Late blooming readers? Ds8 still not reading well...

[Sue G in PA]

He is making tremendous progress, but still is far, far behind his peers. He is in 3rd grade but reading on a first grade level. He is losing confidence and motivation. His 6yo sister reads rings around him and he knows it. We don't compare and don't teach them together. We just work with him consistently, every day. His issues are mostly memory/retention (he doesn't remember words that he JUST read). He can sound out words just fine but he doesn't RETAIN the words. Does that makes sense? He could sound out a new word and then see the same word on the next line and NOT remember it AT ALL. Dh thinks it is my fault...that I just can't teach him to read...and wants to send him to public school where "they can teach him better". I say that he is simply not ready to read yet. But who am I? Is there any hope that this child will someday read well? He will be 9 in a month.

[MyLittleBears]

:grouphug:

 

I have 8 year old also in the same situation. I know it can be so frustrating for us because we can see them trying so hard. We officially starting a Spalding based program and I've got my fingers crossed.

 

I was at the point where you husband is, with sending him off to school but my dh thinks he will just get labeled and not be taught to read by someone who has as much vested interest as we have as parents. I agree with him. No one can teach him with the love and care that you will. Don't lose hope, just trod on.

 

My oldest had a lot of trouble with reading and he was in private school doing Saxon phonics. When I brought him home he was reading at a first grade reading level. Within 3 month of working with hime at home, he shot off to a 5th grade level. Now he is reading at high school level. The school had me so worried that we put him through all sorts of testing, only to find out that he was just learned differently and he was possibly "gifted".(whatever that means, these days) The schools offered me nothing, only doubts about his intellegence and ability to learn. I am so glad we took matters into our own hands. I really has paid off.

[Ellie]

My younger dd was 9½ before she was reading at her age level. You'd never have known that when she started taking classes at the community college when she was 14. :)

 

What are you using to teach him?

[woolybear]

:grouphug: I have had two boys like that. My older ds was at about that level at that age. And yes, I heard little mumblings from family members (or maybe I just think I did?) that I didn't really know how to teach him. My mom offered several times to pay for a reading specialist. Grr. I said many times over that he was fine and just wasn't ready yet. Still, I had my own doubts and concerns. I finally did have him tested for vision issues and dyslexia. Nothing. He really was fine, just slow to learn to read.

 

Okay, so let's see if I can recall the timeline of his learning. I think at about 9 he was barely able to read anything. Jamberry or board books almost brought him and me to tears. I had tried various programs. I went back to OPGTTR at age 9 1/2-ish. I used it differently than was written. Somehow, he was just ready for it and we sped through. I did 3-4 lessons a sitting and we skipped the games and such. Within 3 weeks he was reading Magic Tree House. Granted, he was really struggling with it, but it was happening. By age 10 he could really read. However, he didn't often just pick up a book and read for fun. That drove me nuts for awhile, because I didn't understand it. I thought once he could read he would. Well, finally by 10 1/2-11 he started to read a lot and for fun. This year (he's 11 now) he has had days where he will read for half the day. He got into The Warriors series for awhile and would blow through the books in a couple of days. I would say at this point he can read pretty much anything and reads well. He reads National Geographic and Time magazine. We co-read Shakespeare.

 

I am now onto my second ds, who just turned 9. It looks like he is on about the same schedule. We use the Pathway readers because he likes them. It's not fun yet.:001_huh: The other day he picked up a Frog and Toad book and did pretty well with it. Lucky for him, his brother has traveled this path before him, so I'm a bit more :chillpill: with him. He's doing fine also, just a bit behind the usual time frame.

 

I hope some of this gives you hope. Oh, and of course, there may be others here who have a different view on this and they may be right too. I just wanted to let you know that in our experience late reading was just that---late to learn to read.:)

[Sue G in PA]

We are plodding through The Reading Lesson, using some phonics readers I have left over from our K12 years, doing some ETC, etc. He seems to be able to spell better than read (encoding vs. decoding?). He is an easily frustrated child. So, if he can't pick it up like "that", he will often just give up. I've tried explaining to my husband that he just isn't ready. Dh wants him in PS asap. He said he is just looking out for his best interest b/c he doesn't want him to feel "stupid" anymore bc he can't read. Like somehow sending him to a classroom full of 30+ children where he won't get ANY 1 on 1 attention is going to be the magic pill. Right. My dh works for the ps system. He is brainwashed. When our oldest 3 went back to ps, he wasn't happy with what was being taught, but since it was the ps system it was obviously better than what they were learning at home. :confused: I have half a year to PROVE to him that ds8 CAN learn to read when he is good and ready. Nice. I'm not sure I'm up to that. I don't want to force him. And at ps they WILL force him or label him "behind". Any suggestions for something else to try? We've tried PR and it wasn't a good "fit" for him. Have also tried and not liked OPG. I've heard of Reading Rescue and almost ordered it on Amazon.

[EKS]

I'd look into the symptoms of dyslexia. Not remembering words just read is a classic sign.

 

(And if you're working with him consistently, you're doing *way* better than he'd get in public school as they can't give him the intense one on one attention he will need to learn to read well.)

[woolybear]

I'm just wondering if your dh doesn't think he might feel stupid in a class of 30 or so kids his age who mostly can read. I think that might make him feel that more if he compares at all.

[Pen]

I think some are truly "not ready yet"--that is hard for an outsider to judge. But if he's losing confidence and motivation, then that seems like something more is needed, not a just wait and see approach. My personal opinion, fwiw. And based on personal hard experience, we are just a bit past your stage, but where there is now a boy who reads!

 

Mine was at 2 different schools, and didn't learn at either. HS was better, not worse. And mine was having trouble, not just "late". Iit was a struggle--and expensive to find a good fit of materials, with many false starts that seemed promising--maybe they helped a little--at first, but did not really work. For mine the big help was High Noon books, intervention and chapter books. Finally something started to click and my son just started taking off. (He just came in to read to me some things about the Titanic from a fact tracker, that he found exciting and fascinating.)

 

You might be able to get some additional help from PS, without having to enroll there full time--if son is dyslexic or otherwise eligible for an IEP, for example.. We have done that. And that too has helped.

 

We put in a lot of time to reading too--like two-three hours per day on school days, and half an hour on non school days--that makes a big difference. When it seems too hard, it is done less, so there is less practice, etc. and it becomes a downward spiral. If you can break that downward spiral and make it go upward it will help a lot.

 

Good luck! And yes, some "late" readers do become excellent readers. My "late" reader is not yet excellent, but is getting there, and what is better, reading went from being a disliked school subject to his favorite, and a thing he likes also just for fun sometimes.

[butterflymommy]

My DD 12 was a late reader-- she wasn't reading fluently until grade 5. She really took off in grade 6 and now grade 7 reads incredibly fast and with perfect recall. She can easily read a 200 page novel in a day. She's also an avid writer. It's very scary because you don't know what the future holds.

 

I currently have a 6 yr old who can't read at all despite our efforts to teach her, and the fears aren't much less even though I know her sister turned out fine.

 

In addition to that I have 3 (possibly 4, including the 3 year old) precocious/ early readers. One was reading fluently at age 4, two other by age 5 1/2.

 

Have you tried reader rabbit games? (if those are even still available?)

[nukeswife]

My dd was very much like your son, but my dh wasn't pushing for PS. I instead after another year of plodding along thinking she just wasn't ready took her for Vision Screening with a COVD Dr. I was so surprised by the results. Turns out she has binocular dysfunction. Her eyes were literally looking in two different direction at the same time. That makes reading really hard, she also has other issues that made remembering words hard. She's been in vision therapy (which is quite pricey) but is now doing so much better after 14 weeks of therapy she's still not reading fluently and still has to sound out many words, but the improvement is amazing. She's not discouraged when it comes to reading or trying to read any more.

 

I'm not saying that vision therapy is necessary or that your son has what my dd does but what you've described to me sounds like a screening could help you to know for sure if it's just "late bloomer" or something more. This is not just a standard eye test, our tests took about 3 hours total, 1 hour the first time which told the Dr. whether she was in need of therapy and another 2 hours to really pinpoint what her full range of issues were and how best to go about correcting them. Putting him in PS if he has any issues like my dd won't make anything better. He may end up just slipping through the cracks. When we found out what my dd had going on I came home a sobbed on the phone to my mom, because I wasn't a crummy teacher, it wasn't my fault and it wasn't my dd's fault either.

 

You can check out http://www.covd.org for more info. They even have a quick screening test to see if as VT screening may be something helpful.

[MerryAtHope]

I'm just wondering if your dh doesn't think he might feel stupid in a class of 30 or so kids his age who mostly can read. I think that might make him feel that more if he compares at all.

 

:iagree: Also doubt he'd get anywhere near the help you are giving him at home.

 

I'd look into the symptoms of dyslexia. Not remembering words just read is a classic sign.

 

(And if you're working with him consistently, you're doing *way* better than he'd get in public school as they can't give him the intense one on one attention he will need to learn to read well.)

 

Yes, look into dyslexia, and also vision processing issues (www.covd.org). Also could be a working memory/executive function kind of thing, there may be some ADHD at play.

 

I hope you can find some things to help your son! Reading troubles at age 8 & up are often a sign that something else is going on though, so now is the time to check that out. Merry

[Critterfixer]

One of my two has been a tough one when it comes to reading. (He's playing around with negative numbers in math, though, and his writing is really beautiful!) He is an hFA, and has never liked to listen to books, has trouble sequencing and would be thrilled to death if his day could just be math, math and more math.

That aside, he struggles with remembering words he has already read and seen. I don't really mind that, as it more or less helps me to assess his improvement, because he's not likely to be able to bluff his way through a selection with sight words. (Honestly, I have to worry much more with his brother, who reads at or above his level but has an annoying habit of thinking that he can in fact memorize words by sight!)

 

What I have done that has helped:

1.I use a batch of large flashcards (Abeka-got them for a buck) to drill phonograms and practice them in words. This has helped a lot.

2.Ran him through the syllabary in Webster's speller. This gave him a lot more confidence with multi-syllable words, because he knows there's a way to handle such a beast. We make it fun daily by finishing a lesson with a mystery word, some insanely long alligator that we break down into parts, code and read.

3)Phonics drill daily with Florence Akin's Word Mastery. I typically will go back and forth in that book to review if I see he's having difficulty in a reading lesson with something we've covered before. He likes the up and down format and the fact that typically the words will revolve around a certain principle.

4)Basic coding: I don't use Spalding, but I really, really like having both my boys know the basic codes for sounds. This helps because I can take a word and we can mark it up together and show why it works the way it does. This is a math minded kid and he retains better when he can see the why of the sound where it is possible. If it is a word that makes little sense we put it in a jail and blame the Anglo-Saxons, or the French...I have the ABC's and All their Tricks so I know who to blame!

5)Daily reading--I typically use McGuffey because they are what I have and it's really hard for them to guess with those. But I have a collection of vintage readers on the computer that I will pull up for reading. We read twice a day: once in the morning, and once before bedtime. He doesn't like it, but he tolerates it and it is helping with his confidence and fluency.

[Shellers]

I pulled my 11 year old son out of public school two months ago because he wasn't learning to read there and his teachers were fine with him slipping between the cracks. He had an IEP and just about every day he would come home and tell me he had read NOTHING in school.

 

Your DH has it all wrong! Keep working with your son. Dancing Bears and Apples and Pears are really helping my son to read. Since I started working with him before & after school and now homeschooling him, he's gone up a whole grade level in reading.

 

If I had left my "severely dyslexic" son in public school he would be illiterate. Not cool!

[Shellers]

I'm just wondering if your dh doesn't think he might feel stupid in a class of 30 or so kids his age who mostly can read. I think that might make him feel that more if he compares at all.

 

Yep, this was my son! Since pulling him out of school, he's feeling so much better about himself.

[LizzyBee]

Echoing other posters about dyslexia. My favorite site is http://www.dys-add.com. Not remembering words he just read is a classic symptom.

 

My 10 yo dyslexic dd has made tremendous progress in the past year. Some of what we've done includes:

Speech and language therapy

Occupational therapy including sensory therapy, interactive metronome, and therapeutic listening program

Lindamood Bell Phonemic Sequencing (LiPS) http://www.ganderpublishing.com

Barton Reading http://www.bartonreading.com

Audio books from the library

Edited December 27, 2011 by LizzyBee

[QuirkyKapers]

One thing I have done with my daughter that really seemed to help her reading was to have her read the same book for the entire week.

[creekmom]

I haven't read all the responses, but I did want to tell you that my 8 year old son sounds a lot like yours. The frustration you mentioned was the same frustration I was having with him - I couldn't understand how he could see a word, read it, and then not be able to read the same word on the next line. I was always saying, "You just read this word!! Don't you remember what it is????" I did some research bc I knew something was wrong. He also used to say, "I need a new brain. Mine doesn't work right!"

A lot of his problems seemed related to vision, but I had his eyes checked and he didn't need glasses. Then I learned that a child can need vision therapy even if their eyesight is good. After taking him to see a vision therapist, we realized that his eyes did not "work together" and he did need therapy. We've been at it for about 6 weeks now, and I am seeing a difference. The other day he told me, "Mom, I just read a page in my book so fast!!" He is noticing a difference also.

One of the main signs of this problem is covering up one eye while reading. I never noticed it before, but after reading about VT, I watched him read (try to read) a difficult paragraph to me, and sure enough, he covered up his left eye. Forgetting a word after just reading it is also a sign. Interestingly, a lot of parents notice that after VT, their children started remembering other things as well!

I say definitely get him an evaluation from someone qualified in vision therapy. I know your husband thinks he'd be better off in school, but you should tell him that if he does need VT, the school system will not recommend it because they don't want to have to pay for it. Public schools very rarely recommend VT simply bc they don't want to say a child needs something they can't provide (or something they're unwilling to pay for)!

[Haiku]

I would get him evaluated to see whether there are any issues going on. If there are, the evaluator can explain them to your dh andgives you strategies for dealing with them. If there aren't, then you can be assured that your ds will read when he's ready.

 

I use Fast Track (Dancing Bears A&B combined) for my ds 8 who wasn't reading well. He has made a lot of progress in a short amount of time. There are placement tests on the Dancing Bears/Promethean Trust website.

 

Tara

[....]

Hi, I have an opposite-story. :D

 

I pulled my son out of public school, because he couldn't read. They spent the entire year hammering on reading. At the end of the year, this kid couldn't even tell me his letter sounds.

 

What worked for him:

 

Hooked on Phonics (the old version, I heard new version is a little different)

Lots of readers (I think we bought Sonlight readers)

Once he was at a solid 1st grade level, he did CLE Reading - he was able to read almost anything after that program

 

I think I read somewhere that it takes TWO years for children to learn to read fluently (I know someone's going to post - but my kid learned to read in 4 days! But, honestly, I think this is probably about right.)

 

 

BTW - Despite not being able to read in ps...and being pulled out and taken to the special ed lady everyday...my son is a great reader now. We just built him a rolling bookcart for his room, because he reads so many books.

Edited December 27, 2011 by starrbuck12

[Caribbean Queen]

I've tried explaining to my husband that he just isn't ready. Dh wants him in PS asap.

 

Any suggestions for something else to try?

 

It is so hard when your husband is like that. :grouphug:

 

I did that improved my 6 year old's fluency by reading to her abnormally s l o w l y while pointing to the words. I told her to look at the words I was pointing to. She understood the mechanics of reading, and could sound words out, but needed to be able to instantly recognize words so she could get fluent. I'd read half a story at a time from Days Go By, a Pathway reader. If I read for too long she would tired of concentrating on the words. That book is thick, not babyish, and it is not easy to memorize it word, for word, unlike a lot of other easy reader books. I stopped doing anything else to teach her to read for a while. It worked. Maybe you could try this during your breaks from school, or add it into your school program. It can't hurt.

[Sue G in PA]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I hesitate to even pass them along to my dh b/c he is adament about sending him to school. According to him, it is MY fault that he cannot read yet. Forget the other children that I have successfully taught to read. :glare: It's obvious that I am not a good teacher. The school will do a much better job b/c there will be so much more 1 on 1 time and teachers who really care about my son's progress. :glare: My dh's philosophy is: If this isn't working we have to fix it. I'm ready to throw in the towel and let dh "win". But that means that my son will "lose". I'll take a look at the Dancing Bears, etc. Even dh hesitates to put him in school midway through the year. So, I "might" have until September to "prove" my point. Vision therapy is beyond our financial means right now. Even if that WERE an issue...and it very well may be...we couldn't afford it. And I know the school won't recommend it. It's not like we live in a very well-to-do area.

[elegantlion]

My ds was like that, I was sure it was my fault. I don't remember learning to read, and now ds couldn't. Public school wasn't an option, testing wasn't an option, so I read everything I could on dyslexia. He had the same issue, same word different line, he didn't know it. It created a lot of frustration in me, dh, and ds picked up on the "I'm stupid" thing.

 

A few things we did:

 

We believe ds had some dyslexic issues so I read a lot on the issue.

We were doing a study on the brain and I told ds his brain processed things differently. It was a godsend as he understood that, he wasn't stupid, he was different. *I* needed to find a way to teach this differently processing child. I told him that, that I needed his input and we might be changing things up.

 

We used the REWARDS program which seemed to make the most difference in learning to decode and remember words. that was after we repeated phonics twice with different programs.

 

He was required to read for 30 minutes each day, okay we may have started with 20 I think. He's always had a higher comprehension than reading level so this was tough. We used books like Henry and Mudge, Magic Tree house, Little Bear books, and moving to A-Z mysteries. It helped having some books with repeating characters. I don't care if he read two pages, he had to read Mon-Fri, he got the weekends off. Even in the summer, read every weekday.

 

He didn't start reading on grade level until last year. This year we're reading Lord of the Rings. We take turns reading and he is doing great. It took a long time to get here.

 

It was suggested to me that we put ds in public school so they could "fix" him. It was never an option. Aside from the reading issue I didn't want to have him go to school and get teased for being a bad reader. I had worked a long time to make sure he had good self-esteem and could be confident about who he was. One bad week in public school could have destroyed that. (I had that bad week, month, year).

 

IMO you and your dh need to get on the same page about schooling. Until that tension is gone your ds will be frustrated. I worked hard not to show my frustration to ds, but he picked up on it anyway. I'd go in my bedroom and cry and then come out to face his issues. It's hard :grouphug:.

 

eta: He never did have that AHA! moment where it seemed like it all magically clicked. He's had slow steady progress. We increased the reading difficulty slightly with each book. We also kept the books fairly thin until 6th grade. The spring of his 6th grade year he read two novels that were over 350 pages each. It took him all spring, but he felt accomplished afterward.

Edited December 27, 2011 by elegantlion

[Mandamom]

Have you tried repeated readings of a passage or story until he becomes fluent? If he's solid on the sounds of the letters, diagraphs and blends and his phonemic awareness is pretty good (if not work on it ;) ) than a next step is to start building fluency. One way to do that is to to repeated readings.

 

 

I'm going to PM you.

[creekmom]

I know vision therapy is expensive - but you can do a lot of it at home on your own and just see if it helps. Buy an eye patch at Walmart for a couple of dollars and have him wear it on each eye for 30 minutes a day. While he is wearing it, have him play video games (great for therapy, and he'll enjoy it too) or put puzzles together, do word searches, color intricate, detailed designs, play with legos, etc. Basically, anything that will get his one eye working hard.

Also, put a little eyeball craft thingy at the top of a pencil. Hold the pencil a couple feet away from him and have him stare at the eye while you move the pencil up, down, sideways, in a circle one way, in a circle the other way, etc. He should do these stretches 3 times with each eye while the other one is patched. These are called eye stretches.

On a piece of paper, type some capital letters spaced a quarter inch apart in rows. Type about 13 rows. Tape the paper on the wall. Then, with a very small font, type letters on a small piece of paper. Have him stand about 8 feet away and read one row of the letters on the wall, then one row of the tiny letters on the sheet in his hand. He should read them all to you alternating each row.

You can also put some tiny stickers on a pencil starting at the eraser and going down a few inches. He focuses on one sticker at a time and pulls it close to his eye then stretches it as far away as he can. These are called pencil push-ups.

I don't know if any of this will help, but I highly recommend you try the patch if nothing else. Wearing the patch is the one homework assignment he has to do every day. Sometimes just wearing the patch will really strengthen the eye muscles in each eye and help them to work together better.

Edited December 27, 2011 by creekmom

[Amy Jo]

Wow. I really hope you can get your DH on the same page. Perhaps you can ask him to be encouraging & positive (or even silent) until next August? Would he at least be 100% encouraging to your son?

 

I assume you've told your son that everyone learns to read differently, and has different strengths, so he won't worry about his sister's skill so much? I do not allow my sons to compare themselves on schoolwork.

 

Can you get state medical insurance for your child? When my son had a vision evaluation the state insurance covered the cost. I did get a referral from his regular doctor to be sure. As I wrote below, he didn't have vision issues but we did find the first problem we had: he wasn't able to picture any word or story, so reading was meaningless to him.

 

Anyway, he is 9 1/2 and he is finally improving. He can encode & decode and we are working on fluency.Here's what we've done, in rough order:

 

 

1. Tried various phonics approaches such as Alpha-Phonics
   
2. Had a vision evaluation by a COVD doctor. His eyes were fine, but we were told to stop reading instruction and focus on mental visualization.
   
3. Purchased and worked through Visualizing and Verbalizing. The first 'mini story', something about a dog getting a bath, made him laugh. The first time he'd ever laughed because of a story.
   
4. Somewhere in here tested his reading (decoding) level. Just barely first grade, he knew his letter sounds and the word 'cat'. He (barely) passed the Barton screening.
   
5. After much reading, and realizing his difficulty blending, we went to SWR. Had to learn to make some of the sounds, like /th/.
   
6. Continued on SWR, he still couldn't blend, but the spelling was working for him. In hindsight I should have drilled/practiced the spelling words to instant recognition. Eventually added the Phonics Concentration Game, which was a big hit. (I highly recommend it.)
   
7. Worked through Blend Phonics with his brother. His brother learns easily, so I split them and have eldest work through Elizabeth's phonics videos.
   
8. We start an Accountable Kids system. I add a daily card for 'Reading'. I did not require a minimum time, and try to stop before he gets tired. My son has NO 'easy' readers, they are all to difficult, but we keep going. I encourage him to re-read sections, I buddy read with him or sometimes we choral read.
   
9. We try WRTR, but it's to hard to follow for me. I re-buy SWR and we restart. He is in 4th grade and spelling at a high 2nd grade level. But he did much better than I thought he would.
   
10. At times we work on visualizing words, we write them in the air, picture them then change the letters around, etc.
    
11. He can currently decode most familiar words semi-quickly, in his head. He now recognizes many words on sight. He still reads haltingly, but is starting to enjoy it.
    

 

 

Right now we are continuing SWR and daily read-alouds. I am trying to stretch the time he reads aloud, I want to get to 30 min. We are going to add Webster's Speller, which I am using with DS7. (I think the patterns of accented syllables will help.) I am also going to start some fluency work, both by 'drilling' his words from SWR to automatic recall, and some repeat readings, probably with DIBELs. (I've also considered Remedial Reading Drills on Don Potter's page, but it's a lot like Websters.)

 

Anyway, it's good to know I'm not alone. Making words (spell, blend, he reads easy stories and listens to me read advanced ones) our focus has helped, along with consistency. Here's something I copied a long time ago from the forums, which is what I am shooting for:

 

Every day do the following:

 

1) Sound time: drill the phonograms. I suggest the Spalding ones, because they are complete. (All the sounds a given letter makes.) Show flashcards and have her say them. Start with four or five and build up a few more every day. You're not going to do more than 25 or so identifying and 10 or so writing them a day, but you are going to work up so that over the course of a week you cover all 72. Keep the ones she has difficulty with in the daily rotation. But you want to BOTH have her say the sounds when you show them to her AND have her write the phonogram when you say the sounds. These need to be automatic. Think she could do them in her sleep. Even when she has them, KEEP doing it. Trust me, it really helps. You might also do a phonemic awareness activity at this time. (Ask her how many sounds are in a word; to blend a word when you say the component sounds; what would you have if you took away the j from jig? What would you get if you took away the t from cat? What if you changed the d to a h in dog?)

 

2) Word work time: I think Webster's or McGuffy's speller is the best. Do it on the white board. About ten minutes. You want to work on her automatic decoding skills.

 

3) Reading time: easy readers. Have her read aloud from books that are at or below her reading level, at least for now. Aim for her to be reading 10-20 minutes a day.

 

4) Listening time: You read to her from material that is more complex. Good literature. Have her do periodic narrations.

 

5) Computer time: I suggest Headsprout. It practices phonics AND fluency.

 

6) Seatwork time: Explode the Code or ABeCeDarian. Look at both. ETC is more independent, but ABeCeDarian is more thorough. Start back at the beginning with ETC. Not the primers, but level one. She should be able to do them quickly. If you go with ABeCeDarian, take the placement test. They are really excellent if you email them at helping you place your student.

 

7) Fluency time: Buy a stopwatch. Pick out a short passage that is fairly easy for her to read. About 90 words. Have her read the passage while you time her. Write down how long it took. You want it to take about a minute. (90 words per minute). Then you read it to her. Then you read a sentence and she reads it back. Talk about fluency. How you're trying to make it sound like talking. Expression, stopping at periods, etc. Then read it TOGETHER. (choral reading). Then have her read it again. Write down the time. You could make a graph. Possibly do a third timed reading.

 

8) Spelling time: a phonics based spelling program like All About Spelling.

 

Original post was here: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1041702&postcount=11

[Sue G in PA]

Dh and I aren't on the same page about much of anything these days...but that is not an issue for this forum. :tongue_smilie: I will check into the vision therapy...we do have insurance but the last time I checked VT wasn't covered. Only routine eye exams and we did have that checked...vision was fine. As to vision tracking...we won't know until or unless we have him evaluated. Thank you for the suggestions, again. I just sold PR b/c we needed the money desperately. I think I will use the list of suggestions for reading practice during the day and go from there. I had planned to purchase new ETC and back up to the beginning. He enjoys computer time so Headsprout would be a good reinforcement for him. Getting dh on the same page is near impossible right now. But at least I have until September. Even dh doesn't want to put him in ps mid-year. Thanks!

[LaughingCat]

There is a book called "Developing Ocular Motor and Visual Perceptual Skills" that has many of the exercises we did in VT (plus many we didn't). It does not have anything to help you decide where they need help - but for $45, you could try out some of the exercises and see if you could tell if he struggles with any of the exercises.

 

For us, VT and Dancing Bears Fast Track (in that order) have made great improvement - but have not resolved all problems. Pre-VT Abecedarian, phonics practice, timed readings, repeated readings, reading easy material and reading I See Sam books - did not materially change DD's reading (although she did get better at decoding words in isolation).

 

LL