HELP ME PLEASE! Son not reading well

[hugsathome]

Hi All!

 

I'm looking for advice for my soon-to-be second grader. He is not reading well. :confused: I'm not sure what the problem is.

 

(A little background info: My older son seems to have dyslexia, but has learned to cope with it. He is actually a very good reader now...but he struggled tremendously in 1st and 2nd grade.) So, what I see my 7 year old doing is struggling with very easy words like at, am, an, sat, ham, can if he hasn't been reading in a few weeks. Once he is on a "roll" and kind of knows what the story is about, he usually can read it (perhaps by guessing or memory). He can actually read when I read with him on a daily basis....however, over the summer he has not been reading and so I sat down with him recently to "brush up on his reading" and there is NOT much retention there at all. If I show him a list of words that he hasn't been constantly going over, he cannot seem to "sound them out" on his own. Simple words like "tan". In first grade, he could read stories from his Rod and Staff reader, but as the words got harder...he struggled. He seems to struggle with "retaining what he has previously learned". He seems very bright otherwise. Could this be dyslexia or another processing issue?

 

Any advice for me? :bigear: I'm all ears!!

 

I don't know what to do. I have used 100 Easy Lessons, Rod and Staff, and have "checked out" Alpha-phonics and Let's Read from my library.

 

WHAT CURRICULUM SHOULD I USE?

[Ellie]

Spalding. :)

[edeemarie]

I would make absolutely sure he has his phonograms down. We used AlphaPhonics for our older 2, but it wasn't until we started All About Spelling that they really got a good handle on the phonograms. The combination of both programs worked really well for them. With AlphaPhonics they are reading sentences pretty quickly and that seemed to be very encouraging to them. You could also look at Writing Road to Reading if they have it at your library because it has all of the phonograms in it. Also, we never take more than a couple of days off from reading. Typically my kids read every day. Just like with math, if they take more than a few days off they seems to "forget" things they already knew. So I would have him "read" 30 minutes a day (maybe you could throw in some audio books and have him follow along in the real book) and read to him as often as you can. He will get there- just keep plugging away! I felt like that as some points to, but one day it should just click and he will be reading everything!

[mom2aejskajm]

I have 2 sons, my oldest is the one having a hard time reading. I decided to turn our home into a phonics immersion camp for the summer, lol. I have been doing this for 6 wks now & have seen some amazing improvements. We have stacks of books, a variety of books that range from super easy to challenging, and he reads to me every day. I started at 15 min/day but have increased to 25 min/day gradually. We alternate who chooses the books, I let him choose a book to read and then I choose the next. If the books are really easy I let him read the whole book. If it is a new-to-him book or a more challenging selection we will take turns reading. I made flash cards to review with him once or twice a day. At first he balked at so much time being focused on reading but I was thrilled beyond words when I found him in his room reading a book without my prompting & he picked up his Bible to try to read a few verses while I was doing my Bible study this morning. So my advice/suggestion is not worry about the curriculum so much but focus on consistency and see if that helps.

[nukeswife]

Honestly my first suggestion would be to have him tested to make sure all systems are working right. I learned the hard way that it isn't always a curriculum problem or a lack of practice problem. I was told by many to just keep trying and my dd would eventually catch on, that she was just a late bloomer, well turns out she wasn't. There were eye tracking issues and other things going on that were making it really hard for her to read. Last summer we took her to a COVD Dr and they were able to do a eye test that is way above and beyond what a normal eye check up entails. She's been in Vision Therapy for 38 weeks now and is doing so much better, we still have phonics work to do, but she is retaining much better and I think a lot of that is because her brain isn't having to work so hard just to figure out what her eyes are seeing (now that we have them working as a team like they should) so more brain power can be devoted to retention.

 

She's now 10.5 and although she's not reading things a typical 4th grader is, she can now read a Magic Tree House book in a week instead of it taking a month or more. This is a great improvement because when we started therapy things like Bob Books were a real struggle for her.

 

ETA: one more thing, one thing that really helped my dd want to read was to use picture books instead of leveled readers. The stories are shorter, but the vocabulary can be more challenging because most authors figure an adult will be the one reading them. We go to the library once or twice a week and the rule is pull it part way off the shelf, if it looks interesting grab it. Then when we get home if she starts reading it and thinks "Boy this book isn't what I thought it would be," or "Gee, this book really stinks" we just chuck it in the basket of books to return and pick another one. We have one of those rolling crates and my kids have no trouble filling it with possible books. I find that if she knows she won't be forced to read something uninteresting to her she's more forthcoming when picking them out.

Edited June 21, 2012 by nukeswife

[CatholicMom]

I would bet money he's just not reading frequently enough. You mentioned him not reading for "a few weeks" or over the summer. I know my kids would have a hard time if they didn't read at all for 3 weeks at that age. They need practice, practice, practice... every day in order to retain those skills.

 

For a young 7 yr old who's just going into 2nd, I would be surprised if they didn't have to play catch up after not reading for weeks at a time, let alone months (which is what I assume you mean by "summer"). I think it's totally normal (at least for my kids it is, when they are that age).

 

If your child was going into 3rd or 4th I might think there's another issue, but being basically a 1st grader, I think this is totally normal. It's frustrating for them, too, so the more you keep up with having him read for 20 minutes every day, the easier everyone's life is and the more you'll see him progress.

 

I think testing and all would be jumping the gun right now, but that's me. I'd make sure he's reading every day and I'd bet money he won't be having a hard time with can and sat in 6 months, no matter what program you use.

[QTMom]

My son was the same way at the beginning of last school year. We just finished 1st grade. I have 2 kids that are a year apart and I used the same curriculum with both of them, and I couldn't understand why my dd was reading well by the end of 1st grade and my son was struggling so much. He would also have problems with small words and would struggle with mixing up the letter sounds when he would read the word. I kind of switched gears with him. I was using a boxed curriculum with video lessons and it was moving too fast for him. We started really working on the phonograms. I used flash cards and went over a group of them over and over until he had them down and I would write words on a dry erase board with the special phonogram sounds we were working on and I had him circle the special sounds in the words and then read the word. It really helped him. He is now reading so much better. It is like he just took off one day and was reading. Getting him to WANT to read on the other hand is a different story, but I have noticed a huge improvement. I hope you can find what works well for him. I completely understand how you feel.

[BatmansWife]

I would look into Zoom Reading Strategy. I'll be getting this for my kids. There aren't a lot of samples at the website, but if you e-mail Mary she can send you a ton. She is super helpful and I'm certain she would have advice/suggestions for you.

[happyhomemaker]

Spalding. :)

 

:iagree: I would make sure he has all of his phonograms down pat. Maybe do a bunch of games with them for a few weeks and then go gradually into reading again.

[MerryAtHope]

It's certainly possible. But I'll also say that teachers have told me that inbetween 1st and 2nd grade is the time when kids forget the most. (It's possible any summer, but that one seems to be when the most info is lost.) My oldest completely forgot how to write between 1st and 2nd grades! But it also turned out that he had vision processing issues and likely some other things going on, and we later remediated with Orton-Gillingham (via AAS) and vision therapy.

 

Since you know dyslexia runs in the family, it's definitely worth considering. My oldest was really good at guessing based on context--great strategy for fiction, not as successful for non-fiction, lists, or test questions. I agree with others to really make sure your son is solid on the basic phonograms.

 

Merry :-)