themama23 Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Our family is hoping to adopt a wonderful boy who is currently in public school 3rd grade and struggles with reading. Due to his struggles in reading his other subjects are now beginning to suffer. He should be in 5th grade but is behind for reasons beyond his control. He does have a normal IQ and it is expected that he will be able to catch up in due time. I would greatly appreciate suggestions for materials. I have taught our girls all to read from scratch - no base line to build on. Because he has limited reading skills I'm not sure how to proceed, other than to find books on topics he is interested in and of course lots of reading aloud to him. I have considered going back and reteaching the basic letter sounds and seeing if there are gaps in his reading that could be addresssed. TIA.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellers Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Congrats! I have considered going back and reteaching the basic letter sounds and seeing if there are gaps in his reading that could be addresssed. TIA.:) I recommend doing this! This is what I did with my severely dyslexic son and a year later, he's now reading. My son is a 5th grader and this time last year he was reading at a beginning 1st grade level (more like a kindergarten level). Working with him one on one at home has done wonders for him. If I had left him in school, I have no doubt, he would be illiterate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaraH Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 I recommended Reading Made Easy which has really helped us. Also the ideas in Reading Rescue 1-2-3. The High Noon program is also highly regarded and has high level interest books for older readers, as well as workbooks to go with them. You might also want to check out posts in the special needs forum. Congrats and good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irishmommy Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 What about the Logic of English? It is supposed to be good for remediation. When I called the company with questions, the author answered and was very helpful. Just a thought. And, congrats to your family!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themama23 Posted April 30, 2012 Author Share Posted April 30, 2012 Thank you for these suggestions and especially for the encouragement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Congratulations! And I, of course, will recommend Spalding. Spalding will help all of his English-related skills: reading, spelling, penmanship, basic capitalization and punctuation, simple writing. And I recommend Spalding because it will not be enough to read aloud to him or to go over basic phonics. If he's this far behind, he needs some serious, dedicated, directed instruction. I've had children improve three or more grade levels in their reading and spelling skills in a single year with Spalding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calebandbrooke Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 I would highly recommend The Logic of English as well. It sounds like it would fit the bill perfectly. You can pace it to your needs and it is a great program to start back at the beginning without it seeming babyish. And, you'd get basic phonics, spelling, and grammar instruction from the beginning too. I can't say enough good things about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 If the reasons for his reading struggles have not been fully explored yet, I would highly recommend doing that first (i.e., testing for LDs with a psych, though it sounds like that may have been done along with the IQ testing, as well as ruling out developmental vision issues with a COVD doc - ruling out vision is something I would not overlook even if there seem to be other reasons. Generally, reading two years behind grade level is a giant red flag for learning issues, which are unrelated to intelligence level). There are also numerous threads on the SN board with curricula recommendations for reading difficulties (e.g., there is a recent dyslexia thread). Good luck on your new adventure :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Saxon Phonics Intervention is designed for exactly this type of situation. It has 100 lessons so should get him caught up quickly. Christianbooks.com has good samples. I will be using it for my own child next year. Lots of reading has made him a great sight readers, but he needs phonics remediation still as he can't spell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FO4UR Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 If the reasons for his reading struggles have not been fully explored yet, I would highly recommend doing that first :iagree: The reasons behind his reading struggles needs to be the driving factor in choosing curricula for him. Dancing Bears Fast Track has worked amazingly well for my ds9 who has some visual perception issues. (The stories in the book are awful:001_huh:, but we just sub those out with easy readers, McGuffey, or whatever else.) The process/method and the spiraling review has made a difference. I will say, that he has learned *no* new phonics in the Fast Track book, but he is finally *reading* using the phonics he has known for years. Orton-Gillingham or Spalding programs would be my recommendation if he simply lacks phonics knowledge. There are many of these programs to choose from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 Teach anything that uses explicit phonics. SWR, Spalding, AAS, PR, Logic of English. I am sure there are more that I am not aware of. We use SWR, so I am obviously partial to that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tawlas Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 I also wanted to add that we also adopted a 3rd grader behind in reading. She was a bright little girl, but a few levels down as far as reading goes. We started simple by reading to her every night before bed (Harry Potter). Eventually we worked up to her reading a few pages at a time. This made a big difference! We never did homeschool her for reasons beyond our control, but just having a stable home where reading was viewed as not only fun, but important, brought her up to par in less than a year. She now reads for fun during school holidays (and sometimes during the year) and is making As and Bs in a combination of psychology, biology and earth science at the end of her 12th year. She's the first girl in her family to graduate high school - ever! You might be surprised what a big difference a dependable, acamedic home might do without much other help! (not that I htink there is anything wrong with your plans! Just a little cheer for your evolving family) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purduemeche Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 We adopted a DS from Ethiopia, for whom English is a third language. I will not dwell on a specific curriculum recommendation, but instead want to encourage you to start at the very beginning with him. You have the privilege of homeschooling, thus can do this in a way so he does not feel belittled as he would in corporate school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 :grouphug: I have tutored hundreds of remedial students, and have put what I have learned online. I have free online lessons to watch, or you can work through the program on my how to tutor page. You might also find my "teaching remedial students" page helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasar31629 Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 Congratulations! I know a woman in our last co-op who adopted quite a few children in the past couple of years. She starts back at the basics for each one, working at whatever pace they are capable to 'catch up'. This works really well for their family. They adopted overseas, so it allowed them to develop language skills at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 I also want to recommend High Noon. The Reading Intervention program especially and maybe the Sound Out Chapter books. It is an Orton-Gillingham based program, which tends to be suited to dyslexia type problems, but also is particularly well suited to children with high interest/low skills and to the older children rather than the preschool and kindergarten aged beginning readers. The Reading Intervention program starts right in with letters and most common sounds, but can progress quickly if the child can, and introduces actual reading very quickly. My son (also adopted) went at first quite slowly in the High Noon program starting last summer, and then part way through, got going fast, and then moved on to Magic Treehouse and Sopris West publishers Language! (suited to grade 3 and up) at home and a program called Triumphs at PS, then to books related to dogs, and is now at grade level reading. High Noon differs from Spalding as I understand it in that High Noon starts with basic sounds and gets the child reading and practicing those, while Spalding does rules for all English sounds (as letter combos), and then when those are mastered goes on to actual reading. I think different children would be able to manage the one or the other better. If I misunderstand Spalding someone else can clarify. If you can get him reading I think it would be helpful to start there and then work on other areas like history etc. that take reading. But if he seems to have something that causes reading trouble dyslexia, say, then you need to find things like books on tape that can help him to learn even if reading is a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefragile7393 Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 I'm thinking maybe the We All Can Read program. Congrats on adopting an older child! I am so glad and thankful there are people like you willing to do this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themama23 Posted May 11, 2012 Author Share Posted May 11, 2012 These are great tips and suggestions. We have been told there are no IQ or other delays. His reason for being behind is that he has not regularly attended school in the past. He has been enrolled in PS for 1 year now that he has been in foster care. I'm sure he has made some gains in that time but I'm thinking at the very least an extra bit of one on one homeschooling time over the summer should be helpful for learning and bonding time. :001_smile: I will do my own research on the suggestions you have all provided here and choose what seems to meet his needs best. I'm hopeful we will be able to continue homeschooling when school goes back in the fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted May 11, 2012 Share Posted May 11, 2012 We are also having success with Dancing Bears Fast Track. It's designed as a semi-remedial course for slow readers around your new son's age. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webbeccjo Posted May 11, 2012 Share Posted May 11, 2012 MCP is great because its leveled with letters rather than grade levels so he wouldn't feel like he's in a younger kids book,kwim? I really like the greatsource daybooks and sourcebooks for reading and writing. The sourcebooks start out 2 levels behind and pull the child up top grade level by the end of the book. (I used these on a child I tutored a few years ago and they were great!) I bought them used at Amazon http://www.greatsource.com/store/ProductCatalogController?cmd=Browse&subcmd=LoadDetail&division=G01&level1Code=01&level2Code=030&level3Code=0451&sortProductsBy=SEQ_TITLE maybe get him some Hi-Lo books so he can read age/grade appropriate books and feel successful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.