]

My 7 year old DD is just not getting it. She knows the sounds, she knows the blends, etc....she just cannot fluently put them together. She also adds letters that are not there. For instance, we were doing Explode the Code earlier and she had to write "game." She pronounced it as "grame." I asked her where the "r" in the word was and she immediately looked at the word, realized she was adding the "r" sound, and said "game."

 

It seems like she's the only 7 year old that I know who is not reading. She asks me ALL DAY LONG what words say, signs say, billboards, books, etc. She wants to know what they say. She's lazy at sounding them out herself. I tell her that she needs to try the word before I will tell her....she gets mad at me.

 

She's completed visual therapy and is now in auditory processing therapy. I'm not sure they are helping. We are continuously working through the Explode the Code books, working on blending sounds together, I'll write words on the white board and we'll figure them out, etc.

 

Is it just going to click one day? I feel like it's starting to effect which curriculum I can use because she cannot read yet.

[LizzyBee]

She's definitely not the only one. At age 7, my youngest dd would lie limp across me after a 5-minute reading lesson because the effort it took was enormous. Please don't label your dd lazy, even in your own mind, because I assure you, she is not.

 

Here is what worked for my dd, fwiw:

1. Speech therapy from ages 3-6, first for severe articulation deficits, then for receptive and expressive language issues.

2. LiPS (Lindamood Bell Phonemic Sequencing) to work on phonemic awareness - being able to hear and manipulate the sounds in words. She was 7 yo when we did this.

3. Occupational therapy for sensory processing and fine motor deficits. She was 7-8 yo.

4. 100 Easy Lessons - this got her blending and gave her a healthy sense of accomplishment. She was 8 yo when we did this.

5. More OT for SPD and dyslexia - This time around included Therapeutic Listening Program and Interactive Metronome. She was 8-9 yo.

6. Barton Reading and Spelling - An Orton-Gillingham based program for dyslexics and other reading disabilities that stem from phonological deficits (as opposed to visual or comprehension deficits). We are on level 4 of Barton and I can't say enough good things about it.

 

We used some Earobics, too, but I think LiPS was much more effective. We've used Wii Fit to reinforce some of the things she did in OT.

 

One of my favorite websites is http://www.dys-add.com; you might find some helpful information there. You can do a free, quick check of your dd's phonemic awareness by using the Student Screening at http://www.bartonreading.com.

 

My dd's reading took off in February, at 9.5 yo.

 

My dd's dyslexia has definitely affected our curriculum choices, because everything has to be read and/or explicitly taught to her. We've focused on reading and math and just fit the rest in as much as we can. For math, we use Singapore and Right Start. We've used Veritas Press for history because the required readings are short and to the point; but we've switched to SOTW because she can handle the longer readings now and she likes it better.

Edited May 31, 2011 by LizzyBee

[Shellers]

My 11 year old son has just started reading. He's in special education at school and mainstreams in the afternoon. He just finished the 4th grade and is at grade level for math but at a 1st grade reading level. He has daily reading homework, which we do together but I noticed he wouldn't sound out anything and would instead, look at the pictures on the page and then take wild guesses at words.

 

I'm on a mission to get him reading. I signed him up for ClickN Kids about six weeks ago and reading finally clicked for him. I think not having pictures in the reading material works better for him. This way he can't look at pictures and take wild guesses at what the page says.

 

For the first time ever he's finally realizing there are word families and he's only on lesson 29 out of 100! He also does Explode the Code online but I know ClickN Kids has been more of a help for him. I printed out Dolch flash cards, sentence flash cards (no pictures), and the "I am Sam" books, which he really enjoys. For some reason this combo has helped him progress with his reading more than anything we've tried in the past 4 years!

 

I also have my eye on http://www.soundreading.com/.

 

Maybe it's just a matter of finding something that works for your daughter?

 

ETA: My son's school has labeled him "speech impaired". He's been in speech therapy at school for six years now, four days a week, with very little progress. He talks up a storm but is very hard to understand. Interestingly, since starting ClickN Kids, his speech has improved quite a bit. Up until this year he was also in OT, he has issues crossing his midline, which may have something to do with his reading issues and speech problems? IDK.

Edited May 31, 2011 by Shellers

[WishboneDawn]

Apples and Pears and Dancing Bears. That's your ticket.

 

My son is 9 and we've BTDT. Things not clicking, mystery letters, reading back to front, etc. I tried Starfall (All my daughter needed), ETC, 100 EZ Lessons, BOB books...Ugh. All of it seemed only to mask his issues better and nothing translated from the reading program to actual reading. If he had gone to school I KNOW he would have put on a decent show and he would have been 16 or 17 before someone realized this kid can't read.

 

We're working through Dancing Bears now though and the difference has been wonderful. The program is uncluttered and straightforward with enough variety that my son doesn't get bored (he loves the CLOZE pages where he always picks the silliest answer, never the right one). There are flashcards and you use a "cursor" to guide your child through sounding out the word so that he/she can isolate the sounds a lot easier. I've found it's really trained my son to slow down, read left to right and stop adding mystery sounds (DB was designed for dyslexic kids).

 

Apples and Pears is a great backup to DB. It's a spelling program but it really reinforces what my son learns in DB. Lots of writing, lots of word games, even sentence dictation. We're currently behind compared to DB but it's worked well because it's a great review.

 

Best of all for me is that it translates into reading outside the program. Nothing else before but now Harry is reading books of the shelf, reading signs and sounding out unfamiliar words. He's nowhere near grade level yet but he's catching up fast.

 

All the books are available to view online (the WHOLE book!) for free. For NA customers the books are printed and shipped from the US so shipping costs aren't a big issue.

[Ottakee]

I would agree but put the I See Sam books http://www.iseesam.com or http://www.3rsplus.com first. Do the first 1-2 sets of these books and the Dancing Bears and then after set 3 or so, start the Apples and Pears spelling. VERY easy to use, lots of practice, no writing (for the learning to read stuff).

 

The combo of I See Sam books and then Apples and Pears spelling is what got my girls reading when NOTHING else worked.

[merry gardens]

My 7 year old DD is just not getting it. She knows the sounds, she knows the blends, etc....she just cannot fluently put them together. She also adds letters that are not there. For instance, we were doing Explode the Code earlier and she had to write "game." She pronounced it as "grame." I asked her where the "r" in the word was and she immediately looked at the word, realized she was adding the "r" sound, and said "game."

 

It seems like she's the only 7 year old that I know who is not reading. She asks me ALL DAY LONG what words say, signs say, billboards, books, etc. She wants to know what they say. She's lazy at sounding them out herself. I tell her that she needs to try the word before I will tell her....she gets mad at me.

 

She's completed visual therapy and is now in auditory processing therapy. I'm not sure they are helping. We are continuously working through the Explode the Code books, working on blending sounds together, I'll write words on the white board and we'll figure them out, etc.

 

Is it just going to click one day? I feel like it's starting to effect which curriculum I can use because she cannot read yet.

When my son was younger, it took forever to sound out words. I never thought he was lazy--I thought he was just really, really stubborn.

 

Difficulty blending sounds into words is one of the signs of problems with phonemic awareness. My son had phonemic awareness problems and that's what made sounding things out enormously difficult. LiPS changed that. LiPS taught him to feel what his mouth, tongue, etc. did to make the sounds, then he learned to apply that knowledge to words and reading.

 

I don't know if it would have ever clicked for my son without LiPS or something like it. There's a reason why some "experts" in the field of education turned to teaching sight words. Without phonemic awareness, phonics based reading is difficult. Phonemic awareness doesn't come naturally to some children.

 

What auditory processing therapy are you doing? They aren't all the same. We did an auditory program recommended by a SLP the year before we did LiPS that had very little (if any) effect. Not every child with phonemic awareness problems needs remediation to the point of LiPS. Barton Reading and Spelling covers phonemic awareness in the first level. When my son couldn't pass a certain portion of their screening, I was told he needed LiPS. Here's a link to that screening: http://bartonreading.com/students_long.html#screen

[rafiki]

.

[ChristusG]

The auditory program we're using is Fast ForWord. I hope it is doing something....it is EXPENSIVE!

 

I think I'll check in to all the things you guys mentioned. Something needs to change.

[SonshineMama]

Just wanted to chime in and say, my 9.5yo isn't reading. We don't have a great success story. We are still working it out but he's improving rapidly and ready for starting an O-G curriculum YAY!

 

I am hoping to do apples and pears if his dysgraphia improves that he's able to write more than a word or two at a sitting.

 

Just wanted to make sure you know you aren't alone. I needed to read this thread tonight. I joined this forum because I really feel alone and am floundering. I only know a very small handful of people homeschooling special needs kids and it is a very lonely road. I thought homeschooling was lonely . . . it's nothing compared to hsing a child with special needs :grouphug:

[Misty]

My daughter had the same issues the entire time she was 7.. She just turned 8 the other day and she is now reading fluently in the Bob Books (level B)! Yay! She has been evaluated for vision therapy and needs it, but we have not done it yet.. She still reverses numbers and letters quite a lot (mostly numbers) but the powers that be say she does not have dyslexia..

 

Anyway, hang in there.. It will come.

[Misty]

Apples and Pears and Dancing Bears. That's your ticket.

 

:iagree:

 

I just bought this a couple of weeks ago and looking through it, I am very impressed! I would shelf the Explode the Code and work through one of these programs.. I bought Apples & Pears AND FastTrack Reading for my 8yr old.. I got the Bear Necessities for my soon-to-be 5yr old who does not have learning issues. All of these can be found here.. http://www.prometheantrust.org/soundfoundationsbooks.htm%20

[Tarreymere]

I had one like that. She is 25 now and a confirmed bookworm and jealous of my kindle. It really did just click one day. Kids are weird, is all I can say. We didn't do anything different, mainly because I couldn't think of anything different to try at the time. But by the age of nine going on ten I had to pry a book out of her hands to get her to eat dinner at the table with the rest of us. Math, now that never did click.

Edited June 1, 2011 by Rainefox

[ChristusG]

Thanks for all the replies!!

 

Upon your recommendations, I just ordered Dancing Bears and the Apples and Pears books. I can't wait until they arrive. We're going to get started right away. From looking through them online, they seem very good!

[WishboneDawn]

Thanks for all the replies!!

 

Upon your recommendations, I just ordered Dancing Bears and the Apples and Pears books. I can't wait until they arrive. We're going to get started right away. From looking through them online, they seem very good!

 

You won't be disappointed. If you have any questions about them once they come feel free to PM me.

 

I think DB and A&P are two programs that deserve a LOT more love then they get here. :)

[NittanyJen]

We have a great success story. My 47XXY son has the classic constellation-- high IQ, but difficulty with audio processing, adding and dropping letters, substituting more sounds than typical for the age (making some sound substitutions at age 7 IS STILL NORMAL, btw) tons of writing reversals, and "reading is booorrrrring" (ie hard) syndrome.

 

Today, at almost 8, he is at the point starting to read for pleasure and can even read his textbooks independently.

 

In the interim: We have consistently worked with Earobics. This took time; you do have to stick with it and use it regularly to get results. It is not an expensive program, but you have to use it consistently. We do read-alouds daily of more advanced reading (Children's Homer, Peter Pan, The Aeneid, Gilgamesh, etc). We started him on level 1 of Writing with Ease, even though he's now starting the third grade (he was finishing 2nd grade in public school when we pulled him out to start HS several months ago now). Since his physical and craft of writing are both NOT 3rd grade level, starting at the beginning make sense. The WWE process have definitely helped his reading. We listen to books on tape in the car when traveling. He's had some motivation by playing text-based games on his Nintendo DS-- he gets tired of waiting for his brother or a grown-up to read to him what his happening in the game and started working overtime (he has always worked really hard at reading; he's no slacker) to figure it out. We used Reading Reflex to approach reading-- discarding the notion of letter names and working only on letter sounds and blending them together systematically into words in a way he could physically manipulate.

 

It all came together this year for him.

 

From talking to dozens upon dozens of adult XXY guys, I second the person who said please don't think of your son as lazy. Any sense of "I'm tired." "I'm bored." "I don't want to do this." "I don't feel like it" is code for, "This is really hard, it makes no sense to me, and I'm really frustrated!!" and it may BE mentally exhausting your child at this point! What is it that SWB says? Nibbled at by ducks? Just keep working at it a little at a time, never give up, and let your DC know that YOU understand that she is working at it. Knowing that they are understood by someone, and that you believe in her, is INVALUABLE to a child who is struggling.

 

Good luck!

 

Jen

[TAKlinda]

Have you child use highlighters to highlight sound units within the word. Even just highlighting the word 'game' would make your child more aware of the word.

[DawnM]

My 13 year old didn't read until around age 8 or 9 and even then, it was easy reading.

 

In 4th grade and part of 5th, the most he could read was Magic Treehouse books.

 

He is now 7th grade and reading Harry Potter. I think HP is around a 3rd or 4th grade level.

 

I don't fight it, I feel like it is huge for him to sit and read for an hour at this point.

 

Dawn

[LizzyBee]

My 13 year old didn't read until around age 8 or 9 and even then, it was easy reading.

 

In 4th grade and part of 5th, the most he could read was Magic Treehouse books.

 

He is now 7th grade and reading Harry Potter. I think HP is around a 3rd or 4th grade level.

 

I don't fight it, I feel like it is huge for him to sit and read for an hour at this point.

 

Dawn

 

Dawn,

 

I found something online that said the HP reading levels range from 5.1 to 7.2. :001_smile: