Ways to help a struggling reader?

[Wabi Sabi]

My ds7, a first grader, struggles with reading and writing. I'm not sure what would be the best approach to help him.

 

When reading he is very choppy and halting (certainly to be somewhat expected in many children this age, I'm sure.) Lots of reversals of letters such as p, b, and d. He can see the same word in a book numerous times within a couple of pages and still can't recall it at all two pages later. This morning we were reading a book that contained the word "snuggle." Over and over, no matter how many times I pointed it out to him, he would struggle, falter, and try to sound it out as "sunggle." Even when I'm taking deep breaths and doing my absolute best to keep a calm, patient demeanor he starts to cry and say that he's just dumb, he's the most horrible reader ever, etc.

 

I thought that he simply needed more practice and that he needed to read more, but that seems to be actually making it worse. You can see his anxiety rise, he trembles, his voice quivers as he's trying not to cry, etc.

 

He does, FWIW, take great comfort in reading certain books over and over. He's very familiar with the Biscuit series and can read those without any struggles at all. He has them mostly memorized, it seems. If that's what it takes to increase his confidence level that's fine, but we just seem to have stalled there. He was able to read these books 9 months ago and his reading abilities don't seem to have progressed very much since then.

 

Obviously my notion of "he just needs to read more" isn't enough. What else should I be doing? He clearly needs more directed instruction in HOW to read and I'm not sure how to do that.

[Ellie]

What have you used to teach phonics?

[mamaofredheads]

This sounds like it could be dyslexia. The website http://www.dys-add.com has some very helpful videos that explain dyslexia and list the signs for it. :grouphug: :) I've been where you are.

[Aurelia]

If he hasn't had any phonics instruction, I'd start with that. You can also use a notched card as a guide to uncover one letter or word at at time, so it's less overwhelming. Dancing Bears is good at addressing reading difficulties (it was actually designed to teach dyslexics, so there's lots of practice), and having the child read (via flashcard) the phonemes, spell them on paper through dictation and read them back when the page is done has been spectacularly effective in getting them memorized and building decoding skills. The Writing Road to Reading is good at teaching this. You might also have his eyes checked, especially if he's having trouble with word and letter reversals (saw is was, or p instead of b) and losing his place while reading.

[Rikki06]

This sounds a lot like my DS, also 7. He is finishing up vision therapy. He does not have dyslexia but that's about the only vision issue he tested okay in. We are continuing the home portion of therapy and then I plan on redoing some phonics using AAS.

[MerryAtHope]

This sounds a lot like my DS, also 7. He is finishing up vision therapy. He does not have dyslexia but that's about the only vision issue he tested okay in. We are continuing the home portion of therapy and then I plan on redoing some phonics using AAS.

 

I had this thought too. Although reversals can be normal until age 8, they may be a sign of either vision processing struggles (check out www.covd.org for that) or dyslexia.

 

I would continue to let him read easy stuff, you're correct that this builds up fluency & confidence.

 

All About Spelling helped my kids' reading levels also--they went up 2 grade levels the first year we used it. The segmenting activities in there might be especially beneficial for him, as well as the syllable work that helps kids break down longer words into parts.

 

Hope you find some things that help. Merry :-)

[Momling]

In our public schools, letters and sounds are taught in kindergarten and actual reading instruction doesn't start until first grade. So at this point in first grade, most kids are working on CVC words. So a word like "Snuggle" is quite tricky! Keep in mind he may be 'struggling' because the material is just too hard. If he's feeling frustrated, I'd scale it back. For the next few weeks provide him really easy texts that he'll feel good about reading. Look for books where he can read every word or books that are so repetitive that he'll have things memorized. The goal is for him to read simple things, but read them fluently. I'd stick with that until he gets bored of it and is ready for a challenge. Meanwhile, keep working with a phonics program (like ETC) keeping it below his frustration level.... and try fun things like starfall or other reading programs or games.

[creekmom]

I recommend taking a look at Saxon Phonics. I would start at level 1. I had the same experience with my son, and I wish I had started sooner with this phonics program. He is now in 3rd grade and still struggling. I bought Saxon Phonics 2 to use with him a couple of weeks ago, and I think this program is really going to help him. Saxon has coding- and lots of review. It's very gentle but persistent. HTH!

[Critterfixer]

One of my boys had a lot of trouble with reading for a variety of reasons--some are either vision or dyslexia (nearly eight and reverses b/d about 90% of the time) but he really struggled with phonics. He was diagnosed as autistic and at the time his verbal skills were poor. I've since realized that his auditory processing and comprehension are not good, so while we wait for further diagnostics this is what I've done that has seemed to help him a lot.

1) I use an all caps font for his reading instruction. I use the all caps version of Webster's speller. B and D are not as easy to confuse as b/d. So the frustration level is reduced. I also pair this with Word Mastery, and we code the words here, and we code them in our spelling lessons as well.

 

2) Webster's has worked well for us, mostly because I think the sounds are not so isolated. Vowel sounds, particularly a,e and i are hard for him to differentiate. Putting them with the consonant sound seems to have helped.

 

3) Spell everything. I taught him early on to spell it out, then we would sound it out together. Now instead of being frustrated by a new word, he will simply spell it, then break it down phonetically and say it. Now he might have to do that everytime he sees that word, but at least he no longer cries or hates reading. Yesterday he tackled Table 4 in Webster's (two-syllables and many archaic words) with greater accuracy and confidence than his brother, who tends to get a little stubborn about spelling it out....:tongue_smilie:

[OrganicAnn]

My DD is 7 and in 2nd grade. She was having a lot of trouble reading - and really weird things. She could read a word one minute and the next minute she would look at the same word and say "I don't know". She was point to each word as she read and read slowly. We finally did private testing and expected dyslexia and ADD. No dylexia, no Add. Instead we had a visuospatial deficit diagnosis. The more we read, the more it makes sense. Consist work on phonics, flash cards and practice reading every day is working. We learned that while lots of kids learn by writing out the words, that is not a good strategy for us.

[ElizabethB]

I would work on overlearning the phonics skills and add some nonsense words and spelling to your mix. Also, work in all uppercase in large letters for a while.

 

Just reading actually compounds problems from sight words, especially when reading leveled readers with artificially high numbers of sight words. So, children exposed to sight words or who are naturally inclined to look at words as wholes will not be will served by this approach.

 

Try the program outlined in my how to tutor page:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/howtotutor.html

 

I would suggest just working on words in isolation for a while, and when you go back to books, try syllable divided books for a bit before switching to regular books.

 

You might also want to screen out vision problems with a covd eye exam.

 

With a word like snuggle, break it up snug-gle. Then, compare sug-gle, nug-gle, and snug-gle. Then, have her spell each of the 3 "words." You can also gently say, "What does s say?" "What does n say?" etc, working through the word. You can do the spelling orally or with magnetic letters or tiles.

[Bula Mama]

I've been where you are, too! My ds (now 13) is dyslexic and a few other things. After doing a couple of different phonics programs, what finally got him reading more fluently were Pathway Readers. They were very gently incremental in the way they added new words so it removed some of his stress, and he enjoyed the stories. They're inexpensive, too!

 

http://www.pathwayreaders.com/ There are samples on this site. I think Rod and Staff sells them, too, as well as Timberdoodle.

Edited September 19, 2011 by Bula Mama