Is there an app that does this?

[Gentlemommy]

Dd is doing a lot of tracking practice during VT. One thing she does is read stories from a computer, and the program only shows a few words at a time, moving the 'word window' t whatever speed the therapist wants her reading. She is averaging 35 words per minute, and her therapist wants her at 120(!). Dd is a rising second grader. I have seen a LOT of improvement in her reading, and the best part is she loves it. I'd like a way to work on fluency with her like they do at VT. Is there an app that has a moving window like that? It's the same idea as a notched index card, only it is set to move at a steady pace, which will 'force' her eyes to track at that rate, kwim. Thanks!

[PeterPan]

For what it's worth, someone here said they did that (possibly to an extreme??) in VT and that it backfired, that it taught their dc to gloss words instead of looking at them. Our VT place, which has two certified therapists and a Fellow in the practice and a ton of other COVD docs, does nothing like that. I wouldn't extend it any farther. I would do just what she requires. Reading speed and tracking should come up by getting the eyes functioning correctly. The thing we did to improve speed was timed exercises where they had to mark every single letter of every word on the grids with a different marking. They called them word races. That way they were tracking and pushing faster but they weren't glossing the components. Just saying I'd be very, very careful.

[Gentlemommy]

Thank you very much for your words of caution. I am really happy with her reading speed right now, (especially compared to three months ago when she wasnt able to read two sentences without getting frustrated!) but like I said, they are wanting her to get up to 120 wpm. That sounds awfully fast to me...two words per second? For a rising second grader? Anyway, I will not have her doing any extra exercises at home, just the prescribed homework. And reading at her own pace multiple times per day. I definitely don't want to frustrate her now that she FINALLY actually likes to read.

[LaughingCat]

Several of the speed reading apps do this, some even allow you to import your own text. I have looked at them but have not tried them out at all (I was interested in trying to get DD9 to "chunk" better but decided to go a different direction).

 

I agree that 120 wpm seems very high for a rising 2nd grader. 50-60 seems more like what I've seen for beginning of 2nd grade.

[myboyluvsdinos]

Yes -- We had a therapist prescribe a similar-sounding program for my ds, who is severly dyslexic. I knew right away that it was problematic for him, because breaking his guessing strategies was very, very difficult. Encouraging speed over accuracy for a dyslexic is not a good thing as it will encourage them to guess because decoding is hard for them. So we didn't do it.

 

At that time in our rural community, there was no COVD therapist, so this was one of a couple that we tried. Now we live in a much bigger area, and there is a COVD therapist, who has an o/t that does interactive metronome. So we're going to try it in an attempt to increase my ds's processing speed and working memory (plus coordination). I'm hoping we will see some gains.

 

As for fluency, typically that can be increased by reading the same passage at least four times. There are programs that are specific for fluency, but I'm not familiar with them as I use the optional fluency program that comes with Barton. But the idea is to read the passage and time the child. You read along with your own copy and mark any words misread. Have her read for one minute, at a speed that she can keep her accuracy high. Count the words read, and subtract any errors. Then have have her read it again, but this time ask her to try reading just a little faster. Do that every day, having her read the same passage 4 times (twice a day for two days). Then switch to a new passage. The key is finding a passage that is at the correct reading level, that's why the programs are nice because they provide the passages. If she's dyslexic, you'll need to be very careful that she is only reading controlled text, which is text that she's been taught to decode. If you don't do this, and she doesn't know how to decode some of the words, then she will have to resort to guessing, which you don't want. Do these fluency exercises for as long as it takes to bring up her speed. I've seen young children respond very quickly to this -- increasing wpm drastically in about 2 months. But it can take some children a very long time to increase fluency.

[Gentlemommy]

Thank you myboys! That exercise sounds totally do able, I can add in short passages for her to practice with.

[LaughingCat]

The repeated reading is not something that has made much difference for my DD - she gets faster on that reading but it does not generalize. I've read that some research shows it is really is more about repeated exposure to common words than the repeated reading - that fluency is is all about making it automatic once they can decode it. But of course I can not find the cite now :sigh: . If that's the case though, then really as long as you make sure the passages are at their level (i.e. very few mistakes), then you don't necessarily have to repeat the passage multiple times. That's what I'm going with now anyway - since re-reading has become an issue (I did too much of it too early in the process I think).

 

FWIW, reading along with a tape/person is also commonly listed as improving fluency & some programs combine the two - ie. first adult reads the passage aloud, then they read the passage aloud together, then the child reads aloud alone. There are lots of programs out there meant specifically for that purpose.

 

Note- for improving tracking our VT did pages from these books at High Noon not fluency type passages.