7yo will NOT read

[gardenmom5]

my 7yo is an aspie, has had VMI problems, did therapy and is doing better in that area. supposedly his convergence and tracking are okay - but I'm taking him again in to look at that tomorrow. haven't tested for CAPD, but I'm working on getting him in there.

 

he acts like there is a physical reason he doesn't want to read, but I'm at a loss for what we haven't checked. He also despises handwriting.

 

he does know his letters, and will read a few things - but freaks if he has to sound out words, even simple ones and doesn't seem to remember basic ones like "the, it, is" from one time to the next.

 

any ideas?

 

(we've done a workup with dev ped, slp, OT, pscyhology - and nutrition and audiology were both a waste. I'm trying to get him in for a CAPD eval with someone who actually does that.) He also see's a DAN!

[MomatHWTK]

I used Reading Rescue 1-2-3 to get some ideas for helping my DS. I also used the "To, With, By" method with all the children. I required and still require minimal handwriting because it causes DS extreme difficulty. But really, I didn't get anywhere until he was about 9 and he hated all the regular phonics programs. I'm not sure which of his conditions causes it- but perfectionism combined with limited mood control make it difficult for him to handle any thing difficult.

 

I now introduce most information in a very non-threatening way. We do some testing to help him ease into the idea but I always help and there's no "grade" at the end. He needs to experience successes right now so we work toward that goal.

 

One thing that sees to help all of my kids read better is highlighting. I open a pdf document on the computer, then use the mouse to highlight words or sections of a word as they read it. If this isn't possible, you can do something similar by covering part of the word or pointing to just one letter sound at a time. Visually, they all have trouble finding and keeping their place so these physical helps are useful.

[Ottakee]

Try the I See Sam books. You can even google to find the first 2 sets free to print out. http://www.3rsplus.com and http://www.iseesam.com sell the books.

 

They move VERY slowly and start out with 5 letters blended into 3 words and that is IT for the 1st 2 books and then they VERY slowly move on from there. Some kids can do a book a day or every few days but it took us a week or more per book BUT it got my daughter reading and the more she did and the farther along she got, the easier it was for her.....hard to believe but true.

 

THey provide TONS of practice with each new sound/word where many programs introduce short a and expect the kids to read all 3 letter short a words right away.

[PeterPan]

My dd couldn't sound out words at that age either. She never did in order to read. I used SWR with her and put the words from the spelling program onto flashcards. She practiced reading from those flashcards. So she understood the concepts but did no sounding out of them, just basically memorized them.

 

I think the problem may have been related to working memory. I really don't know. She still has a 20% gap between her reading comprehension and decoding (CTOPP, etc.) even though she isn't officially dyslexic. Considering how young he is, I'd lay off the sounding out entirely, make sure you have a lot of audio books going, work on his working memory in sneaky fun ways (games, etc.), and put the words on flashcards or an app if he's ameniable to them that way. It's NOT necessary to sound out to read. It can be incredibly hard for some kids.